17 App Marketing Strategies That Still Work in 2022
Jan 26 2022
by Arthur Nielsen Demain and Chris Ching
Your app is finally here, your baby! You’ve put in all the hard work, and now it’s time for your app to be known.
Here’s an important fact: more than 70 percent of people from all over the world have a smartphone, and the humongous presence of mobile apps these days hold the future of marketing. But pay more attention to this: the global app development spend reached over $25 billion last year, and this amount is projected to further increase by as much as $30 billion in the years to come.
These figures are enough to indicate that competition in the app development industry is only getting bigger. So if you’re looking for the most definitive tips that will boost your app marketing’s success in this big and wide ocean of app choices, then here’s a list of strategies that will effectively promote your app in the best way possible:
1. Creating your app’s explainer video
A recent study showed that 80% of all internet traffic will use videos by 2019. In addition, 96% of business-business (B2B) organisations have already to using videos as a way to market their products and services to the public. Indeed, nothing the beats the power of a well-made app marketing video in increasing your app’s brand awareness. If done well, then your crisp and professionally made explainer video can be viewed and shared by thousands of people across all market types from all over the world. Oh the power of virality! Apps like Tasty have certainly benefited from viral app marketing. But you don’t necessarily have to make your app explainer video go viral. Focus instead on high human-centered quality, which you can only achieve if you put yourself in the shoes of your target viewers.
2. Pitch to relevant content creators and influencers
One of the best app marketing strategies out there is for you to connect with the most relevant content creators and social media influencers so they can promote your app to their legions of followers. Start by making a list of these influencers, their number of followers, and their target audience. Don’t forget to find out how the content that they’re producing is relevant to your app and how your app can be beneficial to their followers so you can come up with an effective partnership pitch. Also, look for websites that post tech news and updates. Product Hunt, for example, is one of the biggest and most widely followed websites that promote the newest apps and software programs in the tech industry.
3. Connect with app review companies
Getting reviews or customer feedback is a very important element of your marketing strategy because it will give credibility to whatever you promised that your app will do. There are hundreds of app review companies that you can contact to provide you with reviews for a minimal charge. Examples of these companies are App Useful, AppStorm, and Feed My App.
4. Master app store optimization
Given that we’ve already published a comprehensive guide on app store optimization, you should know by now how important this is in making your app stand out in an app store that houses thousands upon thousands of other apps. MobileDevHQ revealed in their study that using relevant keywords in your app’s title can increase your app’s ranking by 10.3% in the app store. That said, searching for the relevant keywords to boost your app’s rankings and also putting them wisely in the name of your app will help in your app marketing efforts. Check out Neil Patel’s UberSuggest Tool if you want to get your initial list of relevant keywords to use, complete with competitive keyword analysis and traffic volume data.
5. Do your target market research
You made your app to address the “pain” of others. So understand your target market before you do your app marketing. Know what your audience needs to see to establish relevance. You can even go as far as conducting your own qualitative research, employing methods such as in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to gain market insights and user behavior. Doing these techniques will help you devise app marketing strategies that are tailored to what your target users deem as relevant.
6. Conduct competitor analysis
You don’t have to look far to figure out the best source of ideas to do app marketing. What is your competitor doing to promote his or her app, and how is it faring? Are there app marketing approaches that you can possibly adopt and make your own? Were there mistakes that you can avoid and learn from? How can you improve marketing-wise based on what your competitor has already done? These and a lot more relevant questions will help you market your app strategically in the long-term.
7. Do contests and giveaways
The classic approach of launching contests and giveaways to do app marketing is almost always effective to generate interest and expand your marketing reach. On top of offering cool prizes, you can also devise the mechanics in a way that will work for you and your app. Get people to leave reviews, refer your app to others, and even share it on their respective social media platforms so they can get a chance to win.
8. Open a Youtube channel
Billions of users go on Youtube nowadays, so don’t hesitate to get a piece of that sizable market. App marketing on Youtube is strategic because your reach can be far-reaching all across the world. Shareability is also very easy, and virality is a possibility! You can also gain immediate insights on the users’ experiences based on the comments that will be left, so it’s a win-win!
