Your mobile app needs attention even if the development is ongoing.
When talking about promoting your app, you should start much before the launch and create a community around it giving them a chance to subscribe to your mobile app and wait for the official release.
The problem usually isn’t the app itself but a lack of promotion – if your app’s benefit is not promoted as effectively as it should, all your hard work may not be awarded.
Creating a mobile app opens a new channel for you to interact with your users – your audience will always be able to reach out to you with a simple click.
Remember, the more you promote your mobile app – the easier and faster the entire process becomes.
Get in Touch
Every mobile app owner wants to understand his users’ expectations – reach out to them and your audience will help you discover gaps you may have missed plus you will connect to them.
Keep your users engaged through the process of your app’s development as they are the foundation of your business and it can increase your app downloads within your target audience.
Get in touch with your users and ask about their opinions or suggestions for your app to make it more beneficial for them.
No matter how you reach out to your users, your new app needs to be imprinted into every aspect of your marketing – add it to your email footer with one line ad and a link directing towards your app download page. Include the links to your website, blog and social media profiles in your email signature to get the most of your reach.
Reach out to Relevant People
Sponsorships can help your brand to build a substantial community – developing beneficial relationships with influences can help you to promote your app. A website like BuzzSumo is a great place to find a list of relevant influencers within your mobile app niche.
Working with influencers can be arranged in different ways:
- Joint venture (promoting your app for a price or an exchange)
- Share option (if your app is relevant to them)
Reach out and ask if you can get some of their time to discuss the idea and gather some feedback.
Not only influencers but other people can help you as well – if you find people who would care to write about your industry or niche, they might be interested to write about your awesome solution as well.
Just make sure not to be pushy as it can turn people away.
Build Your Landing Page
Create a great landing page and make a simple and clear introduction with one or two sentences.
Landing page has all the elements necessary to inform users, engage and help them to share info about your app easily.
Make download buttons larger to be more noticeable for visitors to try it out. As you scroll down, each panel should have a single call-to-action (CTA) leading directly back to the main CTA being to download your app.
Make an eye catching app icon as it will attract people to check out your app. Some tips would be to have a unique shape that stands out, choose a limited pallet of colors, avoid using photos or a lot of text as it can turn out to be ineffective (text in icons can be barely readable) etc.
You can try and create a separate section on your website reserved exclusively for your app or try alternatives and create a pop-up page display whenever someone visits your site.
Do not forget social media so make use of that space to promote your app – a simple banner with the name of your app and a logo along with the link will do the work.
Create Teasers
Create a teaser landing page and a promo video prior to app launch and collect beta subscribers via an email submission form.
Videos are an easy way to showcase your mobile app’s value – create a simple 30 second commercial video with Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle principles: Why, How and What?
Your videos should be updated regularly (weekly, monthly, etc.) and make sure to leverage your social media or other platforms to promote your app. You can include your video to your blog post, Instagram, YouTube channel and more.
The additional benefit is that you can also make advantage of video SEO plus always add your main hashtag and/or descriptive hashtags to maximize exposure on social media.
Be careful with videos – it should only be the option if you’ve proven your app’s value and gained some traction. Don’t spend too much money to produce a video for an app that has changed multiple times since its launch.
Use Different Methods
You should maintain consistency with regular updates on topics relevant for your mobile app as it will segregate you as a niche expert thus possibly increase your downloads.
Another way to get your users updated on major changes is to write a blog post announcing your mobile app launch as company update. Including your app into your regular blog is another promotion – you can dedicate the entire blog post solely to your app or include a call-to-action (CTA) button at the end of each blog post inviting your audience to download your mobile app. Include app links, screenshots and videos to help them understand the value of your app better.
You can also start a podcast and talk about the problem your app resolves in your talk show. A good idea is to create your own logo stamp and customize it to resemble your style, which you can later distribute around your area or preferred locations.
A good option is to create a SlideShare presentation – it can help someone else in the development of their project plus it can bring a few more downloads along the way.
Use Social Media
When you launch a mobile app, it represents a big achievement for your business.
Make sure to share it with the world and use social media in different ways – do it wisely as many people think that copy-and-paste of the link is enough. Be creative with your intro text, engage your audience, post interesting content and make your app click-worthy. You can repost the same content with a different message post to make sure your audience actually received your message.
Other ways are to run a Facebook ad campaign to get more installs or to try AdWords but only if you have defined keywords and enough time to adjust your campaigns if needed.
Pinterest is another great social platform – share interesting content here just make sure to watermark all your images with your app logo. Users who like your app will flow directly from Pinterest to your website.
Effective way to reach your audience is sharing interesting infographics – you can use tools to create an infographic and share them with your audience via social media profiles.
You can make things more fun – throw a launch party online and host a live broadcast which will be available on various social media networks. That way, you give people a chance to participate and join the party!
You can take your promotion a step further enabling your users to share their screens or in-app content. It will increase your app’s visibility and create a place where your users can express themselves.
Start a Community
Good places to start your community are Facebook (online groups), Meetup (for local groups), Linkedin (for professional groups) and more – surround yourself with people who follow the same things as you do, engage in discussions and share your own content when relevant.
You can increase your app’s visibility not only through social media but also through communities to become better known among your audience.
A community is a great place to ask for the feedback and hand out promo codes for them to try your app – you can discuss the current features, bug fixes or future updates, ask for feedback and much more as it will show them you value their opinion.
Build strong relationships with your community as it will present the opportunity to grow not only your app’s community but mobile app installs as well.
