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InfoQ Homepage Articles A Mobile Application Marketing Strategy Guide

A Mobile Application Marketing Strategy Guide

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The “If you build it they will come” approach may sound good but it is an extremely poor way to launch your app. Just like you, there are numerous aspiring developers launching beautiful apps into app stores on a daily basis and without excellent marketing, it can be very easy for your iOS or Android app to sit unnoticed in a corner. So, how do you maintain that momentum and guarantee that your mobile application stands out from the rest?

Here are a few approaches to keeping your users hooked, garner support and get the right buzz before and after your app is launched.

Ideation and brainstorming – check, design – check, coding – check. What’s next? Once you are done with entire development phase of your mobile app, it’s a must to have all your marketing strategies up your sleeve immediately. Why? Because there is ahuge number of aspiring app developers and leading mobile app development companies just like you aiming to launch their app at the app marketplace successfully.

That’s why the launch of a mobile app is one of the most important elements of mobile app development - apart from design and coding, of course! Currently, there are more than 1 million apps in the Google Play Store calling out for attention in nearly every category.

Developing a great product isn’t the only path to make your mobile app the next Snapchat, and Apple knows that. Recently, Apple introduced a ‘Best New Updates’ section, that will improve the discoverability of apps after their initial release. But, if you are looking at developing a long-term sustainable application, you need to have a solid marketing and distribution strategy to get your app out to your customers.

Maintaining a healthy balance between the development process as well as the app marketing strategy is extremely important to ensure long term sustainability.

Before we move over to some vital tips on how to keep your mobile app popular post launch, let’s take a look at some pre-launch strategies. You can start as early as 6-8 months before your planned launch.

Landing Page and Social Media

Before your app reaches the audience, it’s always best to build up some suspense. Work on a creative and effective landing page which conveys the gist of your idea. How?

Get interesting video clips and visuals which can connect and arouse the interest of the target audience. Remember; don’t give the entire app idea away. Reveal a little, hide much more!

Create a sign-up as the main call to action. Why? Getting as many users onboard is always a good idea – as they would be your primary brand ambassadors!

Social media integration and your landing page go hand in hand and it’s integral to your page. Ensure your app brand has active accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. You can also try Instagram as it’s a great way to build up suspense. Hold quick competitions, lucky draws and early discount coupons. If the users love it, leave it to them to make your app a success!

Quick tip: We understand you might be working on a shoestring budget. In case you do not want to invest in a user experience rich website, use services like LaunchRock – they offer a variety of options for customization and you can get the basic features listed above on your landing page.

Engage everyone early and often

Let your potential app users know about your app as early as possible and they should be a part of your app development process right from the start. Why? They would provide you quality feedback and eventually become the champions of your app.

Twitter is an excellent way to reach out to the potential app users as it is filled with tech-savvy users who would be pro-active about your app idea. Ensure all your tweets are focused on your users and the main problem your app idea is fixated on eliminating.

Pre-Launch Press Release

The best way to get famous and reach out to all media portals – Press Release! However, there is a difference between a pre-launch press release and an official app launch press release. When you send out a pre-launch press release, it’s all about the ‘why’ more than ‘what’ the app is about.

Your main focal point should be to educate and convince the reader what your app idea is all about, how it can solve a problem and how it’s going to stand out at the Google Play Store.

Sneak-peek Trailers

Before you officially launch your app, it’s always a great idea to give your users a quick glimpse into what lies ahead. Release a short video clip which puts your app concept across, the UI/UX, how the problem would be solved, the brand ambassador etc. It’s a sure shot way to pull in hundreds of email signups and a list for getting early users on-board.

To make the most of your mobile app, you must first answer these questions:

  • How do you ensure that your app attains high ranking in the app market to be organically discovered?
  • Is your Android app receiving enough downloads to add monetary value to your app business?
  • How do you know that your app is being downloaded specifically by your target group so as to ensure a good usage ratio?

Numerous high-quality apps are being launched into app marketplaces on a daily basis and competition makes it a must for app developers or any leading mobile app development company to ensure that their app marketing strategy post-launch ensures maximum success within any of the App Stores.

