Do you want to increase your App Brand? Find out App Marketing Tricks that will help you to go viral.
There are about 5 million apps in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Many of them are overlapping or cross-platform versions of the same app, but you can safely bet that there are close to at least 2 million individual apps.
According to App Annie, $120 billion worth of apps will be sold in 2019, and the pace of growth is five times the growth rate of the global economy.
There were 194 billion app downloads in 2018, and the average smartphone user spent almost 3 hours daily using apps.
It presents a massive opportunity for profit. Those who create well-known apps rake in millions. But it is also a highly competitive market. For everything from apps that help you to meditate to apps that track your expenses, dozens are vying for the top spot.
It is essential to differentiate your marketing campaign from your competitors and make sure that you leave no stone unturned.
Marketing an app successfully takes a well thought out strategy, and we have curated a list of the ones most worthy of mention.
App Marketing Tricks That Work:
1. Create a website
At the end of the day, an app is just a product that you are selling through an app store.
Consider your own buying decisions? How did you buy the laptop that you are reading this article on?
If you are like most people, you researched quite a bit. You wanted to know and compare the various features and find out if you are getting decent value for money.
In other words, you wished to be fully informed before you purchased it.
It is the same for apps. If a user has to select between four different apps that provide the same function, he would like to know more about the uses and features.
This is where having a website becomes useful. You can lay down in unambiguous terms why you created the app and how it is better than competitors.
You could even create a series of blog posts that can explain how your app works, as well as provide a view into the upsides of using it.
It is vital for the user to know why you created the app in the first place. Was it purely for profit, or is it that there is something about the niche that attracts you? If you made an app about personal financial management, maybe you have some experience in the industry that gives your app an edge.
Unless you explain with candor, it is quite impossible for the user to understand how your app stands out.
Of course, do not use the blog section of your website to ask users to download your app. But point out the differences with no uncertainty.
2. Use social media
For any type of Digital Marketing, the use of social media is pretty much a given. This is especially so because it is impossible to promote an app through paid search engine results.
Your presence has to be both organic and paid.
For organic promotion, make sure that you have an account on all the major social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
Make it a point to follow those who are leaders in your industry and engage well with the target user.
Of course, your social media account is about the product, but it is also a way to connect with users and receive valuable feedback for developing the next version or even a new app.
The use of social media is crucial to gain insight into the minds of the user.
Paid promotion on social media is also essential, especially when very few people know about the app. You need to build a primary user base who will provide feedback and discuss your app. To get the app out to the first few thousand people is crucial.
It is also quite impossible without paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.
3. App Store Optimization
ASO has emerged as the SEO for mobile apps. You created an app and placed it in the Google Play Store. You are quite sure that your app performs well against the top ten contenders in the category. But how do you get to page one of the search results?
What is the goal of ASO?
Of course, it is more downloads but also includes more exposure of your app, engaging the users in a conversation, and garnering positive reviews.
ASO is not unlike SEO, and if you are conversant with the latter, it will not take you lots of time to master.
The main points to focus on are:
Create a good app title
The title should preferably describe what your app does. An innovative title would be catchy and easy to pronounce. At all steps of marketing, remember that you are trying to go viral, and there is no way to predict what will go viral. It may be the name that will succeed rather than your website or paid promotion.
Use proper keywords
You are allowed to describe your app in the app store. Google Play Store will enable you to use 255 characters in the brief description and 4,000 in the extended description. Apple allows you to use 252 characters in the short description and without limit in the details.
But almost no one is going to read more than three lines.
Make the top of the description attractive and engaging and highlight the key feature set that you are offering. The rest of the description can be used for judiciously applying the keywords that you want the search engine to find and associate with your app.
Hence if you are offering a fitness tracker, the most effective keywords would be heart rate, calories, pulse, step counter, and so on.
Use a short video
In addition to using top-notch screenshots that display the UI of your app, include a short video of a minute where you quickly explain about your app and its advantages. It is quite a difficult task to describe in a minute fully, and hence, your script and storytelling game has to be top of the line.
If you feel it is beyond, you hire professional advertisement creators to come up with the script.
4. In-app advertisements
Where do you find the users who want to download your app? Of course, the best market is those who are already using apps.
