App developers are like book writers.
Even though they spend a huge amount of time, money, and energy to create a complex piece of work, there is still very little chance of them getting being discovered—that is unless they learn the basics of mobile app marketing and figure out how to engage potential users.
Searching for tools to help your business grow? Want to boost downloads? Check out our list of mobile marketing tactics that can noticeably improve your visibility, help you avoid digital marketing mistakes, and ensure as much engagement as much as possible.
1. Set up smart app banners on your website
This is probably one of the easiest app growth hacking tools because all you have to do is constantly remind the visitors of your website that you have an app. For instance, here is a smart app banner on language-learning platform Preply:
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As you can see, the banner is a pretty inconspicuous ad at the top of the page, humbly reminding visitors that the Preply app is available for iOS and Android. It contains the icon, some details of the app and an install button.
If the application hasn’t been installed yet, clicking on the banner will take you to the app store. If the app has been already installed, users can click on the banner to open it.
The main advantage of smart app banners is that they do not push. This tool allows your visitors to interact with a mobile website without any restrictions then convert into full app users whenever they are ready.
2. Use app store optimization (ASO)
Forty percent of applications are discovered with the help of an app store search. That’s why our next mobile application marketing hack is app store optimization, which is also known as app store marketing, mobile app SEO, or simply ASO.
ASO helps boost app downloads, increases brand exposure and enhance audience engagement. It has a lot of similarities in approach with traditional search engine optimization (SEO), making it easy to adopt and adapt to—the app store is a closed site search engine that relies on indexation and ranking algorithms just like Google or Bing. Thus, traditional SEO tactics such as URL optimization, keyword research, and deep linking can also be applied to ASO.
3. Learn the essentials of SEO
If 40% of the apps are found through the app store search, where are the rest of the app users coming from? Well, 27% of traffic is coming from organic SEO—the practice mentioned above. Unlike ASO, which focuses only on mobile app stores, SEO techniques are developed for improving the results of web searches. We strongly advise using them both.
4. Promote your app using emails
Email is another great way to market a mobile application. It does not cost much and is easy to share and target. Plus with emails, you can reach hundreds of potential app users across the globe in just a few minutes.
How does it work? Well, let’s have a look at a promotional email from a file hosting service Dropbox:
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As you can see, it’s a concise, single-purpose message promoting Dropbox’s mobile app. It has a simple header, a clear call to action button, and a subtle P.S. text. That’s it.
Even though it looks easy, this marketing tactic can bring you pretty impressive results—email marketing still demonstrates the highest ROI for online marketers.
5. Partner with influencers
The influencer marketing industry will be worth an estimated $15 billion by 2022. Consumers have become much more skeptical of TV and outdoor advertisements, but they trust the people they follow on social media, and that brings us to our next app marketing hack: partnering with influencers.
Proposing a partnership with a blogger or influencer is a powerful way to get new users to your app. It will also effectively raise awareness and give some credibility to your product.
Sure, this method is not as cheap as sending emails, but that doesn’t mean influencer marketing isn’t an affordable technique for all budgets. Remember: if you don’t have money for Kardashians, you can always reach out to more niche micro-influencers.
6. Run Facebook ads
The main benefit of Facebook ads is specificity. They allow you to target your audience as closely as you like based on numerous things like age, gender, culture, country, interests, etc. Moreover, you can take targeting a step further and choose to show your ads to users with specific devices. For instance, you could use this feature to advertise your IOS app to iPhone users and its Android version to Samsung users.
A word to the wise: do not narrow your targeting too much. Shrinking the audience can increase your conversion rate, but the traffic will be so expensive that even a 50% conversion rate won’t help you. Instead, try to find a balance—consider details but keep your client base large enough to maintain a decent reach.
7. Market your app on Instagram
Instagram is another effective social media marketing platform for driving app installs and engaging users. This social network reached 1 billion monthly users in June 2018, has the best engagement numbers of all social platforms, and definitely is not going to slow down.
Instagram’s ads are native-style, which means your product ad will flow and fit naturally into the user’s photostream—a great advantage. Thanks to the singular scrolling layout of Instagram, you have an opportunity to obtain singular, focused attention from a user instead of promoting your app on sidebars or nose-to-nose with competing content.
However, this approach also has its downsides: Instagram marketing requires very strong imagery. Low-quality content and inexpressive brand identity will fail you immediately—Instagram users are highly visual and won’t go for mediocre ads.
Get your app the attention it deserves
Mobile app marketing requires attention to detail and a coherent multi-faceted approach. Your task is not only to create a cool app but consistently promote it through as many channels as possible so the world knows it actually exists and wants to download it.
Try new tools, navigate through marketing techniques, and find those that work perfectly for your product. Once you find them, your app will keep growing and evolving naturally, bringing you absolutely stunning results.
