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THE IOS APP ADVERTISING STRATEGY GUIDE (PART 4)

If you are looking for some really useful advertising strategies which will definitely work out, have a look at this extended mobile promotion guide!

Here is the last part of our super useful mobile app advertising guide. We do hope these tips can help you bringing many of your ideas to life and your app can become really successful. Do not forget to check out https://applead.net/en to find more information about mobile app marketing services. Enjoy your reading!

Advertise your app with the help of a good video

Video in mobile app industry is probably one of the most efficient and powerful ways to get your message across. You may think that we are tendentious, but we are certainly not the only ones who are sure in it. If it is done right, a good demo video for mobile app could bring you a few marketing benefits. First, it may help you increase your application visibility, boost user retention and engagement and receive more (qualified) new downloads. And we do not even mention branding and also SEO benefits.

Nowadays people are very demanding, and they usually do not have time for downloading every app which they read or hear about. It is true for owners of smart phones and journalists or bloggers alike. A great demo video can let you show in a very brief time what your application is all about. It can sound cliché but that is really true: if an ordinary picture is worth a hundred of words, just imagine what results a good video may achieve. Here are presented several useful tips which can help you produce an effective demo video:

Get to know to your audience. Remember about your application potential users at all times when making your video and script;

Make a script. It is going to save you lots of time and let you ensure that the message which you convey is right. Just like in case with your website, you should not be afraid to get some feedback on the script (before you start creating your video). If you could, try to make it more emotional and story telling;

Make it brief (from 20 seconds to one minute). You can be tempted to demonstrate every great feature of your new app, but the fact is that people are not going to take the time and watch your  three minutes long video;

Focus mainly on the benefits and add some value. You should focus your attention on what makes your product unique and worth installing. Avoid boring phrases and keep things dynamic;

Make it effective. Your main goal is to demonstrate what your application is all about, but you should make people remember it and give them an   opportunity to download it. Ensure that you display the name of your app, its icon and a direct call to action inviting your viewers to download this app on the app stores. Indicating your website address can help as well.

Be simple. If you are not an expert in videos, it is much safer to be simple not using some complicated scenario or crazy and cheap-looking effects. A simple structure will be enough.

So you have made (or hired a professional to make) an awesome and effective video, and now you can use it everywhere for advertising your app. Some App stores (like Amazon and Google Play) have been letting you add your video there for a while. You could (and must) use your video on your personal website as well, at events, tradeshows, in your public relations attempts and when advertising on social media. After trying your new app out, people who are watching your application video is probably the best thing which could happen. Get an advantage out of it.

Paid advertisements

Paid promotion is becoming an essential part of online and app advertising to an increasing extent. The great thing is that such platforms as Facebook are still available to the most part of app developers as they can afford it. And even in case you cannot really afford to do a full-time advertising campaign, you may still spend a little amount of money in order to get some very valuable information.

For instance, let’s suppose that you have created a messaging application. In your advertisements you may test messages which advertise various features in your mobile app. You may run ads which will be highlighting games, free messaging or phone calls and the best stickers. Then you can see which ones work best for you. When you understand what attracts your target audience, it makes advertising your app just a bit easier.

Deep linking

Time passes, and deep linking strategy becomes more and more significant to mobile app marketers. It is especially true for those apps which have lots of content. Deep linking is kind of a bridge between mobile applications and the web. When user is on a mobile device, a deep link may send them directly to the corresponding app content. And if this user does not still have your app on their device, they may be suggested to install it. So you may see that it lets mobile app publishers leverage the web in order to increase downloads, instead of just relying on App Store mechanisms.

Lifetime customer value

If you still do not know about the lifetime value of your clients, you are not going to find out exactly how much you should spend on getting the new ones. But it may be a tricky thing to measure as the user value is not always simple. However, you still have to do this in order to get more users.

The viral loop importance

A viral loop is giving your customers a desire to share information about your product with their relatives and friends. A traditional example is when a mobile application gives users the chance to show off their friends tweeting their high score. Keep in mind that viral loops usually do not perform great on your first try. It takes a few iterations in order to get it right, so keep doing it and improve each part of this process. 

Do “real-life” advertising

Honestly, we have not had with it much experience. We did try to use flyers and such kind of things, but there was not much of success. It does not actually mean that it is not going to work for your app: some thinking out of the box could sometimes do wonders. If you decide to try it, ensure that you measure it so that you might know if it really works or not. You have to go and meet other people at exhibitions, conferences and meet-ups. However, at such events receiving some feedback is more significant than selling people on the mobile application.

Cross-advertise your product

It is really huge. In case you are quite serious about making a mobile app business, then you have to build more than just one application. If your potential users are practically the same group of people in all these various apps, you have a great opportunity for cross-advertising. It means that even a free version of your application, with no income model whatsoever, may be an awesome first step to the future apps which generate income.

You may cross-advertise on your personal app website as well, you can do it on your own blog, within your apps, on your email list, on social media, by sending people push notifications, providing that the message which you are sending is relevant to those who receive it. In case you are just a beginner and you have only one mobile app, you may contact other app developers with applications targeting the same product niche (but of course not your direct competitors) and suggest them doing a partnership. You may start with tweets, in-application messages, whatever and then see where it goes.

Surprise people on app launch day

The day of the launch for your mobile application has to be the peak of your “advertising crescendo” . Everything we have talked about should lead to this moment. Except maybe if you go for a soft launch (or want to present your application in another country first in order to test the waters), it is high time for you to make as much buzz around your new app as it is possible. That is when you have to get journalists or bloggers to write about your product (if they also publish a direct link to the App Store page, ensure that your application is actually out there – it usually takes some time for it to become accessible worldwide).

You have to inform all people who showed interest in your app, gave you some feedback and also those who helped you that your application is ready: Facebook friends and fans, email list contacts, Twitter followers, readers of your blog, forum buddies, app developers and real-life friends… just everyone! With a new App Store for iOS 6 categories are sort of hidden. So unluckily, even in case you have done a great job and become pretty high in the charts of your category, it will not give you so much visibility. But it does not actually mean that you should no try to generate as much noise and downloads as you may. Give your application in people’s hands, receive high ratings and build momentum.

Refine engagement with the help of push notifications

In app industry, push notifications may be a wonderful instrument to send significant information to your users and make them come back to using your app again and again: new available content which they really care about, some special offers, cross advertising, etc. Your customers do not necessarily check your app out too often, but in case they have it on their mobile devices, it should mean that they thought it brings some value. And you do not have to be afraid to contact them.

Select the right advertising campaigns

Playing with the price of your application and making advertising is a great way to increase your app downloads which will hopefully enhance your income as well. There are a few things that you could do on your own so that people may notice the change of your mobile app price, but the more efficient way to increase downloads is by far using the services of a third party that specializes in application download increasing.

It will not often be free (though it might happen). And maybe sometimes it can be pretty expensive. However, many of the given apps have millions of active users, and being characterized could give a great visibility increase to your application. If your mobile app has everything we have already talked about here, then you may not just easily make it to the top charts (at least, in some countries) but also stay there for some time. It is enough for building a solid base of users.

Measure, refine and keep advertising

There are lots of things which you should do before the launch of your app, but advertising does not stop several days after your product has been presented. You should measure what performs great and continue doing it. You have to refine your application so that your users could be both happy and interested. …and you should keep finding new useful ways to make people talking about your product and sharing it with friends.

Summing up

Advertising your application cannot be an afterthought. That is not just a one-time effort either. It is all about:

Creating the right application and making it right, with your potential     users and keeping your user experience in mind;

Understanding what makes your customers come back to using your mobile app, and what actually makes them share it with friends;

Listening carefully to your users and other app developers’ feedback, finding out how people can use your new mobile app so that you could refine it;

Making an online presence, demonstrating your application in its best     light;

Making people interested and keeping their interest;

Optimizing the page on app store so that as many potential users as it is possible could find you out there;

Contacting the right way those people who may be interested in your application so that they talk about your new product;

Doing cross advertising with your other relevant applications or other app developers’ products;

Selecting the right promo campaigns which can give your application an increase when it requires it;

Keeping on measuring in order to find out what works great and what actually does not, refining your application and advertising it.

Yes, that is not that easy. But it could be rewarding, and you are going to learn lots of new things. If you received at least one great idea from this extra useful advertising guide, then share it with other people who could benefit from it. And here is your turn. We would love to hear your ideas and thoughts on what works best and what does not in the comments section. Do not forget to check out our new offers on mobile marketing here.

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THE IOS APP advertising STRATEGY GUIDE (PART 3)

What can be a key to your success in mobile app development? The right chosen advertising strategy. Check out the most useful and easy mobile tips.

Here is the third part of our extra useful app advertising strategy guide. Enjoy more tips and useful advices on mobile app marketing and do not forget to check out https://applead.net/en and use the professional services of our specialists!

Receive some feedback

You have an awesome idea, have already done the research and know that you are creating the application which your potential users want and really need. That is great. But would not your new product get even better if you asked your targeted audience for feedback as well? Do not you think that your app will be much cooler if you ask your developer colleagues for their opinion about the app you are creating? Just your ideas are not worth much. The execution of these ideas really counts.

So stop thinking that people are just going to steal your awesome idea. Most part of them does not really care about your product, and even if they love your idea (or have thought about it before) the chances are that as you are already making it, they will not. Anyway, everyone can steal your idea after your app has been released (and they will also know what people really like or dislike about your version). So here is our recommendation: consult someone on your idea, just everyone who is willing to listen to you. Take into account what they can say.

Feedback via social media and your own blog

We have already mentioned it in the previous part that you might use your personal blog and accounts on different social media in order to make people interested and get in contact. If you have such online presence, then ask your subscribers on Twitter what they actually think about your new mobile idea. You may discover the competitors that you had not even thought about and also get some interesting ideas.

Early on you have to ask the visitors of your blog, fans and subscribers what they think about the designs of your new app: its icon, your home screen and other things. You have four different icon concepts and you hesitate which of them will be better? Share it with people and they will help you make a decision.

Feedback via crowd-sourcing campaign

Such campaign may greatly help you with a few things. Of course, it is a good way to receive some money for your app development and advertising. However, it is also an efficient way to receive early feedback, make people interested and generate some buzz around your mobile app. No one really cares about your new project? Well, then something is wrong with it. Probably your pitch is not that good, or your approach is not right.

You can make people follow you, they are really excited about your upcoming app and offer you different ideas? Then you are on the right way, and your future users are going to share your new mobile app with their friends when it is ready. However, do not get us wrong, a crowd-sourcing campaign is really a difficult task. Especially for you app, as there are lots of them. You require a great online network, video and pitch (and a nice dose of hustle as well).

Pre-launch feedback due to third-party websites

With the increasing difficulty for mobile app developers to get their new mobile applications in the users’ hands, some “pre-launch” mobile platforms have been developed. The main goal for such websites is to cause some interest and following in upcoming mobile apps, and let mobile app developers receive feedback on their new designs, ideas and the market they are getting into.

Feedback from app developers and other people in mobile industry

It is obvious that you want some feedback from your potential users. But receiving the opinions of other app developers about your new app is important as well. They are creating or have been creating a few apps, tried plenty of mobile applications and they do know what they like and dislike. Your colleagues may share the things which worked for them and which did not, and what they think might work for your app. They could point to your design’s flaws, or mistakes in your pitch or advertising strategy. They might help you discover an awesome blog which may help you get started or just get better.

Go to conferences, interact on Twitter, different forums, discuss your app in special groups on Facebook and get the advices of the experts. But do not spend there all your time. And keep in mind that sometimes you should give before you get, so do not hesitate to help other people and try to bring some value. Thank people who are helping you.

Feedback from the influencers and your target audience

In case you have identified a particular niche for your mobile application, you should reach out to people who are likely to be quite interested in it. If you are making an app around something you are really passionate about, then you should know the forums and other places online where people tend to discuss your hobby. If you are new to this niche, you have to start looking and interacting on websites where your target users are.

Do not spam and irritate people with your mobile app idea. Just start making a “relationship” with them earlier, introduce the thing you are now working on and identify the influencers in your niche. Find out who is quite knowledgeable in your product niche, who has written books or just has a strong following on the topic you are interested in. Then contact these people.

The same thing here, do not spam and ask them to discuss your app to all people they know. You have to choose a humble approach and ask for their ideas and feedback on how to make your new app better. Do not make your email letter too long and respect their time. Suggest them testing an early version of the app, for instance.

Feedback from awards and app contests

Submit your application to any award and contest you may apply to. It is a great opportunity to get some more exposure (and increase downloads) and it is also ideal for getting experts` thoughts about your new product. If it is a “real-life” competition where you should present your application in person, it is a great occasion for you to meet with your contestants and people in the mobile industry and ask for their opinion.

Localize your app

In case English is not your native (or second native) language, then localization is absolutely necessary. You may start with presenting your app in a language which almost no one speaks in the world, but if you really want your new mobile app to succeed, then you should consider localization process. If your application is created in English first, in this case localization could make sense as well.

If your mobile application starts getting some traction in the native language markets, you should keep an eye on how your product is actually doing in other countries which speak various languages. Especially important are the ones with high growth (such as Russia, China, Argentina, Israel, etc.).

Translating the name of your product and the app store page into another language may increase your app downloads greatly. It could bring you more unhappy users as well, but the benefits are too great not to use them. However, localization is much more than just ordinary translation. You should go some further and localize your application so that it fits the culture of the targeted market and so that it could be well understood by all these users.

Consider the app store optimization

Okay, so you cannot count just on your page in the App Store to increase your downloads. But does it actually mean that you do not have to do everything you could in order to give your new application as much visibility as it is even possible on the App Store? And do everything you could to turn the ordinary visitors into your active users? Nope! ASO is maybe a little overrated, but it is the thing you should do and the decision you should make in order to receive the most downloads. Some of the things are easy to do and quite obvious, but it never hurts to do them.

