HillReporter.com is an independently owned news publisher, reporting on breaking political stories that speak to the current political climate in the United States.
“The amount of people jumping into the app and engaging is really high. On average, a user who installs the app will view between 2 and 5 articles a day, compared to a reader from social who’ll view between 1.25 to 1.5 a day. So we have a much higher engagement rate thanks to our app" --James Kosur, Co-Founder
Hill Reporter is an American news site that focuses on political and social issues.
We sat down with the Hill Reporter’s cofounder, James Kosur, to hear about their experience with a custom mobile apps, built by MobiLoud.
How Can We Boost Engagement, Increase User Retention, and Give Our Biggest Fans The Mobile Experience They Deserve?
A great website used to be all you needed to grow a news publication. Now, you need a apps to really provide the best possible mobile UX and maximise engagement, traffic and retention.
James realized this and decided to take action:
“We realized that our users were on mobile and that they were looking for a mobile experience, so we started to investigate the various platforms.”
Social media promotion is still a powerful tool – but native apps offer a more personal way to connect with your readers and drive them to your content, through a channel that you 100% own.
“Our biggest pain was attracting returning users. In our industry, you might get a 0.5% – 1% click-through rate on Twitter, and that’s not really engaging them in real time. We focus a lot on breaking news. So if a story breaks, the goal is to get it in front of as many people as possible as quickly as possible, so that our story goes viral.”
Push notifications sent directly to users are a better way to get them involved with your latest content – as James and his team later found out – and you can only make use of them through apps! First though, they needed to find the right solution to get the app built and launched.
Finding MobiLoud
Hill Reporter considered the traditional route of developing their app in-house. This can be a good option, but there are serious drawbacks:
“You have to worry about maintenance and paying thousands of dollars if there’s a major IOS update. It was just something we didn’t think would be economically feasible.”
In-house development will cost at least $50,000-$100,000 and the work never stops with ongoing maintenance and updates. Our service includes ongoing maintenance and app updates, which saves you a lot of hassle and expense.
James had heard of us before – and knew we’d been around a while and built a lot of successful apps for our customers.
Our pricing structure appealed to James and his team more than the other options they’d checked out.
“We looked at some MobiLoud competitors and found that the price structure was better with MobiLoud. It just made sense to go with them. Their track record speaks for itself.”
Building and Launching for Early Wins on the App Stores
We got to work building the Hill Reporter apps for iOS and Android to their exact specifications.
Our team also provided advice on how to market their app on the App Stores to get more downloads. It worked, and they started seeing positive results as soon as they launched.
“The MobiLoud team had us upload all our tags and choose the right screenshots to help us get found by our target audience on the App Stores. Within the first week, without any promotion whatsoever, we’d already got around 300 downloads.”
Boosting CTR and Engagement
It’s easier to build a connection with your audience when you’ve got a place on their phone home screen.
Your brand is more visible, and far more convenient then going into the browser and trying in your website URL every time they want to read your stuff.
James and his team have seen this in action since launching their app:
“The amount of people jumping into the app and engaging is really high. On average, a user who installs the app will view between 2 and 5 articles a day, compared to a reader from social who’ll view between 1.25 to 1.5 a day. So we have a much higher engagement rate thanks to our app.”
Our apps also fully integrate with OneSignal, which gave the team another powerful engagement tool in the form of push notifications.
“When we have major breaking news we send out push notifications that are set up through MobiLoud. We see a 2.5 – 3% click-through rate, 200 to 400% higher than users that come through social media. That’s a pretty big win for us.”
A Winning Partnership and a Bright Future for Hill Reporter
We take care of everything for our clients and our support team solves any issues quickly.
“It’s such a simple system to use and the technology that they’ve implemented has been right on point with what we’re looking for, but my favorite thing is the support. Whenever I had any technical questions, MobiLoud were really quick to give me everything I needed. They always go a step above and beyond to help you reach whatever goals you’re working towards.”
We’re excited to keep helping Hill Reporter toward their goals and help them drive growth with their mobile app.
We can help your brand get on the App Stores fast and affordably too.
Our MobiLoud platform can turn any website or web app into iOS and Android apps – and our News platform is for you if you’re a WordPress-based digital publisher.
If you run a high traffic site and are willing to share a little ad space, you might quality for our Publisher Program. You’ll get iOS and Android apps as good as The New York Times or Huffpost, at no upfront cost to you! The same apps would cost $100,000 if you built them yourself or through an agency.
HillReporter.com is an independently owned news publisher, reporting on breaking political stories that speak to the current political climate in the United States.