9. Make a website
I can’t even emphasize how making an official website for your app can do wonders! Using a website to do app marketing boosts credibility. Besides, making a website is like painting on a blank canvas. You can design it the way you like, and emphasize your app’s functionality or features the way you want to, in whatever format you choose!
10. Create shareable promotional media
Leverage your artistic talents by creating promotional wallpapers, online posters, and infographics that users can easily share. If you’re not that artistic, then consider using creative yet user-friendly platforms like Canva to help you get started. Don’t forget that it’s so effortless to share stuff nowadays on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Who knows? Your promotional app marketing can even go viral!
11. Practice the art of social selling
33 percent of app downloads happen because of word-of-mouth marketing. The Nielsen company has also reported that approximately 77% of people will seriously consider buying a product more when it’s been recommended by loved ones and close friends. So if you want to do app marketing effectively, start doing it within your network. Promote it first within your family, friends, and colleagues because you know these people well. These people will then promote your app to others, which in this case is a classic good old case of word-of-mouth marketing.
12. Focus on user retention
Do your app marketing to a specific group of people first. Go slow yet steady with your user acquisition, and make sure that the members of that small group will remain as users of your app. You do this by genuinely listening to their reviews and experiences and addressing whatever issues they have, which you can still do because the size of this group is still manageable.
13. Make a marketing timeline
It’s time to draft a marketing plan that will help you do app marketing in various stages, from pre- to post-launch. Marketing strategies such as posting video teasers or small image snippets of your app’s features before its major launch can help in generating interest. Hyping up your app without overdoing it will ensure that your app already has a solid base of potential users just in time for its launch. Sustain this momentum once your app is already out there in the market by divulging more of its features and collecting actual accounts of user experiences.
14. Perform KPI monitoring
The data reported by Kyros Insights show that the insights you gather from your app’s analytics can help you improve overall brand loyalty. Right from the onset, you should integrate mobile app analytics to your app to provide you with valuable insights on how people are using your app. AppsFlyer, Mixpanel, or Google Analytics can help you out on this vital stage of app marketing. How long are people staying on your app’s landing page? And how many of these visitors actually download your app? What is the frequency of your app’s usage since it was downloaded and installed? Obtaining these types of user data through analytics will help you improve your app based on concrete user experience evidence.
15. Consider newsletter marketing
If you think that conventional email marketing is totally outdated nowadays, then it’s time to reconsider. Nielsen Norman Group has produced an Email Newsletter Usability Report that shows that netizens still get attached emotionally to newsletters. Take advantage of the fact that you can do app marketing by sending newsletters to your subscribers on a regular basis. Use this as your chance to showcase key updates about your app before, during, and after the launch! You can also use your newsletter’s quality and captivating content to grow your subscribers’ list, which is crucial in enlarging and taking your base of supporters to another level.
16. Take advantage of push notification
Get the push notification enabled on your app because a published study by E-goi has revealed that 90% of push notifications are viewed by clients, 70% of them have found this feature to be useful, and the best part, 40% of these users had an interaction in less than an hour of getting notified. What an effective way to do app marketing to your target market, right?
The first thing you need to do is to register with the push notification service of iOS. iOS will then provide you with an API that will give your app the receive and communicate signals with this feature. Lastly, don’t forget to embed the Software Development Kit to your app, which is a code library specific that you can obtain from iOS.
17. Connect with your community
Nothing beats the rewards of establishing personal relationships with the members of your community. Reach out to nearby universities and schools to check if you can teach a coding class, which is an opportunity that you can use to promote your app. You can also hold town hall talks and guest in other community events to do your own personal brand of app marketing. Remember that it only takes one mouth to promote your app to others, so take advantage of these human-to-human promotional techniques!
There you go! With these treasure trove of app marketing strategies, we hope that your app will bring the greatest impact on your target users in no time. Keep us in the loop with your app marketing stories and additional techniques!
