You created a fabulous new mobile app, but how do you get people to go crazy for your app among the nearly 1,500,000 other apps that are on the market? Continue reading for some tips.
How To Effectively Market Your Mobile App
Originality – This might be harder than it sounds, you need to stand out amongst the hundreds of thousands of other apps. There’s an old saying in business, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” That proves true for mobile apps just the same. Find an existing concept only make it better. Why should everyone buy your app as opposed to others?
Marketing Strategy – Plan your marketing strategy in advance. Be unique and have a concise plan in place. Your own habits can be hugely helpful in determining your marketing efforts. For instance, I am very impatient when I browse the Internet on my Samsung Galaxy and most people on their cellphones and smartphones are in a rush to find the information they need as fast as possible.
Create a Web site – Before you begin the marketing of your mobile app, you should have your Web site up and running. We recommend using WordPress as a platform on the Thesis Theme Framework. You can make your site look like a blog, web site or a mix of both. This is one of the single most effective marketing tools at your disposal. Use your site to give as much information about the app as possible. Most people are visual creatures and as such you should involve a human element and show the app in action.
Twitter – Get plenty of FREE attention by utilizing Twitter to effectively get people buzzing about your app. Tweet about your app and find other people to follow with similar (not necessarily competitive) interests. Twitter gives you a mere 140 characters to explain why everyone should have your app! Tie in your Web site and use them to market each other.
Facebook – Now that you have a Web site and Twitter account you need a facebook page page that further explains your mobile app. Promote it heavily and people will notice. Before you know it you will have hundreds of people buzzing about your product for you. But keep in mind it’s a two way street – interact on these social media platforms don’t use them to solely market your product.
YouTube – Create a short video of your app in action. Again, use the element of human interaction.
Your mobile marketing campaign should be integrated with all other promotional efforts. In the simplest of terms, mention your Web site on your Twitter and Facebook accounts and vice versa. Linking all of your social media accounts is easy with the right WordPress plugin.
Mobile Marketing Reminders
– Mobile ad campaigns must be cross-platform compatible which means they must display correctly on BlackBerry, Androids, iPads and other mobile devices.
– Mobile ad messages should be clear, short and urgent while having a clear call to action.
– Above we mentioned creating a Web site to market your app, make sure your site links to the mobile version of your site or a mobile-specific landing page with more information about your product.
– Never send an unsolicited message. Always obtain permission before sending a message.
– Unsubscribing from your messages should be as easy and effortless for the user.
– Use a mobile-only web analytic service such as Bango or AdMob to track responses.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but it’s a good start. There are several more ways you can get people talking about your app but branding your app is most important. Be concise and consistent with your message.
Image Credit:Mark Jardine
7 comments
I do have some ideas of mobile apps for Android that might fill in a gap on the market, but I had no idea how other people could possibly hear about them. Your post gave me some ideas to popularize it, but I’m still not so sure that the application will draw people’s attention. I have to do some further researches.
Thanks Cole for the great article on to market mobile apps. Great tips to analyze one’s mobile application. Keep writing.
I agree step by step marketing and promotion can help every time.
Cheers!
You can also create a small freebie for pushing your product, or contacting fellow developer in your network to do some review.
great advice for a growing market!
Currently my company is working on mobile application and these tips will help me to add some marketing feature on that.
This will definitely help me as well as many others who want to promote their cell phone apps to a large number of people worldwide. Mobile apps are helpful in many ways.