Ten Amazing Mobile App Marketing Strategies to Try out in 2019
The marketing of a mobile app is not something to be undertaken lightly. There may be a million-and-one different methods, but finding the right marketing mix in 2019 is not easy.
With the stress of getting an app ready for the release deadline, ironing out bugs, fixing glitches and keeping up to date with the analytics, marketing can fall to the back of the to-do list.
But if you’re not moving forward, you have to be moving backwards – it’s imperative that the marketing show must go on!
In a world with over 1.8 million apps on the Apple App Store, it’s pretty easy to see that there’s never been a more competitive time to launch an app – no matter the genre. It may be difficult, but it’s not impossible and by sticking to proven mobile app marketing strategies to generate attention around your app – you might just be sitting on the very next TikTok, Instagram, Angry Birds or Uber!
Whether your chosen method is off-the-wall guerilla marketing, billboards, paid advertisements, TV ads or even app placement in rap songs, directing attention exactly where you want it is never an exact science. But focus on the right areas and you’ll be building downloads on the daily.
Don’t know where to start? Here are ten of the most amazing mobile app marketing strategies to try out in 2019!
1. Optimise in the app store
One of the most obvious strategies that plenty of companies completely overlook when marketing their mobile app is the optimisation in the app store.
With over 50% of all people downloading an app after browsing the app store alone – it makes sense to spend the time dressing up your app with all the right ingredients to make an attractive package. That means working on a killer app icon, using useful and simple screenshots to highlight how it works and using short and sweet title and description to persuade a download.
It really is an art in itself!
2. Offer incentives for reviews
When it comes to building a trustworthy relationship with potential customers, there’s not a huge amount you can do in the app stores themselves. You can create a professional looking brand and convincing description, sure, but the real trust comes from reviews left by users.
To try and maximise the number of reviews that come from the downloads, offering some form of incentive, such as additional features, is a great way to build up the reviews. A word of warning, when asking for reviews, make sure that pop-ups aren’t too regular or intrusive or you’ll see a fair share of bad with the good.
3. Build a mobile-first website
You don’t just have to market your app in the stores themselves, why not branch out and build a mobile-first website for the app too?
Creating a website and landing page informing an audience all about the app, it’s benefits and how to download is a great way to boost organic traffic. This gives an anchor for other sites to refer back to and link as well as place to refer from social media accounts.
4. Don’t forget SEO
To make the most of your brand new site, it’s a great idea to build a blog and create articles to generate plenty of organic traffic through keyword targeting.
Using a keyword planner to find how many people are searching for what is the single most powerful tool when building a blog. Go for the long and short tail keywords to maximise success. WebsiteMagazine has a great intro article on how to best prepare for SEO here.
If you’ve not already created social media accounts on all of the relevant platforms to your app – then now is the time!
Social media is by far the best way of direct and indirect communication with an audience so taking advantage of this to share everything about your app is an absolute must! Whether your audience lurk on LinkedIn, populate Pinterest or are inclined to Instagram – joining and sharing is the way to go.
It’s also key to note that visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared via social networks, so it’s time to take out the camera and start snapping!
6. Target the experience, not the app
Direct marketing of any mobile app can often feel like a forced sales pitch and doesn’t always go so well with a broad audience. Instead, targeting the experience over the app when promoting can have a much more positive effect.
Highlight why and how life is better with the app, create a lifestyle that your intended audience can resonate with and downloads will be sure to start flying out.
7. Use influencers to promote
Keeping on the same page as the lifestyle promotion, using influencers on social platforms with larger followings than your brand can have a huge positive impact on your app and the downloads you generate.
Opting for social stars with similar audiences will get your app out to tonnes more people than if you went purely off organic traffic alone. According to the mobile app marketing guide, from Digital Authority Partners, it’s best to make a list 1-2 months before the launch, ready for contact the week of the launch.
It may cost a little extra, but it’s money well spent.
8. Create a short video promo
They say a picture says a 1000 words, so how many does a video shout out?
Using video to promote your app is a great way to generate and hold the attention of your audience – it’s one of the many reasons that it’s so widely used in healthcare in 2019. Again, focus on the experience over the app and share on your website and your social media accounts.
9. Partner with a mobile marketing expert
This may be out of the budget for some of the smaller app launches out there, but if you can find the pennies to fund it, then partnering with a mobile marketing expert can be worth their weight in gold.
App marketing on a seriously competitive scale is another ball game entirely to digital marketing and although an in-house team might be able to do a sufficient job – to play in the big leagues, it might be best to call in the pros.
Shop around and see what packages are available, it might just work out the best decision you’ll make!
10. Know the job is never done
The biggest takeaway for the marketing of mobile apps is to know that the job is never done.
For ultra-successful apps, regular updates, further marketing pushes and constant feedback are required to keep at the top. Once you’re comfortable knowing that marketing is going to be constant, it becomes an ever improving cycle of market planning, execution, feedback and analytics.
But there’s something beautiful about the process and the improvements that go with it, don’t you think?
