Mobile app marketing refers to techniques and strategies used to attract, engage and retain mobile app users. There are millions of mobile apps in the market nowadays. It is not easy to make your app stand out among the competition without proper strategies. It involves a lot of planning and hard work to ensure the reach of the app within your target audience. There is no use in spending money if no one will be able to see it. Most brands concentrate on creating an app that functions properly, and they consider it as the main success factor. What if the user does not know about your app even after your hard work?
Mobile marketing app covers user engagement from the moment of the app release to when they become loyal app users. It involves a lot of steps, such as defining the target audience, how to reach them, communicate with them, study their in-app behavior to provide them continuous service improvement for user acquisition. The ultimate goal of mobile app marketing is to get mobile app user’s attention and turn them into your brand advocates.
Mobile app marketing is an evolving field where you have to find new ways to connect with mobile app users and attract them to your app. The expectation of the customers got increased nowadays. It is not easy to convince them to use an app without proper marketing. It is a complete guide that can help you to achieve a better reach to your mobile app using some effective and proven strategies.
To make the concept easy to understand where I will be dividing mobile app marketing into two stages.
- Prelaunch marketing tips
- Post-launch marketing tips
Prelaunch mobile app marketing strategies
It is the stage where brands need to educate their customers about the mobile app. They will create campaigns and strategies that help to create an awareness within the customers. Here are steps you can follow to ensure the mobile app reaches your target audience.
- Decide the launching date
To make your mobile app marketing strategies work, the first thing you need to do is to decide a date to launch your app. Having a clear idea about the time frame will give you enough time to create proper strategies that can improve the visibility of your app. While deciding a release date for your app, consider all main events and holidays around that date to avoid any confusion on the launching date. Releasing your app on a date that is exclusively reserved for your app launch will help you to ensure the maximum visibility for your app online.
- Design a compelling landing page
Design a suitable mobile landing page for your app, as that gives a first impression about the app to the audience. The landing page tells the story of the app, and it will help you to display the best things about your app to your customers. An informative site is something that supports a brand to attract its customers. More than 90% of developers ignore this essential part of mobile app creation. Include best features, screenshots, and demo videos on the landing page of your mobile app. It will help you to educate and engage your target audience. Make sure to use keywords to optimize it for search engines. There is no use in wasting your time and money by creating an expensive app if nobody finds it online. Using content optimized for SEO purposes will help your page to get a better ranking and high visibility.
- Develop an effective SEO strategy
You can add content optimized for the search engine to improve the visibility of your app online. Use the right keywords in your content to get recognition online. Use relevant words in your content that your audience might be searching to find an app in your niche. Use any keyword search tool such as Google keyword planner and Ubersuggest to find out the keywords that have the potential to rank your website higher on SERP. The best time to start your SEO efforts will be 60-90 days before the app launch date. Google will take some time to rank your content initially. So, take your time and rank initially for some keywords. Then you can continue to change your strategies after two months of the app launch date.
- Promote using influencer
Influencers can help to promote a mobile app within their followers. 33% of people agreed that they downloaded that because it was promoted by someone they follow. These influencers will have a lot of followers who trust in their words. They can influence the buying decision of their followers using strong words. You can use influencers to promote your mobile app and convince your target audience to download the app. You can give them free samples of your product or any discounts in return for the work they did for you. Make sure to convey the brand message genuinely, as they are just messengers of your brand. Customers also know that they are getting the reward for the app promotion. Influencers can also share screenshots or videos to use the app to help customers understand the functionality easily. It will give a reason to your customers to download the app.
- Demo videos
Your potential app users might not have a clear idea of how to use the app. Demo videos are one of the most effective ways to show them the benefits of using your app. Videos are always a great way to convey complex messages. You can create 30-50 sec demo videos to highlight the functionality and features of your mobile app. Them upload your demo video on various video streaming platforms, websites, and your app landing page. It will help you to entertain and educate your customers at the same time. Also, demo videos are the best way to convince them to download the app to make their shopping easy.
- Press release
The press release is a useful way to let the target customer know about your app. You can send your app information to the journalist who may be interested in writing about your app. Strong media support can help you to take your app to a wide range of audiences. You can send them a great set of presentations to impress them about your mobile app. Include screenshots, attractive app logo, icons, demo videos of the app, features, functionalities, company profile, and press release while you send them the info about your app to publish. Have constant contact with journalists and tech bloggers to help with any promotion to your app.
- Be active on social media
You need to be active on social media platforms to promote your mobile app among the target audience. Social media is the best place for brands to entertain their customers and inform them about any brand updates. Try to be active on social media 1-2 months before the app launch to gain as many followers as possible. Post-Q&A, blogs, videos, articles, whitepapers, and press releases regarding your brand on popular social media platforms. As per research, people spend 134 minutes every day on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
- Make it sharable
Word of mouth marketing is a traditional marketing method that can attract more customers to a brand. 33% of app downloads come from referrals. More than 90% of customers agree to the fact that they trust recommendations from their friends. So, implementing a referral program is the best option to promote your app and increase the downloads. You can add social media plugins to your app and make it easily shareable to the audience. Use Call-To-Actions in your post and encourage your customers to share your app within their contact and give them rewards in return for better results.
