Apps are used by many businesses to make their services more accessible to their audience. There are apps for everything today. But building an app is not enough. In order to ensure that your app continues to deliver success a long time after its launce, you need to make sure you are utilising the right app marketing strategies. Considering all the competition that is out there, it is important to make your app stand out.
To achieve this is it important for you to carve out an effective app marketing strategy. Understanding the industry and people will help you assess the market situation which you aim to target.
Here are some ways that can help you plan and implement a successful app marketing strategy.
Know Your Audience
The first step would be to know your target audience. Get to know the people who will benefit the most from your app. Conduct an in-depth research on your target audience. Determine the demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, interests, buying habits etc. It is vital to narrow down your target audiences and not try to cast a wide net.
You can track Customer Lifetime Value to measure how valuable a customer Is to your company. CLV is the total worth to a business of a customer throughout the course of their relationship.
This metric goes together with another important metric called Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). CAC can help you track the money you invest in attracting new customers including marketing, advertising, special discounts etc. Through this you get to know your existing customer base as you will be reaching out to them while doing your app promotions.
Create User Personas
User personas are fictional representations of your target customer. Research is important to build accurate personas. When you create an app it should be able to connect with your target market. This is what makes customers download and use your app daily. Use all the insights you have gathered from your research to create a user persona. If you cater to different audiences you will need to create more than one personas. It all depends on your business type and the customers you want to target.
Build personas that are specific and realistic. This can help you focus on these sets of customers and personalize your marketing messages for them. User personas are useful for all the teams across your company from product development to marketing teams. Everyone needs to have user personas for reference to create products and marketing strategy tailored to your target customer. Marketing teams need to know what type of messaging will resonate with their target audience. Hence, it is important to build your user personas before developing your marketing strategy.
Not sure how to build a user persona? Here is a simple guide that can help you create a user persona for your app.
Know Your Competitors
The next step is to take a look at the competition. Conduct an in-depth research on your competitors. Get insight into their marketing activities, products, events, communication with the audience etc. This can help you assess the market and give you an idea on where you stand. You can see which tactics have worked in favour of your competitors and which have not.
Understand how your competitors connect with the audience. Your brand will have more or less similar target audience with your direct competitors, hence it is a good idea to see how the audience is responding to their strategies. This will enable you stand apart from your competitors and create your own place in the industry. Learning more about their techniques you can figure out your own unique marketing stance.
Start By Marketing Early
It is always better to start marketing before your app is available on the market. Another strategy would be to start marketing when the app is being developed. This way you can document the development process, take a poll on social media, do surveys to gather the opinions of your customers. Gain valuable insights on what features your customers prefer in the app.
When you get closer to the release date of the app you can gradually increase your app marketing efforts. Posting videos and snippets of information about the app can help increase curiosity among your audience. This step will help you build awareness about your upcoming app.
App Store Optimisation
There are numerous apps in the app store and getting your app discovered is vital. App Store Optimisation is the process of optimising apps so that they ran higher in app store search results. The higher your app ranks the more visible it is to your target audience.
Here are some main factors of App Store Optimisation:
Title: The keyword that you put in the title must have a high search traffic. Invest time to find the appropriate keyword that defines your app, and which will get you more traffic. Changing the title is not a good idea. Hence, you need to do your research as its ideal to stick with the title you initially choose.
Keywords: To improve your rankings you need to use keywords that are relevant to your audience.
Description: Use a description that states how the app can solve certain problems and its benefits.
Screenshots: Show screenshots that highlight the main features of the app.
Search Engine Optimisation
Google collaborated with Ipsos MediaCT to research what triggers app discovery and engagement. To install an app people simply go to mobile app stores like Google Play Store or Apple App Store. The study showed that 40% apps are discovered through app store search. Remaining percentage is discovered through other platforms. These other platforms include search engines, ads, website, social media, word of mouth etc. Out of which 27% people discover apps through search engines.
Making your app visible on mobile search results will not help in targeting new customers but also to retarget existing ones. Along with search results, search ads are also useful in driving app downloads.
Here are a few ways how you can do SEO for apps:
Ratings
Rating and reviews help you rank better in mobile app search results. It can encourage people to click on your app and download it. Based on these reviews people will be able to trust your brand.
Quality Backlinks
Add a download link to your app from your website. Also collaborate with bloggers, influencers and other people from your industry to talk about your app. Doing so will give you quality backlinks and help your app rank better in Google search results.
App preview
When someone types your app name in Google search query a preview of your app appears. It depends on how well-optimised your app is. This snippet contains app name, reviews, description and a download button.
App Pack
App pack is another way to make your app appear on Google search. App pack is a group of suggested apps that appear when a user types in a particular search query. This will contain anywhere between 30-100 apps related to the users search query. Each app card will include an app name, rating, price information.
Find out more about how to optimise apps using ASO and SEO strategies.
Social Media Advertising
Social media can help you connect with your target audience easily. These platforms can give you valuable information about your audience such as hobbies, interests, which brands they follow, lifestyle, trending topics etc. This makes social media an ideal advertising platform. You can create ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc in order to reach your customers.
There are various options for the budget you wish to set. First make sure which platform has the majority of your target audience. While creating ads there various customising options you can use to narrow down your target audience.
You can customise settings based on location, demographics, interests, profession and much more. These tools can help you control who sees your ads. This will ensure that you reach the right people who will be potentially interested in your app as well as save money.
Have a content strategy
Content strategy can help you generate inbound leads for your business. The traffic coming to your website can be directed to your app. It is a good practice to publish blogs on your website. You can reach a wide range of people who are looking for information and then convert them. Blogs can give your app more credibility as people would look at you as a thought leader. Audiences are always looking for content that can help educate them. Create this type of content on your website and use search queries that your audiences are looking for.
Add a landing page to your website that is dedicated to your app. Give the audiences a brief description about your app and add a CTA button that leads them to download it. Landing pages convince your audience to take a certain action. The traffic coming to your website can be directed to your app through a good landing page.
Sharing content on social media can get you more traffic on your app. Publish posts on social media that educate your audience. The content you share can be from on your blogs or any blog from other businesses. Don’t overlook content strategy as it can help get you qualified leads who are interested in your app.
Paid Ads
Once your app is launched you can invest in paid advertising to help create awareness about your app and increase conversions. All the strategies we discussed so far are organic, in advertising you will have to pay to capture leads. Online advertising can help you generate quality leads for your app as there are many targeting options. With the right keywords you can reach audiences who are looking for the type of products or services you offer.
Advertising is a great way to promote your business and app. When it comes to online advertising there are many options you can choose like search ads, display ads or video ads. You can also leverage social media ads to target customers on different social media platforms.
Influencers
Reach out to influencers who can promote your app. Seek influencers who have thousands of followers. They can promote your app through YouTube, blogs, social media or any other platform they are on. Influencers can show demos of your app and share feedback which can help your brand gain credibility. It’s a great way to get the word out and spread awareness about your app.
Measure App Metrics
Conducting regular analysis of your mobile app metrics or KPI’s is a good practice. This will allow you to gain valuable insights on how your app is doing and track user behaviour. The kind of metrics you will track depend on your goals or business type. Based on these aspects you can set up your analytics account to see reports that you need. Tracking the right metrics will help you assess the performance of your app and make any changes if required.
Learn more about app analytics from our article on How To Measure App Analytics Success
Developing an app is only half the battle. The rest of it is how you present it to your audience. At the end of the day you are selling a product and you need to have your marketing strategies ready. A good planning of your goals, strategies, and tactics will help you implement it in an efficient manner. Following these strategies will help you promote your app successfully.
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