Pick up the right name for your app and required keywords;

Design a beautiful app icon, connected to the design of the app;

Choose your most explicit screenshots, and think about     adding text captions in order to explain them;

Write a good application description (keep in mind the copywriting tips) which makes people reading it want to download it and try it out;

Make your app ratings better (we talked about it at the very beginning)

Make your app be reviewed

In case you do not have lots of money which you might invest in promotion process, then your application future success mainly depends on the coverage which you can get. You requite people to learn about your new application. And a perfect way to make it happen is a good blog post or an interesting article on a widely-known website. It is not that easy, since all bloggers and journalists are pretty solicited every day and just do not have time to try out every single mobile application. It means that you need to pitch it the right way and to the right people.

Some words on paid app reviews

Some of the mentioned blogs might ask you for some money in exchange for a great blog post about your product. If you make a decision to pay, ensure that it is really worth that and that it is actually going to bring you the loyal customers. Ensure that your potential users read this blog as maybe your money would be spent elsewhere better.

Determine your blog and press contacts

Do not waste your and other people’s time: pitch your mobile application to those people who might be really interested in it. Contact individuals and try to avoid mass emails. It will take you some more time, but it will guarantee you that your chances will increase. Find out who writes about your type of mobile applications and the best blogs where your app can be covered on. But do not be afraid to target smaller blogs first.

Try to figure out the newspapers which might cover your mobile app. Check out the most popular of them and find those journalists who specialize in writing about mobile apps. Talking about “traditional” journalists, a good press release is also a great thing to have. Check out the ones who talked and are still talking about the kind of app which you are planning to launch. Reach out to them and ask them for some feedback. Figure out if there are any magazines in your application niche which might care about your application and which you might contact.

Pitch Ideal

Knowing exactly whom to contact is your first step. Now you should make this group of people really interested to read your email, try out your new product and then write about it. Different bloggers and journalists usually get lots of emails on a daily basis, but they cannot review all of the apps suggested. However, they keep looking for awesome new applications and stories to discuss (it is actually their job). In order to do that, you require the right pitch.

You need not only the perfect sentence which can explain what your mobile app is all about and for what reason their audience has to care about it, but you also have to ensure that you have included some major elements into your email, such as:

The name of your app as it is presented on the App Store;

Mention your main audience, what your application does and why its approach is original;

The price of the app;

A direct link to your app page on the App Store (or personal website);

A couple of your greatest screenshots;

A brief promo video;

Contact information and Skype ID.

Also, it will not hurt to greet this person by their name, and demonstrate that you know and like what they have been writing (or other things they might be doing). In case they answer to your email and show that they are interested in trying out your product, you should send them some promo codes.

Tell your story

Some mobile applications have some really awesome stories behind them. And if you have an interesting story to tell about your own mobile app, do not hesitate to do it. Put it down, and use it when you will be contacting different bloggers and journalists.

Do not turn down your opportunities

In case your application has become successful and people really like it, there are great chances that you will be contacted by others. As much as you could do, send them the promo codes which they need and accept to do interviews and answer their questions. You will never know who is going to read or listen to it.

Did you like this part? Share your opinion in the comments section! The last part of our guide is coming up soon! And if you do not want to wait or are afraid to make a mistake, trust us with your app marketing and see the benefits of cooperation here. Good luck!

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THE IOS APP ADVERTISING STRATEGY GUIDE (PART 2)

Waiting for new helpful information in mobile app marketing? You are in the right place. Find the best advertising strategy following simple tips.

Here is the second part of our super efficient mobile app advertising guide. We hope you liked the previous part and are ready for more useful tips to learn, so…enjoy! Also do not forget about more parts coming up soon and please check out https://applead.net/en in order to see our best offers on mobile app marketing. So let’s get started! Measure user retention and find out how people use your mobile app

App downloads are of course very significant, and they are actually a key metric of your future success. But like we have already mentioned, it is not all about downloads. If you want to get good income from your iPad or iPhone app, you should make people come back to it again and again. You have already done your best to build a nice user experience and created a beautiful design. You always listen to feedback when your users give it to you, both online and in real life.

But some users may not use your iOS mobile app the way you expected. So it would be really good to know how long they use it, how many times they are coming back, whether they share your app with friends, what app features they are using (and which of them you should remove). The great news is that there are many nice instruments (and some of them are absolutely free) which can let you do it. Just choose the one you like and learn more.

Measure the effectiveness of your app advertising channels

In order to promote your mobile app, you should try all kinds of things, different methods and strategies. You have to make people know about it by efficient channels so it would be nice to know which of them are effective. Knowing that, you can decide what is really worth it and what is absolutely not. You may focus on the things which bring the most downloads, or on the things which bring the highest income. Such instruments as Distimo’s AppLink, Yozio or Tapstream can let you do it. For Android mobile applications, Google Mobile App Analytics could let you do the same thing.

Advertising exchange

If you are just a beginner in app development, the chances are that you have a quite limited budget. Probably, you cannot afford to promote on mobile apps where users will be interested in your app as well. Such service as TapForTap can let you do free tap exchange: you just trade clicks with other mobile app developers. You demonstrate advertisements for other mobile apps, earn the credits and spend them for your own product. If you do not mind using the ad banner (you may have an in-application purchase which includes its removal), it could be a great way to distribute information about your new app.

Creating your own website is essential

You cannot rely just on your page in the App Store. You should make people easily find out about your new app on the web. You require a place to refer them to (journalists, bloggers, and strangers). And you also should build a community around your product. It means that having at least your own website (and maybe even a blog) and using the major social media platforms is essential. When should you do it? Right now! You not only need a good website (or a page at least), but you also should create it asap. You will eventually need one for branding and support, so you might as well use it before launching the app.

You may start with an email list subscription form and a landing page, then you can add your blog and download links and finally add proves and positive user reviews. So right after you choose the name of your app, its main concept and a couple of screenshots designs, you have to go ahead and make your app website.

The major elements your app website should have

The website is that place where you may demonstrate your new product in its best light and show it to the visitors, and also a place where you may easily explain the problems you are solving with your app. You should make it simple to scan and read. There are a few key elements you have to include (or consider at least):

The name of your app and its icon;

List of devices on which it is available (with the screenshots of the app inside or a video capture);

Application pitch: a brief sentence which will explain what your mobile app really is and why it is a must have product;

App store badges where the application may be downloaded;

A direct CTA: before launch it is mailing-list subscription form, after - download button;

App advertising video: the fastest way for people to initially estimate     your new app;

Elements of social proof (after app has been released): user reviews, testimonials, Apple features, awards won, etc.;

Major screenshots and benefits: you have to explain in details what real value your product brings and demonstrate its major screenshots;

Support and contact info: be easily reachable to both your users and bloggers;

Info about social media: direct links to your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.;

Press kit: you still need the one even if you think it is outdated;

Direct links to your other products (in case you have them, and in case it is relevant to your new application audience).

Blog or not to blog, here is the question…

Some app developers truly believe that a personal blog for a mobile application is not especially useful. Some of them are sure that a blog for a business is absolutely not useful. We have built our own business around content advertising and we share things on our personal blog (and awesome app videos). So you probably already know what we think about all that.

For your new mobile app, a personal blog is a perfect way to:

Make your current and future users interested in your product sharing the building process and designs of your app;

Keep them curious about what is happening: app launch, different updates and new useful features;

Share new interesting content about your app niche, your main mission, or you can even teach people something useful: a productivity application may have a blog with helpful tips on being even more productive and, for instance, a football application can let them know about main football news, players, etc.

The more interesting content you share with your users, the more visibility your new mobile app is getting.

Copywriting

It is a great thing to have a blog and website for your new mobile app. But in case your content sucks, then it will not be much help. If your application pitch includes ten sentences, people will not just bother to read it. In case your blog posts are boring and full of typos, you will not be able to make people interested, and you could not turn your visitors into your customers. And if the content of the app description at App store page is turning people away, then your app will not probably become successful.

You have to make people really want to get your product. You can be perfect at designing and coding the app, but you also should get better at copywriting and advertising. Luckily for you, there are a few great websites which can help you become better at it.

Inbound and content advertising

Yeah, you get it right: you totally need to do App Store Optimization. However, you also should make it easy for people to find you in the Internet. You cannot depend just on the App Store as your basic advertising channel. Forget about paying users for links and web directories. You should start making and sharing useful and interesting content so that people get to know to it and then find you. We know that it is easier said than actually done. Sometimes it is very difficult to find out whether it is working (as it really takes time) or what is working. Do you remember what we said some time earlier about measuring your advertising effectiveness?

That is what it is actually for. Try to give it some time, it is not going to happen overnight. In case you are planning to create a few apps for the same marketing niche, content advertising is a perfect way to go. All the content which you will create could potentially benefit any of the given applications! And if Apple changes its app store once again, you will not suffer so much even in case things do not go your way. By making and sharing nice content you are also demonstrating that there is a real person (or team) behind this app, building trust.

The right CTA

After your mobile app has been already released, you probably want the visitors of your app website to download it. Do not get your potential customers look for these download buttons! You should make a visible CTA. Paste the app store badges and think about adding another one. In case it makes some sense, use new services accessible such as mobile app distribution by means of SMS or sending download links right to customers` mobile phones. If your product is not ready yet, your call to action should be the subscription button to the app`s email list.

What is on the list

Mobile app developers still do not use all the opportunities that mailing lists can give. People signing up for your email news-sheet are those people you can reach easily, and interact. Providing that they are still subscribed, such users can give you the right to contact them directly by email. Facebook statuses, tweets or other social media platforms may be quite useful. But the greatest way to ensure that your targeted users receive information is still usage of their emails. It is your main job to select the right subject lines and write the right things so that they keep opening your letters.

Here are several ways you might use your email news-sheet:

Estimate the interest that people have in your new product (there are still no sign ups? Maybe you are doing something wrong);

Keep your users informed about the date of your app launch. Again, do not forget to mention again what actually your app does, so that they may remember you;

Ask your users for feedback;

Let them know about your crowd-funding campaign;

Ask your users to vote for your mobile application for a contest or award;

Let people know about latest news and milestones.

When you got your news-sheet going, continue sending emails on a regular basis (but not that often) so that people do not forget you.

App Store connection

You probably already know that Apple and Google stores take its share (around 30%) on every mobile app you sell or in-application purchase which you generate. It sort of sucks, but you cannot do anything t change it as they let you spread and advertise your product on their stores. It does not matter how you actually feel about it, we are sure that you do not want to miss the opportunity to receive extra 5%. And not only when people buy your app, but also in case they purchase anything during the next 72 hours on the iTunes store (providing that they do not click on the other affiliate link).

Twitter

We have already mentioned Twitter when discussing your online presence. An account on Twitter for your mobile app could also make lots of sense. Plenty of early adopters prefer to use Twitter, and it is a nice platform where you can interact with them. You might use Twitter in order to share interesting content on your app niche, the latest news about your app, or even use it for support.

You might also effectively use Twitter in order to contact bloggers and journalists. It will not always work great (especially if these people do not know you and your product) and sometimes it will be better to do it on your own account, but your tweet with a promo video might be quite powerful.

Facebook

According to your application and your main audience, a page on Facebook could make lots of sense as well. If you are planning to share pictures, videos or longer texts - Facebook should totally be considered. In any case, you have to create it and save the same name. Such page may be a perfect way to make your current and potential users interested in your new product.

You may ask them for their opinion about your designs, what they would like to see in your mobile app in the future, you might share the great news, etc. Practically the same things you may do via your email list. Do not make it just about your mobile app, though. Not advertising only. There are chances that people will get pretty annoyed with it and just stop following you in case your Facebook page is one huge ad.

Google+

If content advertising is a part of your marketing strategy to attract more users, then you have to link your personal app blog to your account on Google+. It is totally worth it, even in case it is just for a great picture of you which it displays in the search results. Sharing your website direct links takes just a few seconds, so why not to try it?

Did you like this part of our guide? Check out here for more information about mobile marketing services we provide. Do not miss your chance to be successful!

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THE IOS APP advertising STRATEGY GUIDE (PART 1)

After several mobile application launches on our own, reviewing some more, talking with different mobile app developers and also testing awesome services, we now have a pretty nice idea of what could be done in order to make a mobile application a real success. We have been sharing our experiences in four articles and want to answer the questions which we have got from our readers, such as:

How could I go about presenting a new iOS mobile app?

What could I do in order to ensure that     people will be downloading my new mobile app?

This article is actually meant to teach you kind of everything we know about presenting and advertising an iPhone or iPad mobile apps. It should not be too exhaustive (at least, we are trying to do our best in order to make the articles interesting). Every mobile app is different, and so is the advertising strategy. But it is a great starting point which gives you the options which you could experiment with. So here is the first part of our terrific app advertising strategy guide! Enjoy! (More on mobile app marketing and professional services at reasonable prices you can find here https://applead.net/en).

Make your online presence

It is very important to set up your own online presence, which does not depend on your product. Just face it, the most part of your mobile app advertising is going to be done online, so you have to engage your potential audience on those mediums. In the given section, we are going to show you why a strong online (or mobile) presence is vital and how you can start making it right away.

Creating your own online presence is also significant as it helps you set up a following independent from your product employment or even the companies which you start. For instance, let’s say that you create a healthy following on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Perhaps you have around 30 000 followers in total.

When you present your new product, you have these 30 000 followers whom you could demonstrate your new mobile app. It might or might not lead to lots of downloads, but this is totally better than starting from nothing. Now…let’s assume your mobile application does not perform very well. Perhaps you would like to go out and find a new job, create another mobile app or even start your own company in absolutely different industry. You could make use of your own following in any future attempt.

Such people as Gary Vaynerchuk have created a huge personal brand which they could make use of in any of their new projects. Find out how you could do the same thing.