Do you know that the click-through rates of in-app advertising are astonishing 58% compared to the click-through rate of the mobile web that stands at 23%?
It has also been proven that in-app ads perform 11 times better than usual banner advertisements.
In-app ads have changed vastly since the early days of Android and iOS and now are able to host rich media and videos effortlessly.
Usually, replayed during the transition of an app from one level to another, a short video of a few seconds about your app is likely to get you lots of new customers.
In-app promos are a lead-rich area that you must focus on if you want your app marketing to succeed.
5. Create a superb icon
There are at least 50 apps on most phones. How many do you remember? Of course, the symbol of Facebook and the tiny bird from Twitter pop into mind.
The design of an icon has to be done with care. It has to be striking but not very similar to an existing app.
You may possibly change the UI if needed, but rarely can you change the icon. It can be revamped but not replaced.
Devote thought to it and create at least four versions. Test them out and find which one is well received.
6. Influencer Marketing
This is a new type of marketing where the influence of one person over a group is leveraged for increasing sales.
In a way, it is a type of endorsement but not often done in such a direct way.
An influencer can let his blog or Social Media followers know that he liked the way an app functions. He might even, to some extent, invite others to use it. It stops at that, and he does not ever directly promote the app.
Influencer marketing is quite reliable since the thought leader of a group has endorsed the usefulness of a product, and most often, that is enough to drive its usage.
What is required for influencer marketing? First, you need to find the correct influencer. Then induce them to spare a good word for your app in return for some remuneration.
The disadvantage is that it takes time and negotiations to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement. Unlike social media ads, it cannot go live in a few hours.
7. Word of mouth
This is probably the best influencer there is. Consumers trust peer to peer reviews far more than they trust official reviews.
To generate word of mouth publicity, you need to offer some inducements such as a referral bonus. Of course, this type of marketing can only happen after you reach a critical mass of users. You cannot aim for it on the first day or even the first month.
At its earliest, it will take several quarters.
8. Cross Promotion
You can tie up with other app developers and cross-promote each other’s products. The advantage is that it does not cost a single cent.
The best way to go about it is to use a cross-promotional platform that facilitates you by meeting someone who is looking for the same type of promotion.
Cross promotional strategies can also be integrated with third-party monetization such as Google AdMob.
9. Encourage more reviews
At its core, your app will succeed only if it pleases customers. More than anything else, it is the 4.2 rating on Google Play Store that induces a user to download your app.
Use popups to remind your users regularly to leave feedback.
If you face criticism, do not react with anger. Instead, try to understand the issue, and if it is real, fix it in the next version of the app.
Also, never forget to thank a user for a thoughtful review.
If someone is uninstalling your app, make sure they tell you why they are leaving. It is annoying to write feedback for something you are uninstalling, therefore have few reasons with checkmarks next to them for easy feedback.
10. Analyze repeatedly
Just like you use Google Analytics for your website, you have to use an analytical tool such as App Annie or Appfigures.
These tools are particularly useful to point out what you are doing wrong in your app store optimization efforts.
You are going to have a host of data to pore over from the app store, social media, and blog. Find out what is working and what is not.
Reject the elements that are not giving you the returns you desire and focus elsewhere.
Also, remember that it takes time for an app to mature and become popular. Often it may take 3-4 years to hit the top of the App Store first page. Hence along with analysis, be patient.
11. Get professional help
At times you need to think totally outside the box to get the results you desire.
Tinder partnered with an animal rescue organization, named Social Tees to find new homes for abandoned canines. The project known as Puppy Love not only helped 1,500 strays find new homes but gained Tinder very positive publicity.
What can be a more suitable PR stunt for an app that promises to find you, love?
Concluding Thoughts
Just like with any other product, app Digital marketing Course deserves a unique strategy to make it succeed. Usually a combination of ASO, social media promotions, and word of mouth it takes quite long for an app to gain significant momentum of downloads.
Most of the apps that have over a million downloads have been on an app store for at least 2-3 years.
Also, what has not been said is that the design of the app, the way it functions is most important. The product is its own best spokesperson.
Design an app with care and market it skillfully, and you will surely be able to find that there are plenty of downloads.
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