Mobile browsing has seen a huge surge and no doubt as smartphone usage rises, it’s only going to increase. And with easy-to-use, intuitive, and ‘no-coding required’ app builders available widely across the internet, it’s no surprise that competition is fierce.
So, your ground-breaking mobile app is going to need some serious marketing love. It’s no secret app marketing is a slow grind. Building awareness about a mobile app when millions of them flood app stores across various platforms every day is a very, very long game.
But you can start to muster early support by creating a dependable prelaunch and postlaunch marketing plan. To help you out, I have together a list of 10 mobile app marketing strategies that can help you stand out from the crowd.
Strategy 1: Put Your ???? on and Research
Learn more about your audience by researching them inside and out. However, be wary of either casting a wide net or being too niche. Finding out what your competitors are up to can help.
But the last thing you want is to be seen as is a complete imitation of an app launched by somebody else only a few months ago. If an app marketing strategy launched by a competitor has crashed and burned, take note! You’ll be smarter for it.
Knowing what your peers are doing will also help you with refining your app’s target audience. How’s their brand voice? Is it targeted to Millennials or Gen Z? Professionals or college students? Parents or Young Singles?
Are they overlooking a market segment where perhaps your app can swoop in and capture?
Strategy 2: Get a Head-Start!
Feeling super confident about your new mobile app idea? You can start creating buzz right at the conception stage before your app is available on the market.
You can do this by engaging with potential customers on social media. One example isTwitter. It’s an excellent platform for running polls, quick Q&A, surveys, and crowdsourcing new features.
Then you can start ramping up your mobile app marketing efforts with short video advertising such as teasers and trailers demonstrating app features and benefits as the release date gets closer.
But be mindful of not giving too much away as your goal is to drum up interest and build anticipation for the app.
Example: Microsoft teased the new Minecraft AR mobile game in 2019 in a video that beautifully demonstrated its augmented reality feature.
Strategy 3: Optimize the App Store Page
In the mobile app universe, an app store is akin to a storefront in the real world and therefore must be effectively optimized for your prospective customers.
In the same way as a brick-and-mortar store, your app in the app store should have an appealing title, a sleek icon, and a helpful but brief product description. You should also optimize for keywords that best align with the use-case of your target audience.
It may help to include screenshots and explainer videos to efficiently convey your product’s benefits and features. It’s the equivalent of setting up a window display and storefront banners.
Don’t skimp on this step! More than half of people have discovered a new app by stumbling upon it while browsing iOS and Google Play app stores.
Strategy 4: Build an App Landing Page
Landing pages are imperative to establishing a strong digital brand presence. They’re an essential tool in your arsenal of promotional tactics and act as a starting point in a user’s journey.
For those of you who might be new to the world of app-building or have fewer resources on hand to spare, fret not – there’s a wide array of landing page builders to choose from.
Jeremy Noronha, a landing page guru, writes about 2020’s best landing page builders you can use to swiftly build one from scratch. No coding experience required!
And many of these content management software platforms come with sophisticated features such as GDPR compliance, reporting and analytics, A/B testing, and fully responsive user-interface (UI).
Strategy 5: Establish a Social Media Presence
No matter which stage of app development you’re at – postlaunch or prelaunch – having a social media presence to ramp up support and building anticipation is important.
You can also shorten and rebrand your links for additional social media branding. especially in social media bios or about sections. You could link to your landing pages, sales pages, or directly to the app. That said, make sure you follow the best practices when it comes to landing page content. This is crucial to convert that traffic.
Apart from boosting awareness and improving visibility, social media (re: strategy #1) can help provide valuable insight into your chosen demographic. You can use it to gather data about their age, geography, interests, and hobbies.
That said, you need to integrate the right URL tracking software such as Rebrandly link shortener. This will ensure you track links and don’t lose any data.
Furthermore, behavioral data can help drive your app’s UX strategy. For example, the time of day when users are most active can easily be sourced from social media analytics.
Example: an apparel shopping app targeted at Millennials might want to amplify social media activity late at night as 75% of them shop after bedtime.