Places where you can start making a following

First, you should consider establishing your personal website. It should not be fancy, just a brief paragraph about your product, your company and a contact form will be enough. It can help your credibility as you took your time and created the whole website…and hopefully, you have your .com name domain, do you? Next, you should look for the places where you can interact with needed people.

On Facebook you may join special groups where you will meet other app developers and companies and also share experience. New groups pop up all the time, so you should take some time and find what you need. Also pay attention to setting your personal Facebook page. Yeah, it might seem a bit narcissistic, but you could always reserve this page and make it private. Use the page as a pubic place where you can share your ideas, especially in case you keep private your own Facebook account.

Then, Twitter is perhaps the next greatest place to use. Those people who will not respond to emails are going to respond to your tweets. So put your thoughts about Twitter to the side and give it a try. After that, look at such online communities as Reddit, Instagram, YouTube and Quora where you may start talking to people and making a reputation. Provide others with true value and they will follow you.

Maintain your idea

You probably think that your iPhone or iPad mobile app idea is awesome. But it would not hurt to ensure, right? You will be putting lots of your time, sums of money and efforts into creating your app. So you should be totally sure that people are actually looking for such app as yours. So the first thing to do is to determine the demand. You have to know what type of download volumes and income you may expect from this app. Try to find all the mobile apps similar to yours on the App Store. Contrary to the general opinion, having prosperous competitors can be a nice thing.

You just should not have TOO many of them. Such apps available out there show that there is a market for your product. Only you can decide whether you could make a better app, let it be slightly different or advertise it better. If there are no similar apps (or the current ones are not performing quite well), then you have to reconsider your idea.

Now when you have a list of your competitors, it is time to find out how many downloads they are having and how much income they are actually making. You may use a special platform to get estimates. Keep in mind that any download or income numbers which you receive from these platforms will be numbers basing on their algorithms. So it will be useful to compare a few platforms.

Review mining

It does not actually matter if you are creating a seasonal mobile application, targeting a niche market or surfing a trend. You need to analyze what your competitors are doing and read users reviews about their products on the App Store. Thus you can find out what you may improve, how other mobile apps do and what is missing on the marketplace.

The easiest way to get started is read one and five star app reviews. The first can show you what people want to change - these things you should certainly do well, as your competitors do not. Then you need to examine the five-star user reviews in order to see what this product does really well. These are the things which you should do great as well, in case you want to be able to compete.

Sometimes, two and four-star app reviews can be even better as they are providing nice feedback instead of expressing their anger or love for this mobile app. Your product should differ, have an original approach. Review mining can help you find this out.

Pick up your income model

Understand how you could make money. We see two cases when you do not actually need an income model:

You are creating an iPad or iPhone mobile app as your     hobby;

You just want to get users to cross advertise     with other mobile apps.

If it is not your goal, then you have to find out where you could get income from: subscriptions, paid application, ads, in-application purchases, selling a product or service or a mix of those.

Pick up the price for your app

It relates to the previous point. You may decide that your product is free and receive income from in-application purchases. But you still need to decide how much to charge for them. In case you have a paid mobile application, then you may experiment with the price, but be careful of the image which you give to the potential audience. It is simpler to start with a high price and gradually do price drops, than suddenly increasing the price twice. The cost you may charge usually depends on your users and your product. Some people will happily buy it for $9.99, others can be reluctant to pay you over $0.99.

Pick up the right app name

Selecting the right name for any product is not that easy and mobile applications are no exception. We would recommend you to find a name which not only sounds great, but also is quite descriptive and has the main keyword. In case you have a camera application, you should find a name which suggests cameras or photography. When calling up your iOS mobile app, you will also require an “extended app name”: your mobile application name and several keywords to make it absolutely clear what the app is all about. This is significant so that the users could find it when checking out your app page.

Start advertising inside your app

App advertising does not have to be an afterthought. It will be useless to advertise a weak mobile application, and there are particular aspects which need to be considered from the very start.

1. UX

The user experience of your new mobile app is vital for its future success. Your product has to be simple to use right from the very beginning (you will not get more than a few seconds of attention). Some people think that in case your mobile application requires a walkthrough, then you blew it. It is probably not true, but understood. People may not use your product as you were forecasting, but you still need to do your best in order to make it simple for them to use the basic app features.

2. Design

You require a stunning design of your app. If you are not a professional designer, you should hire a nice one. It, in our opinion, is probably one of the best of your investments. Your design should be coherent. It means that the various parts of your mobile application must have the same feel. Also any visual asset which you are creating (including the icon of your app) has to be consistent with the design of your application. Remember that details do matter. Such small things as sounds and the way things move are giving a general great feeling to your users and could make some difference.

3. User retention

It is the most difficult part to get right. If your iPhone or iPad mobile application is great and you advertise it right, you must get some attention. You have to be able to make your app reviewed, receive some downloads and place it in the people’s hands. Mobile app reviews and high download rates are well. Congratulations, now you have people who are interested enough to buy and download your product. And now what?

Will they use it just for 30 seconds and then leave? Will they come back to your app twice and after that never open it one more time? Or even worse, will they just uninstall your app? You cannot rely just on push notifications. The user experience and concept of your mobile app have to be such so that people continue coming back to it.

4. Share mechanisms (aspect of virality)

That is another difficult part (yeah, there are a few of them). Getting in the top charts is really difficult, but possible. But it is much more difficult to stay there. In all cases, you will need to keep on advertising your mobile application and giving it that attention which it truly deserves. You also need your users to become your advertisers. You require your users to talk about your new mobile app with their friends. You requite your users to share the content on their own.

It means that you need to find out what could be “viral” about your new mobile application which will let people share content and make great use of social media by means of Facebook. These “shareable” aspects are going to fully depend on your mobile application, and are your key to success.

5. Customer engagement and feedback

Making your users happy is essential for your mobile application’s success. Receiving good app ratings (4.5+) and positive user reviews helps to enhance the conversion on the page of your mobile application. The more your potential users see that other people like your product and are completely satisfied with it, the more chances that these users will try it out.

So you require two main things:

An awesome mobile application;

A useful way to deal with any issue which your users could have with your product so that you could make it much better.

In order to identify any problems which people might face with using your mobile application, you have to be easy to contact. You should not wait until some negative reviews of your app appear in order to learn about a mistake, a required feature or application crashes. Let your users reach you. Allow them to contact you from inside of the application and from the App Store page (provide them with the support URL). Allow your users contact you easily from your personal website or by means of different social media. When they reach you, you have to listen to their opinion carefully, answer and act on what they are suggesting you (or at least consider it).

Try to do your best in order to turn unhappy or unsatisfied with your app users into people who understand that there is a person behind this mobile app who may be easily contacted and who really cares about their opinion. After you have successfully dealt with a problem or request, these users are going to be happy to leave you a nice feedback. So that people could reach you directly from the mobile application, you may let them send you a tweet or an email.

Such strategy lets you do more than only getting feedback. You may invite some happy users to rate your product and you can send in-application messages for cross advertising. It is a great way to make people know about your most important mobile app news and updates (features, content) and get them come back to using your mobile application. Do not abuse it though, make your notifications really relevant.

That was the first part of our useful mobile app advertising guide. Did you like it? Look for more useful tips quite soon! And if you are ready to turn to the services of app marketing professionals, check out this site. Good luck!

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Mobile App Advertising Strategies to Enhance Downloads

 Looking for something really useful to promote your new mobile app? Check out our best advertising strategies and the app marketing services we offer.

  So you have already done everything you could to create and develop an awesome mobile app. Now there is the high time to launch it and watch your great application go up the rankings, are we right? Well, for the most part of pretty naive app developers, it is the right time for some reality check. In the whole mobile application development cycle mobile app advertising is probably the hardest task as most mobile apps get stuck in this very stage and kind of lost in oblivion. In accordance with Gartner, by 2018 just 0.01 percent of mobile apps are going to be considered financial success by app developers.

 With tons of different options out there, the mobile application world is a pretty saturated and competitive market. You cannot just sit back and relax when your product goes live. Actually, now starts the hardest part of advertising your app. It is all about using some efficient marketing techniques which can help your application become discovered and create a stream of new downloads (more about different advertising methods and strategies and also professional marketing services you can find here https://applead.net/en). So what should you know about app promotion? Here are the most important points.

  Do not wait till the day of app launch

  The most part of mobile app developers usually wait until the very last moment in order to kick start advertising activities. However, the real work starts long before the app is presented to the great audience. The major objective behind this early start of work is to ensure that users eagerly look forward for your application’s arrival. Just think about it: there are millions of different apps in the mobile app world and do not forget about 2 000 of new apps releases on a regular basis daily.

  It is quite significant to schedule your advertising activities long before the app`s launch. Preferably, pre-launch advertising should start at least in a month in advance before the set up date of launch. You should design landing pages for your new product and keep away from too difficult websites focusing mainly on the major features. The key purpose behind landing pages is to evolve your app’s potential audience and collect users` emails. It greatly helps sending timely updates about app release date to your potential app users.

  Tell the story of your app

  There are millions of apps for practically every task. So how does your new mobile application differ from all of them? You should tell the story behind your product. Keep in mind that stories and the emotional factor usually attract eyeballs and make people interested. Every mobile application has its own story. So what is so special about your new app? You have to tell your side of the story and present the emotional accelerators which made you go for this app. Share your story everywhere and also make it a great part of your advertising efforts.

  Offer your app for free for a day

  When presenting your new mobile app to the public, as a part of advertising strategy, you can offer to use it for free for some time. There is no point in making an obstacle to download the app at the very first stage. If you do not want to launch your mobile app for free, there are a few useful services which feature mobile apps directly to the users` smart phones absolutely for free for one day. Such websites could help you make a lot of noise around your new product and put your application in front of lots of users. Mobile app users trust such services to deliver the apps of high quality from around the globe. So these services may help you make more users click on the much significant download button.

  Focus your attention on ratings and reviews

  App rankings and users` reviews (positive ones, of course) count quite a lot in the mobile app world. High ratings mean more downloads in the future and also a better ranking. But how can you ask your mobile users to distribute information about your new mobile app? Luckily, there are a great number of simple ways of doing that. You may leverage mobile analytics instruments in order to identify your most active app users and target the given group with in-application message asking to rate your product.

  Synchronize your advertising efforts

  Your mobile app launch should be designed to acquire maximum exposure. It is better and more efficient to synchronize your promotional efforts such as PR, blog posts or banners in order to reach out to your potential users. Exposure in a few outlets could have a multiplier effect and convince your users to click on the app download button.

  Summing up

  In the world of mobile app advertising there are no rules of thumb which fit for all cases. So it is advisable to identify what strategy works great just for you. Remember that mobile applications are an extremely powerful way to reach your customers. In order to become successful, it is significant to spend quality time upfront thinking about your advertising efforts. It will greatly help you create some buzz around your new mobile app and make people click on the app download button. Interested in having your app advertised? Check out here and find out about your opportunities! Good luck!

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7 Top Ways to Advertise Your Mobile App

Looking for simple, efficient and free mobile app advertising strategy? Then you are in the right place. Have a look at top 7 best marketing advices!

Nowadays, when there are over 800 000 of different mobile applications in the app stores, it is quite difficult to stand out from hundreds of competing apps and persuade your customers to choose and download your product in the mobile market. In order to receive more downloads and create a loyal base of users, you require a great mobile app promotion strategy. There are lots of various ways to advertise your new mobile app, so we have broken it down into top 7 most efficient strategies. Enjoy! (More useful tips on mobile app marketing and professional services prices you can find out here https://applead.net/en).

7 different approaches to mobile app advertising 

 1. TV marketing

One of the most useful ways to market your new mobile app is advertising on TV. Many great companies successfully use this approach. So how can be such advertising approach efficient? In accordance with the research conducted by Nielsen, around 40% of smart phone owners and tablet users prefer to use their devices when watching TV and it happens on a daily basis.

The ad on TV which is aimed at advertising a mobile application targets the user at the right moment. The given approach could be very expensive and is usually used by those brands that have already done television marketing or that could afford a good commercial. In case your company is not that large as, for instance, Amazon, there is lots of other effective ways to get your app name out there.

2. Social media promotion

Marketing with the help of different social media has been a trend during the last few years for all industries. So it is no surprise that it could also be a wonderful approach for mobile application advertising. You can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and any other social net work and reach your potential customers informing them about your new product. You can join special groups where other app developers share their experience and maybe even learn something new and useful. So it should be one of your first steps in mobile advertising.

3. Create your personal mobile website

If you are not doing this already, then start! The major part of enterprises is usually directing you to their mobile product page when you visit the website. It is easily done by adding a banner image to the mobile website with an ad for their mobile application and a button where you can download this app. It is very important to direct people to your new product instead of staying on your website. The mobile app usage is the only way which can use to retrieve essential information about your potential users and run efficient and targeted app advertising.

4. Mobile app of the day

Have your new mobile app been featured on such services as "App of the Day"? Similar services present what they find the latest and best mobile applications directly to smart phones of your users and absolutely for free. Such types of programs could generate lots of buzz for your new product by placing it in front of plenty of users. In addition, it could greatly help you create a loyal customer base as mobile users usually trust the given services to deliver the greatest products from the mobile app world.

5. Endorsements

Another expensive, but really efficient mobile app advertising strategy is celebrity endorsements. For instance, when Draw Something 2 application was launched, Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez became its celebrity endorsers. The stars sent out tweets to over 12 million of their followers combined and generated some buzz around this game. Although using celebrities will never hurt, there are many other ways to do endorsements with little budget by tapping into your personal base of users. For instance, you can turn your current users into app marketers...

6. Ask your users to rate the app

A high rating (four and five stars) in the app store is usually equal to more downloads. If your current users just love your new mobile app, ask them to spread information about it! You could do it in a whole number of ways. With a mobile app marketing instruments and analytics, you could use user segmentation in order to identify a group of your most engaged, frequent and active mobile application users. You may specifically target the given group with an in-application messaging campaign asking them to rate your mobile app.

