How to Market an App Like a Pro

You’ve finally designed your mobile startup and are ready to put it out there? Good for you! But if you don’t know how to market an app the right way, it will most likely get drowned in the highly competitive ocean of similar mobile brands. The thing is, there are millions of apps in the App Store and Google Play Store. So, if you’re sure that your target audience will somehow drift to your product, that’s not exactly what will happen.

Competition is truly mind-boggling. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you delve deep into the proven tactics of ASO strategy and concentrate on marketing your brand like a pro. If you’re new to the notion of ASO and not sure where to start, don’t panic. Asolytics is where you’ll find both useful app promotion hacks and instruments for successful marketing. It’s where your ‘How to make your app popular?’ question gets all the right answers.

In this piece, we’ve rounded up a treasure trove of methods of effective mobile app promotion. Provided in no specific order, our 15 app marketing hacks will allow you to determine the most appealing strategies and incorporate them into your App Store Optimization strategy. Feel free to stick with just one, experiment, learn nonstop, and over time you will determine the strategies that work best for you.

What Is Mobile App Marketing?

Mobile marketing is closely related to the notion of ASO. Wondering what it is? Let us explain. App Store Optimization, shortened to ASO, is the process of amplifying your mobile brand’s visibility throughout the major app distribution platforms — and bolstering its conversion along the way.

Along with aiding you in occupying higher positions in the app store search results, effective apps marketing strategy and tools also increase your product’s click-through rate (CTR). In simple terms, ASO is a set of tools that enable your core audience to hit on your listing when they notice it across their favorite app distribution platform.

It’s vital to note that mobile app marketing includes both ASO and in-app promotion. It’s a broad term that aims at increasing engagement both within and beyond your mobile startup. There are three vital stages of mobile app marketing: discovery, installation, engagement, and retention.

With that said, mobile app marketing encompasses the entire app user experience, from installation to A/B testing activities and deep user engagement. It requires an in-depth understanding of the mobile scene and your target audience’s needs. So, how do you market an app? We’ll explore it in this post. Stay tuned.

Mobile Marketing Basics

These days, people use their smartphones all the time. Therefore, if you want to reach your potential clients, you need to build your mobile presence extensively. Mobile marketing is the promotion of mobile apps that concentrates on approaching your core consumers across all possible devices.

If you’re seeking to expand your business on the ever-developing mobile scene, then mobile marketing is definitely what you should practice extensively. Make sure you find and utilize a reliable platform that will aid you in analyzing, customizing, and automating your efforts — while bolstering your app retention rate along the way.

If you want your marketing plan for app promotion to bring excellent results, you’ll need to work on mobile advertising. The following basic elements comprise the mobile advertising scene:

• banners and displays;
• mobile PPC;
• contextual ad targeting;
• idle screen advertising.

Other components of the mobile marketing landscape include m-commerce, QR codes, location-oriented mobile marketing, mobile payments, and mobile sites. All these basic elements overlap in constant dynamics, forming one major answer to your ‘How to advertise apps’ question.

But how to market mobile applications in the most exact terms, you may ask. Here’s what exactly you should start with:

1. Determine your business aspirations.
2. Take your niche into account.
3. Assess your competition.
4. Know your core consumers inside out: who they are, where they live, what they need.
5. Keep tabs on your progress as you implement the best ways to promote an app for you.

Now that mobile phone ownership stimulates the evolution of the mobile Internet, learning how to promote apps is of the highest importance. By taking your mobile app marketing expertise to a brand new level, you get to reach your business goals and accommodate your customers’ needs on the go, irrespective of their (and your) whereabouts. So, what’s the best way to market apps? It’s time to cover this issue in detail.

Mobile App Marketing: Best Practices

How do apps get popular? Well, that sure doesn’t happen overnight. The Asolytics team knows the ropes with regard to mobile app promotion. We’re fully aware of all the do’s and don’ts in this respect. Below, we’ll dwell upon the most surefire ways to market your app for the purpose of maximizing your installs and gently stimulating your target audience to stick with your brand long-term.

1. Create a blog and develop it. Elevate your expertise to stardom by working on your blog. As an added bonus, it’s an excellent promotion strategy for mobile apps. We’ll show you the results of the marketing campaign from one of the most popular music apps, Spotify. We don’t recommend anything but show you how their marketing worked out.
2. Grow your social media activity. Don’t just paste links in your profile, though. Create engaging content. Be intriguing. Enable your readers to tap and share you all over.
3. Ask your loyal consumers to review your app. Submit your product to some of the best app review platforms to let others in on your product’s perks.
4. Get in touch with popular writers in your field. Ask them to write about your one-of-a-kind startup, but only if it tickles their fancy, of course. As a matter of fact, it’s the best way to advertise app products out of many.
5. Participate in contests with prizes for the most innovative and creative apps with brilliant functionality. Make sure your brand is ready for this, of course.
6. Build a community. Utilize all possible tools to surround yourself with like-minded people from your niche who love what you love.
7. Develop and implement your ASO strategy nonstop. Analyze your app stats, and refine your icon, metadata, creatives, and other aspects that aid you in bolstering your product’s findability within the official app stores.
8. Prove to your loyal consumers that you appreciate them immensely. Offer discounts, limited-time bonuses, and other goodies for your users’ devotion.
9. Be kind to people who criticize your app. Did you know that making your customers stay is a lot cheaper than finding new ones? Well, that’s a fact! With that said, respond to constructive criticism by polishing your app in accordance with what your unhappy consumers say about it.
10. Keep track of the results. Analysis is paramount when it comes to getting the gist of how to get people to use your app. That’s where Asolytics is sure to lend you a helping hand.
11. Grant access to free trial periods. Gather your consumer emails. After that, get in touch with them to ask if they’d like to sign up for a premium plan. Build meaningful connections. Make them want to trust you with their money.
12. Enable users to promote your application. Incorporate in-app ‘tell a friend’ functionality that will aid your loyal audience in sharing the product with everyone they desire. Offer discounts and other goodies for this.
13. Don’t neglect alternative app stores. Doubtlessly, the two major app stores should be your priority. But less competitive stores are worth making the most of, as well.
14. Invest in mobile ads. Explore the existing mobile ad formats, experiment with some of them, and stick with the most effective ones in your case. Engage in split testing whenever possible.
15. Share your success story. You can simply broadcast an overview of your product’s perks and functions. Or… you can share what stands behind your app launch and how it can change the lives of your users. The latter option is way better.

Cutting to the Chase: Just Do It

Pre- and post-release mobile app marketing is no bed of roses, considering the never-ending competition out there. Enjoy implementing the 15 useful hacks listed above to bolster your brand visibility, increase installs, and stay ahead of your worthiest competitors. Still, asking the how to market my app question? Not willing (or don’t have enough time) to work hard on it under your own steam? Don’t panic. You can always turn to professional help for quality app promotion.