To app or not to app, that’s a question that we’ve heard many times from marketers trying to decide if an app is necessary for their brand or if a great mobile site could do the trick. However, the real question is, what does the consumer need and want? Building a text database is a great way to get to know your audience and push them into the user experience that is best for them. It’s all about meeting consumers where they want to be marketed to, right?

As a marketer, if you’re looking to drive app downloads or app engagement, using Mobile Deep Links in your text marketing campaigns can help deliver the preferred user experience, whether it’s through an app or not.

Mobile Deep Linking is the ability to detect the presence of an app on a mobile phone and, if it’s present, link directly to specific content within the app. Except there’s one problem, if the end-user doesn’t have the app, they may get an error message. A great solution is to take things a step further using a Deferred Mobile Deep Link, which will open the content in the app IF it’s present on the end-users phone. If not, it will direct the user to the phone’s app store to download the app. Once downloaded, it will take the user directly to the initial link, ensuring there’s no disconnect. Deferred Deep Linking is an extremely effective way of driving the desired action from the end-user as it helps drive app installs and causes less interruption in the user journey.

What if the customer still doesn’t want to download an app? Do you keep them from engaging with your content in the way they would like to? Hopefully not. It’s vital that consumers are given an option to engage where and when they want to. Another option that can be tied into the Deferred Deep Link is to drive traffic to a mobile site or Content Hub where they can engage with the intended content without the potential hurdles caused by requiring an app download.

Text Message Marketing and Deep Linking

In the context of mobile marketing, Deferred Deep Linking allows for the most seamless user experience. This method improves conversion rates and user retention. Deep linking-enabled experiences deliver up to 6X higher Click-to-install rates. Text messaging allows you to build off that high CTI rate by getting that link directly in their inbox, driving traffic and engagement. A text message can be crafted and sent to users with a link directly to the content on your site, in your app, or to the appropriate mobile marketplace so they can download and install the app.

Whether you decide that an app makes sense for your brand or not, just make sure that you keep the customer journey top of mind and ensure a seamless experience.