You’ve developed a mobile app. Congratulations! It means that you have a chance to reach out to a potential market that is constantly growing and that will be worth 6.3 trillion by 2021.
However, getting a piece of that value can be challenging. There are over 5 million apps in the two popular stores. Android apps account for 2.8 and iOS apps account for the rest 2.2 million. With these numbers in mind, the real battle begins once you decide to find your place on the market.
What is the Right App Marketing Approach for Me?
If you wait to bring your app to the market after you’re almost done with it, you are missing on valuable opportunities to spread the word before its launch. Let’s hope you didn’t wait that long because there are many free strategies you could have used without even getting in touch with a mobile app marketing agency.
Many app developers decide to do their own marketing, reaching out to influencers, taking advantage of the mobile website, generating email campaigns, writing blogs and articles, reaching out to alternative web stores, creating videos, and sending award applications to get publicity.
Some carry on with the full product management cycle, including marketing experts on the team.
These are valid strategies that can produce results, but, overall, a lot of the effort gets wasted in unnecessary trial and error activities, when they can be invested in improving the product and fulfilling key business objectives.
Mobile app marketing agencies can create condensed marketing strategies for your mobile app. Each strategy targets the resources to the audience that will mirror your product purpose. Well-established network of contacts make the process easier, while the tricks of the craft coming from experience can take the results up a notch when it comes to delighting customers.
A mobile app marketing agency can apply marketing methods that hadn’t cross your mind. What are some of them?
App Marketing Methods You Can Use to Boost Your App’s Growth
1. Press Releases
Writing a press release is one thing but knowing the right distribution channels is another. While you definitely have the technical knowledge that can emphasize the app’s best features, an agency can help you bring it to the audience by featuring it in the popular news outlets, niche websites, and the relevant industry groups and partnerships.
2. Competitive Research and Analysis.
If you are done with the app, a lot of the data will be hopefully available from your records because you’ve gathered insights about the competitors to be able to better position your app among them. The mobile marketing analyst can pull out crucial data to help you maximize your revenue model.
3. Keyword Research.
Users that are in need of your product won’t learn that your app exists if they can’t find it on by searching for relevant websites and in stores. Keyword research connects the searches of the customers with the best-matching retrieved results. The more precise the keywords are, the better the matches will be.
5. Publishing Reviews.
Reviews are an efficient way to gain objective media coverage about your app. If your initial feedback is not as positive as you expected it to be, the results can be applied as part of the testing process to further improve the app features.
4. Newsletter Campaigns.
With campaign automation, a marketing agency can jumpstart your subscribers list. Email is still a very popular medium to connect to your users which can be used to collect leads at the start and to personalize messages with loyal users in the later stages.
5. ASO (App Store Optimization) Strategy.
ASO is for app stores what SEO is for websites. These are not as easy to develop if you don’t know how stores work, but a mobile app marketing agency can help you find your way around the store and get a better rank for your application.
6. Ratings, Reviews and Installs.
Just remember how much you value the user feedback when you research a new app and consider whether it’s worth downloading it. Users look at the previous reviews and assess the number of installs to get a better picture of the app’s reputation. This is one resource that needs to be a part of your marketing strategy.
7. Social Media Strategy.
A social media strategy includes increasing the number of shares on most active social media channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, and connecting with tens of thousands of users via group submissions and social bookmarking. The expert marketing help can provide everything from setting up a social media account to monitoring, reporting and managing paid social media ads.
8. Blog Outreach and Article Submissions.
Getting published on relevant blogs and websites is a proven way to showcase your expertise and position as an authority for a product. Reaching out with content to others is like digital networking. You need to do it to weave within the circle of potential partners, buyers, investors, and – to find new customers.
9. Forums and Community Websites.
If you type in a search in the Google search engine, many of the top retrieved results include answers from popular Q&A and discussion platforms like Quora or Reddit. Community forums are an underestimated medium because they provide insights which have additional options for unbiased feedback.
10. Target Audience Promotion.
There are a number of ways to reach to your target audience. Each of the above methods allows for getting in touch to your audience. A mobile app marketing agency can perform a deeper analysis of trends and data to create a silo effect – onboarding those users that are most likely to become returning customers.
11. App Store Localization.
In terms of global market outreach, app stores are huge. Audience from varied locations have different needs, above all, they require language appropriate content. You’ll need to closely collaborate with your marketing analyst to adjust the app features and content to the local market needs.
12. Paid Ads.
Don’t forget about paid ads. Paid ads management can include display, search, and mobile advertising, all of which can be an appropriate solution for making your app more visible. It’s usually better not to keep all your eggs in one basket. Diversify your paid ads methods for maximum benefits.
It’s more beneficial to start an app marketing campaign in the development phase. The earlier you start the more time you will have to collect the best user tips right from the beginning. Although you can choose to market your app by yourself, a mobile app marketing agency can introduce you to dozens of new methods to help you generate profits fast and avoid common beginner’s mistakes.