The Secret to More App Users? Talk to Your Product Team

When you think about mobile marketing, does your product team come to mind? For me, constant collaboration with the product team at LifeLock is critical to marketing our app. Regular communication with the product team is beneficial for three big reasons:

• The marketing team gains a better understanding of our product
• The product team helps us improve our message and consistency
• Reviewing performance data helps both teams perform better in the future

You probably do not want to add yet another meeting to your weekly calendar, but if you’re not already meeting regularly with your product team, these are some compelling reasons to start.

Gaining a better understanding of the product

When you meet regularly with your product team, the marketing team will come away with a deeper product knowledge. With comprehensive knowledge of the app, your marketing team is able to develop better performing ad creative and bring more users on board. It’s also helpful for them to understand the product roadmap. Seeing the big picture allows marketers to plan out and develop campaigns with plenty of time in advance of a new product or feature release.

At LifeLock, I find it extremely important to find out why the product team has chosen to lay out the product roadmap in the way that they have. Understanding their decision-making process and how users are going to benefit is crucial to my ability to craft a story that gets users excited to engage with our app.

Improving the message and keeping it consistent

Meeting with your product team provides an excellent forum for talking about the language you use to market your app. As a marketer, you may have a better way with words, but I can guarantee that the folks on the product team understand how it works better than anyone else in the room. Even if you’re just eliciting feedback on an upcoming ad campaign, it’s helpful to hear how the people who built your app respond to the way you market the app – you might come away with a new angle for future campaigns.

Another benefit of discussing your messaging with the product team is ensuring that the language you use in a marketing campaign is consistent with language used in the app. For example, I wouldn’t want to refer to LifeLock’s Black Market Surveillance feature as “Criminal Website Surveillance” in an ad. I might think of it as the same feature, but the customer doesn’t know that when they open the app for the first time. Consistent product messaging prevents customer confusion and improves your user retention rate.

Reviewing performance and iterating in the future

Reviewing your weekly performance data and brainstorming ways to improve in the future are great agenda items for your product team meetings because both teams leave with impactful action items. The product team receives valuable information about who is installing the app as well as what compelled them to download the app, based on the message of your most successful ads. Having an understanding of what demographics the app is popular with and what features are most compelling helps them shape the product road map and determine where to improve the app next.

On the marketing side, you get to learn how users are engaging with the app after the install, which helps inform you of what features to promote in your ad creative. When you know how your quality users are engaging with the app, you can better position the app and optimize your campaigns for driving valuable user activity. This is something I make a point to discuss each week at LifeLock, and it’s been one of the most impactful parts of the meeting. Both teams leave with ideas for capturing more users and keeping them engaged for the long haul.

When internal teams get on the same page and work together to build an excellent user experience, company growth happens. You’ll see happier, high quality customers and improved messaging as a result. If you’re not already working closely with the product team at your company, I’d recommend getting in touch right away, it’s one of the smartest marketing decisions I ever made.