In a world that has endless digital distractions all around, it is a natural human tendency for users to forget what they come across every day.
While numerous apps emerge every day, do you want your app to be just one among them that people take a look at, download, uninstall, and forget in a matter of no time?
If you want your mobile app to stand out in the market it’s going to take strenuous marketing effort from your side. This article is all about how to get creative and unique when marketing your mobile app.
In this article, we will discuss:
- The importance of mobile app marketing
- Creative ways to market your app
- Benefits of marketing your app
Why you should market your apps?
Because everybody else is doing it.
Effective marketing strategies not only bring market visibility to your product but also help you gain new momentum amid heavy competition. Guess what, 65% of enterprises are investing a huge chunk of their budget into mobile app marketing. In such a competitive space, if you do not make efforts for marketing, your competitors (whose products/apps may not be better than yours) can easily outperform you.
You need to take your app to the right target audience.
Every marketplace has a wide range of audiences and user bases. If you need to effectively reach out to your potential target user base, marketing is all that you need. There are different platforms like Facebook ads and LinkedIn communities where you can handpick the kind of people who you want to see the ads about your mobile app. You can customize your target audience based on age-group, gender, location, relationship/marital status, interests, and other demographic characteristics.
Gaining a competitive advantage is important.
As a business, you must have done extensive research, market study, and competitive analysis to make your app stand out in the market. All your laborious effort needs to translate to business outcomes through effective marketing tools. You need to gain a competitive advantage by positioning your key unique selling propositions and setting up a marketing strategy in alignment with your USPs.
You need to discover the right marketing platform for your app.
Another major factor that necessitates your investment in marketing is that you need to discover the platform that works for you. For example, if your app is sort of a boutique, Instagram works for you. LinkedIn works for you if you want to cater to employees, skilled professionals, and knowledgeable communities. You will be able to discover your go-to platform only after doing extensive digital marketing experiments on these various channels.
Here are some creative ways to market your app
Marketing involves strategizing, creating, distributing, and experimenting with different content that tells your target audience why your app is a must-use one. You need to create attractive and beneficial content and distribute them efficiently. Following is a list of 20 creative ways to market your app effectively and make your app stand out in the market.
#1 Do extensive search engine optimization (SEO)
Just like any other business, website, product, you need to win Google before winning the market. Do an extensive search engine optimization to make your app rank on the top positions on the first page on search engines like Google, Bing, etc.
#2 Create an attractive app icon (brand icon)
Your icon needs to do all the talking for you. When the customer downloads your app, they must be able to locate your app and recognize it on their phone instantly in the midst of heaps of other apps.
#3 Leverage video marketing with promo videos
Create an engaging and convincing promotional video that entices your users to use your product/service through your app. This video can be used across your social pages.
#4 Share amazing screenshots of your app
One of the easiest and most helpful ways to attract the play store/app store visitors is to feature visually stunning screenshots of your app interface.
#5 Let your social pages do all the talking for you
Adopt consistency in tone and style across all your social communications. Create unique brand slogans that make people remember you with your brand identity.
#6 Build landing pages for your app
You can create a promotional landing page that explains the benefits of your app. This strengthens the chances of user conversion in the customer journey.
#7 Invest in influencer marketing
Identify influential people and opinion makers in your domain and offer them a free trial of your product/service (if applicable) in return for their endorsement posts about you.
#8 Include app download links in high-traffic websites
Try requesting to feature your app download links on the websites that have high authority, visibility, and traffic.
#9 Submit your app for reviews (from mobile app review forums)
Handpick a list of review channels, forums, platforms, and websites that compare, list, and review mobile apps. (Bonus cookies if those websites are relevant to your industry.)
#10 Build amazing demo videos for your apps
Besides creating promotional videos, create demo videos, and step-by-step walkthrough videos (even simple slides) to help your users get a hang of your app overview easily.
#11 Write launch blogs
Leverage your content marketing efforts to publish blogs announcing the launch of your app to the world. This helps your app gain momentum and visibility through effective PR means.
#12 Leverage guest blog posts and articles
There are numerous blog forums that have loads of traffic coming in. Feature a story/article about your app with appropriate links (to download apps as well as consume more content about the app benefits) on the corresponding blog websites.
#13 If you have a brick-and-mortar model, link it with your in-store sales
This applies to those who have stores, where vouchers and coupon codes (with bar codes to scan and download your app) can be redeemed. (Or, it can be done vice versa too.)
#14 Add links to apps in your email signature
On average, a business professional sends emails to 17 other peers on a weekday. If you are one, you can add links to download your app in the email signature.
#15 Build conversation in your relevant communities
Identify the right social media platform that has abundant users relevant to your industry. Reach out to these communities with effective content resources and initiate ice-breaking conversations with them.
#16 Take advantage of your mobile website
Add Play Store and App Store download links on your websites, especially on the mobile versions. It has been studied that users are 62% more likely to download the apps when they are asked to download on mobile devices.
#17 Promote the app on the alternative channels
Apart from Google and other popular digital marketing channels, try tools like native targetted ads, Quora ads, paid promotion, and brand endorsement collaboration with popular YouTube channels.
#18 Apply for mobile app awards
Identify recognized certifiers in your industry and apply for awards and recognitions. Featuring them along with the other trust badges will help score credibility in the market.
#19 Do extensive content marketing
Apart from social media posts, blog articles, and other content forms, create extensive content marketing resources and long-form content that help you gain long-term growth, visibility, and traffic organically.
#20 Optimize your app for the app stores
Just like search engine optimization, play store optimization (or app store optimization) plays a vital role in enhancing your marketing outcomes.
These are just a few of the umpteen number of steps involved in mobile app marketing. There is no ‘one-fits-all’ solution especially when it comes to mobile app marketing. Different industries work in different ways. You need to identify your target audience’s interests and curate high-quality and relevant marketing content accordingly. You need to discover the methods that best work for you on a trial-and-error basis. In the upcoming chapters, we will discuss how to increase app downloads, reduce app uninstalls, enhance customer retention rates, and improve app familiarity.
If you are looking for a free consultation on how to position your app well in the market and do profitable brand marketing, feel free to get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you. At Siam Computing, we have a team of app content specialists, expert programmers, coders, developers, strategists, UI and UX designers, certified mobile app technologists, and other skilled professionals who work with painstaking care and attention to deliver high-quality mobile app solutions customized to meet your dynamic business needs. With over a decade of expertise, we have hands-on experience in delivering amazing apps to a broad spectrum of local and international clients.
Mobile app development is not only about coding and testing. It also requires strategies and analysis. Read along this blog to learn more. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated.