How To Promote An App: Marketing Guide

Published in

ANODA Mobile Development Agency

6 min readOct 10, 2018

How to promote an app

It can be difficult to promote your app in the mobile app marketplace. As each year goes by, there are thousands of apps added to the several thousands of other apps currently available in the Apple Store and Google Play Store. The number one mistake that an entrepreneur makes with their newly launched mobile app is failing to advertise it because they have no idea how to promote an app.

You could create the most well-designed mobile app in the world and launch it in both app stores. But it is not going to matter if no one knows it exists. That is why prior to app launch, you need to establish app promotion marketing and spread the word to other people that may be interested in it. Therefore, your app development process needs to include a marketing plan for a mobile app at some point down the line. This is just as critical as coding, testing, and designing your app.

The easiest way to market your app is to use an app promotion agency. These companies can execute an app marketing strategy specifically for your app product. Not only will they develop a business and marketing plan for mobile app, they will also keep track of user feedback as well. Just be prepared to spend extra money on these services if you have it and maybe attracting investors will be a good move. Otherwise, you should handle the app promotion without paying for help. Below are some helpful tips on how to promote an app.

Begin Your App Marketing Campaign Early

If you want many people to download your app within the first week after you launch it, then it will take more than mere innovation. While you are in the process of developing your app, you should already have a marketing campaign started. That way, you will have obtained a loyal user base before the app even gets released. Basically, you shouldn’t plan a mobile app marketing strategy at the same time you start planning the app itself.

Make A Business Plan

You need to create a business plan before you begin developing your app. This plan will outline everything about the app, such as its purpose, compatible devices, app monetization model, target audience, competition, and market segment. To figure all this information out, it will require extensive market research on every issue. Based on your findings, develop your mobile app marketing strategy around them.

Your target audience represents the specific group of people who will use your app. This group is identified by their behavior, demographics, and lifestyle. Use this information to create a user model and then create an app which revolves around it.

There are many monetization models that you can use for your app. You can have people purchase the app for one fixed price. Either that or you can have in-app purchases or in-app advertising while making the app free to download. New entrepreneurs will find more success in releasing a free app because it will get the app more attention while testing the market. You can always release an update to the app which puts your advertisements in it.

Publish A Website

A lot of app developers forget how valuable a website can be for them. It is a fabulous way to promote an app. Even though app stores will have a description of your app product, a website will leave you with even more room to provide detailed information about it. You don’t need to create a big website either. Just design a small microsite that has an attractive landing page. Then include links to the app’s Google Play and Apple Store pages. If you have not launched an app, put a registration form on your website so that users can submit their email contact information to you. Keep your landing page as informative as you can so that it lists the app’s best features. That way, every visitor to the page will understand how your app functions and what purpose it serves.

A wonderful marketing solution for your app is to do storytelling. A lot of startup entrepreneurs create blogs which tell the story of their product. This story should include your inspiration for creating it, the challenges you faced along the way, and how you overcame these challenges. By doing this, you will establish an emotional connection between you and your app users. At the same time, they will be notified of any future updates.

Your blog should be integrated with your social media networks like Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. This will help with app marketing even further. Just make sure your blog articles are attractive and interesting enough to make people want to share them with their friends on social media. This will give your app product more word-of-mouth advertising. And, of course, good search engine optimization strategies for your blog will increase your chances of gaining more organic traffic from search engines like Google. Your website should have a responsive design so that it is compatible with mobile devices, laptops, and desktops alike.

A good blog example is from the personal finance service Mint. Since they used original content, more users were engaging with the website. Now they are one of the leading blogs for personal finance services on the internet.

Don’t Overlook The Power Of Email

Email remains to be a powerful marketing tool to promote an app whether it is before its launch, after its launch, or both. EmailMonday published a research study which showed that mobile devices were used to open 45% of all emails while mobile apps were used to open 33% of them. Over the last 3 years, these percentages have grown 180%. Therefore, it should not be surprising that mobile app revenue is increasingly being generated from email sales links and downloads. Up to 20% of all app-generated revenue is through email.

Use Social Media To Connect With Other Entrepreneurs And Developers

You must create pages for your business on all the major social media networks like Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. Another idea is to sign up for an account on Quora (the Q&A website) and talk about your company experiences on threads that have relevant subjects.

After you’ve created these social media pages, you will want to join relevant groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. These social networks have a lot of different groups related to the tech industry where you can communicate with other entrepreneurs and app developers. This will help you learn new things about the industry and it may possibly even help you establish partnerships as well.

If you want to receive technical tips for the Android or iPhone, there are plenty of reputable developer communities like XDA Developers and iPhone DevSDK. The developers in these communities are surprisingly open to sharing their knowledge and experience with other people. If you present something to these developers which attracts them, they could help bring some free word-of-mouth traffic to your product page.

Inform the Press and Build Excitement Prior to the Launch

This one is a very strong advice on how to promote an app. Write a press release and integrate a clever pitch into it. Contact various tech websites, journalists, and bloggers and give them a copy of your video sales demo and free exclusive access to your mobile app. This will give your app product as much attention and hype as possible. Then you can launch your app after it has already gotten a lot of attention from people.

So, which media sources will want to publish your story? This is the question you need to answer. You can start by creating a list of the best websites and blogs which are relevant to your niche. Use Alltop or another ranking website to help you find these blogs and websites. Pick a category and then you will find which websites are writing about apps which are similar to yours. If you choose big media websites like Mashable or TechCrunch, do not expect them to immediately write about your product. However, there are other reputable blogs and websites which might if you can pick the right ones and provide them with a good story. The best way to begin is on smaller blog websites and then work your way up as you gain popularity.

After you release your app, you should continue to communicate with all these different media sources. That way, whenever you have updates or new achievements to announce, they will publish a story about those too. This is the first part of our guide on how to promote an app. The second part of app marketing guide is available to read!