3 Strategies for Winning In the Hyper-Competitive Market for Apps Few apps ever make money but with sound design and focused marketing, some do very well.
By Pratik Dholakiya Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Before you invest valuable time and resources developing a mobile app, ask yourself if it something that people need? Because if they don't need it, nobody is going to download and use it! Irrespective of the efforts you put in to market your app, an app that isn't useful will fail.
But even launching an app you know a particular group of people wants doesn't guarantee success. The failure rate of mobile apps is abysmally high. There is no guarantee even a mobile app with everything going for it will deliver the returns you are looking for.
This is a problem of plenty. Mobile app users have more than 1.4 available apps to choose from on Google Play and another 1.2 million apps on Apple's app store. Unless your app delivers exceptional value to its target audience, it's going to fail.
But that's not enough. Even the best made apps fail, if they are not propped up with an effective marketing plan. If you think a well-made app will succeed no matter what, you've got it wrong. Here are three tips for boosting its chances of success.
Related: 4 Types of Apps That Never Succeed
1. Shout the loudest.
If you want your voice to be heard over other voices, what do you do? Shout the loudest! Well, think about it from the perspective of mobile apps. Your app is competing with plenty of other apps to get the attention of the same target audience.
It is marketing that will help your app break through the clutter, and become more visible to your audience.
Say you've developed an expense manager for families. Your app must becomes visible to this particular demographic. Your target audience needs to know your app caters to their needs and is available for download.
Create a landing page for your app with an email opt-in page. Use SEO and other Internet marketing tactics to attract traffic to this site. The more people you attract, the more your chances of building a targeted email subscription list. Once you build this list, create and implement an email marketing campaign that centers on your app.
Email remains the digital marketing channel that delivers the best ROI. But, don't limit yourself to emails. Develop a multi-pronged marketing strategy that promotes your app across different mediums. And keep at it. Don't stop. Your app must be seen by a large percentage of its target audience.
2. Trigger viral response.
Use social media to spread the word and trigger conversations around your app. Your app should be seen and heard. This is only possible by leveraging the immense potential of social media to build meaningful relationship with target app users.
Create social media profiles for your app on Twitter, Facebook etc. Build a list of followers that largely consists of your target audience. Engage with your followers by sharing content talking about the benefits of your app, offers, discounts and anything else that you believe will convince them to use your app. This sets the stage for your app to go viral.
If your followers like the content you are sharing, they're going to share it with their followers on social media. This means your app's mentions have the potential of going viral. This will definitely help the app steal a march over its competitors.
Related: Viral App 'Yo' Hires Its Hacker
3. Boost app credibility.
With so many people talking about your app (provided you get SEO, email marketing, and social media right), you improve its chances of being downloaded and used. If your app is good, people are going to leave positive ratings and reviews on the app page on the app store, its landing pages and on app review sites. This will boost app credibility.
People want to use apps that others are talking about, using and positively reviewing. We've talked about social media in the earlier point. Consumers trust social media recommendations; if your app comes well recommended by its users, there is nothing like it.
Better visibility, wider circulation and trust are three things that will get your app over the finish line, ahead of its competitors; and for this you must take the help of mobile apps marketing.
Related: How to Use Customer Recommendations to Grow Your Business
