Mobile App. Marketing Strategies. How to Overcome App Marketing Challenges WHITE PAPER

Transcription

1 1130 East Arapaho, Suite 590,Dallas, Texas , USA. Mobile App Marketing Strategies WHITE PAPER How to Overcome App Marketing Challenges Rajasekar KS, Sr Director Social Media Marketing, Impiger Mobile Inc

2 Page 01 Marketing and promoting your iphone app, Android or Blackberry Applications is as critical as developing the app. With more than 425 Thousand apps on the itunes store and 284 Thousand apps on the Android stores and 20,000 on the Blackberry store, DISCOVERABILITY is an app maker s nightmare. Here are a few app marketing strategies born out of our experience in developing 150+ apps and promoting many apps for clients and our company. Name of the App, Keywords and Description for App Store This is one of the most neglected areas of app searchability. It s always great to have the main keyword for the app as part of app name. We recommend that you go through the App Store (iphone, Android and Blackberry) to understand competition and also the likely keywords that users may type to search for your mobile app. The first word is very important, but the main keywords and related keywords also need to be built into the description details. The first few lines visible on the app page are crucial to your application s visibility and success. The copy must be attractive enough for the user to click the more link and read the details. Description for the app is very important and it should clearly explain the key benefits and highlight the cool features. Press Releases to Publicize Launch How to crank up a publicity machine that can put your app in front of your actual users? An engaging press release. this could put your app in front of millions of readers and potential customers across the globe. We re in the Telecom and Mobile App Development space since 2004 and we know which online PR sites work best. The trick lies in writing an engaging press release and shooting it out through the appropriate PR sites. Recommended PR sites: For iphone apps, we suggest PrMac (mandatory) along with PrNewswire or PrWeb this is mandatory since it reaches the niche iphone audience. (category: Newspapers, News Magazines & Internet Publishers)

3 Page 02 App Reviews Ever since mobile apps became a rage with smartphone users, dozens of specialty app review sites have sprung. Reviews on these sites and specialized blogs can help drive traffic and sales. Impiger Mobile recommends that you constantly look out for app review sites specific to your platforms iphone, ipad, Android or Blackberry as the case may be. Just Google, identify app review sites, blogs and app directories that have decent traffic and connect to reviewers and editors who can help showcase your app. Some sites will even offer your app s free promo codes to readers as part of a contest. Commenting on Articles and Participating Forums Contributing to conversations in your niche area can help immensely. Meaningful contribution on your topics can bring potential users to your app page or website and generate downloads in the long run. But don t spam with profane single lines and your signature. One of our clients, Steven J Wilson, an actor who launched the MySocialMania app, took this up seriously and has tasted quick success. A single comment on a related article in fetched him a couple of hundred hits within hours. Google Alerts to Monitor Your App Set up a Google alert ( for your domain keywords and immediately participate in conversations related to your domain. Setting up an alert for your app name, your name, company name and website will help in monitoring news about your app. Google, as it trawls the internet every millisecond, picks up news on your app and sends links to you in near real time. Comments, reviews, links, blog posts are all tracked and sent to you. Building Lists We can t stress enough on this. The money is in the lists, if you didn t hear. The way to begin is to start with a list of people you know friends, co-workers, contacts on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc; club members, neighbors, school and college mates, community members etc. If you re serious you may want to publish a newsletter related to your app idea and have web visitors sign up for it. This gives you an opportunity to share your knowledge and views on issues of interest to your audience and a chance to subtly push your app. Connect to News Sites Research and identify news sites that matter to the domain and area your app targets. Follow writers and bloggers who specialize in your domain and connect to them on Twitter or Facebook. Write to them and chances are that could lead to a story about your app or company.

