Mobile app marketing or promotion refers to the process of optimizing an app with the aim to make it more useful, user-friendly, and search-engine friendly so that it gets better rankings and more downloads in the App Store and produces more ROI for the app owner.
The Definitive Guide to Mobile App Promotion Techniques for Marketing Your App
The standard app marketing process covers various aspects such as App Store Optimization, link building, off-page promotion, social media marketing, and paid ads, among others.
The job is usually performed by a proficient app marketing agency.
These techniques are workable and we use them personally in our work.
Besides that, there are many other things you can do in order to promote your app by yourself, create a buzz about it in the industry, and bring more users to it.
If it is not, your app probably needs to be updated.
2. Catchy App Name:
With so many similar apps out there, yours is not going to stand out from the competition if you are using a generic, keyword-based name for it.
For Example, check this app: Tiktok
Think of something unique, relevant, and attractive enough for your app title.
3. Add to the right category:
There are hundreds of categories and sub-categories in the Play Store (and App Store).
Add your app to the right category to make it easier to find.
4. Take Help From Influencers:
There are influencers/experts in every industry who can promote your app to the targeted audience in a better way using their own networks.
The best way to find the best influencers is through Youtube. Reach out to them for help.
5. Creative App Icon Name:
The app icon name, which appears along with your app icon when the app is opened on a device, should be relevant and creative.
6. Unique Content:
Make sure that your app has unique, useful, and high-quality content that has been created only for that app and does not exist anywhere else.
Nowadays, Google is mainly focused on user intent content. Without knowing the user intent, you can’t create awesome content.
7. Create and Optimise a Mobile Website:
If your app already has a dedicated website or even a web page, make sure that it is properly optimized and mobile-friendly.
The mobile-friendly update is the most important factor for rankings. According to the research, a mobile-friendly website helps to increase business leads faster.
This is obvious that if you have an app you should have a mobile-friendly website. If not, create one now.
8. Optimize App Store Description:
If you are launching a new app on the App Store, you should get its description written by a professional writer who can include all the right words to attract more audience while clearly explaining the app’s features and purpose.
You might be wondering how to Optimise the App Store Description?
Pretty Simple!
Well, the App description limit is up to 4000 characters, which means you can do creatively in the 4000 characters description.
Creativity does not mean the full of keywords in the content. In a simple way, it means the content should be very user-friendly and informative.
Check this how we optimized the app description for proper reading and the best user experience:
We’ve optimized the description by covering the main features in points and bolding.
9. Gather Free Media:
Invite newspapers and columnists to write about your app by offering them free incentives and/or download. Also, send out one or more press releases about the launching of your new app.
10. Create a Blog for Your App:
A blog can do wonders for the promotion of your app. If your official business blog already has a good user base, consider adding regular blog posts about your new app to inform more users about it and create a buzz in the industry.
11. Keyword optimization:
Besides finding and adding all the right keywords at all the right places in the content of your app, you should also pay special attention to the keywords section of the App Store where you can add search-friendly keywords for your app.
For example, check this app, this app has a properly keyword-optimized title like this:
Brand + "Main keyword""Main keyword" + Brand
12. Get Sponsored:
Find people or companies that can benefit from associating with your app. Get them to sponsor your app and get free publicity and promotion. This is a very easy task if you have practice with it.
For example, Nowadays many games and apps are now doing paid advertising.
You might see some ads in games and apps when you are running:
This is the perfect example! You might see some ads like this when you are playing games. This is one of the best ways to market your app like a real professional.
All you need to find the relevant categorized niche apps and pitch them an email for Sponsor Ads.
13. Mention the app in your business emails:
Make a mention of your mobile app in every business app you send, either by including it in the Signature text or through a banner or in any other way. It will increase the reach of your app.
14. App icon optimization:
The icon/logo image of your app is another crucial element that needs to be optimized for maximum exposure and user impact. It should be strictly relevant, unique, high-quality, and attractive.
15. Promote via App Introduction Video:
Videos are nowadays getting a lot more popular and for good reasons. By creating a basic 30-second introduction/demo video of your app and publishing it via your official YouTube channel.
you can tell people what your app is, how it works and why they should download and use it, in an interactive and appealing manner. This is the necessary step towards the app promotion.
