Mobile Marketing: 50 Ways to Promote Your iPhone App
June 18, 2009 · 18 Comments
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A nearly perfect mobile marketing plan and follow-up execution will fall short if the underlying app is uninspiring, bug-ridden or unremarkable. In addition, a well-designed, compelling app thrown in the mix of 50,000+ apps and unsupported by marketing, would likely disappoint. An integrated approach is most effective, with all components complementing and leveraging one another. A commitment to an integrated marketing plan and continued improvements to the app itself, will increase your probability of a sustained advantage in the marketplace.
A nearly perfect mobile marketing plan and follow-up execution will fall short if the underlying app is uninspiring, bug-ridden or unremarkable. In addition, a well-designed, compelling app thrown in the mix of 50,000+ apps and unsupported by marketing, would likely disappoint. An integrated approach is most effective, with all components complementing and leveraging one another. A commitment to an integrated marketing plan and continued improvements to the app itself, will increase your probability of a sustained advantage in the marketplace.- Get noticed in the App Store.
Prospective customers often browse within the top apps listed in the app store via iTunes on their computer or via the iPhone App Store app. Your app’s ranking is affected by unit downloads and getting into the top 100 can dramatically impact the success of your app. Choose a unique, catchy name for your app so that yours can be found within the app store easily and within Google searches. Include your brand name, where appropriate. Be sure to do your homework and
Establish yourself as a subject matter expert and develop mutually rewarding relationships with the media. Odds of a feature story, pick-up or mention increases exponentially as your goals are aligned to that of the columnist, radio host or TV producer. Developing rapport is easier than you might think. In fact, you can respond to a daily feed of reporter requests for expert sources using HARO. Regarding pitches and press releases, don’t be ordinary. You need to stand out from the crowd to be remembered. Peter Shankman, one of the most respected names in PR drives this point home in his book, “Can We Do That?” Distribute only to media contacts known to cover your topics. Online PR distribution gives you access to newspapers, radio, TV, industry trade publications, consumer magazines and influential blogs. Reach out to editors, journalists, news directors, producers and industry analysts. Web syndication drives immediate exposure of press releases to web-channel publishers internationally. Today’s technology can monitor media mentions/pickups and provide insightful analytics about traffic sources. Be sure to bunch up your publicity when you go live to maximize your chance of top ranking by app category.
Customize your business postage stamps using your new app’s icon design.
Photo Postage Stamps
Promote your app in interactive ads contained within other iPhone apps. iPhone ads offer very high levels of engagement including click to call, click to video and click to app store. A growing number of ad networks provide in-app advertising options with audience targeting that includes age, gender, geography, category, carrier, device and handset. Pricing models include bid per click and per engagement. Conversion tracking and reporting are standard offerings. Check out these folks: Medialets, Quattro Wireless, AdMob and VideoEgg.
Where ever you promote your app online, increase your traffic and page rank using an AddThis button. It’s easy to install on your blog or website pages and it makes it easy for your visitors to share your content with their friends and colleagues who use Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Delicious, LinkedIn, TypePad, Blogger, WordPress, etc.
Choose your advertising targets wisely. As yourself these questions: Who are my best customers? What are their demographic and lifestyle characteristics? Where do they gather? How do they consume media? What do they read, listen to and watch? Should my advertising be placed where captive mobile audiences can be found (train stations, bus stops, airports, amusement parks, checkout lanes, hotels, college campuses, cafes, within other apps, on podcasts, etc.)? And, what analytical tools will measure the success of each? View MacWorld’s iPhone App Marketing Program slideshow as an example of paid sponsorship and advertising. Some of the app review websites listed in #2 above offer advertising on their sites. Your online ads can link directly to your app within the app store. Wizzard Media provides access to sponsorship/advertising opportunities within audio/video podcast content categories relevant to your target audience. Think differently: Large ad display stickers are gracing the ceilings on commuter CTA trains in Chicago and oversized floor stickers are becoming commonplace at trade shows and retail establishments. Larger budgets can consider outdoor options that include wallscapes, train/bus wraps, transit stations, etc. Titan Worldwide offers outdoor advertising in many of the world’s top markets.
Promote your new app on your store receipts, packaging, shipping flyer insertions, apparel tags, shopping bags, invoices, monthly statements, envelopes, packing slips, POP displays,posters, restaurant menus & place mats, shipping containers and custom imprinted packing tape. Create attention-getting stickers for use on each, where appropriate.
