8 Tips to Increase Your Mobile Event App Adoption Rate

Apr 11, 2023 Shruti Shah

Mobile event apps have revolutionized events with a much-desired and long-awaited change in the event management landscape and have emerged as one of the most desired tech tools. Yet, many organizers are falling short of ideas to increase their event app adoption rate, which is a staggering low of below 50%. But ironically, the global event app market is set to reach more than double in value, hitting $2.5 billion, with a CAGR projection of 14% by 2028, as per the report from The Insights Partners. 

Event organizers who aren’t making optimum use of this super-tool yet need to take note of these numbers and dive into the game with effective strategies to amplify the use of their event apps and capitalize on the rapidly growing market. 

Honestly, how many times have you attended an event without knowing it had an event app? 

Spending time and money on developing an event app is an exciting phase for organizers. However, the graph of excitement takes a dip when the event app download rate refuses to go up. In most cases, despite having the app on their mobile phones, attendees don't use it and eventually uninstall it. This implores planners to step up their strategies to convert their guests into genuine app users and deliver a powerful event experience. 

Today, with outrageously high mobile usage and an overload of apps in the market, retaining interest and usefulness of your event app is crucial.  
 

Shaping the Mindset for Increasing Event App Adoption
In the US, around half of all people use internet via mobile devices. In Asia, it is 63%. It is needless to say that an event app must be many steps ahead in terms of technology, features, ease of use, and navigation. To start with, using high-quality images, attractive colors, and easy-to-read fonts can make your app visually more appealing.
Organizers have to be very conscious of the reasons for investing in an event app and convert them into a problem statement to make sure their app is ready to be marketed as the solution.
Apart from meeting core event objectives, an event app can also be used to achieve sustainability goals. Creating your event app with a carbon footprint reduction mindset can also help automate and streamline several important tasks. 
 

How to Increase Your Event App Adoption Rate 
1. Market It Separately - To sell your event app, let it be identified as a separate product. Outreaching with app download links in every event-related email can dilute the focus. Ensure your marketing collaterals contain direct CTA with emphasis on solutions the user will get under the event app marquee. Highlight unique features and create a story around how those features can elevate event experience. 

2. Incentivize Users - In an app-overload era, nudging the audience to download yet another app needs more than just selling the ease of operations feature. Turn it into a contest, a giveaway, or a lucky draw, and if your budget allows, offer a souvenir or freebie to every attendee who downloads the app. But to make sure they use it as well, it's essential to package it with collaborative values such as assigning prizes to attendees who participate in surveys, regularly responding to community posts, offering exclusive communication from exhibitors to those who register through app, etc. You might also piggyback VIP privileges such as no check-in queue and pre-booked seats. 

3. Offer App Exclusive Features - A person registering for your event surely has an agenda or a goal. Leveraging their expectations by tapping into their FOMO is another way to encourage people to download the app. Highlight app-exclusive features such as access to event audio podcasts, session recordings, high-profile networking, and exclusive information which they would otherwise miss out on. Refrain from pitching in features that look like mere marketing gimmicks and instead, focus on the ones that add real value to user experience (it only takes a click to uninstall and your app usage will go down). 

4. Use Push Notifications - Without a doubt, push-notification is a game-changing feature in event apps. You can engage with attendees anytime during the event lifecycle through these notifications, prompting them to reserve seats, or surprising them with an additional meet-and-greet with speakers. It may also work as a chain reaction, for instance, someone who gets a notification will incite fear of missing out in someone who is not using the app. Push notifications also ensure your guests actually use the app either to read notifications or follow CTAs. 

5. Promote Digital - Choose to avoid print resources for ticketing, registration, personalized agendas, session schedules, or venue map. Using event app as a default option for event information and resources increases the app usage. Nevertheless, you can always provide print resources on a need or special demand basis.
 
6. Assist with Onsite Onboarding – If all your pre-event marketing strategies still don’t take the app download and adoption rate to the desired level, you can still skyrocket it in the next phase, which is the event day, using effective strategies like 

• Prompting app download with welcome signages (add the FOMO factor here).  
• Deploying welcome/registration table at the venue entrance where attendees are assisted with app downloads and troubleshooting. 
• Training employees, staff, and volunteers to suggest app downloads to attendees while answering their queries. Also, providing tech assistance for downloading and navigating the app can work in your favor. (A strong WIFI connection at the venue is mandatory).  

7. Do a Microscopic Demographic Study - While you are analyzing the demographic of your audience for various event planning phases, adding the perspective of event app download can help you discover causes of a low adoption rate. There are several reasons which refrain people from downloading another app. 

• Concerns about the security of data collected by the app.  
  Solution - Use personalized pre-event emails with app features, utility, data safety policies, and a step-by-step guide on ensuring security. 
• Technophobes or people who aren’t very tech-savvy.  
  Solution – On-site registration tables can help in converting such guests into app users. 
• People who have missed out on event-app promotions or do not know about the app's existence.  
  Solution – Drip campaigns, on-site help-desks, and social media promotions can significantly help in bringing people out of the event-app oblivion. 
• Tech enthusiasts who have space-constraint on devices or are very particular about the apps they download.  
  Solution - Incentivizing them over contests or other activities can encourage them to download.

8. Event Gamification – Gamification is the new cool in events. Now that everyone is almost addicted to it, introducing competitive elements to in-person events requires a high dependency on technology. An event app can help raise the attendee engagement bar and, subsequently, increase app usage. Participation in polls and surveys followed by real-time result declaration or earning points by completing prompted actions and later converting them into additional event experiences can drive higher event app adoption, supported by long-term intent. 

Eventcombo offers umbrella solutions for all event types, along with a feature-rich and customizable Event App available for iOS and Android.  Book a demo for your next event now!