There are many reasons and the importance of why your app should have an explainer video.
The interesting fact!
Around 42% of people download the mobile app if they are satisfied with the concept of the app by watching an explainer video.
16. Optimize App Screenshots:
App screenshots are added to give users an idea of how the app works and what features it has.
Include only the best screenshots that are good, attractive, and in high-definition.
17. Promote your App Video Online:
Other than creating and publishing the promo video of your app, you can also consider sharing it to multiple platforms online to further increase its exposure.
With the help of the video, you can easily communicate with existing customers and can convert more visitors into customers.
18. Publish on other App Stores:
There are many good app stores, other than the Play Store and App Store, where you can publish your new apps to give them more exposure and increase the number of downloads.
19. Get a free/demo version of your app:
If you are planning to launch a paid app, also release a free or demo version that can be used to access the basic functionalities. And then the users who like it can upgrade for more.
20. App Analysis Campaign:
It may sound overdoing to some, but it is actually not. In fact, a launch event is a perfect way to get the word out there about your new app business.
21. Participate in App Awards:
There are a number of sites that organize awards and competitions for app developers. Participate in these events to get free publicity, press, and promotion for your app.
These are the most important famous app awards sites:
OZApp
Appy Awards
Appster’s Awards
The Webby Awards
Apple Design Awards
Best App Ever Awards
AppCircus competition
Best Mobile App Awards
Ericsson Application Awards
22. Target A Global Audience:
By making a few changes in your app, you can possibly make it compatible with the international market rather than limited to a specific region. This will increase your app reach and business.
23. Social media promotion:
Post regularly about your app on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, preferably through dedicated accounts.
Every brand has a story. If your app story is interesting enough to get the user’s attention, get it published in a popular magazine or blog offline/online.
26. Give exclusive interviews:
Get in touch with your local or an online journalist and offer to do an exclusive interview about the story and release of your new app.
27. Create a Facebook page:
Create a dedicated Facebook fan page for your app and motivate people to like and follow it.
This is a free method for creating engagement and making your app more viral.
28. Get your app featured in top blogs:
Search for top blogs that write about apps (in your industry) and contact them to get your app featured in one of their blog posts.
This will give your app a lifetime of exposure, traffic, and links.
29. Get Started Early:
Start the marketing plansfor your app at least a few weeks before the launch date.
Contact journalists, connect with bloggers, and do everything to ensure a big launch.
30. Integrate Social into Your App:
Integrate top social networking features such as Facebook likes and sharing, Tweets, commenting, etc, into your app to enable users to share more about your app.
31. Create A Landing Page for Your App:
If you have a business website, create a dedicated landing page where more information about your mobile app will be given and connect it with your App Store page.
If your app is useful for local people, make sure to market it using local sources like the press, TV ads, newspaper ads, radio, or media to tell more people about it.
33. Promote on Q&A Sites:
Write answers to app-related questions of users in your target industry on online Q&A forums like Quora, Yahoo Answers, etc.
This is a great and genuine approach to your target audience.
34. Add App Links on Your Website:
Include app download links either through a banner or in the text or anywhere else on your website to make more of your existing site visitors download the app.
For example, check how we’ve added these two buttons in the footer. This helps to aware people of our app.
35. Participate in Online Forums:
Join relevant online forums and communities where you can talk about your app and help people who are searching for answers relating to your industry.
There are tons of forums available online for GST discussions like this:
36. Invite Reviews:
Invite the users of your app to share their reviews not just on the App Stores but also on your website, social media, and review websites like Yelp, Glassdoor, etc.
37. Get Featured on App Review Blogs:
There are hundreds of famous blogs dedicated to talking about and reviewing mobile apps. Contact them and get your app featured there.
See this blog, you can gain sponsored blog post opportunities on these famous blogs which are specially made for app reviews.
38. Keep Your Content Ready for The Press:
Journalists usually do not have time to go through every story and collect more information.
They prefer if they can find all the related information from a single source. Get them the story that they publish outright.
39. Share And Re-Share:
Simply writing a new post about your app once in a while on Facebook is not enough to give your required exposure; re-share the same content multiple times over a period of time for better reach.
