App Marketing Vs Website Marketing: How Is It Different?

While marketing is a universal solution for attaining various organisational goals, it is far from constant. The strategies employed while marketing through social media would vary from email marketing.

Similarly, marketing for a website vs an app for a business would carry nuances that set the two apart. In short, assuming that marketing is a blanket approach can be treacherous.

Here is a detailed look at the differences between website and app marketing.

Website vs App Marketing for Businesses: Notable Differences

Here’s a look at the differences that crop up while marketing websites vs apps for businesses. 

#1 Methods & Strategies

The prima facie goal of marketing website vs app for business is simple – to groom customers until they are sales-ready.

However, websites and apps achieve this broader objective through diverging pathways. For starters, websites exist on random servers, whereas apps require downloads on personal devices.

At the same time, website marketing looks to capture leads, nurture prospects, and convert sales. This process is rather straightforward.

On the other hand, apps must be marketed in a manner that makes them worthy of downloads. Not only that, but they also have to have a significant pull to retain user interest until the first “aha” moment. Marketers must maintain high engagement rates to increase the app’s value proposition, or else it’s an “uninstall” for them.

In simpler words, app marketing requires greater expertise and finesse than website marketing.

#2 Marketing Funnels

Much like the approach involved in marketing a website vs an app for businesses, the respective marketing funnels also vary.

The web marketing funnel involves the traditional model containing awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and purchase stages. This cascading waterfall model ends in converting the lead into a paying customer.

However, in the case of apps, the marketing funnel begins with conversion, i.e. convincing the user to download the app, and then pushes for a sale. Further, this “funnel” takes the form of a flywheel with retention plugging the circular channel.

User retention also paves the way for referrals and word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. Such a push builds a positive feedback loop reinforcing the app marketing cycle.

#3 Optimisations

Despite the differences in the strategies employed and funnels engaged to market websites vs apps for business, everything originates from awareness generation. The website or application must gain sufficient visibility to reach the target audience, which requires optimisation.

In the case of website marketing, Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a well-known technique to place a website on the top of the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). The resulting high rank attracts organic traffic to maintain a healthy marketing funnel. 

App Store Optimisation (ASO) is a comparable equivalent of SEO in the case of apps. ASO makes apps discoverable and catalyses organic app downloads. Everything, from app titles and descriptions to rich media, influences its placement in the app store.

The differences between SEO and ASO practices are so vast that they merit a blog of their own!

#4 User Behaviour

Most differences in website vs app marketing for businesses arise from changing user behaviour and dynamics. After all, the marketing goals and funnel impact user behaviour and vice versa. 

As an illustration, consider this – website marketing focuses on driving conversion rates, while app marketers obsess over retention. Such a statement reflects how conversion and retention are the inflexion points for website and app marketing, respectively. 

In other words, marketers experience user resistance before a purchase (in the case of websites) or profitable habit-forming (in the case of apps). Accounting for this shift in the landscape will allow marketers to devise appropriate strategies for websites and apps.

With the current mobile-first mindset, the current trends are already in favour of apps, making marketing easier for them.

#5 Key Performance Indicators

With so many differences in marketing a website vs an app for business, would it be surprising that the KPIs are different too? 

The KPIs that come into play for website marketing include metrics like page views, average time on page, conversion rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, etc. It may also expand to SEO-related parameters like page load times and authority as they have an indirect effect.

For app marketing, the KPIs worth measuring include install rate, churn rate, and retention rate to measure user lifetime value. Further, metrics like Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU) shed light on the app’s stickiness.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

To summarise, the difference between website vs app marketing for businesses boils down to the following points:

• Web marketing casts a wide net in the target audience and caters to Top of the Funnel (ToFu), Middle of the Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu) customers to drive conversion. In contrast, app marketing deals with high-quality leads and thus focuses on retaining customers to foster loyalty.
• The web marketing funnel is a tapering flowchart ending with purchase. The app marketing funnel is a circle that recycles customers through its different stages while also acquiring new users.
• Web marketing calls for on-page and off-page SEO with several experts available for the task. App marketing requires ASO, which is highly specific depending on the industry, play store, and other requirements.
• It is becoming progressively easier to appeal to the target audience through app marketing as it lends greater convenience, accessibility, and value on the go. Such offerings match user expectations and behaviours perfectly.
• Web marketing measures KPIs like page views, average time on page, conversion rate, etc. App marketing measures install rate, churn rate, DAU, MAU, etc.

WORKING WITH M&C SAATCHI PERFORMANCE

While web marketing holds a place of its own, app marketing can emerge as a competitive differentiator for brands looking to establish themselves. 

Moreover, the returns on app marketing are impressive and will remain so as the cost per installation drops with effective marketing. All you need is expert guidance to materialise your app marketing goals – for this, get in touch with us.