- App store optimization
App Store optimization is the best way for apps to get featured under top search results. You need to add relevant keywords that can rank your app better. Do your keywords research and add those keywords to your app content appropriately. Include videos, features, screenshots, app icons, and relevant keywords to project it in a better way. All these details are necessary for your app to get better visibility in the store. Also, make sure to feature your app in the right category for better results.
- Consider alternative app stores
Everyone considers Google play store and Apple store as the two popular mobile app stores to download the app. But many other app stores can give more visibility to your app. It includes GetJar, Appland, TutuApp, Amazon App store, and NexVa so on. While you concentrate on promoting your app on Google and the apple store, you can also give importance to less other competitive alternatives at the same time.
Post-launch mobile app marketing strategies
Once after releasing your mobile app, make sure to publish the app without any issues or problems for better reach. After launching your app then you need to find new ways to promote your app using proper strategies. Here you have to work to get as many downloads as possible for your mobile app. Here are some strategies that you can try after launching your app for better reception among your audience.
- Guest blogging
You can approach websites in your niche to write guest blogs about your app. If you have a website or online app, you need to please Google by giving relevant and useful content. The best way to do that is to write guest blogs on other popular websites from your niche. When marketing an app, the best way for you is to reach out to the site owners that rank higher in SERP and request them to publish your blogs in the guest blogging category. It will help to give you more visibility and new prospective app users to download your app.
- Promote using app review sites
Some websites write a review about apps in your niche. Approach those app reviewers and request them to review your app. Every customer nowadays prefers to read reviews before using an app. They always want to know the benefits and ease of using an app before downloading it. TechCrunch, ProductHunt, AppAdvice, FeedMyApp, AppStorm, and PreApps are some popular app review sites to use while promoting your app.
- Use testimonials and reviews
Another way to promote your app is to create real user reviews and testimonials to convince your target customers to download the app. Customers will check app reviews before downloading them. Using pop-ups, you can request your existing customers to write their opinions about your app. Publish those reviews on Google or your website to convince your customers to download your app. When customers write reviews, it can be positive as well as negative reviews. Positively take negative reviews, and tell them sorry for their bad experience.
- Apply for app awards
Another best way to show the excellence of your app is to apply for app awards. If you can win the award for the ease of use and unique creativity of the app, it will help you to easily convince your customers and make their life easy. There are many app awards such as Appy Awards, Best Apps Ever Awards, Appsters Awards, and Best Mobile App Ever. App awards are helpful to build better credibility, trust, and credibility towards your brand.
- Mobile Ads
Last year $190 billion on mobile ads, and this number will keep increasing in the coming years. The best way is to reach your audience on the device they use most. Mobile devices are a part of their daily life nowadays. You can make use of this chance to design campaigns and strategies to create mobile ads. Mobile ads have more chance of conversion, and you can get more downloads for your app.
- Push notifications
Push notification is a useful way to engage your customers and turn them into your customers. These notifications are three times stronger than any other kind of promotion and message. You can create new content to engage the users within the app. Create videos, blog posts, white papers, and other content to keep them engaged and give them something useful. Customize your push notifications as per the nature of your audience to get better acceptance.
- Considers user feedback and app analytics
You need to check the app analytics to know the success of your mobile app. Checking app insights will be helpful to know what works and whatnot in your marketing strategy. Customers leave positive as well as negative feedback about the app. You need to interact with all kinds of interaction and deal with it in the right way to be successful in your marketing efforts. If there are any issues associated with your mobile app, then make it right to satisfy your customers.
- QR code
Use QR code as a part of your mobile map marketing strategy for better results. QR codes can be useful to transfer any information to your customers. Brands can include the QR code of the mobile app on every communication with the customers and your brand website. Include QR code for Android and Apple play store to easily access the app from respective app stores without further search. Customers will follow a brand that can provide an easy solution to them without using many efforts.
- Affiliate marketing
Just like influencer marketing, affiliate marketing can be useful for your brand to get popular online. You can collaborate with external partners to promote your app on their website. In return, you can give them a commission for every download you get from their website. Give your affiliates an exciting offer for collaborating with your brand. It can also help you to drive your potential leads and encourage them to take any actions.
- Contests and quizzes
You can conduct contests to engage your target customers and make them download your app. Use social media to reach as many audiences as possible and get a better response from them. Reward them when they participate in your contests and make them your brand advocates. Social media contests regarding your brand will help you to maximize your social media presence and is a great way to interact with your customers. Create compelling content to entertain your audience and make them follow your brand.
Final words
Mobile app marketing is evolving, and you can try the above strategies to see better results. Do your analysis and find out the success of your marketing strategies to understand whether these strategies worked for you or not.
Trial and error will be the best way to make your marketing efforts successful.
Try these pre-launch and post-launch Mobile app marketing strategies, and let us know how these strategies work for you.