If you’re using your existing online channels to promote your app, make sure that all the blog posts, PR, and content are in sync across all these platforms to avoid inconsistency.
41. Research And Find LSI keywords:
Keyword Research using Google Adwords and other tools to find long-tail related keywords, search terms, and queries for you and optimize/promote it for the same.
These are the LSI keywords that help to gain more powerful keywords with less competition.
42. Send App Launch Announcements:
Besides posting a dedicated App Announcement post on your official blog, you should also send notifications to potential and existing users via email, WhatsApp, Facebook, and other means.
After all the activities of making an app, make sure you’ve done your app testing and analysis for errors and crashes according to the Google ranking algorithms.
There are so many steps you need to take while testing and analyzing your app.
First of all, We are going to analyze the app according to the search engine point of view for better performance.
So what are the main points which should be considered?
Very Simple!
Think according to the users, if you are a user and you are searching for the app. There are many things you will see before downloading the app like their concept, screenshots, reviews(most important), and ratings. Important Things to consider are the following:
Title
Description
Icon
Screenshots
Demo Video
User Reviews
App Downloads
Keywords
App Size
App Localisation
Backlinks
App Install Volume
Updates Releases
For example, check this report, you can make the report like this:
For checking crashes and errors, you need to have Google Firebase. The errors and crashes in the app look like this:
44. Use Barcodes to Promote Your App:
Create a barcode containing the details and downloadable link of your app and provide it everywhere, in your ads, promotional materials, packaging, etc.
This is one of the best & latest techniques that you can try in your own app to gain more downloads.
As you can see in the above image, how barcode technique is very effective.
45. In-store marketing:
If you have an offline (brick-and-mortar) business, do not hesitate to ask your customers to download your Android/iOS app for more convenience.
You can even provide a barcode by scanning which your customers can instantly download the app.
46. Get A Responsive Website:
Make your website mobile responsive to ensure that your mobile visitors can easily navigate from the website to the App Store to download your mobile application.
Nowadays, Google prefers responsive websites for giving ranking. According to their latest updates, responsive websites helps to increase ranking as well as the traffic of the website.
Whether content is limited on the page, the responsive website helps to maintain the balance of user engagement.
There are numerous benefits of having a website responsive:
Other than in-store promotion, you can also use offline marketing methods like flyers, stickers, posters, and even newspaper ads to let more people know about your new app.
51. Keep your app updated:
By updating your app on a regular basis and upgrading it with new features and technologies, you are telling the user that you value them and their reviews.
52. Word of Mouth Marketing:
Whether you are on a business meeting or attending a social gathering, do not hesitate to talk about your new app or simply hand out your business card containing the download link or QR code.
"92% of Consumers Trust Referrals from People They Know." - Nielsen
53. Use Referral:
Add a ‘referral reward system’ to your app, rewarding existing customers for every new customer they bring to the app.
In other words, use your existing app users to advocate your business.
54. Add Maps To Your Apps:
One benefit of mobile apps is that they can be easily integrated with existing smartphone features like Google Maps.
By integrating the feature, you can make it easier for your app users to find your business location and/or navigate locations.
55. Comment on Relevant Blogs:
Find niche blogs about the mobile app or your business industry and participate in the discussion by adding valuable comments on relevant blog posts. Mention your mobile app or link in your comment in a natural way.
56. Give Freebies:
Give potential users a reason to download your app by offering them free benefits like rewards, free tickets, etc., for signing up on the app.
57. Accept User Reviews on the Website as Well:
Besides the official App Store page, you can also allow users to share reviews and feedback about your app on its dedicated web page on your site. Showcase these as user testimonials to attract more leads.
58. Reach the customer:
Personal marketing is still the best way to make a good first impression on your customers.
Depending on your app type, reach potential customers personally via physical mail, pamphlets, or letters.
59. Make Your Acquaintances Your First Customers:
It is hard to get customers at the beginning of a new app. Ask your family, friends, and acquaintances to try your app and share the word with others.
60. Get a Celebrity to endorse your app:
It is obvious that celebrities use mobile apps. If possible, get a famous personality, even a minor or local one, to endorse your app. Try twitter.
