So you decided to design your very own mobile app for your brand. Now you need to get people to actually download and use it. Often that’s the harder part. It’s not enough to just design a good app. Just because it’s good doesn’t ensure that people will seek it out. You need to promote your mobile app just like you need to promote your products or services if you expect to stay in business. Here are five ways you can promote your new mobile app.
Tell your SMS and email subscribers
A logical starting point is to tell your existing customer base. Use whatever channels of communication you have access to (assuming you have their permission of course) and tell them about your new mobile app. A great strategy for SMS subscribers is to give them a little VIP treatment–tell them first and give it a sense of exclusiveness. Whether you’re using SMS or email, make sure to include a call to action and link to your app’s page on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store so that recipients have no problem finding it.
Use your social media platforms
Social media is a free channel that can get the word out to your followers so you may as well use it. Occasionally put in a plug for your new mobile app. As with SMS and email, include a call to action and download links. Something you can do with social media that you can’t do with SMS or email is embed a YouTube video that demos what the app can do for your customers.
In addition to reaching out to followers on social media, you can pay to run social media ads to reach a wider audience. Make sure you’re being selective about the audience you target and make sure to do plenty of A/B split testing so that your ads are as effective as they can be.
Reach out to influencers and the press
Influencers and the press will have a much wider reach than you do and contacting them about your new app can be a way to get some great advertising for free. This will require some research on your part to find the influencers and online publications whose audiences most closely align with your target audience. You’ll want to put together a press release to send off to any blogs or online magazines. For influencers, it will help if you’ve already worked on establishing a relationship with them by engaging with and sharing their content on social media and your own blog and perhaps by writing a guest blog for them or inviting them to write a guest blog for you.
Pitch it to app review sites
There are plenty of app review websites that can earn your app a lot of attention if they mention it. The best way to make that happen is to pitch your mobile app to them. Do some research and find out which person you need to reach out to. Spend some time writing a quality pitch (they get lots of mediocre ones and you want yours to stand out) and send it off in an email. Err on the side of being too brief and you can always fill them in on more details if they respond; they’re less likely to respond or even read your pitch if it looks too wordy.
Design a killer app page
The last step is to have a great app page for all of the people who are going to be persuaded by the above marketing strategies. Pay money for a really good app icon and use high resolution photos and videos of screenshots (still images) and screen captures (video) of your app in action. Really take the time to write up a concise and compelling description of your app. Perhaps most important of all, try to solicit positive reviews from users. It goes without saying that the higher the average rating on your app, the more downloads you’re going to get.