Read on to get an insight into some practical approaches to keeping users hooked onto your app way after the release also – this includes communicating with your app users, constant launches, first impressions and much more!

Talk, talk, talk

According to a recent study by Google, the main reasons why users delete an app off their smartphone are due to lack of interest, change in usage habits or simply the app has no value or in other words – lack of usefulness. But don’t give up hope already, these factors are highly subjective and change over time; what you think your users require or prefer isn’t accurate all the time. So remember, it’s very important to get into an active conversation with your users.

According to various Android technical consultants, the best long-term strategy is to build a beta-testing community. How does it work? These communities allow us to understand what user needs are all about, even as they evolve and adapt. Apart from this, these beta testers also get early access to all the app features which gives them an opportunity to help shape the application – makes them feel like VIPs and also it turns them into unofficial brand ambassadors for the mobile app.

Release on time and keep Releasing

Spread the buzz about your app prior to its launch. Contact bloggers and journalists who would write about things related to your app thus driving app engagements and mobile app installs. Before the launch conduct a thorough market research, do competitive analysis and also check out paid media efforts to identify cost-effective solutions; getting hold of a good PR team can also work wonders for your app launch.

When you initially release your app, you should have a backlog of features you could have released along with the release, but you sensible didn’t. Keep the next version lean too and ensure the best is for the next version. Do not pack-in all the features at once as the excitement will fade away after the app has been used multiple number of times. Design your app in such a way that with every update it will always have something new and exciting to offer the user. As your app progresses over time, the newer versions of it would boost sales even more.

Aim at upgrading your application regularly. Simply because your users need to stay excited about these updates and it would ensure they don’t get bored and replace using the app with something else or the worst case scenario – deleting the app! This practice of regularly updating your app acts as an excellent personal motivator and it also teaches app users to look forward to timely, interesting updates.

Quick tip: Keep the mystery and introduce your users to different things in your app, in parts. Deeper benefits, such as email notifications, alerts, third party integrations, export features and even keyboard shortcuts, can be introduced once the user gets the hang of how the app works.

First Impressions Count!

Every app is unique in what it does, how it does it and who uses it. A mobile app’s retention rate depends on multiple factors. But, indeed, ‘first impression is the last impression’, and having a delightful on-boarding experience for users is a must. Once, the user installs your app, that’s only half the battle won. The first few seconds after the user launches the app will decide whether they will be active users or they’ll immediately uninstall and switch to other options in the App Store.

‘Hello’, ‘Welcome Back!’, ‘We’ve missed you’, are all great ways to ensure your users do not go app hopping as it makes them feel wanted and appreciated. The entire motto of this technique is to ensure your brand values and appreciates the user. A welcome message is compulsory which should guide them to the app’s main features as well as explains what to do next from the Home Screen, or where they can know more about the company and further app details.

Need for Speed

Nobody ever said ‘I love using slow apps’. A guaranteed way to get a one-star-review at the App Store is a horridly slow mobile application. Time is ticking and we all know there’s a vast plethora of apps to choose from within any of the app marketplaces. If your app crashes too often or crawls, here’s a quick fact: The average mobile app user wouldn’t use the application for more than a minute if she/he encounters the above issues.

Retaining your users and keeping your mobile app popular even post launch depends on how quick and responsive your app is. A recent study states that a smartphone or tablet user expects an app to function in a full-fledged manner within two seconds of opening the app. Your app is nowhere near these statistics? It’s high time to up your game and optimize your app!

Just in case your newly launched app is taking too much of time to launch, trim the fat. Here are a few pointers that could help:

  • Reduce the heavy graphics, check with your mobile app developers and optimize the app code to get rid of any glitches or a lag.
  • Don’t overload your app with too much of content within the launch process as this can immediately slow down the functioning of the app.

In-App Analytics

In-app analytics are a great way to learn about your customers as they provide you an in-depth understanding of the way your users make choices and their browsing patterns too. It’s important to know your user base thoroughly – who is downloading your app and when? Do they actually use it and for how long? And what happens to in-app purchases? Getting your hands on these answers is vital and for this we recommend you the best analytics to track your app such as – Flurry Analytics, Google Mobile App Analytics, Appsee and Mixpanel.

