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KCRW Mobile App Connects You to Local SoCal Deals With so You Can Cruise to Savings

mobile roadie app development travel retail app kcrw

KCRW, a Santa Monica-based radio station, not only dominates the airwaves in SoCal but provides the entire region with local deals and offers through its Fringe Benefits app. The station taps into a sea of opportunities available when you cater a mobile app to a hyperlocal community.

You can hear KCRW, the radio giant with humble post wartime beginnings, as you cruise down the SoCal coast but did you know the station could also get you the best discounts in the area? That’s because aside from airing the leading cultural/music programs in California and being a member of NPR, it promotes the biggest network of local business partnerships in Santa Monica, L.A., Orange County, and San Diego.

The KCRW Fringe Benefits app, built by Mobile Roadie, provides over 550,000 weekly listeners and anyone who owns a smartphone (yes, beach hermits have iPhones) with deals and discounts from over 1,000 local businesses. From yoga to comedy, restaurants to spas, and concerts to museums, you can find hundreds of daily offers often with a steep 15-30% discount off goods and services. The app also gives you a chance to find venues where KCRW will host performing artists and connect with other “friends with Fringe Benefits.”

A Golden (Coast of) Opportunity

While tapping into hyperlocal local businesses and communities isn’t a novel marketing tactic by any means, using a mobile app that reaches half a million dedicated listeners provides a golden opportunity. KCRW takes full advantages of not only partnerships with local businesses but also sponsorships to promote them on air. The reason? It drives more vendors and user traffic towards the Fringe Benefits app.

The app allows you to browse a vast directory of services all at the touch of your fingers. Don’t know what do or eat? Switch on your phone’s GPS and the app will show you a list of participants within a 1, 2, and 5-mile radius. As of this month, the Fringe Benefits app boasts close to 18,800 iOS downloads.

Making Waves in the Mobile App x Radio Industry

What KCRW has done already opens up possibilities for other radio stations to select a target audience or dedicated fan base and incentivize them with local deals. While many might think that KCRW took a risk by opting for a standalone travel/retail app, in reality all the radio station did was use its branding to unite businesses and customers under a user-friendly interface powered by Mobile Roadie.

That’s not all the future has in store for mobile apps and radio stations though. Beacon technology can make it possible for the station’s app to recognize a partner’s restaurant and send a push notification about drink specials when the user walks by. Geofencing can make it possible for the radio station to beam a notification to concert attendees and let them know that a golden ticket is hidden in a particular row (and that finding it means getting a chance meet the performer backstage). During tax season, a radio station can promote tax filing tips via push notifications on the app, reminding users that its sponsor and local accounting firm is available to help. The station can rull polls on the app asking which song listeners would like to hear next. The possibilities are endless!

Are you a radio station or business that could use a mobile app to find partnerships and create opportunities like KCRW did? How do you think an app could help you connect with fans? Let us know in the comments below!

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App Store Optimization: Take Your Game to the Next Level

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If you’re a software or mobile app developer with some experience in the industry you’re probably familiar with the acronym SEO, or “search engine optimization.” But for those dedicated to taking custom mobile app development to the next level, there’s a new three letter word that may prove more valuable: ASO – “app store optimization.”

More than ever, consumers are discovering new apps by browsing and searching within the app store. It’s by far the most popular discovery method, accounting for 63 percent of app discovery among iOS users and 58 percent among Android users.

In app store searches are twice as popular a discovery method as the ubiquitous “most popular” lists. This means new kids on the block have a chance at competing with recognized players…if they understand and utilize ASO.

But no matter how genius and groundbreaking your app, without ASO utilization there’s a chance it will go completely overlooked. It’s a lesson that every successful mobile app development company has already learned: it’s absolutely critical to ensure that your creation is tailored to the medium it will be sold through before it hits the marketplace.

On paper, the process is simple: (1) get discovered, and (2) capture consumer interest. Once you do these two steps right you’ll be 90 percent of the way there. In practice it gets a bit trickier. But if you can successfully incorporate the following fundamentals into your app design, you’ll already be beating the competition at ASO.

  • Keywords. Use these in the title of your app in order to cast the widest net and catch the most search traffic. According to a study of the top 25 most popular apps for sale, including a keyword in the name of an app increased its ranking by an average of 10.3 percent.
  • 25 characters or less. Any longer than this will no longer be viewable on the preview in the app store. Having your title chopped off is unattractive and will make a consumer – especially one with a short attention span – move on.
  • If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If you’re reading this once your app has already gone to market and feeling inspired to change the title of you app…don’t. Once you’ve already gained traction, it’s best to stay the course in order to create name recognition and word-of-mouth buzz.
  • Understand long-tail. Long-tail keywords, which appear in your app’s description, offer another great opportunity for discovery. If you want create a communal carpooling app, you probably shouldn’t call it “carpooling.” But by including that phrase in your description, you’ll capture all app store users who search that term.
  • Be a genre trailblazer – More often than not, app store users don’t search for a specific title, but instead a genre – e.g., “maps” or “music.” In fact, searches by genre account for 80 percent of all searches. By getting out ahead of the curve and anticipating a genre that will be popular but is not yet oversaturated, your software development company can vault its app to the top.
  • Appeal visually – Your icon should have visual appeal and somehow describe what your app does. Snapchat’s playful ghost speaks to its ephemeral photos while Tinder’s red flame suggests a spicy fling. Once you’ve put your idea into words, create a descriptive visual as well.

If you can effectively apply these tips to your own app, there’s a bonus on the back end: the more downloads your app achieves, the higher it will rank. It’s a classic case of success breeding success – app store algorithms recognize what consumers react positively towards and attempt to give them more. A great app development company is one that recognizes the importance of beating the algorithms.

So keep plugging away with your app, but make sure that you don’t sell yourself short during the final step of the process. Don’t forget to do your ASO!