For any app to succeed, you have to market it. That means getting it in front of users to try and purchase the app. With hundreds of thousands of apps in the market, it is very difficult to get yours noticed.
9 Helpful Steps
The following is a recommended 9-step approach to marketing your app.
1. Designing an App Icon
A beautifully designed icon is the best thing a person can have to gain the attention of potential users. The icon should be unique in design and colour to stand out from the crowd. Most icons are green and blue. Also avoid shine and bevel. Icons should always be standard sets and sizes for conformity.
2. Localizing App
App must be convertible to any language. So, if you are targeting China, then it must be convertible to Chinese.
3. Website
It is best to have your own dedicated website. This can have huge benefits. It increases the perceived credibility of your app, and allows people to find out more information about your app.
4. Use of Social Media
Let your users share their content via Facebook, Twitter and others. Encourage feedback and comments. This will also help generate a user database. Integrate a share function to as many platforms as possible.
Aside from sharing, you can create your own Facebook page to post content, updates and events. People can like the page, comment, share and leave reviews. As the following increases, so will the reputation of your app increases.
5. Use of Free Versions
Let users download your app for a free trial period. Most users will only buy apps after they have tried them and found them useful. Some users will not buy or upgrade the app. Even then, it is good to increase your user base and you can generate revenue through advertisement placement on the app. Therefore, a free app download is a recommended strategy by most e-marketers.
6. Keywords
The use of good Meta words or keywords for your website is critical to try and get to the top 10 positions on search engines like Google and Bing. A tool that you can use to research on top keywords is the Google Keyword Planner tool:
https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
7. Download and Registration
To optimize your app, you should keep it under the 20MB threshold. App file sizes that are too huge will discourage download, as it would take a long time to download and would usually require an active Wi-Fi connection. If the app requires registration upon installation, ensure that the registration process is quick and efficient. Allow for users to sign up through Google+ or Facebook, or sign up manually with only the necessary fields of information. The sign up and download process will have a significant impact on the user base of your app overtime.
8. Use the Press
If you think you have an app that is new and unique, you should let all relevant publications know about it. By getting the word out throughout the web, it can become viral and user trial rates will soar rapidly.
9. App Design
You always want your things to look good. A good app design helps in sales. Use an expert if you need to. One important consideration in app design is consistency. If one of the ‘go’ buttons is the colour green, then all ‘go’ buttons should be the colour green. If one screen has 24px padding on all side, all screens should maintain this consistency.
