How Bad Marketing Kills Even the Best-Made Apps Very few apps are a financial success. You need to put at least as much effort into selling an app as developing it.
By Pratik Dholakiya Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One of the harshest truths about mobile apps is that most of them fail.
Gartner estimates that by 2018, just 0.01 percent of consumer mobile apps will actually be deemed financially successful by their developers. One big reason for such an abysmal success rate is that the mobile app market is very competitive.
There were 7.8 million daily downloads from just the Apple's iOS store alone in October 2014. While these numbers reflect the popularity of mobile apps, they also indicate the competition your app will face in the mobile app market. Irrespective of the category your app targets, it's an uphill task to stand out from the crowd. Tens of thousands of apps are launched on app stores every month. If your app is one of them, you can imagine the challenge in front of you to not only get your app noticed, but also downloaded by its intended users.
This is why you need to market your app well. It is imperative that you have a killer mobile app marketing strategy that improves app visibility and persuades people to use your app.
Related: 3 Effective Channels for Marketing Your Mobile App
You shouldn't take app marketing lightly on the belief the unique nature of your app and its superior UX will beat the competition. Let's take a closer look at two instances of bad marketing and how you can fix them:
1. Lack of pre-launch buzz.
You must generate some amount of buzz around the app before it's released. The objective is to make sure the app's target users eagerly anticipate the app's arrival.
If there is no pre-launch buzz surrounding your app, marketing the app post-launch becomes even more difficult. You have to begin from the premise that nobody has a clue your app is now available on the app store. This means, it will be quite some time before your app's audience realizes it is actually available for download. That's a lot of valuable time lost and could be the difference between market success or failure.
Start marketing your app much before launch. Plan it well. For instance, if you are releasing an app meant for use during Christmas, you need to make sure the app is available for download by November, at the latest. This means, pre-launch marketing for this app needs to begin at least a month before the designated launch date.
You must begin by designing landing pages for your app that focus on its USP. Also, create a mailing list of your app's target audience and send them updates about your app. Consider sharing news about your app's impending launch with friends and followers on social media.
Think of a pre-launch marketing strategy as a means of building user base leading up to the launch. It will also provide the perfect launch pad for your post launch marketing efforts.
Related: 8 Ways to Influence Users to Download Your Mobile App
2. Not going for the kill.
You will do well to remember that it's not just you trying to get the attention of users for your app. The same users are on the radar of other apps as well. It's a user's market out there and they will download the app they believe is perfect for their needs and requirements. After all, there are just so many apps they can actually download on their devices.
"Believe' is the keyword here. You need to do everything and then some more to make them believe your app is just what they are looking for. This isn't going to happen if you approach app marketing in a half-hearted manner. You need to go in for the kill with a multi-pronged approach.
Here's what you need to do:
Your app should have a presence on reputed app review sites.
- Take steps to optimize its presence on the app store (app store optimization).
- Publish press releases.
- Engage existing and potential users on social media.
- Use in app advertising to promote your app by leveraging the popularity of another app.
You must do just about everything to persuade people to download your app.
Basically, leave no stone unturned to market your app.
Related: 5 Strategies to Get Your Users to Market Your Mobile App for You
