How to Market Your App and Increase Downloads

How to Market Your App and Increase Downloads

Over 2 million apps are being created and added to the Apple App Store and 2.2 million to the Google Play store every day, whilst the number of app downloads will reach nearly 269 billion by 2017. The sheer number of apps out there can make it incredibly hard to make sure that your app stands out and gets noticed.

To make sure your app is downloaded by your prospects and customers, you need to market it effectively. Building the app is only half the battle, you have to market it to make sure that it is found and not lost in the sea of apps. If you don’t market it, people simply won’t even know that it exists – don’t waste that hard work and time and deprive the world of your creation.

This article highlights some of the most effective methods you can use to market your app to make sure your app has a greater chance of being downloaded.

Website

Build a website to promote your app and showcase your brand. Include information about your app and the story behind it, social buttons, promotional videos, blog, download link, and email lead generation form. Make sure the site is easy to use and its branding consistently reflects your app. Launch your website before the app is launched and it can work as a teaser so that you can start marketing your brand early to build an excited audience.

Video

90% of users say that product videos are helpful in the decision process. Create a video for prospects detailing what your app is all about and tell the story of your app. Give it personality, make it funny, engaging, informative or evoke emotion. Add this video to your site, send in your promotional emails, and add it to your social media marketing material by optimising the video for your chosen social channels.

Blog

A blog can be a great way to use content marketing to market your app. Write interesting, relevant, and entertaining articles to draw prospects to your site and make people want to check out your app. Promote your blog posts through social media and email to raise brand awareness, expand your reach, and increase engagement.

Social

Set up social profiles on the platforms where your target audience are, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin. Use the platform to promote your app, share blog posts and related content from your site, talk to prospects, and get involved in the community. Use ads to hyper-target your specific audience which will help spread the word and expand the reach of your app.

ASO or App Store Optimisation

Optimise your app so that it can be found through search results in the app store. Be sure to fill in your app title as this is the most important metadata factor for rank in ASO. Fill in your description so people know what your app does. Choose keywords that are focused on relevancy, search volume, and difficulty. Make sure your icon is eye-catching, reflects your brand, and is simple. Use the screenshots to convey the best features of your app and how to use it. Get high-quality ratings and reviews to reflect how much others like your app to show that these prospects will too.

Outreach

Perform some outreach and reach out to influencers and communities who may be interested in using your app, reviewing it, and promoting it for you. Contact app review sites which can review your app and generate some excitement around it. Likewise, you could pitch to bloggers and influencers within the same niche as your app. For example, if you have a cooking app, reach out to food bloggers who can feature it and promote it to their vast audience.

In order for your app to get noticed and downloaded, you need to market it. Your app may not be getting any downloads because no one knows it exists, and this is because it isn’t being marketed effectively. You’ve invested a lot of time and money into your app, so don’t let it go to waste. So build a website, start a blog, create a video, promote through social, optimise for the app store, and perform some outreach to get your app into the eyes of your customers and increase downloads.

Bio – This post is written by The App Developers (http://www.the-app-developers.co.uk), an award-winning app agency which creates intuitive and user-centred apps and games across all platforms.