CHICAGO ? A Dictionary.com executive at the Results 2013: Mobile Marketing Day last week said that consumers are willing to share their location in a mobile application in exchange for relevant information.

During the ?Dictionary.com: Going from 0 to 65 Million Installs in 4 Years and Making Mobile a Key Revenue Channel? session, the executive spoke about how the company continually tests and updates its mobile application to increase retention. The executive also spoke about how Dictionary.com is increasingly thinking mobile-first for its users.

?Location-based ads perform really well - we had no reason to ask for location information, yet we knew that it performed much higher, so we thought about how we could participate,? said David Wygant, vice president and general manager of mobile at Dictionary.com, Oakland, CA.

?At one point we had brainstormed a feature, which was words looked up around your location,? he said. ?We realized that if we provide that feature, it would give us an excuse to ask for that location.

"Our users are willing to share that information in order to access this feature, so it?s been win-win for both the user, advertisers and ourselves.?

Results 2013: Mobile Marketing Day was hosted by the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing. The event was co-sponsored by Microsoft, Sumotext and Mobile Marketer.

App ecosystem
Dictionary.com claims to have 70 million app downloads across all of its platforms. The company has apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

Additionally, the executive said that the company?s iPad app is the No. 22 all-time downloaded app for iPads.

To get that mass of app downloads, Mr. Wygant explained a four-pronged strategy.

The strategy centers around regular app updates, storefront merchandising, strategic marketing and ratings and reviews.

When it comes to storefront merchandising, the first two lines under the description section are key. For example, loading the description with current promotions and offers - such as a limited-time sale - gets the most important information to consumers quickly.

Additionally, good screenshots and including consumer-facing features in each download are important in getting consumers to update and use the app frequently.

Dictionary.com releases an app update every two to three months.

Eighty percent of the company?s app users update the app within eight weeks of it being rolled out, per Mr. Wygant. This is particularly predictable for Dictionary.com?s iOS users.

?It keeps your app fresh and you can respond very quickly to whatever the current fad is out there,? Mr. Wygant said.

?With a dictionary, top-of-mind awareness is very important,? he said.

Moreover, the company pushes alerts to its most loyal users that encourage consumers to rate the app with five stars.

Dictionary.com also has paid and free versions of its app.

By raising the price of an app to $2.99 from $1.99, there was no impact on volume, per Mr. Wygant.

Mobile-first
Recently Dictionary.com released an app called Thesaurus Rex that sorts and filters synonyms by criteria including senses, relevance and complexity.

By using blitz marketing, the app saw a 15X day-over-day in app installs. One week after the blitz marketing campaign began, the app saw a 5X lift in downloads.

Additionally, Apple?s App Store Twitter account sent a tweet to its 1.5 million users that encouraged them to download the app.

Thesaurus Rex is a mobile-first product from Dictionary.com. The features from the app are not available on the desktop.

Mr. Wygant also spoke about how advertising plays a role for Dictionary.com.

The company?s biggest lever in driving paid app downloads is interstitial ads.

Given that Dictionary.com?s level of trust from consumers, display ad engagement with the company?s mobile products is high, per Mr. Wygant.

?It?s a threat and opportunity that things shift very, very quickly,? Mr. Wygant said.

?So you want to stay on top of your game and really commit to mobile, which many of us feel like is a big future, and you want to make that investment now because it?s really going to pay off for you later,? he said.

?For us, we want to maximize our portfolio. At the same time, leverage that base to extend into an adjacent area and expand beyond core definitions and help people learn words, for example.?

Final Take
David Wygant is vice president and general manager of mobile at Dictionary.com, Oakland, CA