61. Run App Contests:
Apps can be better promoted with mobile contests to help bring more users on board and keep them interested and engaged with it.
62. Tell Users About App Benefits:
Simply telling them to download the app is not going to work. You should tell them why they should download it and what benefits they will get by using your app.
63. Mention Your App on Business Items:
If you are running an online or brick-and-mortar business, add the mention of your app on business items like envelopes, receipts, shipping boxes, etc for more promotion.
64. Respond To All Your Reviews:
Rather than sending out an automated answer to customers’ queries & reviews, take time to read them thoroughly and answer each of them seriously. It makes customers feel cared for.
If you have no time for the management of your reviews, then you can hire a professional local SEO services company, which can handle your all local reviews and respond to the reviews quickly.
65. Paid Ads on Facebook:
Facebook gives you the option to make your app more popular by using “Facebook app install ads” through which you can show your app to more relevant visitors.
66. Promotional Free App Offer:
Offer your premium app for free to a limited number of users or for a limited time period. This will get you many downloads in no time.
67. Paid Twitter Posts:
Like Facebook, Twitter also lets you promote your products via the platform to get more sponsored downloads and installs for your app.
68. Update Your Email Auto-Response:
Change your email’s, both personal and official, auto-response message to add about your app with a link to the download page.
69. Create a teaser page:
Create a landing page showcasing the teaser of your app, inviting users to sign up for pre-registration, before the app is launched. Promote this page everywhere.
70. Improve the user experience:
As your app gets older, you will start finding things to improve and bugs to fix in your app. Make sure that you do that in order to enhance the experience of your app users.
71. Join LinkedIn Groups:
You can find and join Linkedin Groups relevant to your app. There, you can participate in discussions, provide answers, and share occasional links to blogs and press releases about your app.
72. Use ‘Notifications’:
Smartphones have a Notification feature that you can use to occasionally show offers, deals, news, etc, to the users who have already downloaded your app. This will improve app engagement.
73. Write Guest Blogs:
There are hundreds of blogs out there where you can write tech news and posts for the promotion of your new app.
The posts need not be promotional in nature but a simple mention of your app is enough to get you good influence.
74. Focus More on User Retention:
Getting users to your app is not sufficient, you should also make efforts to keep them engaged and entertained.
For this, you need to make constant improvements in your app and make it better for the user.
75. Create a PowerPoint Presentation:
Create an engaging and intuitive presentation for your app through PowerPoint and upload it to popular sites like Slideshare and LinkedIn.
76. Use Content Discovery Tools to Find Blogs for Commenting:
Disqus is a great tool for finding content in any niche. Apart from writing comments, you can create your own content and pitch it through content marketing platforms. There are many SEO tools available in the market for better efficiency of work.
77. Re-Launch The App:
If your app has become quite old and needs a major update, you should rather consider re-building it from scratch based on the new ideas and recommendations your clients have shared over time.
But do not lose the basic touch that made your app popular all these years.
Give your customers more opportunities to interact with the app by making it the loyalty card for your brand.
Include options like in-app payments, offers, store check-in, billing, and reward points.
79. Create and Give Away Promotional Items:
Get custom promotional items like t-shirts and mugs made for your app and give them to your existing or potential users through a contest or event.
80. Infographic Marketing:
People love visual content even more than text. Create interactive infographics about your app/niche and share them via your official blog and social profiles.
Infographic is one of the best ways to make better user engagement and helps to decrease the bounce rate.
Some infographic submission sites are the following:
visual.ly
daily infographic
cool infographics
datavisualization.ch
81. YouTube Marketing:
Apart from sharing an introduction video for the app, there is much more you can do on YouTube.
Create regular videos surrounding content that your target audience will find useful. Add your app details and link in the video description.
82. App Directories:
There are a number of good App submissionsites where you can submit your mobile app for free to increase its popularity and reach.
These are the most important App submission sites:
appchatter
androidapplog
apps400
preapps
100bestandroidapps
appbrain
apkmodmirror
appnaz
thegreatapps
designnominees
thepopularapps
83. Promote via Hashtags:
Create unique hashtags around the name and industry of your app and make them viral by promoting them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
84. Create a Podcast:
Podcasts are quite popular among users who love audio content. Create and publish content-rich podcasts to make your app reach these specific users.