Another original way to distinguish a loyal segment of your users who would like to rate your mobile app in a positive way is to use in-application messaging to make an NPS survey. With the results of this survey you will have all information you require in order to target your "advertisers" with an in-application message asking for a mobile app rating. On the contrary, you could target your "slanderers" with a campaign which asks their feedback on a support forum. Such feedback could provide even more ideas on how you could make a 5-star worthy mobile application.

7. Get your application buzz-worthy!

Receiving a nice rating could generate a lot of positive noise around your app, but you have to make an app which people would like to rate highly. You may advertise a mobile app in any way you want, but in case you do not have the mobile experience which brings some value to your users, then all your efforts will be just wasted. You have to make data-driven design and have advertising decisions in order to create the greatest application possible. Mobile app-specific analytics and advertising instruments may greatly help you strategically make the best mobile app for your original offering, making it really worth talking about.

Summing up

Every company or brand has a different advertising budget and strategy for marketing their products. The significant thing is to find out which advertising strategy will work best for your mobile application and advertise it in the most efficient way possible. It is going to generate some buzz around your app and make people chose and download your product that will eventually (with the right instruments) lead to loyal and valuable customers.

And how do you advertise your mobile application? Tell us about your own experience in the comments section! And if you want to make use of professional services, choose Applead specialists with extensive mobile advertising experience. To check out our best offers click here. Good luck!

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THE MOST USEFUL GUIDE TO USING VIDEO FOR APP ADVERTISING (PART 2)

In this article we keep considering the key methods of successful mobile app promotion with the help of a great video! Enjoy some more useful tips!

The TV ad trend for mobile app marketing

You have probably already heard about the Superbowl commercial which cost Supercell nearly $9 million. If Supercell can afford to spend that sort of cash on one TV commercial, it is obviously done for brand recognition and perception. The main idea here is to make more users download the mobile application when they see its ad on Twitter or Facebook. However, it does not mean that TV is not a great channel for acquisition of users.

At the London App Advertising Summit 2015, Adjust and Lieferando presented an interesting case research on Lieferando’s TV ad campaigns. Using RapidApe and their Business Intelligence instrument, they could identify which app downloads come from the TV app advertising campaigns (even providing that it is not 100% known) and find out which spots and programs were the most efficient (see more about app advertising and also check out our best offers here https://applead.net/en).

In general, TV advertising campaigns for mobile applications are not that cheap, but they are becoming more and more affordable and could prove to be a quite interesting channel of user acquisition. So you could add this one to your current advertising mix.

A couple of useful tips:

Do not expect that you have to display your advertisements     at the time of the most viewed TV programs. Test different ones out of     prime time and then see what time works best for you;

Test your video ad creatives on Instagram, Facebook,     YouTube (or any other specialized video advertising networks) and then use     those ones which work the best for your TV advertisements.

Video on your landing page or app website

Enhance conversion with a video on your personal mobile app website so that your visitors could quickly understand what your product is all about. If the landing page or website which you have created has the good layout, then your potential clients are going to understand everything at a quick glance: your headline and a short app description, the promo video and a direct call to action to buy and download the product.

In fact, you do not need to wait until your mobile application is presented to insert your promo video on the app website. You could create a “coming soon” version of the video, with a direct CTA inviting to be notified when the mobile app is launched. And when your application is already available, you can change the video and put the app store links at the end next to your CTA.

A couple of tips for inserting a video:

Place your video right after your CTA or above the fold;

Choose the right thumbnail which integrates greatly and will make viewers click. Do not forget to create a nice custom thumbnail;

In case you have a “play button”, ensure that it is visible so that your visitors know that there is something interesting to see there.

YouTube

Talking about video advertising opportunities, YouTube appears to be the essential part of every discussion. It may not be the ideal platform to insert your video (banners, advertisements before the video, thumbnails at the end), you need to place your video on YouTube. And you should do it not just because you could use the YouTube link everywhere but because YouTube is the second largest search engine worldwide.

An interesting stimulating video with a great amount of views is going to help your mobile application receive more exposure. Whether you have a to-do list app or an app for football fans, helping your potential clients to find your video by means of YouTube will totally bring you more app downloads. And as they have watched your mobile application promo video, they will already know what your product is all about.

Several tips to make your video be easily found (it is pretty much similar to ASO):

 Add a link to your website or mobile app in the first two lines (which are initially showed to the viewers);

 Ensure you have included keywords in the description of your video. It could be your app pitch, the voice over script or description;

 Finish the description with other significant links.

Make your mobile app be reviewed by journalists and bloggers

We all know that journalists and bloggers are quite busy. Very, very busy. At least those ones whom you want to make a review and discuss your new app as they probably get hundreds of different emails every day. Including to your message a direct YouTube link with your app video is a quick and simple way for them to have an idea of what is original and interesting about your application.

It is much easier to do than, for instance, read an app press release or actually download this app, making an account (you should also give the bloggers logins in case you require them to create accounts by the way) and trying the app out. With the help of a video, they could just watch the first ten seconds. In case the app looks like something which is really worth of their time, then they will watch the video to the end. And in case they actually like what they are seeing, then bloggers could download your product and try it all out. “The most part of known bloggers prefer to use Gmail, where the YouTube video catches the eye at once and even more than anything else” says Maxime Perignon.

A couple of useful tips:

You could also place a link to your YouTube video in your app press release;

Once again, ensure that you have a great thumbnail.

Email signature

Probably, one of the most wonderful things about Google is that it unites all its products. So once you have added a YouTube link to your message (though not the short YouTube URL), it is going to display a video thumbnail at the end. When the blogger or journalist opens your email (for this reason you require a nice eye-catching subject), in case they use Gmail, they are only one click away from the video. They will not only appreciate that, but it also means that you significantly enhance the chances of your mobile app to be reviewed.

Influencers in your app niche

In our mobile app advertising strategy guide we have already been talking about receiving feedback from influencers (see part 1). Just as journalists and bloggers, other ordinary people you are asking for feedback are most probably busy as well. But if you send them a short email with included YouTube link, it will be easier for them to understand whether they are going to help you or not. When you contact people, do not just ask them something kind of “what do you think about our app?”. Try to create exact significant questions which they could answer in a couple of minutes.

Several other ways to make use of your video

1. AppPicker

This service has been characterizing different mobile applications and their trailers for some time. If you register as an app developer, you could send them your app video so that they could display it on the website. There are no limits for length, but you should remember that people’s attention range is rather short. So we would advise you make it no longer than a minute.

2. Video on different social media (Facebook, Vine, Instagram, Twitter)

When you have created your video, of course you should share it on your different accounts in social media in order to inform your followers about your new mobile app or the game. Currently Instagram gives you an opportunity to have videos and some place to share yours. And in case you feel like that, you may even create a six seconds video for your account in Vine!

3. Mobile app awards

Have you ever had to pitch your mobile application on a stage? In case you have never done that, you need to start looking for awards and contests where you might do that. And if you have done a live demo of your product, we bet that it did not go so smoothly as you wanted: internet connection was probably not working that great, something that usually worked perfect did not work that time, you were a little stressed out and could not present the app well, are we right?

But in case you have a well-designed video which demonstrates what is especially great about your mobile application briefly, then you should launch it when you are on stage. If anything else goes wrong (and we hope that it does not), at least they will find out what your app actually does or how your mobile game looks. And you could keep your main focus on pitching the aspects which are not fully covered in the video and also answering different questions. Sending out an awesome video when you are applying to some award is also a quick way for the jury members to estimate your new application.

4. Exhibitions

What can be better than an awesome video which catches the eye of the public passing by your booth? Place an HD video on the screen to make sure that your customers could get a great introduction to your new mobile product. A useful tip: it is going to work even better, if the video could be fully understood without sound.

5. Investors and crowd-funding platforms

It may be quite difficult to pitch a mobile application which does not even exist yet. But what if you require some funds to actually start developing it? The video could be created working just with screenshots, and may help you pitch potential backers or investors. On such crowd-funding platforms as Indiegogo or Kickstarter, you should not demonstrate just the mobile app: you need to tell the story behind your product as well as your team.

If you are pitching to the potential investors, what is really cool about having the app video is that you could describe your new product from the best sides. There will be no messy live demo, but you can save your energy for the good speech about your main objectives and team.

6. Forums

A great way to advertise your video and find early adopters (or perhaps even influencers) is with the help of different forums which are related to your mobile application niche. Surely, you need to get some authority over there and get involved with this forum before you start doing any advertising of your mobile app. But in case you choose the right forums and start promoting early, it should not be a problem at all.

When you have something to present (screenshots, first designs), then you should start talking a little about your product. In case you have a video of your app, there is no reason why you do not have to post it. And if all advertising is forbidden on this forum (so read the rules first), then you can add a link to your mobile app website and video in the signature.

Did you like this article? We really hope you found something useful for you. However, if you need the help of professionals in such tricky business as mobile app marketing, we will be happy to help you with our services! Check out here to see more details and good luck with creating a great video.

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THE MOST USEFUL GUIDE TO USING VIDEO FOR APP ADVERTISING (PART 1)

So you have created a promo video for your new mobile app. You know why you have done it: if a photo (or product screenshot) is really worth a thousand of words, just imagine how powerful the whole video could be to demonstrate what is original and valuable about your mobile application, etc. Probably, you already have some ideas on how you are planning to use it.

But as you are spending lots of your money and time on the given video, you have to make sure that your plan it right and do your best to make it succeed, right? In this case, we are really happy to help you out. Eventually, we are interested to show you what we believe in: and we think that video is one of the greatest assets which you might have when advertising your mobile app. What is so special about it? Let’s find out. (More about our services and other great ideas you can find here https://applead.net/en).

Various channels for using your video for mobile app advertising

The kind of video you should create will depend on where you are planning to use this video. And we are not talking about the style of video here, but rather about the content and the real purpose of this video. Before you start working on your promo video, you should know whether you use it for user acquisition (what formats), on the different app stores (and which ones as again, formats vary) or for something else (PR, website).

We are going to give you not only various ideas on where you could use your video to advertise your mobile app, but we will also give you some useful tips on how you could get the best out of each channel and what type of videos usually work best on each. So let’s dive in it.

App Store video

Google Play Store

Obviously, it is one of our favorite options of the Google Play Store: this app store gives you a possibility to add a video. That is one of the most visible useful things on your page in Google Play Store, because it appears right next to your application screenshots. Just in one click (or one tap in case you use a phone or a tablet) and a couple of seconds, visitors could know for what reason they need your product or should play your game.

What is just awesome about it as well is that those views you are getting on your video with the help of Google Play Store also count as YouTube views. And more views on YouTube mean the higher rate of your video in YouTube search results and thus, Google search results.

A couple of useful tips:

Google Play gives you a chance to localize your     video, so that you could have one video for each language. That is really     cool if not all of your users speak English and you have created the video     in a few languages;

If you still have not     translated the video into other languages, you should create transcripts     in various languages and add it to your YouTube video. Google Play is     going to automatically display the needed transcript basing on the     language settings of the user.

Video on different app stores

It is not all that about the Google Play Store and App Store. In case you possess an Android mobile app with active users, you have to consider other app stores in order to get extra channels for distribution. The most popular is of course the Amazon App Store which lets you upload up to five videos! Well, five could be a lot. But you might, for instance, have a 15s or 30s video and also a more in-depth walkthrough.

There are plenty of other different application stores, and even more than it. 

In case it is a YouTube link that those app stores require from you, that is another great opportunity to receive some more views.

Video advertisements

Making extra videos (in general, between 15 and 30 seconds) for your mobile app is certainly a great idea in case you are considering video advertisements. You could use the given video ads for acquisition of users on Instagram, Facebook, Google or on any video-focused advertising networks. 

Video ads on Facebook

Advertisements on Facebook let you target a quite detailed audience at scale. You could match your current database with Facebook in order to target your greatest users or even reactivate some of them, find customers who look like your greatest users (it is called lookalike audience), and many other things. Their picture page post advertisements were quite efficient, with a direct call to action “Install Now” below it which leads to the Google Play or App Stores.

And now you could basically have the same thing, with a video thumbnail which lets your potential clients watch a video about your new mobile app. In case they like what they are seeing, your customers just need to tap the button “Install Now” and they will be brought directly to the App store page.

A couple of useful tips:

Select the right thumbnail that probably means making     a custom one which shows the name of your app and a screenshot, and also     other visual things if it can help branding;

Mobile app ratings are quite significant, as they     show up on the advertisement. Do not do Facebook video advertisements (and     maybe even paid promotion altogether) in case you do not have nice app     ratings.

Video ads on Instagram

In 2014 Instagram had already over 300 million of active users every month. So it seems quite logical that Facebook made a decision to monetize it with advertisements. And now it seems that it took just a couple of months to move from traditional square image advertisements accessible to only a few of video ads for mobile application installs accessible to all businesses.

If you are already making Facebook ads, using it on Instagram will be even easier: you could use the power editor on Facebook. And as you may now have landscape videos and photos on Instagram, you could use your Facebook video creatives also on Instagram providing that the video is no longer than 30 seconds which is a lot for such video. Here is what is really awesome too: when clicking the “install button”, the page on aApp store opens within the Instagram mobile app. Users do not have to be redirected to the App Store - they could download the application directly from there.

For the moment we are writing this article, the video advertising format is quite new, so we have not seen it much for now. So you should totally use this opportunity and you could trust us with this, Facebook and Instagram ads are going to push on promotion and give you the instruments to do it all right.

A couple of useful tips:

When making your video, remember that as for the     Facebook advertisements, the video is usually played without sound till     the user clicks on it;

Just like any other videos, the     first several seconds are vital. So you should make users want to keep     watching and make a decision to play the sound.

