A good app is of no use if it won’t sell. A lot of developers and publishers say that creating an app is actually the easiest part – making it profitable is the real challenge. Just the challenge of making an app visible in the app stores requires some skill, money and yes, even luck. Social media may look like a convoluted place but it still is the best place to setup your mobile app marketing strategies.
Social media is now part of an average person’s daily life. It’s a telling sign when developing nations become part of an industry’s top market. The more viral an app gets, the more it hooks revenue so to say. We are now in an era where social life involves watching out for the next viral trend or creating that viral trend itself. The market is its own commodity so you should take that in mind. But aside from the benefit of visibility, there are also other benefits of taking advantage of social media as a marketing medium:
- You don’t necessarily need to spend money and you’re in level ground with your competition.
- You let other people do the advertising for you. By sharing your posts, your audience basically endorses your app to their own network of friends that you may not have access to in real time.
- Social media is a great test if your app will be a hit to your target audience.
You’ll be surprised sometimes that there exists a market that you haven’t explored before, that in social media demographics doesn’t always matter.
- People are often inclined to give more honest opinion in social media. It’s easy to troll if you are using a fictitious username but people in social media won’t risk the ridicule and losing face to people they actually see everyday. That’s why social media is a good source of excellent user reviews. But it can also go the other way. People would certainly trust the judgment of their friends so if their friends say that your app sucks, these people are most certainly ready to hate your app. So it would be excellent to build a strong network of supporters in the first place.
So how can you be sure that social media works? Look at the statistics. Almost 99% of apps in the stores have social media presence. But to be fair, not all of their strategies are effective (we can’t all be on top) but you can work on not just being a statistic, you can be on top! Just make sure:
- Go where there is a massive audience. Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter are just some of the biggest names in social media.
- Be seen. Being in social media doesn’t instantly equal popularity. Build your network even before there’s a need. Get in touch with friends and acquaintances that are abroad and promote your page (“You don’t need to be my friend, just share and like it”) so that your promotion won’t be too localized.
- Be an active user. A tweet and status post here and there won’t hurt, especially if you are promoting your lovely app. Engage on threads of related topics comment and spread the word about your app through snippets of information that can get your audience interested.
- Your page is an advertising space. Place a direct link to the download page of your app into your social media page. Don’t wait for them to search for your app, spoon fed them the link instead.
- SEO still matters. Keywords matters wherever you want to steer your app marketing.
Social Media Platforms to Explore
Pinterest Marketing Strategies
Pinterest gets 75% of the traffic share for mobile devices. This traffic had become more relevant since Apple now allows direct installation of iOS apps from Pinterest through app Pins. Even if you are not developing apps for iOS, Pinterest is a great place to give your app exposure to a targeted audience. Here’s how you can maximize your marketing opportunities in Pinterest:
- Make Pinnable screenshots of your app. Your images should be eye-catching so that it would gain traction.
- Convert these screenshots into Promoted Pins. Promoted Pins are basically paid ads that appear as organic pins so that it cannot disturb the flow of pins. This is one of the best ways to advertise to a targeted marked in social media.
- Build a community around your pins. Keep your followers interested. Do not only entertain them, but keep them informed and up-to-date with developments about your app and related topics in your niche.
- Hire influencers to curate your board. The secret to an influential Pinterest is proper curation and contextual presentation. They can help in making your Promoted Pins look less like ads. But you should be careful with this since Pinterest forbids people from being paid to pin something.
- Do not limit your pins into screenshots of your app. Highlight the good parts of your app and place related imagery or render it artistically.
- Create pins of user reviews and testimonials. You can create an entire board dedicated just for these testimonials.
Instagram Marketing Strategies
It may sound redundant being in multiple photo-sharing sites but exposure is the first step in discoverability so it is important to explore every platform possible.
Instagram had grown a vast audience over the past year and is said to have overtaken Twitter’s number of active users. Marketing in Instagram is quite advantageous since it has wide coverage and its demographic is composed of Millenials that are willing to spend money for leisure. Instagram is also purely mobile, unlike other social media platforms, an Instagram user should have a mobile phone to upload their pictures.
Some marketing strategies you can employ are as follows:
- Blend in. Most Instagram users post pictures of their daily activities, adventures, getaways and just like in Pinterest, things they are into. You need to be creative with the way you present your app since it can look like an ad. Be imaginative.
- Take advantage of hashtags. In Instagram, up to 30 hashtags can be used. Use these hashtags like keywords. Search for related hashtags that have considerable number of following and tags. But just like in SEO and ASO, don’t stuff your keywords.
- Convert your download page’s URL into a short link. Since Instagram doesn’t allow hyperlinks, you can use this shortened link to still direct your followers into your download page. This can also increase interest since the link clearly tells what the page is about.
- Don’t hesitate to place captions and text overlays especially if your images needs supplementary text to explain its context.
Facebook Marketing Strategies
- Create quality and engaging content. Facebook ranks a post high if it had been liked, commented and shared many times.
- If you are going for paid ads, set the placement to mobile newsfeeds. This will be easier as Facebook now offers an ad objective of “App Installs” wherein you can customize your ad to target specific audience at your chosen budget.
- The most effective app to market in Facebook are apps that enable the user to interact directly with other users. If your app isn’t like this, just add social buttons on your app so that users can share their progress or experience with your app.
Twitter Marketing Strategies
- Encourage the retweeting of your posts by creating a call for action. You don’t need to always add the phrase, please retweet. Maximize the character limit to get your point across.
- Make ways for your app to connect with a popular event so that you can ride on a trending hashtag.
- Twitter also has a mobile app promotion feature. Promoted Tweets allows you to target a specific group of users that are interested in your niche.
