With millions of apps and hundreds of thousands of app developers out there, it can be difficult for any developer to get their app noticed.
Today’s app developer has to have a clear marketing plan if they are to gain visibility amidst the clutter in the app stores. Although a decent advertising budget can bring more exposure, not all developers have the luxury of budgets or cash flow for a marketing campaign.
Thankfully, there are other ways to get your message out. There are lots of free or next-to-free resources and strategies to promote your mobile apps on a budget, however constrained. Just be prepared to work. What you save in cash, you will have to pay for in time and effort. So, if you’re looking to increase the chances of your app being discovered, the following tips should help.
1. Define your target audience
Identify which group of people would be most interested and benefit most from your app? Think carefully about what kind of value your app delivers, and target your messaging strategy to the people most likely to be interested in what you are offering. Personagraph is a useful tool to help with app user segmentation and insights. It allows you to easily select the channels where your target audience hangs out.
2. Use your social circles
Friends and family can provide a very effective channel for getting exposure and feedback) for your app. People are significantly more likely to try or buy a product if a friend or relative recommends it to them. You can use this to your advantage and gain important initial traction by taking advantage of your personal social circles, such as your office colleagues, club members or church community.
3. Use online social networks.
Encourage your friends to give it a positive review, “+1” or “like” on their online social networks. This is one of the best ways to help spread the word about your app. For example, the average number of Facebook friends 338. A single Facebook share can quickly get re-shared with thousands, bringing visibility and recognition to your app.
Adding social features to you app can also help tremendously. Depending on the type of app, you can include support for sharing content, challenging friends or recommending features. Such functionality boosts online engagement and lays a foundation for longer-term organic growth.
4. Create a dedicated online presence.
Having a dedicated online presence for your app provides an additional touch point for your users. A presence on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ for example can be used to galvanise support for your app. Users can be encouraged to like, follow or link to your app’s page to create a fan community around your app.
You can also create a mobile-friendly website to showcase your full app portfolio and to share more about yourself or your business. Together, your online footprint helps further increase the visibility of your app.
5. Incentivise users to rate and review
People looking to try out an app attach great importance to ratings and user reviews. A good review or rating can spell the difference between a user choosing to download your app or bypass it. The amount of ratings and reviews also influence your app’s position in app store rankings.
Bad reviews have value too, providing useful user-feedback that can help you better understand and prioritise areas of improvement for your app. A simple in-app pop up screen or interstitial can encourage your users to leave a review.
6. Use your apps to promote your apps
If you already have an app live in the app stores, you can leverage your existing user base and in-app messages to let users know that you have other apps you’d like them to try out. Just be careful to not over do it. There’s a very thin line between useful unsolicited messages and annoying interruptions.
7. E-mail campaigns
Email marketing may seem a bit dated, but it’s still one of the most effective ways of driving traffic, building advocacy, and converting leads to users / customers. Create a e-newsletter and present potential users with information about your app and reasons why it would be valuable to them.
8. Reach out to media
Mainstream media can play an important part in spreading the word about your app. Prepare, or have someone help you put together, a press kit. At a minimum, this should include:
• A synopsis of your mobile app
• Info on your company or the development team
• The key features of the app
• What distinguishes it from the competition or what makes it special.
• Circulate your press kit to online app-review blogs, magazines and local media outlets, including newspapers, television and radio. Keep your audience in mind and target the media channels they are most likely to be on. Also, focus on the media channels you think will find your app newsworthy.
9. Reward your supporters
People love to feel appreciated. Take advantage of this by rewarding them for supporting your app. Offer your app’s users with a free premium feature or in-app credit for sharing your app.
10. Never stop promoting
So long as it’s available, promotion of your app is a never-ending responsibility. You should always be on quest to let other know about your app. Attend developer and investor meet-ups, post comment on blog posts and social media, keep the buzz alive within your social circles.
Also, don’t be shy about any achievements along the way. Promote download milestones, press coverage and favourable reviews. You should be the loudest, most prolific champion for your app. After all, if you can make the time to spread the word yourself, why should any one else?
Bevil Wooding is chief knowledge office at Congress WBN (C-WBN) an international non-profit organisation and executive director at BrightPath Foundation, responsible for C-WBN’s technology education and outreach initiatives. Follow on Twitter: @bevilwooding