7 free ways to promote iOS & Android apps

Eight years after the release of first mobile app, phones have become our favorite tool for reading news, watching TV, games, socializing and for almost every reason. No surprise today we have more than 1.5 million apps in both App Store and Play Store. According to Statista in 2015 mobile app revenue amounted to 41 billion USD. There are no signs of app market slowing down in coming years. This is driving most developers and startups to build mobile apps and then to build a successful business around that.

There are many great stories in app industry but the reality is more than 99% of apps do not see enough traction to make money from their apps. Even though overall app market revenue is growing success rate of apps are going down every year due to sheer number of available apps in major app stores. Customers have more choices than ever in app stores but it is the winners taking all. Users search for what they want in app stores, if your app does not appear in top three then there is very less chance they will try out your app. If there is not enough reviews and ratings then users don’t even try to read the one line description of your app. Traditional app marketing is not a solution for today’s new apps. Most startups and developers do not have enough resources to spend money on running successful ad campaigns.

App marketing doesn’t need to be scary expensive process. Here are the 7 different channels to promote your apps which only needs your time.

1. App Store Optimization (ASO)

ASO is the process to make app rank higher by using the right kind of key words in app’s title & description. The main reason for ASO is to drive more potential users to app stores so that they can download and try your app. So when your app is in Idea stage list down all the key words it can cover and then search those words in app stores to know the competition. If your app is solving very generic problem then it is expected to have tough competition from many other apps. That means you hundreds of apps wants to rank better for such key words. If the keywords results in not many apps then you have less competition but may be not many users are searching those words. It’s always good to get some early users by targeting niche spaces before you get into mainstream segments.

2. Ratings and Reviews

Because there is tough competition for most of the popular words which users search for, just focusing on ASO is useless. Good ratings and reviews are needed to make your app rank higher and also it creates the first impression when the potential user is viewing the list of apps or while on the App Store page. Favorr can help you get free reviews and ratings. It’s a platform which connects app developers and startups to review and rate each other’s apps. Number of reviews your app can receive depends on the number of apps you or your team can review. Also Favorr shares weekly ASO report where you can compare with your competitor apps to see how many reviews and what kind of ratings your app should achieve.

3. Listing sites

There are various listing sites. If your app is in beta state you can list under Beta list, launching next etc. If your app is already launched and has some traction then try to get it featured in Product Hunt.

4. Blogs

Inbound strategies are well suited for app promotion through blogs and other mediums. Adding more content on your blogs with right kind of keywords and search engine optmization(SEO) will help you reaching the right kind of audience to boost organic grow. Another way to promote apps is through videos. Well made app demos or explainer videos improve the chances of getting your content shared by large audience. And these videos can be used in the landing page of both App Store & Google Play.

5. Social Network

Create a Facebook page for your startup or app and share with all your contacts. Facebook groups is one easy way to reach out to large audience. On twitter you can create an account for your app and tweet regularly.

6. Forums , Q&A sites

There are various developers forums and communities where you can post about your app. Answering Quora question also helps SEO. If you don’t find the right question then you create one and mention about your app. Also try to get few up votes and comments for your answers.

7. Press/Media

If your app gets featured by Apple or Google in their respective app stores can brings tons of users. Both Apple and Google regularly review apps and recommend to the potential users in their app stores. This is possible only if your apps usability and design is exceptionally good.. also you need a bit of luck. If you are a startup then try to get covered by popular blogs like Tech Crunch, Mashable etc.

Conclusion

App promotion does not mean you have to spend lot of money on ads. Making your app fly by getting early traction is very important. If it flies then anything is possible.