Apply for App Awards
Many organizations award prizes to innovative applications within various categories like functionality, design and more.
Taking part in such app awards is one of the best ways – it can reveal your app to new audiences and increase your reviews and downloads. Explore such contests online and apply for the ones you think match your app the most.
Some of the most popular app award sites are:
- Appy Awards
- Best App Ever Awards
- AppCircus competition
- Apple Design Awards
- Appsters Awards
- Ericsson Application Awards
- The Webby Awards
- Best Mobile App Awards
- OZApp
Get Featured on Mobile App Review Sites
If you want to get featured on any App Review Site, you must send them a pitch for your mobile app – basically, you pitch should explain in a few words why your mobile app is good enough to be reviewed and featured at their site.
Many of such sites look for e.g. :
- Pretty graphical design in high quality
- Original content, themes etc.
- Stable app without glitches, bugs, long loading times or other crashes
You will have to provide material to support your app and you can do it via document form listing the following items:
- A link to your app within in the App Store
- A summary describing your app and why it is unique
- Screenshots of your app logo, home screen and in-app content
- Videos of your app (Youtube, Vimeo etc.)
- A promo code for a free app download (if it’s paid)
Receiving reviews about your app is an easy way to take advantage of another’s site traffic as well – check some lists of the best places to submit your app and go for it!
App Store Optimization (ASO)
App Store Optimization (ASO) is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the app stores (both Google Play and App Store).
ASO pays attention to relevance of the keywords and search as well as on the keyword frequency in your description.
Optimize your icon, title, description and your screenshots so that your app can be found quicker within the official app stores. Having this in mind, choose your keywords and categories carefully as it will determine your ranking.
Google Play and App Store are the most famous but not the only app stores at the market. There are alternative app stores on the online market where you can place your app:
Engage in Online Communication
Always contribute to online conversations – if your users take the time to write feedback for your mobile app, you should take time to respond to them.
Don’t leave automated messages for your users as it may result in users leaving feeling you don’t take care of their concerns or suggestions. No matter whether the review is positive or negative, reach out to them and let them know you’re trying to resolve the issue or ask your happy users to leave a rating on the app store but keep it real.
Focus on nurturing your existing users – if you accomplish to build a community that can provide you with valuable feedback to help your app become better, then you will manage to create a more successful campaign for new users acquisition.
Always go for a direct conversation with your users, ask them questions, encourage suggestions about your app and more – remember, not all communication has to drive downloads. Keep your communication worthy – offer advice or help to users who have a problem and app downloads will start increasing. Always keep in mind that word-of-mouth is ‘the best medium of all’.
You can create an invite system if your app is paid – offer users to choose if they will pay for the app or invite their friends. You can also re-engage with your current users since Google and Facebook have an initiative where you can run ads to drive users to try your mobile app.
Another great way is to actually help your users promote your app. Create a recommendation system and add a button ‘tell a friend’ that your users can share your app with friends – for better success, incentivize it with discounts for each new subscriber, like in Duolingo app.
Offers and Support
Make the process of promoting your app a fun one!
Set an amusing task for your audience to complete and tag themselves with your specific hashtag on social media to follow the development of your app and reward the winners publicly.
You can set up various categories for users to climb up the ranks: by sharing the app, engaging with your brand or having their friends sign up as it will encourage your users to try out your mobile app.
Discount is always a good way to approach your users if you are working with in-app purchases – you can offer cheaper prices on certain days, occasions etc. and let the users know via push notification or a newsletter.
Similar to discounts are coupons – find a coupon service relevant to yoru market and try a campaign.
Offer your users a free trial if your app is paid for, and you can collect potential user details. You can later reach out to them and explore if they don’t sign up – ask about their needs and build a relationship.
No matter how you create your offers (discounts, coupons, promo codes etc.), remember that users will more likely get onboard if they can save some money.
Track Analytics and Performance
Always check your analytics via various tools to get insight into how your users interact with your mobile app. Track the data, draw conclusions, prepare an action plant and go for it!
Three are various ways to analyze your users behaviour – install a touch heatmap, use navigation paths, session recordings and other methods and analyze what content people care and do not care about.
Keep track of your app’s performance and the overall user satisfaction – the sooner you detect any problems, the sooner you can resolve it.
Be your App’s Ambassador
You can give your contribution and engage in public speaking or share your expertise at conferences, webinars and similar events. Talk about the problem your app is solving and not just about your app.
You can extend the reach and share your expertise via guest blogs – you can always put a backlink to your app within the blog and it can only help for your users’ list to grow.
Offer your users a newsletter with valuable content and keep collecting email addresses to grow your list.
In case of negative reviews, focus on helping people to solve their problem as such action will evoke positive reactions and possibly make more ambassadors of your app.
You should always keep your content fresh and let your users know that you’re making your app better for them.
Be Prepared For Press
Prepare a press kit to ensure the best chance of getting your story published. Your PR kit should include:
- Your app summary guide
- Your press release
- Screenshots (app)
- Design (icons, logos, banners etc.)
- Videos (intro or demo video, onboarding video etc.)
- Founder’s bio and photos
Once you’ve prepared everything, you can move forward and check the free press release distribution sites to get started.
Final Word
When talking about your mobile app, everything counts – from placing the widgets, beautiful layout designs up to the engaging content.
Despite countless hours and attention, many businesses still do not get the adoption they hope for – instead of thousands of people downloading your app, you get a dozen or so.
Put all your efforts into promoting your mobile app once you decide to develop it – a long term strategy will result in harvesting more downloads, more users and more visibility for your mobile application at the market.