App Marketing
How to Promote Your App: The Ultimate List of Foolproof App Promotion Strategies
- September 29, 2021
- DGF - Digital Growth Formula
With the increase of smartphone users the mobile app market started growing rapidly. There were 218 billion mobile app downloads in 2020, and the number is going to be higher by 2021. This means there is huge competition in the market and if you want to create a successful app, then you need to promote it.
An app should be treated as a regular product. When a business launches a product, they find an audience for that product and promote it way before the product launch. The same goes with app promotion: you should start the marketing before the launch. Your app won’t become popular after a magic finger snap.
If you’re planning to launch an app, then follow this guide to find out all the possible options to promote your app.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at:
- 1. Understand Your Goals
- 2. Get To Know Your Customers
- 3. Choose the Right App Store
- 4. Optimize Your App For App Stores
- 5. Create a Landing Page
- 6. Feature Your App in Your Website
- 7. Use Social Media Channels
- 8. Join Facebook, LinkedIn Groups
- 9. Create an Email Signature
- 10. Get Featured in Blog Posts
- 11. Get Featured on App Review Sites
- 12. Use The Power of Influencers
- 13. Create a Demo Video
- 14. Don’t Forget About SEO
- 15. Include Your Content Marketing Strategy
- 16. Try Search Ads
- 17. Use Traditional Ads
- 18. Apply to Awards
- 19. Sincerely Respond to Reviews
- 20. Constantly Update Your App
Understand Your Goals
Before even starting building your app, you must clearly define your goals.
What do you want to achieve with this app?
What value will it bring to your customers?
How many downloads do you expect to have?
Where will your business be in 3, 6 and 12 months?
How will this app help you reach your business goals?
These are the questions that you should think about to clearly define your goals.
You probably have answers to these questions as they are part of the app marketing strategy. And checking them twice before starting to build the app, will only make things more clear. And, make sure app promotion is included in your marketing strategy.
Get To Know Your Customers
Then, you need to make sure you know your customers. If you already have other products then you probably have a defined target audience, if not you have to start building your customer base. You have to know your customers’ needs, wishes, interests, and how your app will interest them.
You can start by creating surveys and sending them to your users. Ask about their opinion and suggestions to make sure your app will meet their expectations. Keep them engaged during your app development process, offer them discounts for filling in the surveys and you will have your first users even before your app has launched.
Remember that your app is a product and it should solve some problems for people and make their lives easier. You’re building your app for people, so no matter how outstanding your app is, if it’s not important or interesting for your audience, then no one will pay attention to it. And you won’t even need to promote it if no one’s interested in it. So, you have to have a clearly defined target audience and create buyer personas before building your app.
Choose the Right App Store
Depending on your audience’s preferences you should choose the right app stores. The biggest app stores are Google Play and Apple’s App Store. Usually, all the apps are featured in these 2 places.
But there are other options too.
There are Amazon Appstore, GetJar, Appolicious which can also be great options for you. Also, consider your target audience’s country, as for example for the Chinese market the channels like TencentMyApp, 360 Mobile Assistant, Xiaomi App Store, or Wandoujia are the key app stores.
Optimize Your App For App Stores
App Store Optimization or ASO is the SEO of app stores. It is necessary so that your app can be easily discovered. There are 3.48 million apps in Google Play and 2.22 million in the App Store. Without optimization, your app can get lost in millions of other apps. So you need to make your app optimized for both, or for one of them if you’re using only one app store.
Pay attention to your app name. It should be unique and include your brand’s name. Make it easy for people to find it. Then, research the keywords and include relevant keywords in your content. But remember that you need to sound natural, don’t use too many keywords. Write a great description, which emphasizes your app’s benefits and its value. Make sure to update the description according to app updates.
Next, include the screenshots and short videos of your app. People pay more attention to visuals than to the text, it is the first impression you make on people. So make sure to have some good screenshots and videos. And finally, don’t forget about the ratings. Reviews and ratings can have an impact on the SERP, so collect positive ratings and reviews right after your app launches.
Create a Landing Page
Creating a landing page is always a good idea, as a landing page is like having a business card. Even if you won’t need it, it’s better to have it.
There are some must-have elements for a great landing page. App Store and Google Play buttons must be clearly visible and noticeable, and they should be bigger than any other buttons/links on your landing page. Make sure to include them right on the first page. Then, add CTAs to all the panels, which would lead to the main CTA – to download the app. Also, don’t forget to include social media channels’ links to increase shareability. Show your app’s features, demo videos, screenshots to introduce it in the best light.
Feature Your App in Your Website
If you already have a well-optimized website, then you have regular traffic, which you can use in promoting your app. When users search for something they generally prefer to first visit the official website of the brand. The website is proof that your business is real and you’re a professional.
So, always include links on your website. You can section a part of the website for your app to make it visible. As an alternative, you can create a pop-up page, so that the first thing the user sees will be the app download reminder.
Use Social Media Channels
There are billions of social media users around the world and your audience is in there. Use different social media platforms to promote your app. If you don’t have social media presence yet, then you better start building your profiles. There are two ways you can promote your app on social media: organic and paid.
Organic promotion is the simple presence on social media. Making regular posts with good content and visuals is all you need here. Don’t be too promotional, you don’t need to promote your app in every post. Try to make content that is appealing and interesting for your audience.
Paid ads are also a great way to promote your app, especially if you’re a new brand and don’t have a lot of followers. Plus, you already know your audience so you shouldn’t have any problems with targeting. Find the best type of ad for your app and run it. Paid ads can really boost your discoverability.