Strategy 6: Create a Media Kit
As a new and upcoming app, the best way to control the conversation happening around it is to create a robust and comprehensive media kit.
Include your own branded app screenshots, logo and icons, image specifications, content use policy, social profile links, ‘About Us’ section, and press releases.
Brosix.com, a remote instant messaging service (a lifesaver in a time like this) has an all-inclusive media kit that provides clear and succinct brand guidelines around logo and icon usage.
When your media kit is ready, you can post and share press releases on the app’s website and with third-party media houses.
These press releases should thoroughly describe the app’s value proposition, who’s it for, and what to expect in the future. Assure potential customers that you’re working hard on better features and fixing annoying bugs.
Furthermore, you can use Salehandy.com to schedule thousands of emails for your mass media outreach campaigns.
Strategy 7: Utilize Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has exploded in the last 5 years. Armed with the power to build their brand, social media influencers are key to generating referrals and increasing word-of-mouth marketing
An overwhelming majority of Millennials and Gen-Z rely on their favorite influencers for purchasing advice and product recommendations.
There are various categories of influencers to choose from depending on your demographic and the problem your app solves – beauty, travel, wellness, tech, comedy, and parenting to name a few.
Video content with organic-seeming product integrations boosted brand authenticity and spread positive word-of-mouth. But it shouldn’t be a hard sell. Stay true to your motto and let users decide if the app is a good fit for them.
Example: Audible, known for pioneering audiobooks, collaborated with Instagram influencers years ago to improve their reach. And it worked!
Source: Justine Escalona Instagram and Vince Lim Instagram
Strategy 8: Blog on the Reg
Improve your visibility on search engine results by blogging regularly. Thought leadership has been the norm for a while now and as you ramp up marketing efforts for your mobile app, regular blogging will help establish credibility for it.
Referral traffic from blogs will also drive traffic to landing pages and can also be repurposed to generate traction on social media.
If you aren’t sure where to start, Adam Enfroy’s start-a-blog guide is an excellent starting point.
Furthermore. 66% of consumers rank email as their preferred way of receiving brand updates. So you should also consider tapping into an email list or building your own and sending out newsletters sharing new blog posts and brand updates.
Strategy 9: Run Ads
Don’t shy away from running app store ads. Equivalent to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, app store campaigns help boost your visibility and establish a presence.
They can also help put your apps right where your potential customers are looking for it – in the search results.
In a competitive app store space, ranking at the top of search results can be the difference between failure and success. So, make it convenient for your audience to find you by buying valuable ad space to rank.
Once you have amassed a large enough and loyal consumer base, you can shift back to an organic growth strategy.
Example: Remote working is having a heyday, but our home WiFi networks are seldom robust enough to stand a cybersecurity attack. Now there are a ton of antivirus options out there so which one you should go for?
AVG Antivirus runs a paid app store campaign for ‘online security’ related queries and conveys its main benefit right in the title – it’s free.
Strategy 10: Monitor Results
Now that your prelaunch mobile app marketing plan is in motion, it’s time to crunch some numbers! Keep your eyes peeled for unusual growth or a dip in your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Train your ears to incoming user feedback and usage statistics. Be attentive and address it right away through bug fixes and communicate the same with press releases.
Ensure you maintain the same level of commitment to your audience postlaunch as you did prelaunch. A successful and useful app actively engages with users and nurtures strong consumer relationships.
So, pay attention to app store reviews and brand sentiment scores. Don’t wait until customers have phased your app out of usage to resolve these issues.
Furthermore, help customers troubleshoot recurring issues with a FAQ section. Helpjuice.com offers valuable tips on how to craft a watertight FAQ page to improve customer retention.
Monitor your competitor’s online advertising efforts keenly too. Are they using keywords you can benefit from? If a specific tactic is yielding better results, you may want to steer marketing efforts towards that or course-correct plans that are ineffective.
Conclusion
A major key to making your mobile app successful is identifying an appropriate promotional mix that works best for you, given constraints of resources and time.
It’s important to remember your main goal is getting the word out as far and wide as you can to the right people and letting the product do the rest!
mobile devices and laptop -DepositPhotos
