Perhaps you’ve recently developed an app you are incredibly proud of; the best you reckon. You sit back, heave a huge sigh of relief, and sip at your coffee feeling fully contented with your creation.
“Any second now…the downloads are going to come in like WOAH” you think to yourself, thrilled and filled with anticipation. But reality is a cruel story. Several days pass before a few downloads start coming in. Then, as suddenly as they began, they quickly dwindled and died away.
Unfortunately, it is quite often the case that an app needs to be marketed strategically in order to be successful. With over 100,000 apps in the marketplace, it is hard to stand out without a good marketing plan even if you have developed something truly revolutionary.
So to help you get started, here are some tricks I think every developer should know:
Develop a quality app
A good app markets itself by giving its audience a reason to download it. Good reviews and word-of-mouth from the get-go have proven to be the fastest and most trusted form of promotion. So what constitutes a good app? It should be something that value-adds to the user, intuitive to use (if not coming with an in-app tutorial), and unique. To be unique and stand out from the pack, you can try exploring an entirely new idea or have your own take of an existing idea. An old idea can be improved on with new or tweaked features. A good trick is to ask – So what? and What else?
Sell your title and description
Before anyone downloads your app, they will first read its title and description. This – is your first pitch to the user. The goal, therefore, is to make both texts so intriguing and compelling that it will bait your user into clicking that download button. And if your app is good – then it’s Hook, Line, and Sinker!
Your title should at one glance be communicative of your app’s core function. Groupon, for example, has titled its app as “Groupon – Daily Deals, Coupons”. Your description, will need to be concise yet communicative of the key features of your app. To capture your user’s attention, always start with the most important features first and be direct in telling your users What’s In It For Them. For developers who find themselves lacking in writing experience, you may want to ask for help in writing it or with proof-reading.
Go Shamelessly Social
Get your app directly in front of your audience using prominant social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Leverage on your first second third (and so forth) connections. Post it on your wall, their walls, and ask them to like and share. Also tweet and ask for retweets. Heck, be ambitious – Create an entire Twitter account or Facebook page to promote your app and invite everyone (by everyone I mean the WHOLE world) to find out about it. Look for industry movers and shakers, as well as other relevant pages and send them personalised invitations. Rules of the game: You’ve got to GO big to WIN big.
Find your influencers
Don’t make the mistake of limiting yourself to social media. Find also your other stakeholders and influencers and try to get into the conversation with them. Actively seek and participate in relevant discussion forums and communities asking for users to trial and review your application. Say you are building an app for pets, then go on a pet lovers’ forum, or visit one of their communities and/or events. Consider also reputable tech blogs and review sites or someone with a following and ask for a public review or interview that could help your app gain the traction it requires. But do your research before you approach these folks – Is your app good enough for public scrutiny? Have they reviewed similar apps in the past?
Think SEO
From developing the app to putting it into stores, every developer should be thinking about SEO. SEO comes in two forms – on the marketplace, and with search engines. Some ways to optimize your app for both platforms is to deliberately target keywords when deciding on your app title, description, URL and tags. One tip is to check out other successful apps and give them a mention, or to reference what they are writing, and try to incorporate those aspects when relevant. It is also crucial that you choose an appropriate category for your app – one that targets your audience and has relatively fewer competitors. Going a step further, you would want to collect user reviews (positive ones of course) to boost your app’s ranking in the marketplace.
Experiment with Price
Finally, research on the pricing models of your competitors as a benchmark, but don’t be afraid of experimenting with your own until you find one that is most optimal. Calculate your revenue based on the download volumes respective to the different prices and see what works best for you. Also consider implementing limited promotions such as freemiums, promo-codes, or listing your app for free especially in the beginning in order to gain the traction and initial reviews to kick-off the downloading.
Think your app deserves a Spiffy thumbs-up and want some visibility? Leave us a comment or message, and let us be the judge!
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