10 steps we took to promote our apps

When it comes to marketing, Seth Godin or Richard Branson, I am not.  But I do know that if you’re launching an app it’s hard to come by decent advice or discover other people’s experiences to help inform your decisions on promotion.

Although the team at The Connected Set does not generally offer marketing services as part of our development process, we have been involved in the launch of what have turned out to be notable apps.  Most recently, we launched Tate Britain QuizTrail, which featured on the home page of iTunes and beat it’s annual download targets in the first month.

I can also legitimately claim to have worked on a worldwide number one iPad app featured in the app store just seven months after iPad launched.  However, that was for a Virgin and the aforementioned Richard Branson did put his personal weight behind the launch at a glittering event in New York.

I now know only too well the challenges of launching an app with little or no budget, so I thought I’d share our experiences here in the hope that it will help you launch your app.  In return, I only ask that you drop me a note to let me know how you got on to jake@theconnectedset.com or @jakecassels

Step 1: Naming your app

Step 2: Planning

Step 3: App store promotion

Step 4: Video promotion

Step 5: PR

Step 6: App Review Sites

Step 7: Social Media and Online Buzz

Step 8: Paid promotion: PPC, QR Codes, Posters & Fliers

Step 9: Updates and push notifications

Step 10: Touts, shouts and celebrations

It’s likely to be the first thing you do.  Or, in my experience, it might be the last thing you do, when you discover your excellent name is thrown out by the lawyers because a Bluegrass band has lay claim to it.  And you’re offering couldn’t be more different to theirs.  Here are five quick steps to making sure the name of your app works for you:

1. Carry out searches – don’t just Google your app name to check which other brands are using your nuanced nomenclature, I strongly recommend a quick search on the Intellectual Property Office website.
2. Make it clear – Is the name clear and does it tell you what your app does? An important benefit of clear, understandable names will be search engine and app store visibility.  We hope that with ‘QuizTrail’ we achieved that.  It’s a trail you follow where you answer questions, just in case! Our original name for ‘QuizTrail’ was ‘InQuizitor’, but shortly after we pitched the idea, the domain name was snapped up by a GCSE revision guide series. Perhaps a side point under this heading should be pronounceability.  Your users won’t thank you if they can’t say the name of your app.
3. Be authentic – as tempting as it is to use elements of successful apps in your app name, it’s generally much better to come up with your own name i.e Facepages and Angry Nuns are out.
4. Keep it short – being concise has several benefits.  Chief amongst them is visibility in your selected app store and the ability to fit your name under the app icon.  The label under the icon can only be eleven characters long.
5. Take your time and test – you’ve invested money; more importantly, you’ve invested time.  The name of the app is the key to helping you stand out in the crowd of the literally millions of other apps.

Next: Step 2: Planning your promotional campaign

‘Failing to plan is planning to fail….’ The age old words that ring in the ears of anyone who has lived through a wedding.  They apply just as much with the promotion of your app.  Before we started our plan, we reviewed the strategy for our app by answering these questions:

1. What are the objectives for the app?
   • Promotional or profit based?
   • Engaging, functional or both?
2. What are the app’s unique selling points?
3. Who is the target audience?
   • Where will you find this audience?
   • What benefits does the app provide the audience?
   • What are your desired results, your KPIs?
4. What are your desired results, your KPIs?
   • Sales revenue?
   • Volumes?
   • Quality of audience?
   • Engagement levels?
   • Other achievements – awareness, rankings, coverage?
5. Who are your competitors, or who do you benchmark yourself against
   • Other apps
   • Other websites
   • Other services/products
6. What do your competitors do well and not so well?

With a strategy in place, planning becomes much easier.  We found that the plan should be as detailed as possible, including information about who will be doing what, when and how. We found it useful to include anticipated results.  It’s especially good for when you exceed them – or you can blame bad forecasting when you don’t! It may be useful to do this for each activity and include your desired conversion rates.  Perhaps an e-mail blast to 20,000 contacts would achieve a 2% conversion rate (a typical conversion rate according to the DMA) , which equates to 400 downloads.

The next eight steps I’ve listed are the kinds of activities we found effective to in our promotional campaigns that you might want to include in your plan. I’m sure you’ll have loads more ideas though.

Once you have a detailed plan, summarise it and move on to step 3,which is the next post.

Our experience has found that the most effective channel for promotion was within an App store.  However, this is hard to plan for as there is no guarantee that Apple or Google will promote your app. Here are some tips as to what we believe, but can’t be certain, will help you gain promotion on iTunes or Google Play.

