5 Step Guide To Get More Mobile App Downloads
You just launched your app in the App Store or Google Play! Congratulations! But what’s next? Making sure that people actually find you and then download your app. With so many apps on the market, it’s becoming harder and harder to stand out — especially if you are a startup or SME without a big budget. Here are five simple steps to help you get more downloads for your new mobile app.
1. Get the Word Out
Like I said before, it’s really important that you get the word out about your brand. Word of mouth is the best way to get your name out there, so make sure you have some sort of system in place to keep in touch with your customers. It could be a newsletter or a blog that you update every week.
Understand what your app is and what it does. Perhaps you haven’t heard of the Product Hunt competition. The simple concept is to promote and discover new apps. Start by going to the creating your app page. This is where you should include the following information:
Make sure that your price points are set high enough to ensure a reasonable return on your app development efforts. Make sure that your app is easy to use and not over-engineered. Above all, make sure you spell out your slogan and make sure it’s easy to understand.
Include links to your social media pages as well. Even if you don’t have any followers, having links to these pages helps build your brand presence. Most app store and Google Play traffic come from social media platforms. These are important things, so it is important that the mobile app development company that is developing your product knows about them.
One of the most important SEO elements of an app is keywords. Based on user behavior, you should create your app store keywords which are like keywords as they appear in search engines but in an app context. Keywords are used mainly by users in-app store optimization to find your app. Double-tap on your app name in app stores to go to the App Store Keyword Board. From here, you can add keywords and start ranking your keywords.
Head to the App Developer Tools. When you start an app, if you scroll further down on the details page, you’ll see something like this. That’s your front-end traffic URL. It’s where search engines like Google and Apple connect with app store websites. There’s a slight catch. With the current app store algorithm, your app must be rated 4.5 or higher. That’s so app store profitability doesn’t depend too much on your keyword ranking.
2. Use Your Resources Wisely
When you’re starting out, you’re going to have limited resources, so you need to be smart about how you use them. It is important to go with a Mobile App Development Company that can give you good ROI. As an entrepreneur, you have an incredible tool at your disposal: the internet. There’s so much to discover and learn online, and you can use it to your advantage. Here are a few places to get you started.
- Google. Search for keywords that will draw the attention of your potential target audience. Find out the problems they are facing, and make sure you give them solutions. By finding this information out, you will be able to create relevant, personalized content that’s tailor-made for this audience. As a designer, you’re able to take a new insight and apply it to your design strategy.
- Your website — If you have a well-designed website, people will start seeing your app and might even end up downloading it. A well-designed and thoroughly executed website will make people want to visit your app to see more. If you’re marketing your brand to beginners or high schoolers, you need to make sure your website is educational and tailored toward this target group. Make sure your website’s content is accessible — and easy to read. Just as with a wrapper or brochure for an event, make sure the information is easy to find and easy to digest. With a website, you’re also able to engage with your audience in new ways.
- Your app store listing — The App Store is the first place people go to install mobile apps. Since it’s the largest app store in the world, user reviews are one of the most powerful tools you can have for your app. Be sure to take advantage of it and add helpful, relevant, and clear reviews to help your audience find you more easily.
- Your social media sites — As with any marketing, you’re going to need to engage with your audience on social media platforms. Make sure you are posting useful, relevant, and up-to-date content in your niche.
3. Make it Easy to Share Your App
It’s crucial to make it easy for people to share your app and refer it to their friends. This will help you grow your app’s user base. People don’t always have the time to leave a review but they’ll take a few seconds to share the app on social media or via text.
There are many tools you can use to track downloads and feedback about your app from day one. Some of the best are:
- Google Analytics: Launch your app and pull in the Google Analytics data later. Work out what’s working and what’s not — and take steps immediately to fix it! This will remind you of certain behavior patterns that you could improve. For example, you could look at unmet needs to discover if there is something more the app can do.
- Facebook: Startups love using Facebook to share and track releases and customer feedback. Track customer engagements using postcards. Job applicants also love using Facebook to create demand for their apps. Even your parents might have an app!
- Lastly, get as many press mentions as possible in official business publications. Getting mentioned by the likes of Forbes, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal is worth the effort.
Quick note: If you are seeking press mentions, try your best to not try and influence them. Do this on your own blog or with a guest post instead.
The best way to make a name for yourself and your business is to build it from the ground up. Alternatively, in sales, any experienced salesperson would disagree! Startups, SMEs, and tech companies have a great advantage over established companies in that they’re highly motivated and have experience in releasing products and marketing them. Therefore it’s crucial to set up as many stages of the sales funnel as possible.
4. Optimize for Mobile
Mobile is the future of the internet. Mobile usage continues to grow and it’s important that your business is optimized for mobile. If people can’t easily access your website or app on their phone, they’re going to move on to the next thing.
You need to think about the experience you want your users to have. And what will this experience look like in the future? This is where your mobile website comes into play.
Think about implementing something akin to a curation system in the background of your mobile website. Your curation system will act as a recommendation system for tapping relevant content in your mobile app. By doing so, your visitors will feel like you’ve found the content they were looking for before they even touch the homepage.
Like curation systems for Netflix, your curation system will encourage users to engage with your content by providing a recommendation matrix. One of the difficult parts about mobile apps is that users will have multiple devices. This is extremely hard for your mobile app to accommodate. To solve this SaaS business problem, you can coordinate the placement of a curated selection of content for your mobile website.
To begin implementing curation, it’s helpful to start simple. Include a few popular or relevant pages in your mobile web website — and ensure every piece of content is relevant and informative.
How many times have you felt like you over-ambiguous your web page to avoid sending potential customers off on Google or Facebook? Just like any other page on your website, make sure the content on your home page is informative and relevant.
By including relevant content in your website, you can more effectively fulfill the desire of suggesting relevant content in your mobile application. Try to adapt your homepage to match what’s seen on your mobile app.
Suggested: iPhone 13 Features That Impact Your Mobile Apps
5. Promote Locally
If you’re a small business, you may not have the resources to hire a PR agency or a marketing team. So instead, you should think about promoting locally. This means you should focus on your local community and get the word out about your business by doing things like going to local events and participating in local associations.
How do you promote your new app? First, determine where people are downloading apps! Go to App Tracking Indicator for iOS or Google Play for Android and look for any trends. You can narrow down your audience by region or even by your target keyword(s). For example, the U.S. App Tracking Indicator shows that people are mainly downloading fitness apps and games. Perhaps, if you dig a little bit, you can determine that people in your market are not signing up or using social media enough. You can use this information to reach out to local events or clubs in your city and try to get them to sign up with you. Being transparent and showing your supportive side is a great way to increase your app downloads.
Focus on a few key email newsletters. Instead of sending a mass email to your potential users, try focusing on a few key newsletters and focusing your outreach on these. For example, for the new health and fitness app, you might choose to focus on YMCA, Men’s Health, and Women’s Health newsletters. The newsletter content being shared around can be very targeted; why not try to get more people to sign up so that you can reach their audience even more?
Set up paid ads. The free profile ads may not be compelling enough to get some people to sign up. Rather, you can try turning to paid ads. These ads may be tricky to set up, but trust me, it gets easier after you do it a few times. If you are going to use paid ads, do your research on how to make sure they are effective and get special tools to help you.
Creating the app is the first step. Marketing it, getting traffic, and eventually making it successful is the goal.
Director @Anyalpha, a Top Software Development Company offering Mobile App Development and Website Development Services to Businesses & Startups.