TrueView opportunities for mobile app advertising

Google is not actually new to the mobile app advertisements. Even providing that they have acquired YouTube quite long ago, nevertheless it took some time before they created a format for mobile application install advertisements. First we heard of the given format in April 2015, and we were kind of really excited about that. It works for both Android and iOS mobile apps.

The “TrueView for mobile application advertising” campaigns allow you connect those people on YouTube who have interests connected to your product or are watching the content which is relevant to your new mobile app. Your advertisements run only on YouTube tablet and mobile applications (not on the computer) and you could select channels, topics or even particular videos which you want to target. Such TrueView advertisements show up before the video which a user is watching, with a button “Skip” which becomes accessible after 5 seconds.

Under the video you may find the icon of the app, its ratings and an install button (CTA). When a user clicks on this button, shows up in-application Google Play or App Stores screen where you can download the mobile application directly from the YouTube.

You should give your users some time to take action. It is a price-per-view bid model. Any interaction of the user with your video (counts everything except from skipping) is counted as a view. And here are the cases when you pay:

In case your video is not longer than 30 seconds, you pay when someone is watching the video to     the end (even     if this person does not install your mobile app);

In case your video is over 30 seconds (do not do     more than 40 seconds), you pay when the user swatch     at least half a minute of the video;

You pay     in case someone clicks on the “install” button.

In order to make sure that you pay just for those people who are really interested in installing your product, Google advises to make the CTA screen last at least five seconds or even more (for 10 seconds). Such long and static CTA has to prevent your users from watching the entire video (or 30 seconds of it in case your video is over 30 seconds) without taking any certain action: in case they leave, you do not pay, but if they tap the install button - you pay (but you actually got what you needed).

A couple of useful tips:

You should make the first 5 seconds of your video     count – after this time, the user could skip your advertisement so you have     to convince them not to do this;

Make it short, no more than 20 and 40 seconds;

Demonstrate it in many different ways – repeat     your message by means of various videos with the same topic;

During this end frame, ensure that you show     your mobile application, the official app stores icon and a CTA.

Video ads on Twitter

Of course, Twitter will never stay on the sidelines, providing that they have been letting mobile app advertising by means of application cards in 2014. A year later, Twitter has introduced mobile application install advertisements with video. It is an exciting experience to watch video directly in the tweet. It makes wonderful performance and allows app advertisers to convey much more about what the mobile app does says Richard Alfonsi.

Over time you will see how efficient such Twitter mobile application install video advertisements are, but in case you already possess a video advertisement for your new product, you definitely have to give it a try. Targeting here works practically the same way: you could target your users not only by location, mobile carriers, particular devices and OS, but also by such things as interests, keywords, followers or using your own information with Tailored Audiences.

A couple of useful tips:

Get inspired from some success stories or case studies (not related to video);

Try a few variations of your video in order to     see what works best, and also tweak the copy.

Specialized advertising networks

Different advertising networks are nowadays coming up with some better “native” advertisements which do not ruin the whole user experience. And plenty of them have also moved to video advertisements because they have much better conversion rates.

Most of such videos advertisements which are used by advertising networks are just 15 seconds long, sometimes they can be half a minute but not more. The ad is quite short, and you need to ensure that you have included the essential things there: the name of your app, major benefits and a call to action. Here are several companies which could help you either monetize or receive more users with video advertisements: GameHouse, Chartboost, AdColony, Vungle, MobFox, TapJoy and Milenial.

Several useful tips for your 15 seconds long trailer:

Ensure that the name of your mobile app is     mentioned and demonstrate your icon and logo so that people could     recognize it later;

Insert a clear call to action like “Download now”     at the end;

Focus mainly on showing the major parts:     impressive gameplay or awesome advantages of your product;

Make any text you are displaying very brief and great     enough (the texts will be shown on a mobile device and should be quite     readable).

That was the first part of this article. We hope you liked it and found something useful for you. Do not forget to check out the second part later on. Moreover, if you are interested in profession app marketing services, check out here and see what we can offer you right now. Good luck!

[alenaniga-blog]

5 Simple Ways to Steadily Increase Your App Advertising Email List

What do you know about the best ways of app marketing? Have you included email to this list? No? See why you are wrong and read some useful tips!

In our growing mobile world it could be quite easy to forget about opportunities which gives us email advertising. But the truth is that email remains one of the greatest and most efficient ways to advertise something to people. Yes, push notifications are going to bring you lots of engagement. But still, they could be pretty intrusive as well, so you cannot use them too often. Some of your potential customers can just turn them off.

And email provides you with another way of contacting your target audience. You may reach out people on your email list in order to inform them of mobile app updates, your special offers and other useful things. There are plenty of real benefits to making an app advertising email list. So in this article, we are going to give you top five helpful ways so that you could steadily increase your email list and also provide you with some case researches to give you some creative ideas. However, if you are interested in having your app promoted for you, you can always check out https://applead.net/en and see your opportunities. So let’s get started!

Get a mobile application advertising email list service

Before we start considering any particular list-creating strategies, let’s have a quick look at some services which you may effectively use to create your own list. You can be tempted to build your own solution or just BCC people on your contact list on Gmail. But trust us, we had to deal with blacklisting cases in the past, and it is much more efficient to use one of the following services, as they can save you lots of money and headache.

In case you are just a beginner, you may start with such services as Mailchimp, Aweber or Constant Contact. All of them are quite affordable and will provide you with everything you might need in order to get started. If you are planning to get more income and require automation features and advanced segmentation, then you should step up to such services as Ontraport, Infusionsoft and Drip. The given services can provide you with a more complete solution compared to an email list, but they are quite more expensive. When you have signed up for the email advertising service you liked most, now it is high time to create that list!

1. Website choice

You have an application advertising website, do not you? In case you do not, it is no problem. You should just read this article and then come back. We would recommend you creating a website before writing any application code. When you have built your website, you have to gather some email addresses of your target audience. Check out several useful strategies which you might use on your website in order to make your email list.

Landing pages

Building landing pages which have a particular purpose is a perfect way to test advertising messages and gather some email addresses. Just offer people something really useful in exchange for their email addresses. If you are running out of money, you may use free landing pages. But in case you have some more money to spend on your advertising, it will be better to use a paid service. A couple of such services are LeadPages and Unbounce. You may also use the given landing pages for your welcome gate, 404 page and much more.

End of the blog posts

The end of your blog post is one of the simplest ways to ask people for their email address. If a user is reading your blog and has read the entire article to the end, then he or she is probably quite interested in you and your product. So keep the conversation going and ask them to add their address to your email list. You can offer a monthly news-sheet in exchange, a PDF or anything else that has some value.

Sidebar

The side panel of your personal website is kind of the lowest converting call-to-action there, but still there are a couple of things which you may do to raise your conversion. When people click on your ad banners, you might use a popup which appears on the whole screen. It will make it more possible that users opt-in, in case they click on your side panel button.

Secondly, you could make one or a few side panel banners moving with the screen. The Q2W3 plugin is the plugin which you could use with WordPress. It is going to turn any of your side panel widgets into moving elements. And finally, you have to constantly test button graphics in order to figure out what is working best. Such plugin as Adrotate Pro may be used to rotate banners automatically and the plugin will be showing you which of them is doing best.

Pop-ups

Lots of people are really afraid to add any pop-ups to their website as they are sure that pop-ups are going to make their readers insane. Some of them really will become mad, but you should get over it. Pop-ups could be a quite powerful instrument to gather email addresses. There exist some pretty affordable solutions and some of such solutions are completely free.

2. Gather emails with interviews

In case you are going to industry conferences or organizing meet-ups, you can collect business cards and manually add them to your email list. It is not only a great way to make your new contacts crazy, but it is also a great way to lower the rate of your email delivery and enhance spam complaints. But how could you efficiently gather email addresses at such events, especially in case you do not always have an available internet connection?

Such mobile apps as iCapture are going to integrate with your advertising email list service and make email list opt-in boxes and surveys which can help you make your list bigger. It will let you or your team members gather emails of the customers when you are at such event, and then you can just upload them later, once you have an internet connection.

3. Give some free stuff away

Giving away some free things or services could be a perfect way to get quick start of your advertising email list, even in case you are a brand new mobile application.

4. Gather emails inside of your app

You are not able to make entering an email address a requirement for using your product. That is why you should figure out other good ways to gather email addresses in your mobile application. There exist some useful plugins which you could purchase, then add a few lines of app code and you will get an email opt-in box. But usually, making an email opt-in screen in your mobile application is not so difficult. Just find out how to realize this idea and find the most efficient way for making people join your advertising email list.

5. Facebook mobile apps

You could also append an email opt-in on your account in Facebook as Facebook mobile applications (such as the LeadPages app) can let you use the landing pages because Facebook forms to gather email addresses.

Summing up

We do hope that the above mentioned tips can help you successfully create your mobile application advertising email list, enhance your engagement and raise your income. Do you still have any questions about creating an email list? Let us know about it in the comments below. Also check out this site for more useful information and best offers on app promotion. Good luck!

[alenaniga-blog]

Possible Dangers of Falling in Love with Your Mobile Application

Evolving a great product sometimes makes app developers blinded and they cannot see all its flaws. How to avoid this mistake and promote a good app?

App entrepreneurs deep in their minds know that if you want to succeed in the startup world, you should keep real passion for the mission that is ahead of you. Creating a product you may be proud of, and then resolving real problems for the real people are the greatest motivators that can ever exist. It is totally true for the mobile industry too, where innovative minds can change the world, one mobile application at a time.

Caring deeply about your product is perfect, but it has to come with a warning. Mobile application marketers and developers are sometimes literally blinded with their own persuasion, and require a fresh viewpoint in order to notice what their app is actually missing. The following article examines the negative aspects of the emotional involvement which mobile application publishers often develop when they are working on their products, and what you could do in order to avoid these downsides.

Failing to understand that your app needs advertising

We have encountered the products, mobile apps and others, which could become extremely successful even without a great advertising strategy in the background. Of course, in today’s technological arena you may find advertising solutions of all various sizes and shapes (not even mentioning its prices), but this work still should be done, and it does not matter how amazing the mobile app can be. The world of mobile has confused some people, but still, it creates a very misleading feeling of accessibility.

Sometimes app developers think that the comparatively open platforms which are offered by the application stores let them submit a wonderful application, and then sit back and watch it succeed without any efforts. The same way, it can take you some years to become “one night lasting success”, as it usually takes strong and clever advertising efforts in order to make an application a sudden hit at the app store. The greatest app still needs a solid strategy including push notifications, for example, in order to keep customers coming back again.

People often miss the given fact because awesome advertising should be natural, but it is always present, no matter if we like that or not. A mobile app developer, who is extremely emotionally attached to their product, is actually at risk of making a huge mistake supposing that after presenting the app in the app store, it is going to magically draw the attention of the right group of people and make users download it. De facto, every step calls for particular expertise and instruments (more on mobile app marketing and special offers for app promotion you can find here https://applead.net/en).

From picking up the right keywords for making your mobile application visible to the potential customers (applying ASO), by means of creating a convincing application page, with the well-chosen content and video trailer – all this is a part of a well-done, necessary advertising mechanism. But unfortunately, lots of app promoters understand how significant it is to advertise their apps only after they have failed to do it in the first place. In this situation, when the app developer has made the right conclusion and understood that the application certainly needs advertising, it will be better to avoid suppositions as much as possible and make outsiders involved in the process. In other words: it will be better to speak to professionals instead of relying just on the in-house team (and one of such specialists is Applead team – you can check out our website to see more here).

Failing to do appropriate unboarding of mobile users

Different conducted researches demonstrate that nearly 80% of the users stop being interested in the newly-downloaded mobile apps during the first couple of days after their launch. The statistics around the world is not that different: for instance, Chinese app developers are having a pretty hard time holding onto customers in all app categories. It happens due to one small but significant fact: users do not realize the functionality and value of your app. But if there is one thing which mobile experts know, it is that it is never the fault of the user.

It is not your user who failed to understand – it is the product which failed to explain

Mobile application marketers and developers who just fall in love with the created piece of art see its functionality and value so clearly that it is impossible for them to imagine why others do not understand it. But as information and statistics show us over and over again, lots of people might use a complex explanation, telling customers why they have to use a mobile app and how they can do it effectively. Mobile customer is a wonderful way of explaining the value of your new product to your users, therefore minimizing the risk that they will delete the application right away. First of all, good onboarding strategy includes a value proposition which gives each first time customer a little “spoiler”, allowing them to find out what they should gain by using the given product.

It is vital that the users realize what the application is about

Of course, not only this is important, but value of the app plays a part in compelling users to give your product permission and access their personal information. When customers fail to understand why a particular app wants to know more about their life – they could suspect that it is a direct attempt to collect information for the bad intentions.

Secondly, the onboarding strategy is the wonderful chance to give your users an application tutorial which will walk explain them, step by step, various features which the application has to offer, also describing the purpose and main usage of every step. Building a great mobile app tutorial is vital, as we want our users to absorb a lot of related information on one hand, and of course avoid making a burden or even exhausting our potential customers on the other.

And one more time, sometimes being in love with your app means that the app developer himself fails to understand what has to be left out of the application walkthrough. The process of explaining your mobile app to the users starts with realizing who your users are and sending a personalized message inside of your product. The essence of mobile device means that it is quite a personal thing, and not all your potential customers are alike. It is another risk for app developers who are too attached to their products because they could believe that their personal experience is relevant to every single user.

We guarantee you that it is not. We would also highly recommend you including some personalized mobile onboarding strategy whenever there is the need to reach your users. The appropriate mobile onboarding process may be used to present new versions and features, let users know when they are missing a part of the mobile app, and refresh their memory if your users have returned to using your product after a while. Those mobile app developers and promoters who focus on making a wonderful customer experience surely know that communication here plays one of the most important roles, and onboarding process is where it all starts.