Join Facebook, LinkedIn Groups
There are many social media groups related to your industry which you can use to promote your app for free. But don’t be over promotional, give them valuable content and add your app download link in there. You can ask them to give feedback for your app.
Also, consider joining developers and entrepreneurs groups on social media. This way you can get more of a professional opinion about your app. Give them bonuses for trying out your app, ask for feedback, suggestions. Create relationships with these people, help them when you can, later you’ll be able to cross-promote each other’s app.
Create an Email Signature
App promotion should be included in all aspects of your marketing and email marketing is one of them. If you already have an email template, then you can just add the app download links in the footer of every email. Inform your subscribers about your new app, or app updates, describe to them its features and benefits.
Despite popular opinion, email is still a very popular communication tool. People check it every day, so not including your app links in your emails is a big mistake.
Get Featured in Blog Posts
There are millions of topics about everything on the Internet and you can definitely find blog posts related to your app and industry. Find authority blogs that talk about your industry and get your app featured in their blog posts. Nowadays people rely on industry experts’ opinions more than the brand’s information itself, so featuring in blog posts can get you loyal customers in the future. Besides, when they include your app download links or your website links, it can highly boost your rankings in SERPs.
Also, you can create your own blog and talk about your app. Talk about your app features, its updates, describe what problems your app is solving and how it will help people. Talk about industry, find relevant topics about your sphere and provide high-quality valuable content for your readers. And always include CTAs on your blog posts which would lead to your app download.
Get Featured on App Review Sites
There are many app review sites where you can get featured and thus promoted. But you need to know that in order to appear on these sites, you need to have high-quality and appealing graphic designs, your app must work without bugs and have original and unique content. You’re going to have to send them the pitch and convince them that your app is good enough to appear on their site.
If you get featured on sites like The Next Web or AppAdvice, you can expect to get tens of thousands of unique visitors on the first day. So, explore your options and find some good review sites where you can get featured.
Use The Power of Influencers
Find influencers in your niche, and team up with them. It won’t necessarily cost a fortune, there are many micro-influencers with a decent following who can be helpful to you. You can look through your connections in the tech industry to find influencers or look for an influencer marketing service to get the connections you need. You only have to make sure that your target audience aligns with their followers, otherwise, you’re just wasting your money.
People rely on the opinion of influencers, and their good opinion can bring you thousands of new customers.
Create a Demo Video
A demo video is one of the best ways to show what your app has to offer. For your demo, create a simple 30-second video, showing the features of your app. Note that you’ll have to update your demo video at least every time you have a new app update.
Share your demo video in all social media channels, blog posts, emails. The more people see it the better they will understand how your app is going to help them. Make sure to add the app download links in your demo video posts.
Don’t Forget About SEO
Not only ASO is important for boosting your app downloads, but SEO as well. Many users search for apps on Google or other search engines to find the best ones. And you’ll want your app to appear on the first results. So, identify the relevant keywords that you want to rank for and include SEO in your app promotion strategy.
Include Your Content Marketing Strategy
No matter if it’s for social media, your blog or website you have to have quality content. If you’re an established brand you probably have a content marketing strategy, but if you’re starting from scratch, then you should work on strategy.
When you do research about your customers, pay attention to what type of content they like and prefer, so that you know where to concentrate your efforts.
Try Search Ads
There are many social media groups related to your industry which you can use to promote your app for free. But don’t be over promotional, give them valuable content and add your app download link in there. You can ask them to give feedback for your app.
Also, consider joining developers and entrepreneurs groups on social media. This way you can get more of a professional opinion about your app. Give them bonuses for trying out your app, ask for feedback, suggestions. Create relationships with these people, help them when you can, later you’ll be able to cross-promote each other’s app.
Use Traditional Ads
While this may not seem an obvious option, it still can bring great results. If you‘re a brand that has a physical location, then you should advertise your app in your store. You can create a QR code so that it would be easier for people to find your app. Also, consider offering bonuses, discounts to get users to download your app. Make it clearly visible for everyone.
Meetups, events and conferences are also good places to promote your app. Bring a stack of business cards with your app download link on them and offer them to everyone you speak to. Talk about your app’s benefits, ask them to try your app and give feedback. This is a great way to attract new users.
Apply to Awards
Enter a mobile app competition to get tons of press, exposure, reviews and plenty of downloads. It will not only give you exposure but also increase your credibility if you win. Here are some of the famous app awards:
Sincerely Respond to Reviews
If a user takes time to write a review, then you should sincerely respond to it. No matter how long it is and what it says, don’t just write an automated message. Users need to be appreciated and you must make sure to resolve their issues if they have some. Users pay attention to reviews and how companies respond to them, so this is a good chance to win people’s hearts by showing that you care about every customer.
If a user writes a positive review, always thank them and offer some bonus as a reward for their review. You should encourage your users to give more reviews.
Constantly Update Your App
Customers need to know that you’re constantly improving your app to increase its functionality and help users navigate there easier. Besides, your app needs to correspond to the latest versions of smartphones’ updates.
Pay attention to what your users say about your app and try to improve your app accordingly. Also, don’t forget to mention in your description the information about the latest updates and what you improved in your app.
To Sum Up
As you can see, there are tons of ways to promote your app and there’s absolutely no need to have a big budget to make your app successful. You just need to create the right app for the right audience and make sure they know about your app.
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Digital Growth Formula Team
At DGF we know the power of digital marketing, and we can prove that you can scale your business with us. Our team has a deep understanding of the industry, and we want to share our experience and expertise with you.
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