1. Consider your price point – Paid for apps stand a better chance of promotion as Apple and Google retains 30% of revenues from your app.  However, even the lowest price tier is likely to limit download numbers, so you will need to refer to your strategy to inform your decision.
2. What are the USPs of your app and what benefits will it provide the user? Include these details in your submission to the relevant app store.
3. Provide your headline promotional plan including details on reach and any unique and attention grabbing activities e.g celebrity endorsement.
4. Provide artwork from your app and make promotional artwork available.  You can find specs for these at your relevant Apple and Android developer sites.

Find out why video promotion is crucial at step 4

Nothing beats a clear demonstration of how your app works and video is the perfect way to make a compelling case for the download.  It goes without saying that YouTube is a great way to spread the word about your app.  Although, think carefully as to whether you’d like to include comments from viewers on your YouTube channel.

Take a look at an example of the promotional video The Connected Set produced for ‘QuizTrail’.

To read why the PR for your app isn’t like to involve Bolly, move on to step 5.

Where was the Bolly and Brazillos?  AbFab it wasn’t.  Our PR was hard graft but it pays to put the time in.  In our experience it is crucial to take the time to craft highly targeted press releases.  Once you’ve compiled a list of all the media outlets you want to contact, it’s best to make every press release tailored specifically to each recipient.  Make sure to include links to the video and any artwork assets that might help promote the app.

It helps to add a covering e-mail explaining the benefits of the app to their readers or users. If you can’t tailor every press release, here are the key places you’ll want to write one for:

1. General distribution (mass media: national press, magazines, radio TV, broad reaching websites).
2. Trade publications and blogs in the content area of your app.
3. Tech and mobile blogs.
4. Local media in the location where your app’s target audience is likely to be located.

There are online press release distribution sites to consider too, which are a good way to target trade publications, blogs, and consumer magazines. Gorkana is a paid service that will distribute your press releases, but there are a number of free services too, which can be just as effective.

To check out what’s been released recently and as a possible target for your press release, check out Stuart Dredge’s ‘Apps Rush’ in The Guardian.  Stuart also carries out a regular round up of the best apps from his blog on Lauren’s Laverne’s BBC 6 Music radio show every Tuesday at 10.30am.

If you have any partners, clients or sponsors who you are developing the app with, encourage them to distribute press releases and promote the app for you too.

Next: Step 6: App review sites.

There are a huge variety of app reviews sites on line.  It’s definitely worth taking the time to submit the app to each of these to gain a few more downloads.  In return for reviewing your app, often these sites will be in touch to offer you advertising space so be prepared to consider that as part of your marketing mix. Here are a selection:

AppStoreApps.com

AppCraver

148Apps

AppSafari

Apple iPhone Apps

iPhone Application List

NativeiPhoneApps

iPhoneApps.co.uk

Apptism

AppShopper

AppRater

Next: Step 7: Social Media and Online Buzz

It’s likely that your app will have a social media function to allow users to share their experiences.  We found it really helpful to create a Twitter, Facebook and blog page to maintain buzz and post links to download.  If you already have these pages, make sure you set up #tags and write regular posts to keep content fresh and relevant. Don’t forget to post news of the app on LinkedIn or Pinterest, if that’s relevant too.

In our puppy eyed enthusiasm, we spent some time hounding targeted celebrities on Twitter begging them to re-tweet links to download our app.  It had mixed results, but we did get some celebrities to do it and as a result grew downloads marginally and followers on Twitter…. But for the shame you might want to hold off the celeb-beg.

Writing a blog about the app with plenty of links to the download page, your press release, photo assets and videos will go a long way to help build online buzz and provide a place for those bloggers who do cover the app to link to.   In that light, make sure the link to the blog is included on your promotional material.

Next: Step 8: Paid promotion: PPC, QR Codes, Posters & Fliers

We didn’t use PPC, but it is certainly a viable option for you if you have the budget.  The Google Adwords keyword tool will help you come up with list of keywords most relevant to your target audience.  You can then use those keywords in your promotional materials, on your website, in YouTube tags and in your articles about the app.

We’re keen to test the effectiveness of Quick Response (QR) codes in the promotion of the app.  Many marketers shy away from them as they are ugly and overall usage levels are perceived to be low.  However, you are able to customise QR codes and our feeling is that they are here to stay.

Once you have a QR code, I’d recommend exploiting traditional means of promotion, like posters and fliers.  The magic of the QR code is the instant response. Anyone with the right smartphone can download your app immediately by scanning your QR code at the moment they see it on a poster.

Next: Step 9: Updates and push notifications

Undoubtedly, you will need to make changes and amends to your app.  Each new version that you release will be another chance for you to make an impression on the staff at Apple or Google and have the potential to be promoted within the app store.

We made sure to build in a push notification function in our apps.  This allowed us to send a messages to all those who have downloaded the app. This will help build engagement but can build word of mouth and downloads as a result too.

Next: Final step: Touts, shouts and celebrations