Our recent “Spring Into Summer” App Downloads Contest gave us some great results: Six contest winners and even more participants who all increased their app downloads and therefore the number of audience members they can engage. One participant in particular stood out in the crowd. TimeLine Theatre entered the contest with only 12 days remaining. But in that short time, they increased their total downloads by an impressive 38.68%. Although they didn’t receive the most downloads in their category, they still did an outstanding job and earned an Honorable Mention in the contest results.

We shared an excerpt of their app promotion efforts in the contest winners announcement email. Now we want to take this opportunity to share with you the rest of what their Marketing and Sales Assistant, Jenny Lynn Christoffersen, had to say. We asked for a quote about their app promotion efforts and received a great breakdown of what every arts marketing professional should be doing to promote their organization’s own apps.

“Targeted asks. Staff, cast, and company were asked to encourage friends and family to engage and download either via email, their personal social media, or by pestering friends and watching them navigate through the app store until they downloaded it.”

This is a great starting point for promoting any app. Use word of mouth advertising to spread the app through your close circle of acquaintances. This gives you a chance to get valuable feedback on the app before it reaches a wider audience. These people are also more likely to help you by then suggesting the app to their friends as well.

“Social Media. We made posts on Social Media touting access to exclusive content that TimeLine patrons have never had access to before and included screen shots from actual pages within the app to further entice.”

Promoting the app on Social Media is a no-brainer. One of their fans remarked “The things I learn on Facebook! This will really help me know what’s going on with my…favorite theater.” But including screenshots of app content is an excellent added touch. This provides a visually engaging element to catch people’s eye as they are quickly scrolling through their own Facebook or Twitter feeds.

Website download link example.

“Image and link on homepage. We included a featured icon on our homepage boasting about the app and how to download it.”

Giving your app visibility on your website is always important. Your website will always be one of your largest sources of online traffic and so it is one of your best opportunities to convert visitors to native app users. And using the universal ShareURL from your Control Panel’s “Promote” page will make sure users can easily find the app that’s right for them no matter what device they’re using.

“Email feature and banner. We featured the app in one of our e-blasts and then included an ad-like banner at the bottom of our emails as a reminder the next several weeks.”

Telling people about your app is not a one-time thing. In some cases it will take a fair bit of repetition before someone finally says “Oh yes, I should go download that app before I forget again!” So don’t just send out one email about the app and consider your job done. Include a reminder in every marketing email you send. Make the mention of your app as ubiquitous as links to your Facebook and Twitter pages.

“Flyers in a wide mailing. In a direct mail to our subscribers for our upcoming (now current) production, we included an insert encouraging patrons to download before attending the show so they could get most complete experience while at the theatre. Our audiences love diving into the history of each show we produce (since that’s kind of our deal) so the idea of an audio tour that allowed our older patrons access to all of that in depth information without having to stand and read it in the lobby was a solid seller.”

Arts audiences today have a wide range of levels of interaction with technology. Promoting your app on digital channels such as your social media, your website, and emails is perfect for those who are active online, but there are still plenty of people who have smartphones but might not be savvy enough to be able to find out about the app online. So it doesn’t hurt to include information about the app on your physical communication mediums as well. This gives you a chance to encourage those low-interaction smartphone users to become app users for the first time.

Click to see more of the display.

“Signs in the lobby. This may have been past the contest deadline, but we designed signs for the app into our famous lobby displays to call attention to the audio tour feature. These integrated the lobby display and mobile app experiences into one, encouraging patrons to engage. As a result, I’ve still been seeing an increase in engagement and downloads.”

And finally, a reminder about the app before the show starts. When people are at your venue for an event, they already have you on their mind. So, they might be more susceptible to a message about downloading your app than in other situations. Another component of a comprehensive strategy to make sure every audience member has a chance to hear about your app.

So tell people about your app! Tell them everywhere! Talk about it as if it were as obvious as your website. Embrace it as a core part of your marketing and communications strategy so that you will have a solid mobile audience to receive push notifications about your upcoming events and other news.

Check it out!

And while you’re at it, check out TimeLine Theatre’s app to see what else they’ve been up to:
Click here to download the TimeLine Theatre Company App