Effective Approaches for Mobile App Promotion for Startups

The mobile app development ecosystem is a challenging world. Every single year, thousands of apps join the app sector, racing to reach the top ten list.

One of the biggest fundamental errors that an entrepreneur vying for the top is to not pay attention to the promotion stages of the mobile application. What is mobile app promotion and marketing then? But, the most relevant question would be what are the right mobile application engagement methods?

It is a given that regardless of how well-crafted an app is, it won’t get its place under the sun until it is marketed correctly, and there is a significant buzz around it before hitting the stores and the devices of users. 

For mobile app developers, achieving the app promotion paradise isn’t easy. Fortunately, there are effective approaches for promoting and marketing mobile apps to keep in mind, helping you to get there.

However, before getting to the mobile app marketing stage, some homework is required for successful marketing. 

Mobile app promotion pre-requisites

1. Identifying the objectives of the app and the target audience

Before finalizing the right strategy and determining the budget associated, you should first identify the target audience.

Try exploring and learning the pain points, the existing solutions in the market, the area where they lag, and the way for an app to overcome them. Simply put, you should also invest effort into discovering a product, building user personas, and many more.

2. Doing keyword research

Identifying the right keyword set is critical in any application promotion process, one you can find in each app marketing guide.

Your app would have a better chance as long as you know the language that the users use to use the mobile app via natural searches. You should pay attention to positioning the keyword portion as of now since this is just the homework stage.

Two stages of mobile app promotion strategies                      

Primarily, the promotion strategies are made of two stages, pre-launch and post-launch marketing.

The efforts needed before and after app launch in terms of marketing are the same, unlike design and development where the efforts become less once an app is deployed.

Pre-launch mobile application marketing strategy.

The state that enables you to build app awareness in the market. Some of the things that should be covered in this stage include:

1. Release data finalization.

A great starting point is finalizing the app’s release date. A time frame in mind helps devise a better promotion of mobile app strategies. Take into consideration all events and holidays around the date of the launch to help ensure that the app would not be overshadowed.

2. Outreach initiatives.

These work best in favor of app promotion for a business.

Although it would be more advantageous for a start to begin rolling out PRs during the stage where the beta version is out, it would be beneficial to begin making a list of prospects ahead of time. Make a ready list of bloggers, PR pros, and social media influencers.

3. Create a wonderful app landing page.

Landing pages have become a must-have for companies that want to generate eyeballs immediately as soon as development is nearing completion.

A landing page enables you to use all the collected information on the page for the purpose of conversion. You could also use the page content for SEO, boosting the ranking of the app on the search engines.

4. Social media profiles.

Creating social media profiles should happen a month or two before. This helps to refrain from making errors while promoting via social media channels. Begin by identifying the target audience and the platform that they visit often.

5. Apps should be easily shareable.

An app should be easy for the user to share with family and friends. Mobile app development services providers do add native elements that would make sharing via WhatsApp, Message, as well as other media channels possible.

Post-launch mobile app marketing strategy

The idea here is to get as many downloads on your app as possible.

1. Pay-per-click.

Could have a huge mobile app promotion effect when and if done on the correct platform.

Although one approach is promoting on the search engine, it is recommended to promote the app in other apps, which is proven to offer great business benefits. 

2. Email campaigns.

Emails are a great marketing strategy to launch an app, depending on the target audience’s demographics. By sending values and details to people subscribing earlier to the landing page, or through cold emails are great to get app attention.

3. Awards application.

Awards mean that the app is quality-centered, and bound to add terrific value to the marketing strategy of the user acquisition. In a lot of ways, they play a role also in having great downloads.

4. Gaining visibility.

Consider these marketing ideas to add visibility to an app.

• Submitting the app on promotion sites such as Rate My Startup or Launching next. This helps acquire reviews from entrepreneurs as well as other users. 

• Conducting giveaways and contests to get the interest of the app going. 

• Publishing the app on alternative application stores, such as Amazon for instance. 

• Keeping in touch with the press to keep the brand continuously in the news. 

Both the pre-launch and post-launch app marketing plans work amazingly to get millions of app downloads. The effort and hard work however won’t end there. You need to work around making certain that people installing your application will not abandon it.

Mobile app promotion FAQs

Question 1: How to prepare the marketing of the mobile app during development? 

Some of the things that you should do to streamline the process include the following:

• Making the app easily searchable

• App analytics implementation

• Integrating push notification

Question 2: How do you boost mobile app visibility?

There are various channels you could opt to gain app visibility, like:

• Publishing an app on alternative app stores

• Submitting app on promotion sites

• Conducting giveaways and contests to get the app interest going

Question 3: How do you boost application conversions?

One of the most sure-fire ways to boost conversion of a mobile app is two-sided. On one side, market it enough so people would know about it. On another side, build an app in a way that provides genuine value, one that backs up your marketing strategies. 

Mobile app promotion for startups

1. The app should be optimized for the App Store.

People should be able to find it, which occurs via the in-store search almost exclusively. The optimization process is a matter of using the right keywords and naming in the title as well as the description.

2. Target startups websites and app reviews.

In terms of a digital product, social proof is everything. Do all you can for encouraging people to review your app. Startups usually could find up to a hundred free directories to register their brand and their apps, including Forbes.

3. Content marketing.

A simple WordPress website is all you need for promoting your brand and your app. Keep it active via uploading promotional images and videos to the website, as well as via targeted content marketing so people would keep coming back.

4. Viral marketing.

A thirty-second promotional video could do a lot of good to kick-start your app campaign. Since video marketing is at present on the top of the world, it drives the most engagement and takes up a place on Google.

5. Social media marketing.

This should be the core of your campaign since networking websites are the best tools for brand promotion. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, you got established communities to promote your app.

Conclusion

There are several methods when trying to promote an app for startups. To rise to the top, it is important to give it your best shot, and have an effective marketing and promotion strategy to remain consistent with your plan and to stick to it.