7 Creative Ways to Market and Promote Your New Mobile App After Launch

From the day you launch, your mobile app is thrown into a sea filled with other apps - many of them huge sharks. While mobile app usage skyrocketed by 58% in 2015, so has development of mobile apps, leading to intense competition. The sad reality is the vast majority of apps will never get downloaded and those that do get downloaded will usually be abandoned in a matter of weeks. Forget organic reach; you have to market your own app and come up with some creative ways of promoting it after launch.

This guide is going to introduce you to seven creative ways to launch and market your app after it has hit the market.

App Store Optimization: Is Your App Optimized?

To begin with, you have to make sure that your app is optimized for the App Store. People have to be able to find your app, which happens almost exclusively through in-store search. The process for optimizing, then, is a matter of using appropriate naming and keywords, both in the title, and the app description.

With 100 characters to define your keywords, you have everything you need for correct optimization.

Content Marketing: Build a Business Website

Your online reputation will make people want to download your app - or not, as the case may be. A website is a great way to build your reputation, and by extension, promote your app. It’s the central hub where people can find out more about you and your work, whether it becomes a personal or business site.

A simple WordPress site is all you need to promote your app and your brand. Keep it active through targeted content marketing and uploading promotional videos and images to your site to keep people coming back.

Platform Marketing: Targeting App Review & Startup Sites

Social proof is everything when it comes to a digital product. Do all you can to encourage people to review your app - on Product Hunt, Reddit, and Beta List. The more you can get the better. A startup can usually find up to a hundred different free directories where they can register themselves and their app, and that includes Forbes.

Directories are known to be extremely effective at driving new users and boosting awareness of your apps, though you have to count on a great user experience to keep them coming back.

Public Relations: Pitch to Blogs

Guest blogging in its traditional form is dead. The idea that you can promote your site through using backlinks is long gone. But that doesn’t mean you should abandon it entirely. Instead, pitch your app to reviewing websites.

Make your app stand out from the crowd by highlighting its unique selling points and how it can provide real value to people. Remember, bloggers are only going to review an app they feel will benefit their own target audiences.

Viral Marketing: Use a Promo Video

A 30-second promotional video can do a lot of good for kick starting a campaign. One of the reasons for this is that video marketing is currently on top of the world. It drives the most engagement and it takes up the most real estate on Google. Shoot an original video or simply opt for a still image slideshow with a voice-over.

Social Media Marketing: The Core of Your Campaign

Social networking sites are the best tools you have to promote your brand. Whether it’s Facebook and Twitter or LinkedIn and Pinterest, you have established communities at your fingertips to promote to.

Take a look at some paid social media options. Facebook’s Ad Manager is ideal for promoting mobile apps because you can optimize directly for app downloads. Furthermore, you can use the Audience Manager to track the demographics you are reaching with your ads, and then compare it with the audience you want to reach.

Paid Acquisition: Use Google AdWords

The issue everyone has with app promotion is visibility in a saturated market. Google AdWords may provide you with an alternative way to show your app to new users. It may require you to pay to play, but you can easily make a return with an effective campaign.

You can have direct links for people seeing the ads from mobile devices and more general links that go to your website for desktop users. A strong AdWords campaign can drive an initial wave of downloads.

In the beginning, don’t spend too much. Google is really good at taking your money. Inexperienced users expecting to throw money at the problem are going to find themselves in extremely disadvantageous positions. Start with a small budget and steadily scale as you learn more and more.


Try Something Different

Always go out of your way to try new things. People finding your app and downloading it organically isn’t going to work. You have to be proactive and you have to explore the full range of options at your disposal. That’s how you are going to encourage app downloads.

How will you market your newly launched app today?