This is How You Should Market your App

tech.co

This summer it was announced that in the iTunes App Store alone, there are over 1.2 million apps available for downloading. If you plan to launch an app, it’s not enough to have the most beautiful interface and innovative product. If no one knows about it, you’re just another one of the 1.2 million, a number that’s growing every day.

So how do you get your brilliant app noticed? Marketing your app properly will help you duel the competition and show the people who really matter why they should download and use your app instead of any of the other ones available.

Here are some things that can help you become successful in marketing your app pre-launch:

Gain Early Data

E-mail addresses. Collect email addresses from those readily anticipating your launch. These people will be the first people to see your app once it’s launched and the most likely to give you positive reviews. Take advantage of this because these reviews will be the first organic form of marketing for your business.

Create Brilliant Screenshots

The first thing people will judge your app by is the screenshot they see in the App Store. If it’s not enticing and professional people will swipe on to the next App before you can even say ‘screenshot.’ Your screenshots are critical for awareness of your app and it’s a great opportunity for you to leverage your potential users right there in the App Store. You can get feedback on your UI design by posting your ideas on dribble.

Press Release

For your launch day, you’ll want to make sure you have a professional and gripping press release prepared that perfectly describes your product. Talk a little bit about yourself and the others behind the product and focus on what’s really unique about your app. Check out Copify if you need help.

Marketing and promotions are essential on launch day and the days just after, if you can rock these marketing tips for your launch it’s the key to the success of your application. Journalists love to be notified straight after the launch, so reaching out to them right after your launch gives you the best chance of being covered by them.

The Launch

Tuesdays are your best day to launch as it gives you four days to achieve a high rank before the weekend, which is when most people will be online surfing the App Store and when most downloads occur. If you can get into the ranks for the weekend you’ll see a sweeping positive effect on your downloads, and it may even hold you over into the next week.

The first thing you should do is submit your press release, once the App has been launched send in your PR. Here’s a list of 50 free press release submission sites.

Use Social Media. Social marketing is a hugely successful factor for pushing early reviews and can get you seen by those extra few people that could move you up in the rankings. If you have social accounts for your app it’s even better to promote things related to the app, but even your own personal Facebook and Twitter accounts can greatly reach people who may be interested in your product and help you to break into that top 25.

The day after

Ask customers for feedback. Again, all of the positive ratings and glamorous reviews you can get right off the bat will help you to promote on social media, or to get recognized by leading publications, and get you into that top 25. You might even consider sending out a push notification to anyone using the App to send them a friendly reminder to leave you some feedback.

Follow up with any coverage that you may have received either on social media or from journalists. Make sure you favorite and retweet, show some love to make sure they know how much you appreciate their publicity even if it is just a small gesture every bit counts.

In perpetuity

Congrats! You’ve made it through your first (hopefully) successful launch. You created some good buzz about your product and received a lot of positive feedback. And if it wasn’t the smashing success you hoped it would be there are plenty of other things you can try.

After the fact, it’s important to increase your budget for cross promotional advertising. There are services available like App-O-Day that will give a huge burst of downloads to your application. This usually works to guarantee rankings in your category.

You may also want to invest in a tracking and attribution application to help you decipher where to put your money to receive the greatest ROI. Once you’ve sent out so many different promotions via social media, they hype from journalists, etc. it’s difficult to tell with mobile platforms where your traffic to the App Store is coming from. A tool like AppsFlyer will help you track your conversions, and help you find more loyal users once the initial buzz has worn off.