DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PROMOTE AN APP?

App stores of both Android and iOS are nearly flooding. Together they have more than 2 million apps for smartphones and tablet devices, but not all of them are performing well. Many of them have been striving even for a respectful number of downloads since their launch. Even if developers have spent weeks or months in mobile application development, don’t know what goes wrong so that the app does never get desired market exposure. First and foremost, an app is a digital product, and if you are aware of this fact then you should also be aware of all the steps that marketers take to market or promote their products. Although strategy will

change but a campaign is still there. Let this piece of information help mobile developers promote their applications. Make a website and micro-site. If you have more than one app, you must have a website where all your apps can be displayed. Many users want to check the website of the developers before downloading an app. A website will also be the destination point of all your app-promotion campaign. You can also make separate micro-site for separate application. A one or two-page website will work. Pre-launch Campaign No one is going to have a dream that a fantastic app is out there in app stores if you have not done anything for the app’s pre-launch campaign. A pre-launch campaign helps audience build interest several days before the actual release of an application. The website intended for pre-launch campaign is supposed to showcase all the major features that the app will have. If you don’t have real video because the app is still in the progress, animated videos will let audience imagine what the app will look like. You can ask audience for their suggestions by encouraging them for filling a form and allowing them to suggest features. A suggestion section can help in two ways. First, it will help you collect audience’s email IDs which you

can later use to send information about the release data of the application and second, it will let you know what audience wants in that app. A blog or forum, or both Add a blog to the main website of the app and begin posting interesting content to draw the attention of future-users. You can begin it either before or after the launch of the app. Both ways will work. In the blog you can also share that you have implemented a new feature. This will keep your audience engaged. A forum will also help audience clear their doubts about app support. For example, not all Android phones support all the apps and thus a forum by developers will help them easily finding their answers. Also, you can contact to those blogger who write and share content in similar app-niche. Try pitching your app to their blogs. Use social media sites. Social media sites are rocking. They are fit for almost all types of product promotion, whether it’s software or a machine. Google+,

Facebook and Twitter are three major social media sites. LinkedIn can also be a choice, but it’s not a good place when it comes to promote a game; instead; promoting an enterprise application on LinkedIn sounds good. Create pages on these social media sites where you need to post content several times in a week. Announce a release data Once you succeed to create hype around your app through social media sites, it is time you announce its release date. The release date will quickly increase the number of downloads. Send emails to people that you are launching app on a particular date. This will make your efforts more trustworthy for audience and of course, release the app on said date. No excuse please. Respond to reviews of users If your app is really useful, you can ask users to review and rate it in app stores. Apart from good reviews, you will get mix or bad reviews two but don’t be disappointed for bad reviews. Bad reviews offer you an opportunity to improve your existing app. Put your app in reviews websites Websites like AppAdvice, AppStoreApps, 148apps and several others

provide insights of an app. These companies can create enough buzz if they list your app on their websites. These lists may come in the search of users who, after reading reviews provided by the review- website, will decide on downloading or not downloading the app. Create a how-to and FAQ. There are a number of how-to websites where how-to articles for the app can be posted. These articles help users clear their doubts about particular app features or settings. Similarly, you can also create FAQ on the website of the app. The FAQ is supposed to provide answers to all the possible issues that users can experienced while using the app. App-page optimization App page optimization is nothing but the SEO of an application. For every app submission, app stores generate a dedicated page where developers can put description, videos and images of the app. Try making the page as informative as possible. Provide all features that the app has. Present them in bullets so that users can easily go through them. Also, a perfect combination of keywords and key- phrases is necessary. But do not let keywords or key-phrases affect the actual sense of information. Put the best of the screenshots and videos in the page of the app and also keep responding to both positive and negative reviews written by users.

Go in the field, get press and speak about the app. Not all the parts of a promotion campaign can be executed online. For some of them, developers need to go in field too. Get press and for this purpose, developers need to manually reach out journalists. Similar to this, you can also research the events that match your app theme and get chance to speak about your app. This will really set you in market as an authority. Apply for awards There are a number of forums that provide awards based on the performance and uses of a product. Winning even a single award is going to establish your app as a brand in market. And most interesting part of these awards is that you can apply for them online. Create Facebook Fan page of likewise users and also, contact admins of related Facebook pages. Mobile developers can also create Facebook Fan page of likewise users and share content among them on regular basis. This will keep audience engaged. Also, they can contact the administrators of similar Facebook pages which have 100+ likes and ask them to share about your app; however you need to give them solid reason to do so.

Social media integration in the app You can also put social buttons in an app and encourage users to share about the progress in the app. In case of game, you can encourage users to share the update after completing each level successfully. This will let the connections of particular user’s social profile know that he/she is using the app and making good score too. Share content on Pinterest and Stumbleupon Pinterest, as a visual discovery tool, provides good exposure to whatever is posted on this. Here you can post images of your app, blog, infographics and various types of visual content. But make sure that images you have put on Pinterest, are striking enough to hold audience. You can also go with Stumbleupon’s paid discovery which will get you hundreds of visitors per day in limited budget.
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