10 Steps: How to Market Your Mobile Apps

So you have developed an amazing application (need help? Check out this blog)  and now are ready to release it. After developing an app, marketing is considered the next big step and the most crucial one  because of the cutthroat competition in App markets. Your hard work only pays off only when you get the downloads to make your app visible.

There are millions of applications in the market and to make yours count, you need to follow a systematic approach. To help you gain an edge over your competitors, we have compiled a list of "10 steps to Market Mobile Apps" that are likely to give you success in marketing your app:

1. Creating introductory videos

People are lazy, most of them do not like going through detailed app store descriptions of how an app works. Making a short video of the app or creating teasers and posting it on websites and blogs will help users identify how your app works. It also helps in creating some buzz around the app.

Apple introduced something called preview videos a while back for the App Store. The Play Store also lets you submit videos of your apps when publishing them. That’s a great way of getting a customer interested when they come across your app on these stores

Some examples of amazing videos are the ones created by Clear (the todo app), Animoto and 1Password.

2. App Store optimization

App Store optimization helps you get better rankings and show up on relevant searches with the use of keywords. Punchy app descriptions and relevant keywords are very important to make sure your app is searchable.

This visibility will in turn transform into traffic for your app on the store. Thus thorough understanding and research of what keywords to use is quite important. The main aim of ASO is to increase the download count for your app by driving more traffic to the app page through searches.

3. App Screenshots

All app stores allow you to add screenshots to your app descriptions. Thats a lot of real estate you are getting to promote your app. These screenshots don't necessarily have to be just the app's screens. They can be a combination of screenshots + text overlays explaining how the app works.

The screenshots are generally the first thing a user sees on your app's page, use them wisely

4. Start blogging and tweeting - create some buzz

Blogging is a free and very effective tool in targeting audiences. Start writing blogs - introductions, coming soon posts, features, how your app stands out. This will create exposure for the app and also generate keywords for SEO, necessary to drive potential customers to your app. Try getting your app featured on App review website or podcasts frequented by app users - offer the app for free to these reviewers if you have to.

Be accessible on Twitter because that is one platform where the world dwells. Strategize your plans and tweet as often you can to let them know about your app. Including some humour in tweets - that will definitely make it highly tweet-worthy. To lure more users, promote as much on Facebook and other social networks as possible.

5. Guest blogging & Social Advertising

To build an audience, guest blogging is a great way. You may start with blogs related to your domain like the technology or the platforms and post a variety of such blogs. That would start with the promotion and by the end of your posts, you will have users ready to download the app.

Social media marketing is also an important tool when it comes to marketing the app. That allows you to focus on people specifically by their interests and demographics. Ads can be highly streamlined and show up only for those who meet a certain criteria and would be most interested in downloading your app.

6. Newsletters and Press Releases

Issue press releases around your application’s launch or before major update launches. Before the launch of your app you can set up a landing page asking users to sign up for keeping up-to-date about the app (or even get access to a beta version or benefits of being an early user).

Once you’ve built a mailing list, keep users engaged with news about the app and its launch.

7. Use of gifts and vouchers

Everyone likes freebies - after the launch of your application, you can give away promo codes to say the first 50 users. Coupons, gift cards or other freebies (possibly in the app) is also something which has worked in the past. The vouchers/coupons/freebies can be sent to the mail ids of the users once they register themselves on the app or provided to them directly in the app. This drives traffic and helps your app rise up the charts

8. Get positive reviews

There are few good app review sites like Appular.com, Appency.com, 148apps.com and Appeggs who have thousands of visitors on a daily basis. If your app is reviewed by these sites, it has better chances to get noticed, hence increasing the download numbers for the app.

Also if possible, have friends or family write reviews of the app as they play a vital role in influencing the audience. The bad ones spoil the excitement and the hard work, so make sure you have enough positive feedbacks as soon as the app gets published.

9. Push users to share the word

An application stays in top charts only if has a number of positive reviews and large download numbers. A great way to gain rankings in search results and charts is asking users to rate your app. The more they rate the better your app does. Users are reluctant in reviewing an app after it gets published.

Every time the user uses a core functionality, ask them if they liked it and would mind rating the app (if they say Yes). Asking a user to rate the app after a BAD experience is detrimental, so beware there. Some apps also give users incentives for sharing the app on social media (think extra lives in a game, a free functionality and so on)

10. Use Analytics tools

This is a very crucial step and one which should not be skipped. Analytics tool helps you see the app’s growth and understand the progress of your app in more suitable ways. It also helps you understand how the app is used and what needs to be changed to make it more user friendly.

See how/why you can use analytics to make your app more marketable.

Looking for help marketing your app?

At NewGenApps, we offer an assortment of Digital Marketing services. With our expertise in the field of app development and marketing, we are geared up to offer much more to our clients. Let us help you hit the market more effectively!