Content has always been the king. What oxygen is to human beings, content is to online businesses. Businesses survive and thrive on content marketing strategies. In fact, with the Google Panda update, its importance has touched the stratosphere. The better the content the better the survival chances of business.
For all the catalog of marketing activity you may have undertaken, nothing can ever match the magic of content marketing. As the great Sufi saint, Rumi says: “Raise your words, not voice. It’s rain that grows flower, not thunder.” Or as they say, the pen is mightier than the sword. So, if you really want to do business out of your apps, smarten and tighten up your content marketing tactics.
Content Marketing in a Nutshell
There’s so much hullabaloo over content marketing these days. So, let’s dope out what content marketing is after all for the uninitiated? So, here goes. Content Marketing is generating and circulating relevant, high value and actionable content that addresses the present day problems of the customers and comes up with practical solutions for solving them. It helps build credibility in the long run and ultimately helps companies sell products to the targeted audience.
Simply put, it helps companies connect with consumers and prospects without any selling, you are just trying to educate your customers. So, it’s basically non-interruption marketing. The idea is that by offering constant, valuable information to customers, one fine day, the tables might just turn, and consumers of your content, might just reward you with their business and devotion.
Now the point is: How to Drive App Downloads Through Content Marketing
Fair enough! You have launched an app. That’s Good. But the downloads are ridiculously low. That’s Bad. So, instead of sitting with your fingers crossed and praying Memorare (Do it anyway!), try leveraging content marketing strategies to increase your app downloads.
Here are a few content marketing hacks that every app marketer should follow without fail:
#1. Create ‘Wow’ Content for Your Blog page
Let’s admit it. There’s lots of dumb, dry content down there. According to Moz and Buzzsumo, only one piece of content is considered effective out of four. So, if you really want your blog content to be read and appreciated, then build ‘Wow’ content. In other words, long, well-researched content with no lesser than 1200 words. But then, don’t forget, extract data only from credible trusted sources. And yes, of course, make room for uniqueness, because Google Search engines give enormous importance to websites that create quality content, that too on a regular basis.
Some of the ideas that you could talk about in your blog post include:
- What’s so unique about your app: The Unique Selling Feature of your app
- The critical issues your app addresses
- No matter what why people should adopt your app
Once you have narrowed down the list of blog topics, make a list of keywords as well that people are googling, looking for solutions that you app quite possibly provides. For example, if you are coming up with a Hotel app, your target audience will be searching for words like:
Key in some relevant hotel related stuff and Google’s Auto Complete tool will throw up relevant keywords. You can see in the above image the kind of keywords users generally use to search queries with regard to hotels on Google. Leverage these keywords to create compelling content for your blog. The idea is not to focus too much on your app, but the problems that your app plans to address and slowly build connections with the users.
In the case of the Hotel app, avoid using app directly in the headline. As in, avoid content with a headline that says, “The Best Possible Hotel App the Travel Industry Has Ever Seen”, rather try writing creative posts such as:-
- How to Roam Around the World in Mere 80 days
- Which Grand Hotel hosted the English royals Prince William and his wife during their stay in Bhutan?
- 100 Ridiculously Cheap Hotels Worth Checking In
Don’t these headlines generate curiosity? Aren’t these headlines clickable? Always create a room for uniqueness in your content.
#2. Guest Blog As Frequently As Possible About Your App
Well, writing for your own blog is good. But guest blogging opens up a whole new world of opportunity for you because you get to address the readers of various blogs directly. And if it’s rightly done, the chances of driving app downloads in huge numbers is possible. (Then again, guest blogging is challenging; it’s not that easy to land a spot on the biggest blogs of the world. Instant gratification is out of question here).
In the case of hotel app, search for top 10-20 hotel related blogs that are updated regularly, not to mention enjoys high page rankings, and in addition, receives scores of comments. Also, check out their social media following. If it’s fairly OK, go ahead and pitch high-quality content to them. Ensure your headlines are great and your copy unique and thoroughly proofread. Most blogs allow you to add an author bio below the post, without any upfront payment. (if your content is awesome, why pay). Here you can give a brief description about yourself and a backlink to your app’ s landing page.
#3. Get Influencers to Talk About Your App
Get industry influencers including top bloggers, vloggers, and pinners to talk about your app. But for this, you need to nail down the writers of top blogs and publications that specifically cater to your niche. That said, the pitch should be perfect. Be at your creative best. Keep away from mass mailing. The more tailor-made the content is, the more the chances of your copy being picked up by top-notch sites.
And, if you are able to establish a personal rapport with influencers with large social media following, nothing like it. He or she would be able to convince followers to download your app. Be assured, your app will go viral in no time.
#4. Generate Videos Before and After App Launch
There is no getting around the fact, that videos are an indispensable part of content marketing campaigns these days. To use a cliché, if a picture speaks a thousand words, videos speak a million. According to Statista, as of July 2015, more than 400 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute, a fold fold rise, compared to the earlier two years. For all the cocoon of content marketing activities put together, the effect the videos trigger is significant. So make sure to create a video for your app both before launch and after launch.
#5. Send Content for App Roundups
There are several sites that come up with the app round-ups on a weekly and monthly basis. Target them. Just Google about app rounds and you will get an idea about the sites that generate such content. Send a creative pitch to them informing your apps’ USP. Who knows, if the content strikes a chord with them, there are chances of your app going viral. In short, your content might as well be picked up by other sites that generate app roundup write-ups on a regular basis.
Wrapping Up
No doubt SEO and paid advertising have their pluses, but content marketing is the only tool that helps you establish a rapport with your consumers. More than that, it helps you position as an authority in the field. What’s more, you could even try social media posting and images, organize quizzes and events and competitions, create E-newsletters, Infographics, Case studies, Podcasts, and Webinars too. Yes, there’s so much you can do with content marketing to further enhance reach, visibility, and downloads of your app.
Images: ” Handwriting of Content Marketing word in notebook on the wood table /Shutterstock.com“
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