Payne called the app, named Downtown Middletown, “the newest tool in our arsenal to promote downtown.”
DMI rolled out the app for First Friday last month, and in the first month it has attracted 336 users who stayed on the device for an average of eight minutes, Glaser-Jones said.
“This is really encouraging,” she said.
She hopes to quadruple the number of users in the next 30 to 45 days.
“We want this to be the go-to app for downtown,” Glaser-Jones said. “This is a very vital marketing tool.”
The interactive app offers visitors six categories: events, map, feed, dining, discovery and experience. It allows businesses that belong to DMI to direct visitors to their website and provide them address, hours, phone number and specials.
Those on the app will receive two push notifications a month to remind them about First Friday and other downtown events, she said.
Glaser-Jones said DMI also will use the app as a digital passport with which users can check in at downtown businesses and earn points that will make them eligible for prizes.
Payne said DMI hopes the digital passport eliminates paper handouts, thus reducing the possible spread of the coronavirus. He said the project began two years ago, but after COVID-19 precautions shut down businesses in March 2020, he saw an increased need for an app.
“We want to get people re-engaged,” he said.
It was important, Glaser-Jones said, to keep the app affordable for businesses that are trying to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Being on app costs businesses $50 a year, increasing their DMI membership from $250 to $300, she said.
Payne said he was thankful for the support council members showed toward the app.
“They recognize downtown is the living room for any community,” he said.
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