Join hands with Social Media to up the Brand Loyalty

This is an optional step but it never hurts to go social! Involving your app users to share their activity on social networking platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook is a brilliant technique to convert app users into brand ambassadors and to also generate productive organic user growth. Here’s an example: launch a special promotion message or a quick campaign according to an ongoing festival or trending news to create that much-needed buzz.

Celebrities

This next tip might be impossible to implement for most mobile developers: Getting hold of famous personalities and celebrities as they provide you instant fame. Users will be convinced that your app is nothing but the best. When a celebrity pairs with your app, it will not only rake fans in, but it also convinces pessimists and critics that you have experts backing up your company. For example: Nike joined hands with singer and 5-time half-marathon runner Ellie Goulding to market one of their apps.

So, in case you know someone that knows someone … let them comment on your page. You can also add their testimonials and their thought about the app on various social networking platforms. Trust, credibility, and more users – guaranteed!

Conclusion

These strategies mentioned above are all long-term approaches to gaining user retention, driving daily usage and getting users addicted to your app, but also remember – don’t deploy all of them at once! Your basic aim and approach should be to portray that you are aware of and care about your users’ needs and requests.

The success of your mobile application isn’t just based on number of downloads, active users and screen views. It’s much more. The real indicators of progress is shown in app user engagement as it clearly suggest how your app solves the users problems and also how much they enjoy interacting with the app, utility and value. Thus, user interface is extremely important while developing your app as retaining your users is much more important than downloads and high rankings.

Before you design your next app, do brush up on the iOS and Android Human Interface guidelines to enhance the usability and appeal of your apps.

If you have any further tips or suggestions on the above, feel free to drop in your comments below.         

About the Author

Ritesh Patil is the co-founder of Mobisoft Infotech that helps startups and enterprises in mobile technology. He loves technology, especially mobile technology. He’s an avid blogger and writes on mobile application. He works in a leading android development company with skilled android app developers that has developed innovative mobile applications across various fields such as Finance, Insurance, Health, Entertainment, Productivity, Social Causes, Education and many more and has bagged numerous awards for the same.

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Community comments

  • App Development Strategy

    by Dipti Arora,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

    Hello, I love these types of knowledgeable blogs because these blogs encourage me to do more and more better things.

    This is really an informative blog for all the beginners as well as app developers. App demand will surely increase day by day, as it is the main reason behind the business success.

    I am an app developer, I have tried most of the mobile app development platforms. I have developed more than 50 apps till today with the help of Phonegap, Telerik, Configure.IT etc. They are running successfully on app store.

    As per my experience in this field, I recommend developers as well as beginners to use mobile app development platform like Configure.IT, because it provides automatic coding, app preview facility, direct API connect and a lot more features. These things save a lot more development time and provides fast and well designed app in much less time.

    One of the best things of this platform, you can convert your iOS app in to Android directly with some simple process. This platform is available for iOS & Android both.

    Read more: www.configure.it/features/mobile-app-configurat...

  • Intrasting.!!

    by Dev Patel,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

    Its really Informative Post. Thanks for sharing such a valuable post. www.imobdevtech.com/

  • comment

    by Preston Berger,

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    Competitive App Analysis!
    Discovering what already works for other apps is the core of a good marketing strategy. You can absolutely still try whatever marketing ideas come to mind, but anything other than proven techniques will be a shot in the dark.
    But we must understand that operating costs, in this case, will add another 15-25% fee to the final cost of the project. As a result, with the 5-10% margin, the average cost to develop an app for one platform will be about $ 4,000. www.archer-soft.com/en/blog/how-much-does-it-co...

  • 7 Top Tips to Make your Android Mobile App a Success

    by Paul Cook,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

    This was a good read! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I found this interesting article that may be helpful , check it out goo.gl/dasBRb.

  • content

    by Patrycja Kiełkowicz,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

    Hi Ritesh! Love your article, it is brief and the content is really good, concise. This guide is perfect to read for my team, zaven.co/about/team.html, check us out and let me know what you think! I will for sure share this article with my colleagues. Cheers!

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