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Promotional Strategies for Standalone Apps: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

Naser Pourazad et al.

Australasian Marketing Journal2025https://doi.org/10.1177/14413582251358508review
AJG 1ABDC A
Weight
0.41

Abstract

Employing Lemon & Verhoef’s customer journey framework to capture sequential user interactions with digital products, we develop a strategic framework for promoting standalone apps (those without existing brand backing) spanning pre-adoption, adoption and post-adoption stages. Four critical insights emerge: (1) Standalone apps require culturally adaptive trust mechanisms employing social proof and transparency strategies to compensate for brand anonymity, (2) Resource-constraint adaptation fundamentally shapes promotional strategy selection, with successful apps developing resource-efficient approaches across multiple touchpoints, (3) Technical-commercial balance through hybrid monetisation models shows higher retention than single-revenue approaches and (4) Cross-stage promotional integration reveals that strategies must dynamically interconnect across customer journey stages, with post-adoption success relying on above-average engagement and ethical data use. Our review reveals gaps in long-term strategy effectiveness, cultural adaptation mechanisms and cross-stage optimisation, leading to a research agenda investigating dynamic trust-building frameworks, resource-efficient promotion strategies and temporal promotional optimisation. This study advances digital marketing theory by extending the customer journey framework to standalone digital products and developing a model explaining how brand absence and resource constraints jointly shape promotional effectiveness. These contributions offer practical implications for resource-constrained app developers in competitive marketplaces.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/14413582251358508

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@article{naser2025,
  title        = {{Promotional Strategies for Standalone Apps: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda}},
  author       = {Naser Pourazad et al.},
  journal      = {Australasian Marketing Journal},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/14413582251358508},
}

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Promotional Strategies for Standalone Apps: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

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Evidence weight

0.41

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10
M · momentum0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.