Participate in targeted app topic-specific Q&A discussions at Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn Answers and WikiAnswers and provide links to learn more about you and your app. Become a trusted participant by providing answers to others.
Send out a highly targeted email campaign to prospects. You’ll want your campaign to be CAN-SPAM compliant to avoid fines and/or criminal penalties. B2B and B2C email lists are available from infoUSA.com. Filter from 2 million business email contacts by industry, SIC, size, job titles, spending, credit rating, location and more. Filter from 15 million consumer email contacts by geography, age, home value, wealth indicators, hobbies & interests, ethnicity, religion, household occupant info and more. Many publications have databases of subscriber email addresses and will send email campaigns on your behalf. They, too, allow filtered targeting of their email lists. Choose publications whose audience matches your targeted customers. A warning about buying or renting email lists, follow the rules and stay current on new developments. Email marketing platforms such as the popular Constant Contact have a no tolerance spam policy which you can read here.
Learn from the success of Peggle. On June 11, 2009, they dropped their price from $4.99 to $0.99 for a three day promotion. The results are in…on June 16, 2009, Peggle achieved ranking atop the app store due to the popularity of the app during the promotion and it is selling at the original $4.99 price. Such a strategy requires effective publicity around the promotion. AppVee, an App review site, setup a separate AppVee Twitter“Apps Now Free” account for tweets to their followers about price drops.
Create and upload a SlideShare.net presentation that includes a slide show walk-through with screenshots of your app and a description of features and benefits. Supported upload formats include PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Apple Keynote, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, iWork Pages and PDFs. Share publicly and optimize text content (title, description, etc.) within your posting to optimize search engine placement.
Secure a launch sponsor and co-promote. Examples include People Magazine’s app and its launch sponsor Unilever. Within your pre-launch marketing materials, promote and provide clear instructions for those who might be interested in being a launch sponsor. Explain the benefits they’ll receive in terms of publicity exposure, placement within the app and other perks. Get creative with the extra perks. For example, let’s say you’re a celebrity speakers bureau…you can offer an opportunity for your sponsors to enjoy an evening meeting a few celebrities.
Tell-a-friend in-app feature.
Within your app, include a conspicuous ”Tell a friend” feature and leverage the users’ personal iPhone’s contacts directory for text messaging or email. Pre-populate the message with friendly promotional copy that speaks highly of your app and provides a link where they can learn more.
Within your app, include a conspicuous ”Tell a friend” feature and leverage the users’ personal iPhone’s contacts directory for text messaging or email. Pre-populate the message with friendly promotional copy that speaks highly of your app and provides a link where they can learn more.
Within your app, create a Twitter update feature so that users can easily tweet about the awesomeness of your app. Suggest a few pre-canned complimentary messages and append with a TinyURL that links to your app in the app store.
Include and promote exclusive content within your app that is unavailable elsewhere.
Use 2D mobile barcoding in your advertisements, product packaging and other customer touchpoints. 2D barcodes can be scanned with camera phones. To get a sense for the power of this technology, try the following: 1) Create a QR Code here or here. 2) Download the Optiscan iPhone app($4.99) or another QR barcode reader app. 3) Scan the code. Are you amazed? Here’s where it gets good…the scanned barcode information can provide a link directly to your app in the iPhone App store! The user is provided with a web link, phone number or message that’s saved directly onto the phone. This is an emerging advertising technology in the USA but has been in use in Japan for some time. Its permission-based format is attractive to consumers. Below notice a QR barcode that contains my contact info. Once scanned to the iPhone, two clicks adds a new contact record that includes my full name, phone number and email address. Note: If you use QR barcodes, better to display larger vs. smaller. Some mobile cameras cannot focus properly to get a good read if the barcode is too small.
Add new features to your app over time. Feature upgrades create new publicity opportunities and updated ranking by Apple within the app store. Along with improvements, monitor your app’s review feedback and act upon insightful new feature requests to keep customers coming back and lure new ones into the fold. When your app is developed, include mobile analytics so that your can learn about how your app is used, referring sources and app performance characteristics. Within your app, you can include a few simple features. A “Send Feedback” button can send emails to you privately. Another button labeled “Leave a Review on iTunes” would provide easy access to app review submission.
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