4 Page 03 Pre-Launch Strategy If you have the resources, we suggest that you build curiosity around your app weeks before the launch and have people sign up for more information, kicking the tires, release dates, offers etc. Try identifying bloggers, websites and twitterers who matter and follow and connect to them. Mentions and reviews can bring early traction when you launch the app. Submit News Tip to Reviews Sites and Blogs Many popular app review sites and blogs have a page where you can submit a news tip about a forthcoming app. Sites are always looking to break news to their readers ahead of competition and you stand a good chance to get a pre-launch review. Send your news a week or two before the app goes live. If the app interests the editors they may choose to write a story which can create pre-launch buzz for your app. Contests, ebooks and Whitepapers Free ebooks, whitepapers, contests and giveaways is a strategy that has been used to attract newsletter signups. Use Facebook, Twitter, Blogs to offer value through these and build curiosity around your forthcoming app. Admob Testing for Apps Mobile advertising channels like Google s Admob are a great way for you to test app names and icons even before launch of an app. Multiple variations of app names, text descriptions can be rolled out and tested and this is a tremendous advantage. Admob Click through ratio (CTR) data helps you decide which app name, ad copy works best for you. Any good mobile advertising platform allows you to target geography and device along with other useful metrices. If you have money to invest, mobile advertising to target smartphone users who use mobile applications is a good strategy. Especially advertising inside similar apps could lead to quick conversions. Social Media Strategy I m sure we ve heard enough of how social media has changed the lives of ordinary people, connecting them to the network and the world. This new phenomenon is massive and can alter your fortunes if only you know how to use it. Impiger Mobile has generated a lot of business through social media enquiries and so we can definitely say Social Media Rocks! Twitter Power A micro blogging platform with more 200 million users and 80 million tweets a day, Twitter offers great opportunities for internet marketers. Set up an account and do a nice profile for your app. They are many free sites that offer customizations to your Twitter page.

5 Page 04 Let s say, you are launching an app that offers free greeting cards; you could tweet about funny greetings you came across, how to greet your love on Valentines, writing love notes, best greeting cards, cool greeting messages, best sms greetings, top greeting apps, how companies can send messages through greetings, various occasions to greet, music and talking cards, funny news about how people greet, how to greet in different languages this will bring traffic to your Twitter page and trickle to the app page. But yes, you need to promote it on your website, blog, signature, s and newsletters. Don t forget to identify influencers (who matter to your niche) on Twitter and follow and network with them. They could be app reviewers, journalists, artists, social media folks, bloggers, with a good following and if they retweet your messages, you get more traffic. If they review your app that could be huge. Facebook Set up a page on Facebook, create content, connect your twitter account to your page, upload pictures, news, customer testimonials and what have you. Again identify groups that interest you and connect. Spend atleast 20 mins every day and find ways to connect to your audience. Blog This is a cool way of publishing news to attract the right users to your application. A few articles every month on your niche can earn downloads and dollars in the near term. As search engines constantly look for new content, blogging turns out to be a great opportunity to drive traffic. In our experience, content does wonders in marketing. Article Directories Content is a great way to market any product. Create relevant content that talks about users challenges your app addresses and publish them on articles directories that have a ton of traffic. Write and submit articles regularly and leave a link to your app page or website. Ezinearticles ( is a great source for generating traffic. Other directories include AssociatedContent ( Buzzle ( Squidoo ( and Articlebase ( App Directories It is always good to be listed in app directories like appolicious.com, appvee.com Invest your time to find the best directories that fit your app and list them there. There are specific directories for iphone, Android and Blackberry. Note: No part of this document may be published, shared or transmitted in any form

6 150+ Mobile apps on iphone, Android, ipad, Blackberry, Windows Mobile With over 150 mobile applications to its credit, Impiger Mobile (Dallas, Texas) has developed intelligent frameworks for domains including Retail, Pharma, Banking, Search Portals and Social Media. The company possesses a 'repository of components' across all devices and platforms for faster development and smaller production cycles. Impiger Mobile has tremendous experience in location-based services, web and native app interactivity, end-to-end integration with enterprise apps or music and multimedia applications. If you re planning to develop a mobile application, talk to us today! Phone : Fax: marketing@impigermobile.com 1130 East Arapaho, Suite 590,Dallas, Texas , USA.