Failing to accept the changing circumstances

The mobile app platform could not have selected a more appropriate name – as it is quickly moving, and everything constantly changes in a moment. It may be good news for someone, but it also means plenty of additional work for everyone who is involved in this process. Staying prompt in mobile world is much harder thing to do than doing it on the web, for instance. The challenge of mobile application development, taking into account the need to adjust your new app to numberless operating systems and screen sizes, is not an easy task.

Not simple, but really important

Each part of the application building process needs constant monitoring and adjusting: reviews, keywords, programming languages, devices, instruments and much more. Staying prompt in the mobile industry is not just good to have – it is almost a necessity. For this reason assuming that a mobile app is finally complete (not mentioning the term perfect) is kind of one of the most dangerous things you could do. An experienced mobile professional surely knows that there is no mobile product which is ever really ready, so mobile app should always be ready to constantly change and adapt.

Summing up

Supporting your mobile app with strong conviction is a great thing to do, and it is going to get you through lots of obstacle. But there is still a nice line between having faith in your creation and being sure that it is absolutely perfect.

Some people on your team should play the role of the devil’s advocate and ask you a couple of painful questions:

What will happen if the customer is kind     of not on the same page as you at all?

How can you make understand those people who     need your product, but they just do not know about it yet?

Your mobile application may help your potential users resolve a particular problem, but it does not mean that you know exactly what goes through their minds. Getting a different point of view and admitting the need for change may be just what your application is really missing, and what is going to help it become truly perfect.

[alenaniga-blog]

How Significant is the Weekend in Mobile Advertising?

Feeling unsure about your new product? Are you afraid to get lost in the sea of various apps? Check out our best tips and make your new app succeed!

Nowadays, the world of mobile is an exceedingly cruel environment where mobile applications get to the top of fame and then just fall into the deep much faster than you could even say a single word. In such a thick digital jungle, making your way around and drawing the maximum attention to your mobile applications and games from the point of view of number of active users, their retention, in­-application purchases, advertising campaigns and different marketing strategies is vital to succeed.

Mobile advertising is an irreplaceable part of the equation – you have to inform people about your new app or mobile game, let them know that it is out there - otherwise your product is going to be drown in the sea of other various apps which keeps on getting bigger and bigger. There are several significant questions for a person who is trying to promote a product: who to promote to, where and when to promote?

In the given article we are going to have a closer look at these three major questions, considering more details such as when customers are most active using their mobile devices, what people are doing at the time and how exactly you could take an advantage of it taking efforts to promote your new product. If you need more tips and professional help, Applead team will gladly provide you with our services. Check out https://applead.net/en to find out more!

Checking out the numbers

If you have a careful look around, you are going to see a bunch of your friends and family who are constantly staring at the little mobile screen in their hands. And if you check online sources, for instance, Twitter or Facebook, you will see that plenty of people there are complaining how others are turning into zombies, being completely hypnotized by the little magic piece of shiny plastic. Seeing all that you could think that it does not actually matter when you are going to kick-start a mobile advertising campaign as people are searching in their mobile phones constantly, are not they?

But it is wrong. In real life, there is a great difference in the day time (and time of week) when people are using their mobile phones and tablets. In accordance with a recently presented report, weekends are just that time of the week when most part of the people is being the most active. “Usually, people are the most active on the weekends, and Saturday is in general the strongest one,” the report claims, saying that the number of daily active users is the lowest on Monday, and is getting to the top on Saturday.

Other resources agree with this statistic as well. A report of an Appsflyer into the State of App Advertising is sure that activity of installs during the weekend rise up to 25% for the iOS-powered, and around 6% for Android-powered mobile phones or tablets. But just being ‘active’ on mobile is not that much, is it? You require the certain time of day, week, month or sometimes even year when the customers are in a shopping mood, making that usage become spending.

But luckily for you, that is also at the weekend, making this time of the week just perfect for an advertising campaign. “At weekends you can see 30­-50% more of daily active users,” stresses the report. “Saying in other words, ­ weekends are really a wonderful time for presenting a game or carrying out advertising campaign of your product.” From the viewpoint of who you have to be targeting, there exists a particular group of people who could be reached out to – those people who have already bought something like that in a previous game.

The report also states that those players that have made in-­game purchases are usually six times more likely to buy something in the next game, and due to the fact that the number of games which are played enhances, the spending grows too. It is also a significant factor when planning your promotional strategy.

Picking up the right mobile device

We might have already assured you to try and be ready with an advertising campaign for your new mobile application or mobile game which will be focusing mainly on the last three days of the week, but you should also consider other significant factors – the kind of mobile device which you have to focus on, for instance. No, we are not going to tell you that you should focus on the tablets or smart phones (or both), but there exist a few of essential metrics which could help you make the right choice, taking into account your potential audience and the kind of product which you are promoting.

People tend to act in a different way when using their tablets and smart phones which is really a no-­brainer. Smart phones are in general used on the go, and tablets are preferred as the laid-back mobile device. The report also suggests that while people play more sessions on their mobile phones, these sessions are much longer when you are playing it on the tablets. By using and applying all the information, you could target the group that is considered to be a spender, and you can do it during the time of week which is considered to be a great time for mobile shopping.

Having considered all these things, we could safely make a conclusion that the weekend is a perfect time to plan your advertising strategy around. In general, people use their mobile devices more during their days off, and just then are more willing to making new purchases. Did you like this article? Check out this site to know more information about mobile app marketing and use the help of professionals! Good luck!

[alenaniga-blog]

Top 3 Inbound Advertising Strategies for Mobile Applications

What do you know about mobile world? Are you fully aware of functions and benefits of inbound marketing strategies? See what you can do with its help! 

This word makes some people cower nowadays. Everywhere you look in the advertising world, you are going to see the signs of it – mobile here, mobile there… Is it just us, or is it a little excessive? Sometimes, we feel as if we are pushing the mobile idea to the limit. But then we see the following numbers:

Now there are over 750,000 mobile apps available in the App Store     alone;

The given mobile applications have more than 40 billion of downloads;

There are around one billion of smart phones currently existing in the world, and their number is increasing.

Whoa. There are more than one billion of customers looking for interesting information on their mobile devices, and are you aware of what works perfectly when customers are looking for needed information? Inbound advertising. In this article, we are going to share with you the top three most efficient inbound advertising tips which app promoters could make use of in order to start making waves in the mobile world. (For additional information and services you can check out https://applead.net/en and see the possible benefits). So let’s get started!

Inbound advertising wins in mobile

The chance to deeply connect with your customers by means of inbound advertising has never been greater than nowadays, and mobile is supplying a huge amount of the increase. When it comes to mobile applications, everything you have to know is the following: mobile apps have already exceeded the web when it comes to customer time-spent, and are just second to time spent watching TV. The secret is that very few brands or companies really use this space as an advantage. It is 2016, but in the mobile apps world, it is like 2001 all over again.

App developers usually need some extra help attracting customers profitably and not focusing their efforts just on vanity metrics, like the number of downloads. That is where inbound advertising comes in. Inbound advertising on the web has grown and matured a lot over the last few years. We could also learn a lot from our past experience and apply it to the future (which means that we may take what we already know and apply it to mobile advertising). Below we described three simple inbound advertising strategies for mobile applications which are delivering totally incredible results.

1. Try to be more social

By this moment, we all have to understand how significant social media is to any great mobile advertising strategy. But still, when it comes to mobile apps, social here is just what we do as people. We email and text other people like crazy ones. We are in the bus and we check our Facebook account. We download to the Instagram our dinners and Tweet about our random observations when standing in a line.

Nowadays, to be mobile means to be social. It means that social is an awesome meeting point for conversations about the offerings of your mobile app. Let’s have a look at two of social leaders and how these leaders may be used for different mobile purposes.

Twitter

Some time ago, Nike conducted a Twitter-focused experiment in order to present a new mobile application which they had created. Beforehand they shared the content and the application with likely customers who were sharing on Twitter their athletic activities. The results just surprised them. Their experiment during two weeks showed:

More than three clicks per outbound Tweet;

Increasing of the positive reviews and ratings minimum twice in the app store;

The number of downloads on the Twitter is equal to their largest paid channel.

Taking into account that Nike is quite a large company, the results of the given campaign are very fascinating. The final part is even more interesting: the company received the number of downloads from this social “experiment” equal to the number of their largest paid channel. The ROI was just extraordinary.

Facebook

It is really impossible to talk about the social media and communication without bringing up the topic of Facebook. For mobile apps Facebook may be extremely important. For specific categories of applications (TV, movies, news, games and others), connecting with account on Facebook gets a massive increase in income and engagement from customers. Have a look at the information from some of the most famous mobile apps which have integrated a Facebook login. But Facebook is not kind of the best option for every mobile app developer, but when it is done pretty well, it is obvious that integrating Facebook into your product may really improve your results.

2. Tell people your own story

In general, customers surf and search for interesting mobile apps from inside the App Store. So it is absolutely crucial to make sure that you have optimized your presence in the app store.  Becoming discovered by a huge audience of interested clients may be as easy as:

Choosing the right name for your app;

Investing in a memorable and compelling     icon;

Experimenting with keywords and     categories;

Optimizing and testing the description of     your app.

You should own your presence in the App Store and make it also another great channel for telling the story of your app. Most application developers embellish many of the significant details which may affect downloads of the app. It is vital not to let the app store tell the story of your product for you. If you let it happen, you will be missing out on a great advertising opportunity.

The application store is just one place where you can tell your app story. Making use of your personal website and other advertising channels for sharing the information why people have to use your product and what actual problems you are solving is an extremely powerful strategy of enabling application discovery, and it makes your product seem more "human" as well. Due to the fact that mobile apps are so unique at providing oriented on tasks solutions in small expendable packages, bloggers and journalists are actively searching for those apps which they could share with their audiences.

The greatest tech blogs and application review websites just cause as many app installations as a feature in the App store. So you should take some time in order to produce information and content which will appeal to bloggers and journalists and share your app story in details so that they will discover your application and want to know much more.

3. Look after your audience of fans from the first day

It has to be absolutely clear that you should own your app story and tell it your potential customers in the app store and in any other places. However, there exists another, even more powerful method - getting your clients tell wonderful stories about your product. It is not only personally gratifying (while nothing can be better than hearing from your client that you have built and evolved something really special), but word of mouth here is extremely efficient. Customer studies keep showing that recommendations from those people we know are really trusted the most for the ordinary customer.

And now, how are you going to make your fans go and tell their relatives and friends good things about your app in public? For the most part of web businesses, it is a really hard challenge while there is no centralized source for customers where they can share their own thoughts and opinions. For mobile applications, the app stores can give you a good venue for this in the form of the reviews and ratings sections.

But how are your potential customers going to get to the App store in order to review your new product? In spite of the existence of simple opinion-sharing venues, most part of the clients do not speak up. Actually, the researches show that less than 0.1% of app downloads result in a review or rating in the App Store. Many customers require a nudge – some reminder that they could share their opinions and thoughts. For this reason you have to be proactively connecting with your clients from the first day. If your product has a returning audience then it means that there are some people who are real fans of what you have created.

Such clients are pretty likely to share their opinion with other people, if you make it simple for them doing it. The great thing about app developing is that you could use them as a direct channel for talking with your clients. Contacting your greatest fans inside of your application, and connecting even more deeply with them is a quite powerful method of enhancing the loyalty of your customers and motivating a group of evangelists.

Connecting with your potential and current audience of fans will certainly enhance the number of clients leaving wonderful positive reviews for your mobile app, but it is much more than just ordinary reviews. It is rather about the recognition that we are walking around with our smart phones during all day. Once we have a look at our mobile phone in a meeting or search there at dinner, we are around other people presenting them mobile apps we love.

By communicating deeply with your base of clients, you could greatly change your awareness and trajectory of downloads. We have talked with a large number of app developers who could map geographically their adoption. In the real word, word of mouth is a key inbound advertising channel for mobile apps which every mobile app developer could influence in a meaningful way. As the Microsoft advertisement from some years ago kindly reminded us – we are pretty addicted to our mobile phones.

So, mobile…

…is a term which all of us are going to hear LOTS OF TIMES over the following several years. As large and as quickly as this opportunity is increasing, the mobile applications industry is in its infancy and can greatly benefit from the expertise which any great inbound advertiser could bring to the table.

A consistent and easy focus on:

Being pretty social;

Telling your app story efficiently;

Authorizing your clients to share their     stories about your product.

...is going to be certain to pay off soon.

When it comes to mobile applications, inbound advertising looks pretty much like the industry we have all mentioned to love. Provide your target customers with a tremendous amount of value and reap the rewards of making client acquisition channels which enhance in efficiency over some time. 

Thanks you for taking your time to read our ideas and thoughts on the emerging mobile application opportunity. Now, we would love to offer you our services which you can check out here and we would also love to hear from you. Have you ever been using your inbound advertising strategies for mobile applications? Which of them are really working for you? Did we miss any good strategies which are extremely effective? Leave your comments below and good luck!

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Mobile Promotion Guide: How To Advertise Your New Mobile App Quickly and Get the Best Results

Interested in mobile app development and dreaming to create something special? Here are the best tips which can help you avoid the common mistakes.

It is quite obvious that the App Store is quite a competitive environment for all apps. Out of more than 140,000 different mobile apps yelling for attention, how can you be sure that your product will get its deserved part of appreciation? What does it usually take to get great media coverage? How could you make people talk about your new product - and, most importantly, how could you make them buy it and share it with their friends?

Following a few simple rules presented by us, you can greatly enhance your chances in the battle for glory and fame. These rules might first seem rudimentary or pretty obvious, which are usually shared in popular mobile marketing blogs. But believe us - they are so frequently being neglected by the app developers that it costs them their future success (check out our other related articles and best offers here https://applead.net/en).

