When you got a great idea for a mobile app or game, the most important task is to develop it. That said, building an app is only half the battle. The most important thing to actually do is to learn how to convince users to download your mobile apps through different outlets like Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store and use it on a regular basis. To put our statement in context, over 40% of the app releases are considered dead. An analysis of the data shows that 50% of the applications on Google’s Play Store fail to get even one download.
Any seasoned mobile apps developer knows that driving app downloads and installs and retaining those installs is what makes or breaks a mobile app at the end of the day. It is also important to get users to come back to your app again and again. In fact, these factors are what should inform decision making during development.
source:buildfire.com
Now that we’ve made a case for the importance of digital marketing for your mobile apps, here are 5 easy and free digital marketing strategies to help you drive downloads and get your app off the ground.
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1. Target Audience
Before launching a mobile app or starting a digital marketing campaign, there are some questions that you need to answer. According to this mobile app marketing guide from ComboApp, here are the primary questions you need to answer BEFORE you build your app:
· Who is your target audience?
· What age-groups will be attracted to your app?
· What demographic is the app meant for?
· Are there any culturally offensive pitfalls that your app needs to avoid?
· Are they any culturally encouraging aspects that you can leverage?
Research on your app and your marketing campaign is an important first step. It helps you optimize your efforts and time to get the most out of your marketing campaign.
source:stacksocial.com
2. Competitors
Competitor awareness is very important for your app to survive the harsh markets. Once you know who your competitors are, you can plan your marketing accordingly. There are two ways to tackle your competitors.
1. Defensive marketing where you avoid direct clashes with big competitors to allow your app to build a strong foundation before its place in the market is challenged.
2. Aggressive marketing where you challenge your biggest competitor directly and their place in the market.
source:maxyourmedia.com
Whichever strategy you choose, it brings us to our next point.
3. Keyword Research
These are the keywords that your audience will be searching for when they want to find your app. Or what keywords are they searching when you want your app to show up in their results. These both questions will help you create a set of words and phrases that will help focus the rest of your market campaign. There are two types of keywords to look out for.
Short Tail Keywords
Short tail keywords are three words or less. They are the most commonly searched phrases that are simple, easy and very generic. They are also the hardest to SEO for.
Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords are usually phrases of longer than three words. They are definitely more targeted to your app and often specific in what they mean.
source:seopressor.com
Once you’ve picked your keywords, the process of SEO starts.
4. SEO
Search Engine Optimization or SEO encompasses a plethora of actions and steps all with one aim: To make it easier for your users to find your app through search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Play Store among others. This is done via ranking your website, your app’s landing page, your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit profiles to rank on these search engines.
source:maxyourmedia.com
Google is by far the biggest search engine in the world. So it makes sense to target Google for your SEO efforts. Google ranks websites based on over 200 factors. A great amount of research goes into optimizing your website for search engines like Google. There are companies out there who have a whole business model around just that. But a great thing about SEO is that you can do it all yourself too.
source:maxyourmedia.com
What also helps is optimizing the name and description of your app on the Play Store or App Store. Adding relevant content that includes the keywords that you’ve selected will help Play Store decide that users should see your app when they are searching for those keywords.
Some important ways to optimize your website is through content-marketing, targeting keywords, and social media marketing.
5. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the epitome of digital marketing in this day and age. And it’s free! You don’t have to spend any money to reach your audience and get your message across. It presents a level playing field for every startup and idea, where you can reach your audience and get your product in front of their eyes.
source:buffer.com
Creating a page on Facebook, a Twitter profile, a Reddit sub, and an Instagram profile are all the ways you can start getting your name out there. You can also use influencers to help advertise your brand and services. Influencers are the already established profiles and pages who have a large audience on any of these platforms.
Furthermore, social media marketing also includes participating in popular debates on these and other question/answer platforms. Quora, Stack Overflow, Yahoo! Answers, comments segment on any other social media websites is where most of these discussions happen. You can create organic traffic to your app by participating in these discussions and adding a reference or ‘backlinks’ to your app.
Social media marketing is a great free tool at your disposal to get users for your app and build a user base.
Bonus Tip
Pay attention to your early users and their feedback. Where are most of your users coming from? What kind of reviews are they leaving for your app? What is the install/uninstall ratio? These figures will greatly help you optimize your marketing strategy on the go.
