business2community.com
It’s fairly clear that the world has gone mobile. As I walk down the street in NYC, I have to duck and dodge every few minutes to avoid running into someone with their head down, nose in their phone.
No wonder mobile apps have become some prevalent. While I still contest that many (if not most) businesses don’t actually need to create an app (but rather just create a mobile-optimized website), many apps are the business onto themselves. And like any business, they need to implement a marketing strategy – or strategies – to succeed.
One extremely powerful method for marketing a business – be it a service or a produce (or an app) – is to tap into existing audiences. Here are three ways to do just that….
Search Engine Optimization
SEO isn’t appropriate for all apps. Mobile game apps, for example, probably aren’t going to benefit much from focusing a lot of effort on search engine optimization. Although mobile game designers can try to rank for terms like “best mobile games” or “best iPhone game,” the competition is likely too stiff, and the initial efforts are better spent elsewhere.
For apps in a specific niche, like events apps for example, search engine optimization can go a long way by helping you tap into existing demand.
Bar World, for example, is a nightlife and events app that is currently focusing on the San Diego area. Topic pages focusing on events and nightlife for that specific city are helping the app slowly move up in the search engines for keywords that their ideal customers may be searching for.
The key here is to figure out who your user base is, what they might be looking for, and how to get in front of them at the moment that they are looking for it. This can be very powerful.
Reddit Advertising
This is something I am personally currently experimenting with, but I can definitely see a ton of potential here.
Reddit has a huge community, they are all relatively young, and digitally active. In other words, the perfect pool of potential users for a mobile app.
There are also countless subreddits on any topic you can imagine. That means that there is a ready-made community that you can target with your advertising.
If a subscription beef jerky business can be successful with Reddit ads, chances are you can find a way to utilize these ads for your mobile app.
But the best part is…the ads are ridiculously cheap. Especially when you compare the cost to the likes of Facebook or Google ads.
Go Offline
It might seem strange to go offline to market a product that is digital. But that is exactly the strategy that dating app Tinder used to gain traction.
Rather than focusing solely on digital advertising and promotion, founders wooed college students into using the app. This did several things…
It injected an initial user base, which is critical for an app focused on social interaction. But it also injected the right type of user base – a user base that has influence. This helped spread the app outside of the organizations to which the app was initially pitched.
Find a community of target users offline and get in front of them. After all, while the product maybe digital, your customers are still real, physical people.
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