10 Proven Tips for Promoting Your App

The App Store is a tough market. With a veritable smorgasbord of apps filling every page of the store, it’s easy for your new app to get lost amidst the clutter. This can be extremely off-putting, especially if the app you’ve just released is your first. This is not helped at all by the odd way the App Store operates. If you’re used to Google, or other search engines, the purely keyword driven App Store is going to confuse you to no end. There’s no need to worry, though, because today you’re going to see 10 tips that are going to help you get the attention your app deserves.

1. First of all, you should start advertising before your app actually comes out. This can be done fairly easily by creating a website that will explain what your app does. Take the time to make an interesting website with all the vital information potential customers will need and you’ll start generating buzz before you’ve even release your app. A good idea to increase the effectiveness of this is to email several blogs related to your app. You don’t need to say all that much, just let them know when your app is coming out and what it does. You can also ask for anything they’d like to see added to your app, which can provide some very good ideas.

2. You’ve probably already given some thought to your app’s name since most of the time the name is decided long before you get to the point where advertising is an issue. That being said, you should really give it some more consideration. It doesn’t matter how amazing your app ends up being because people won’t buy it if they don’t like the name. It’s a small thing to consider but surprisingly important to your app’s success. Tempting as it may be, try to avoid silly puns if your app is supposed to be fairly serious. Another tip is to make sure that your app’s name gives an indication as to its purpose, assuming it’s not a game.

3. Once your app is finally released you need to let everyone know. Prepare a Grand Release email beforehand and mail it to everyone who’s expressed interest. A mailing list on your website is a great way to get a list of people who are interested; it can also allow you to send out periodic updates to keep the buzz alive. Making a lot of noise about the release will excite the blogs and potential customers who were already interested and, at the same time, will pique the curiosity of people who still hadn’t heard of your app.

4. Now, you’ve finished your app and you’re ready to upload it to the App Store. Before you do that, though, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. As mentioned earlier, the App Store is completely keyword driven. What this means for you is that you’re going to need to think long and hard about what keywords to attach. You need to make sure to include as many relevant keywords as you can. Now, this does not mean flood your app with fifty different random keywords, it simply means to think of different words that could be used. For example, a weather app could use forecast as a keyword, but, you should use forecasts as well. The reason for this is because the App Store uses the word that the customer types exactly how he or she types it. So, if they type forecasts then apps that say only forecast won’t show up, and vice versa. One last note about this: the app description has no effect on searches, so don’t rely on it for your keywords.

5. Have you given any thought to your app’s icon? It may seem a bit on the silly side, but this is actually a fairly important point. There are a lot of people who will simply pass by an app with a poor icon. This is because they believe that the app itself will be as poorly made as the icon. If you’re not artistically inclined, don’t worry, there are a plethora of sites and systems that can help you design one.

6. Now that the app has been released and put on the app store, it’s time to start getting some buzz going for the finished product. The blogs you contacted earlier are a perfect place to do this. What you need to do is contact them about doing a review. Give them a copy of the app and they’ll usually be more than willing to do a review for you. This is an important thing to handle early to ensure quick sales. A good review on a decently sized blog can easily reach a few thousand people and potentially get the interest of a bigger review website.

7. So, the reviews went over well and snagged you a few thousand downloads. What do you do next? This is where word of mouth starts to come into play. You want to make sure to reach as many people as possible, so you should include some function in the app which posts to your choice of social media sites. This can be anything. Some brief examples would be a high score function for a game, posting recipes for a cookbook app, or a small piece of wisdom for a personal horoscope. Simply letting them put something on a social media site from your app will make sure that their friends and family are seeing your app’s name.

8. Another thing to keep in mind is to ask customers for a review. Blogs and review sites are popular, of course, but there’s nothing quite as convincing as a customer’s own opinion. There are several scripts out there that can help you include this function into your app, one of the most popular being Appirater. If you keep it friendly and make sure it’s a request, instead of a demand, most customers will be happy to write you a brief review.

10. The last tip is more for after your app has become fairly well known. After you’ve released it, start playing around to see if you can reduce the file size on it. The reason for this is that a lot of people prefer to download apps directly with their smart phone. If your app is above a certain file size this will become difficult or even impossible, depending on their service plan. It’s a small thing, but a lot of developers have noticed a huge increase in sales after they lowered their app’s file size.

Those are basically all the main tips you need. They’ll help you make sure that your app is seen by as many of the people who would get use out of it as possible. Beyond that, however, it’s all up to you. You need to sit down and follow the steps to make sure that your app is on the path to fame and huge sales.