1. Be original

One of the simplest ways to help you stand out from other products in the App Store is to build an app which is truly unique. Certainly, it makes some sense. Plenty of mobile apps presented in the app stores are uninspired, uninteresting and shoveled out by tired app developers who are mainly looking for a quick income.

If you do want to stand out creating something good, ensure that you are either:

The first app developer in the category of your product, or

Reinventing the present product category with something really unique.

But we should warn you that in case you are just making something which is already accessible better, your battle to advertise it will be uphill.

Spin a present category

At this point, according to the App Store statistics, very few mobile applications build new product categories. So unless you are planning to present a revolutionary new idea, you should mainly focus your efforts and attention on an original spin of a present category. Lots of things may be re-imagined with just little effort. First, look at your competitors and check your child-like customer filter. What awesome feature for this product category is currently missing? How could you benefit from the iPhone’s accelerometer, GPS, interface or multi-touch functionality for creating a package which delivers an original experience in this product category?

An original feature could make your mobile app easily stand a head taller in the thousands of competitors and raise it to the top. And it is exactly that effect you should get if you plan to sell mobile apps in the Google Play or App Store.

Think, plan thoroughly and create with the intention of making something really unique. From the conceptual project to the final advertising, keep iterating the original aspects of your new product.

Ask yourself whether you are just improving on other people’s idea. If the app already exists, the battle to advertise it will be uphill.

Try some beelines to create something original; thinking of new good ways to make use of GPS, proximity sensor, the accelerometer and multi-touch gestures; mixing categories  storytelling; etc.

If you are competing in a replete market, you should do the exact opposite of the market’s leader.

2. Tweet-tweet-tweet

Making people talk about your new product and share this info is your path to success. The more they are talking, the more exposure your mobile product is going to get, and it will hopefully transform into great sales. If your product is original, you are halfway at the top – your customers will talk about it just due to its uniqueness. But how could you stimulate people to make conversations about your mobile app?

Learn how to pitch

We are sure that you have already pitched your app at least to ten of your co-workers and informed your family members. You are aware of the ins and outs, highs and lows of your elevator speech, the great sells of your app and the hard-to-understand sections. If you really want your app to succeed, then you will have to teach this pitch to the rest of your audience.

Become interesting

Make sure that the whole conversation about your product is engaging and quite easy so that people want to share and tweet about it. Tweetability - if you have not heard about it yet, we are emphasizing this word - refers to how well a message or a product would move on Twitter. This network, with millions of its users, has a specific disposition and personality.

In spite of the variety of people who are currently using this service, talking about it as a homogenous mass is still important in lots of ways. Some of the most prosperous mobile applications are easily shared by means of social media. Just imagine the Twitter sphere chattering in chipmunk voices, “Hey, people. Check this out!” Immediately gratifying application plus high tweetability is equal to free exposure.

Even in case your product is not playfully humorous or immediately gratifying, you could still compose a tweet which is highly tweetable. You should just think about what you would re-tweet yourself. How could you sell your application in just 140 characters?

Play to your strengths and write a great copy. You should have a useful, solid and attractive landing page for your website;

Try to discover the human angle. Are there any good and beneficial reasons why customers would buy your application?

Create a tagline easy to remember. Express your product’s purpose in one line.

3. Please bloggers

The blogosphere and social media are not really isolated from one another. Like ruffles in a pond, the more users tweet about your new product, the more probably you will hit a great blog.

You have to review blogs and tech websites which are an important part of the  App Store’s eco-system, and study the effect they have on sales (which is debatable!). The buzz and traffic they usually generate are totally worth pursuing.

Think the way media does

In order to get great media coverage, you should think like the media. How great is your mobile application? Obviously, the law of originality makes a difference here, but your product also has to be quite easy to write about. First, you should provide people with a free press package which anyone may download. Provide people with the material that they require to talk about your product and give them screenshots, press-related texts and a high-res version of the icon.

You should not be mean with the promo keys - in general, distribute them liberally. They are cheap advertising collateral and a great way for you to put your mobile app in the hands of the leaders. Throw these keys at your most favorite blog, and then invite people to give some away for free in a raffle. In case you could find a category-particular blog, you have got a direct line to your potential customers. That is a wonderful way to reach new clients and strengthen your reputation and relationships.

Bloggers are like children in the schoolyard

They may not actually want to hear this, but bloggers are a little like children in a schoolyard. If you may get the cool children to talk about you, the chances are that other bloggers will choose the story and put your product on their front page. Getting a positive review and media coverage is essential to your advertising success, because they are less temporary than tweets. Such reviews can stay there for months and bring in traffic.

Do not hesitate to distribute promo codes to blogs;

Create an easily accessible and extensive press package;

Do not be afraid to ask people to support your application;

Try to crack category-particular blogs. In case you are making a wine application, contact wine blogs and so on.

4. Take control over the deceit

Application sales flourish through hype. You should learn how to control the deceit, and you will master the product launch. Deceit will always be partially out of your hands, but the mobile app rules mentioned above are going to help you put things in motion. But deceit will amount to nothing in case it is for a poor app - it could backfire and greatly harm your efforts to generate deceit in the future.

Start hyping early

If you know that you have an original product, let your customers in on the secret before the app`s launch. Possessing an interesting “Coming soon” website could do this, by creating a mailing list and making Google juice for your domain.

Make sure your website is awesome

There is no need to mention that your mobile application should have its own website. In order to make any of the above mentioned rules work out, you will require a point of reference, to send the masses somewhere. Make your website attractive and interesting; demonstrate the application in action, and try to think outside the box. Create the website an extension of your mobile app, and you will get yet another great instrument in your advertising toolbox.

Launch great

When you are launching an app, make it great. Send out the jubilant news-sheet, and inform all of the social media. You or your team should write up blog posts, and pull every handle and lever in your network. Deceit is all about critical mass: the first wave which you set in motion is going to give you immediate feedback on how to adjust your deceit machine.

Supporting deceit is all about introducing new meeting points in which to demonstrate your new mobile application. Try to get a steady flow of review websites in order to cover your product. Give on Twitter promo keys and serve new interesting content on your website. It is obvious that if you could get into the “New and noteworthy” or “What’s hot” sections of the App Store, you have made it to the top.

Ultimately, hype is half luck and half skill. The greatest way to balance the two of them is to keep asking yourself if you could do anything else to append mystery, value, polish or spin to your mobile app. You should rely on your own judgment: what could excite you about this product if it was created by another app developer?

Distribute promo codes in the blogosphere and on Twitter;

Run competitions related to your mobile app. Give away prizes which make sense for your product category;

Increase popularity of your app by timing the launch of the application to coincide with a trending topic or live event. Climate-related mobile applications spiked around the COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen;

Present your product with a huge bang. Hold a live or online event. Draw attention of your visitors in original ways, by creating a puzzle or game or just throwing a competition or giveaway.

5. Be Awesome In a Saturated Market: example

In order to illustrate the mobile application of the given rules, let’s take a careful look at one of the successful apps. For the sake of convenience, let us just call it an “awesome application”.

The given app is a weather-forecasting mobile application. This is a traditional scenario: a re-considering of the existing category. We cannot think of a more saturated and tired market than weather forecasting mobile apps, so this is just an excellent example of re-inventing and competing if we have the right state of mind.

Original Spin

Our awesome application reverse engineers the trend of bringing increasingly advanced and detailed weather information. Instead, it cuts down functionality and mainly focuses on the very human and playful idea of visual exploring of the weather, by passing through a virtual forecast. It creates originality right into the very concept and then goes in the opposite direction of the leaders of the market.

Early deceit, great launch

Before the app`s launch, the website for our awesome application presents a page “Coming soon” which collects close to one thousand of confirmed emails. A teaser video of the website interface originates some buzz and earns for the mobile app a nomination in the App Star awards. The application presents at the end of December 2009. The release news-sheet goes out; a more complex version of the website, with screenshots and video, goes up; and the app developers make in their networks as much buzz and noise as they actually can.

Review Websites

As soon as the app sales increase from the early launch deceit, emails are sent out to different review websites proposing them promo keys. Reviews are flowing in, and talking about the awesome app is controlled on Twitter, where app developers offer their help and follow up different questions. A video “Making the app” is posted and it gives present clients something to enjoy (also humanizing the app team), highlighting the recommendations of the users.

The personal website for our awesome application receives some wind of its own being featured in different design blogs for its modern usage of CSS animations, contributing deceit which does not have anything to do with the mobile application itself.

Chosen by bigger websites

A couple of weeks after the app`s launch, bigger websites like TUAW start showing their interest in the app. More than one month in and we are still seeing active interest in the mobile application; it has collected hundreds of positive five-star reviews in the Google Play and App Store and has been characterized both in “What’s hot” And “New and noteworthy”.

What did work?

The thing which actually worked for our awesome application was a mix of the advertising rules mentioned and discussed above:

It was unique enough in a crowded market to cause interest and become seen as a “great story”;

The main idea of a “visual weather forecast” app was simple to convey and presented in such a way which gave it pretty high tweetability;

It was absolutely the opposite of what its top competitors were doing;

The app team started deceiving quite early with creating of a “Coming soon” page. It was sufficiently appealing for people to share and tweet about it, and eventually the app attracted its visitors not only due to the app itself but due to the design of the website for this application;

A press package with just everything you can dream of was freely accessible on the website, making it quite simple for blogs to write about the mobile application.

Farewell thought

There was spent a lot of money on advertising it, yet the awesome mobile application reached hundreds of thousands of people. If you have an original product and can apply some of the ideas mentioned above, you could also secure free exposure for your wonderful product. It is a rather honest and democratic process as you need to re-invent applications by adding to them original features. Then its advertising becomes all about making it simpler and more attractive for people to discuss and share your creation.

As with many other things in our life, there is actually no unmistakable way to build and develop a successful mobile application. But remembering some of the things we have talked about in this article will put you in a position to create awareness of your product much more easily. However, if you still unsure you can cope with it yourself, you can turn to Applead team and give this task to the hands of professionals. Check out this site in order to see what we can do for you and your app and good luck with developing your product!

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Main Reasons For Starting Google Mobile Promotion Today

For mobile app developer it is important to understand that a good promotion strategy is your key to success. Google offers you such an option.

Any time when a potential or present customer asks some question by means of Google search, here is a good chance for your company or brand to get from them the right information. It is especially significant for mobile owners, because it can be a spontaneous but quite urgent search for certain necessary information. However, nowadays app developers are pretty obsessed with the need to help their customers at the right moment, and many of them still do not understand the opportunities they have for Google mobile promotion (see more on this topic at https://applead.net/en).

Is your brand or company one of those ones which devotes so much time and efforts to its mobile advertising strategy and often satisfies the needs of its clients? The brief moments when there is an urgent need for some necessary information are all strongly connected with the use of smart phones. You also have to know about the changes in the mindsets of your customers. You can be surprised, but about 90% of smart phone users do not have any idea what brand they are willing to buy from when they are looking for information about this product online.

It means that loyalty of the customers has lost the influence it had, but you have a good opportunity to fight for some clients of your competitors instead. In addition, those customers who have received the information right on time, bought a mobile app from another brand than they primarily wanted to. The researches show that independent brand awareness jumps by 46% by demonstrating mobile advertisements, and over 50% of customers find information about a new company when searching for something else by means of a mobile search.

You can try using Google search on a smart phone in order to look for your brand category by means of some general search queries. Do you like this strategy? Then do the same thing with search on YouTube. Have you found anything about your brand or company? You should find the gaps which you do not like and cannot afford to lose it. Increase your share of interest by presenting mobile search advertisements and be ready to help at the moment when your clients most need it. How can you start doing this? (check out this site for more detailed information)

First, you should think about all of the possible stages of the process of buying an app and understand the 4 main types of moment. The first one is the urgent need for certain information. This is a research and exploration step but the customer has not really decided yet whether to make a purchase or not. Such customers need some inspiration, they have to be encouraged to buy your product, and basic info about your mobile app category will be much more useful rather than direct promotion. Think about the 60% of users of the smart phones that search for things to learn more right after they have seen or heard a commercial ad on TV.

The second type is a search based on location for food, local businesses, entertainment and stores. This type of search means that people will be eager to buy things of your brand providing it is situated close and providing it is on their search based on location. The third type here is the direct intention of making purchase (I want to buy it), and you cannot expect all these customers to look for your brand. On the contrary, you have to attract their attention when they start googling for the product first. When shopping in a particular store, 82% of smart phone owners use their smart phones in order to get more information about the product.

The fourth and the last type is the intention to do certain things, and in this case the most significant query will be “how to”. This kind of search has an increase on YouTube of 70% each year, and it will be getting even bigger. Consequently, you have to look deeper into popular searches and trending topics in your industry, just like in case with the desktop search. For instance, the context can be various at the weekend and during business hours. Or, it can be set for a nearby versus faraway locations.

Combining the intention and context of the customer, you may compile the most efficient and timely advertising messages ever. Check out some awesome case studies about mobile promotion from Google. What would you like to ask or add?

[alenaniga-blog]

The Significance and Opportunities of Mobile Application Analytics

Any app developer knows that mobile analytics tools can greatly help you in making your app successful. So here are a few things you should know.

For the first time in mobile technology history, Internet usage for different mobile applications expanded - 8% of traffic was for the mobile browsers and computers (47% to 45%) in February 2014. Modern app developers, publishers, marketers, individuals and entrepreneurs should certainly consider the opportunities which open for them from this mobile bang. What separates mobile data from the data from other advertising channels is that it is original and also personalized so if you have forceful mobile analytics instruments, it is possible for you to watch the behavior of the customers in a more exquisite way than in case with the desktops.

The data consists of bounce pages, session time, geolocation for the place where the application was used, the most popular pages, service integration, activity of the users when the application was used, different social plugins, and much more other useful information. It is amazing, but only 46% of the big companies make use of a mobile application analytics opportunities, and that means that the other 54% of these companies are not having any information about the users of their mobile apps. Presenting a new mobile application without mobile analytics is just a waste of the resources as it is pretty impossible to watch the progress and outcome of how everything works.