85. Acquire Loyal Customers:
When your app is in the beginning phase, your focus should be more on retaining users rather than creating more users. This will make them loyal and stay with you for the long term.
86. Bookmark Your App Link:
There are a few top bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, etc, which are still valuable in terms of user reach. Post your app link there to make it more searchable.
87. App Interlinking:
If you have existing apps, it might benefit to interlink those apps with your new app to send your existing customers to try the new app.
88. Create and Share How-To Videos:
If your business is something where users can benefit from tips, consider creating how-to videos for your customers and sharing them on sites like Facebook, Vine, and Youtube. Add your app mention/link in the video or in the description.
89. Offer help:
Use social media to personally connect with people who follow your business. Listen to their questions, provide suggestions, and offer help.
90. Attend events as a Speaker:
Speak at events, meetups, clubs, and similar places to tell people about your new app and how it is going to change their lives or benefit them.
91. Post on Pinterest:
Create custom images and other visual content and publish them exclusively on Pinterest to attract users there.
Conduct occasional content and photo sessions to create more engagement and generate leads.
92. Reach Local customers manually:
If your app provides local services, find and reach your audience locally and convince them to use the app by describing its benefits and features to them.
93. Hire A PR Agency:
If the free promotion is not working for your app, consider hiring a professional PR firm in your budget that can help your app reach more customers.
94. Share app stories:
Write (real) stories about how your app helped people in a situation. Share it on your official social channels or get it published in a newspaper/magazine.
95. Paid Advertising:
Besides social media ads, Google ads are another popular option to generate paid traffic to your new app. This will also add to your app’s search engine reputation.
96. Deal with negative reviews:
Deleting them will not do. Take the negative reviews of your app as seriously as you think of positive reviews.
Try to understand the user’s issue and provide the best solution possible.
97. Host app events:
Host app-focused events, meetups, and competitions and invite people like app developers, and designers to get together and discuss mobile apps in general.
98. Try StumbleUpon:
StumbleUpon’s paid discovery tool has helped thousands of apps and online content become more visible and searchable by users according to their interests
99. Promote via Related Facebook Pages:
Find pages that have a lot of likes and are related to your app industry. Reach them with an offer to mention your app name/link on their page.
100. Partner With Other Apps
Make partners with other app owners to cross-promote each other’s apps in a way that is mutually beneficial.
101. Exchange ad space:
Use services like AdMob to rent out ad space in your app in exchange for free ads in other popular apps in your niche.
102. Keep It Lite and Unique:
Big Brands have their app but they also provide a lite version of the same. Facebook Lite and Linkedin lite are the best examples of this concept.
With this brave step, brands are showing people that they care about every single user.
This concept also provides a gateway for low-budget smartphone owners to use the facilities and services of the app without much hardware specs.
103. Participate in hackathons:
Hackathons are very popular among creative creators and think tanks. If your app has some base, creative ideas, or some kind of solution, make sure to participate in these hackathon events.
These events are organized on many occasions in most countries. So If you are confident about your app compete with others. It will not only showcase your talent but also make your app very popular.
Final Thoughts:
While the above-mentioned app marketing strategies will work in most cases, the ultimate thing is improving the user experience.
If a user is happy and satisfied with your app, they will not only come back to it but also they might promote it to others.
There is no better marketing than a happy customer. Other than that, these tips are all you need to create a successful business on your app idea.
Need help with the marketing of your new app? SAG IPL is a professional app marketing company with over 10 years of online marketing experience. Connect with us to discuss your requirements now.
Your turn:
How do you promote your app to potential clients?
Try to master these activities and you’ll be unstoppable!
Believe That!
Let us know in the comments, and use the tips above to better market your app to the target audience and generate more leads and downloads for your mobile app.
Amit Gupta, who is the CEO and Founder of SAG IPL, founded this company with the vision to become the #1 provider of quality-driven and cost-effective blockchain marketing and development services in the world. As a Chartered Accountant with a keen interest in software and web development, he manages a team of over 200 professionals, comprising designers, developers, and marketers, committed to delivering top-notch web, software, mobile, and blockchain solutions to clients worldwide.
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