So you’ve recently started, your business is becoming more stable by the day, and you’re finally exploring ways to reach out to your customers in a bigger, better way. Your strategies and experiences tell you that launching a mobile application is the best way forward. After brainstorming with the most innovative app development minds, you come up with what you supposedly think is the most efficient mobile app.
It brilliantly caters to the needs of your customers, is incredibly user-friendly and smooth, and has an extremely engaging and interactive interface. You’ve invested a generous amount of time, effort, and money in making this app. And your job is finally done! Wait, is it? Creating an effective mobile application for your business is only half the job, the (significant) other half is to let your audience know that such an app exists.
That marks the beginning of your app marketing journey because effective marketing strategies make a good product great.
Have an app idea? But don’t know exactly how to start your app and market it? When should you start marketing, and until when do you need to do it? Is there a framework that you need to follow?
We’ll discuss all this and more in this article!
Pre-Launch Mobile App Marketing:
Start marketing long before your launch: These times are overwhelmingly competitive. You cannot wait for your app to be completed or launched to start marketing it. It must start as soon as the concepts and designs are done.
Start your research. Figure out who your ideal audience is, why they should download the app – what’s your differentiating factor, and start encouraging them to download the app.
Marketing an app at the right time (at an early stage) will get your audience interested. They’ll start looking forward to the launch. Once the anticipation is built, the chances of them downloading your app will increase manifold. We always love the latest apps that solve a problem, don’t we?
Start Engaging Potential Customers: Do you know the foolproof method for creating an ideal app? Ask your prospects what they want in the app! See, you’re building the app for your customers, so there’s no better way than to take their feedback during the creation process.
Engage your potential customers throughout the creation process. Collect feedback from your audience on forums and social media. The sure-shot way to avoid going wrong is to ask them what they’re looking for and address those needs through your app. You can also leverage monitoring tools to identify industry leaders and reach out to them for feedback.
Start a blog: Aggressive advertising is one thing, but educating your prospects about a topic so they begin to trust you and look forward to your products/services is a whole different ball game. Once your website is up and running, you must immediately start a blog for your mobile app.
With a blog, you’ll have the chance to engage your audience (by educating them) and share your successes, failures, experiences, and lessons. Make your potential customers a part of your journey – when they know you value them, they’ll undoubtedly trust your services and use them.
A blog will also help you answer your audience’s questions and keep them updated about the app’s creation process. The same blog will help you maintain a connection with your audience even after launch. Effective communication is the key, remember?
Start Releasing Teasers: The thing about teasers is – they need to be promotional and informative at the same time. The right teasers can build the right kind of hype and get your prospects genuinely excited about the app.
Also, remember to make these teasers exceptionally gripping and shareable. That increases the chances of its wild circulation on social media (exactly where your audience is).
Teasers hit at a different level as they ‘show’ what you’ve been talking about. They are not words but visual proofs of what your audience can expect from your app. Believe me, nothing can get them more excited about the launch.
Start preparing your press kit and launch materials: Before you finally launch your app, there’s a list of must-haves you need to take care of: a complete website, video promo, blog posts, and press release. These are the launch materials you will need before your app reaches the audience.
Also, since you’ve already made your prospects aware of the app, you must now leverage the relevant media, industry influencers, and authoritative bloggers to do the same. This builds credibility around your app and also expands your reach.
Post-launch Mobile App Marketing
Get more feedback from Customers: Now that your app is out, you need to make sure that it ranks among the top few on app stores. How do you do that? Apps on the App Store are ranked based on popularity and value, determined by ratings and feedback.
You thus need to create a plan to gather customer ratings, reviews, and feedback, which will, in turn, increase your app’s downloads. Make sure to include your contact info in the app description so customers can reach out with questions, suggestions, or detailed feedback. Going forward, do your best to cater to their feedback.
Get app reviews and explain the features: You can send your app to blogs and video channels to get honest and unbiased reviews. Also, make sure to explain each app feature in detail to your customers through videos and a step-by-step guide. This is important because your customers might require help with certain parts of your app. If they cannot find an immediate way out, they may turn down the application.
Optimize the app for mobile app stores: To cater to users who’ll download your mobile application through the app store, make sure your app is fully optimized. That means you need to leverage the power of keywords to make your app searchable and rank high. To improve visibility, you might also consider search ads so your app pops up whenever someone searches for a similar app.
Conclusion: You might have developed the greatest app, but it’s of no use if it doesn’t reach the right audience. By following the aforementioned marketing strategies, you direct your audience’s attention to your app and arouse their interest, prompting them to desire it and take action. AIDA put to best use.
Author Bio:
Varsha Solanki is a Digital Marketing Strategist at Space-O Canada, an iPhone app development company. She has 3 years of experience in the Information Technology industry. She spends her time reading about new trends in Digital Marketing and the latest technologies.