You also cannot actually measure ROI or introduce converting into money to the mobile experience. The arrangement can be improved and personalized if a mobile application is being greatly supported by a product of mobile analytics (detailed information about this you can find here https://applead.net/en). 

There are a few key impacts which mobile app analytics really has for app developers and marketers, so let’s see and consider each of them.

Progressive measurement of mobile application downloads

Lots of mobile app developers and publishers still keep uploading their mobile applications into the App Store relying just on the luck and hoping they will be noticed, as if they are playing blackjack somewhere in a casino. Though, the likelihood of a mobile application becoming a top one without appropriate analytics, measurement and preparation is practically equal to zero. Your potential customers have to learn about it first from before it actually becomes a word-of-mouth best mobile application.

One of the best ways mobile application analytics may be used to make the advertising of mobile apps better is by demonstrating exactly where the download traffic comes from. In accordance with the customer surveys, around 52% of all installation decisions of mobile apps are usually made when browsing the Application Store. At the same time the other half of them is based on blogs, promotion, different recommendations, and other useful sources which can actually come surprisingly for product managers.

Analysis of the app life-cycle

Mobile application maintenance is still a great challenge for lots of mobile app developers. First, the most part of them does not actually realize how significant it is to watch the engagement of the users over time. Instead of doing this, they usually concentrate their efforts on attracting more and more potential customers. Though, it is pretty easier to convince present users to download or buy your products as they have already a specific level of experience and trust with your brand or company. Second, those app publishers who do operate on the opportunities of customer engagement still do not really know how often they have to control the activity of the users and what they actually must focus on. For instance, the drop-off step in the mobile application experience shows a lot about the quality of the product and the business model if you are going to monetize through your application directly. Bounce-off and frustration points mean that you have to make your mobile app much better in the next version.

Many of the following parameters are quite traditional in advertising: drop-off point, session duration, last time the app was launched, last date of the purchase and many others. Using the given parameters, you may customize the experience of the users, for instance, by dividing them into several categories. Those users who opened your application for the first time two days ago are usually pretty different from those ones who have been using your app for the whole month. You may customize your pop-up windows or push notifications in order to realize the goals of your company at the same time leaving your clients happy.

Metrics of mobile application performance

Even if you have already presented your new mobile application and received the attention you wanted and some loyalty from the group of your clients, you still have to closely follow your rank in the Application Store in order to compare your product to your competitors. This is vital to constantly check what platforms and devices people most often use for reaching your mobile application and how many people bought it. For this reason you also require progressive mobile application analytics instruments to control the data in the Google Play and App Store. The indicators for performance of mobile app include income, downloads count, ratings, in-application purchases, platform, region, royalties, app store and category ranks by name.

If you realize that you have lots of Windows Phone users, you definitely have to introduce your version of mobile application for them as well. An instant drop in installs or downloads can be a technical issue which you have to solve. Watching income is going to guarantee you that you have already received all of the processed payments, and your team’s motivation is supplied by giving them the whole picture of how your new product is doing in this huge world.

Segmentation of the customers

It is another great step after you make sure that you have received all detailed information about your customers. You may separate your users into certain groups or categories even using such a simple instrument as Excel, in case you have a nice mobile application analytics instrument with the ability to download a table report. You may also try to analyze various groups and the shifts in time in order to better understand what value you are bringing people with your product.

General segmentation usually divides clients into a few groups using the date purchased or installed but you may use another good variant which even better suits your mobile application experience and business model. You are also going to see how bug fixes, upgrades, promotion, promo campaigns and any other outer factors have influenced the popularity of your new product.

For example, at the opening of the store you may ask your customers to download and install your new mobile application, and by retrieving them from the other groups of customers, you can see the dynamics and evolution behind their active interest in your company or brand. In case your business gathers information about geolocation, you may see whether these clients have visited your store or they were just trying to find it on the map.

Analysis based on location

There is one significant difference between the mobile and other advertising channels. The cooperation is even more pertinent for businesses based on location and their cooperation with the clients. This is also connected to mobile ads and search because they may become much more pertinent due to geolocation.

The first thing you should work pretty hard on is convincing your customers to give you full access to the information about geolocation. You may do it just by sending the request at the right moment after smart screen education – just as when the function may be instantly used. If a customer does not actually agree to share their information about geolocation, it is practically impossible to ever change their mind.

Mobile advertisements which are connected to geolocation may provide your customers with an instant call-to-action and create the so necessary connection between mobile activities online and offline. The process of taking a certain action should be pretty easy and also quick, so that the opportunity of conversion is not lost.

A mobile location option is usually used not only in the industries of entertainment, retail and media. It also has to do with health care, tourism, fashion, education and many other different spheres which use it in order to provide a better client experience on mobile phones. Mobile application analytics opportunities answer your questions such as where your applications are used and where your customers usually go daily. So what are your experience and thoughts about mobile application analytics? Share it with us in the comment section! And if you are seriously interested in this topic, check out also this site.

[alenaniga-blog]

23 Original Ways to Advertise Your New Mobile App for Free

If you are a mobile app developer, you should understand that you have to work hard to become successful. Here are 23 useful tips which can help you.

We have been working in a mobile application development sphere for two years now, so we have interacted with a number of business owners and undertakers who put up lots of their money in creating and developing their mobile apps, all to no purpose unfortunately. It happened not just because their main idea was not creative enough or the application had plenty of bugs, but rather due to the great expectation that they will immediately get all the rewards after uploading their new apps on the App Stores.

For small companies and app developers working alone, it is practically always not an easy decision when it comes to bearing the costs of advertising and marketing. So usually they end up giving up on marketing and start relying entirely on their dreams and hopes to make it. But not everyone can go so luckily as Dong Nguyen. If you are working in the same small company or are an app developer working alone, you should not just launch your new mobile app and be ready to advertise it, but if you are held back because of a small budget, then this article will be useful for you.

We have gathered 23 tried-and-true advertising strategies which will let you promote your new mobile application just right, so that it could get a nice place on the App store and make you successful. So let’s get started then.

1. Make contacts

The advertising process of a new product preferably starts even before its birth. During the building phase you should not rely just on your development company; find honest and reliable entrepreneurs and influencers who have the same interests as long as your application goes. You need to put your skills of your people to the test and have with them a strong business relationship. When they start trusting you, tell them about your application’s present status and appreciate every drop of feedback which they throw at you. They can act as the brand representative of your new app very well after it has been launched.

2. Users Are Your “Media”

Remember that customers are the foundation of any business and due to them plenty of companies still enjoy being successful. In accordance with Bain and Co., “…a 5% growth in customer retention may enhance profitability of the company by 75%”. Keep your customers by informing them about your application’s idea and inquire them what they would actually like to have in it. How could you make your mobile app more beneficial and shrewd for them? Keep in mind that your customer has their personal audience and if you can assure them, you will be getting all of them to maintain your success and stay powerful.”

3. Use Borrowed Capital for Creating Your Mobile Website

If you have your own mobile website which gets an appropriate amount of traffic, it is high time to use it to the advantage of your app. These people will be just perfect candidates for creating a ‘targeted group’ that will be glad to use your mobile application right from the start. You should take special care when working on the architecture and imagine how you could make it easier for them to notice your new app.

4. Characterize the Application in the Official Blog

You can write the entire story about your new app and inform your audience about the purpose standing behind it. You should let them know how this application can contribute and make things easier for them. Add the links to your app, some videos and screenshots in order to help them understand it better.

5. Focus on User Emails

As long as they are used under the right circumstances, email notifications still have their own charm. In accordance with a research by Exact Target, “almost 91% of people check their emails every day”. Take a chance to get advantage from it by incorporating your application links into the customer service emails and newsletters and also you should make it a habit to write it in the email signatures. To get more information on email marketing, check out here https://applead.net/en.

6. Make a Demo Video

Select the most originative person in your company to finalize this part. Make a video which clearly shows its purpose. Create it informative, entertaining and humorous so that your potential audience may easily relate to it. Post this video in your official channel on YouTube and also insert there the content you are going to produce in future.

7. Look at the Alterative Application Stores

You should not rely just on the App Store or Google Play Store; on the online market there are a great number of other application stores where you may upload your new app. In accordance with One Platform Foundation, in case an application is affirmed on other comparatively less popular app stores, it will enhance the expected app downloads to 200% more if to compare to the Google Play Store.

Here is a list of some quite good application stores which you can consider:

• Opera Mobile Store • GetJar • Amazon Appstore • SlideMe • AppBrain • AppsLib

For detailed information, read this site.

8. Apply for Rewards

Taking part in different application awards is considered to be the most often suggested way and we would highly recommend you to take advantage of it. This method may give you lots of press, reviews, exposure and a great number of downloads. Although the winning chances depend very much on your submission and application idea, nevertheless, if you can get things right for the first time, then you could expect to enjoy being famous.

Here are some of the most popular app rewards websites:

• OZApp • Appy Awards • Best Mobile App Awards • Best App Ever Awards • The Webby Awards • AppCircus competition • Ericsson Application Awards • Appsters Awards • Apple Design Awards

9. SEO does Matter

Yes, we are talking now about SEO (do not mix up with ASO). What happens is the application URL also shows up in the search results when customers use key-in related phrases; for instance, when a user looks up some music mobile apps, you surely want your application to start showing up among the first five entries, before the users press Enter button.

Everything you have to do here is find the “best-targeted” keywords which you would like to rank for. You should also analyze those keywords that your app is presently ranking on, create some quality links in accordance with it to enhance the rankings. In order to do this, try out these two cool instruments: SearchMan and MobileDevHQ.

10. Poke Out Like Mr. Extravagant

You should not rely only on App Stores. Try to explore search engines and believe us, they could do wonders for your new mobile application. Let’s suppose that your new app is related to music; then google the phrase “best music android mobile applications” and enjoy the results you will get.

Out of the five best results, at least four of them are blogs with high authority which may be easily contacted for getting your application featured. If you can get this idea, you could kill even more than a couple of birds with this one stone. Getting your new app featured has such long-term profits as: targeted traffic, rating and reviews, exposure and powerful link-building.

11. Join Various Entrepreneurs and Developers Groups on Social Media

Make your visibility better on social media communities and groups, especially on such as Google+, Facebook and Linkedin in order to become more famous among other mobile app developers and entrepreneurs. Ask them for the feedback on your new application and also provide them with free promo codes so that they can try it out. Talk over present characteristics, future updates, bug fixes and appreciate their opinion. You may create with them strong relationships that might give you the opportunity to cross advertise each other’s applications without wasting a cent.

12. Design a Bright Eye Catching Icon

Having over 1.6 million mobile applications in the Google Play and about 1.5 million ones in the App Store, there will be a lot of rivals in any category that you select. Due to this variety of apps, many customers tend to choose only those apps, which icon makes them interested.

In order to get your application icon stand out, you should create:

1. First, be creative;

2. Have an original shape which stands out and a limited color scheme – two colors will be enough to make contrast;

3. Avoid a lot of text because it is impossible to see all of it anyway and you should not also use a photo while it blends in too much!

Testing the icon of your application out on a dozen various wallpapers will be also useful.

Here you can see some excellent examples of perfect application icons You can notice that Squarewallet does stand out just by using a quite simple design but a perfect mix of color so that it makes it look almost like a hologram.

In the following image you may see how some best rated applications use a simple color scheme to make their app icons really stand out and create a recognizable brand.

And finally, here are some of the most famous mobile applications with a wonderful take on the idea of putting a logo icon over the text.

13. Take Perfect Screenshots

Just taking a good screenshot of your new mobile app and placing it on the App store does quite a poor job of what you are trying to show to your targeted user. Adding more visual elements and captions to your app screenshots is the great way to turn unnoticeable boring mobile app into the winner with a high number of downloads. For instance, Vine’s application page can put you in the scenario where just by watching the screenshots; you may get the idea of the options that are offered within this mobile app. It makes your choice of downloading or not downloading quite simple.

14. Optimization in App Store

Application store optimization process (known also as ASO) is, at its central part, SEO for the App Store and Google Play Store. Similar to search engine optimization, it focuses mainly on keyword propriety, search propriety and the keyword thickness in your app description. Having almost half of iPhone owners in the US who find mobile apps through search, your mobile app description should be one of the most significant things you could focus on in your application advertising efforts.

It is also quite easy to get started with contestant research with the help of such platforms as App Annie where you could search something kind of “healthy diets for women” and find out what applications will show up and also their ranking.

15. Create a Great Landing Page for Your App

A good landing page is necessary in any case, even if you have no mobile application. Possessing a good landing page is equal to always having a perfect business card, which is good just in case you will ever need it, but it is always nice to know you have it.

Spendee is a wonderful example of a perfect mobile application landing page which has all the elements that are needed to get more users, inform them about new features, engage them and also help them share your app easily. The landing page has multifold links out, and the two most perceptible links are the Google Play and App Store buttons. They are a number of times bigger than the button of social sharing, but it is always great to have it for helping users to share the application, and these buttons stand out just like the images located to the right of them.

When you scroll down a little you will see that all panels have a single call to action that leads right back to the main call to action which is to download the mobile app. The last panel has even social proof from actual users of the apps and news outlets as well.

16. Add on Your Website App Download Links

Creating an application landing page is good, but the chances are that you already have traffic which is going to your business’s website. Take advantage of those present customers and users in order to make more of them download and install your new app.

Present Website Banner

Create a small banner for your business website that shows up somewhere unobtrusive. We think that a HelloBar is a wonderful way to do it:

It is quite simple, it always stays at the top of the rest of your pages and you can also get the most necessary information with a link to your mobile app landing page or right to the Application Store.

Profiles in Social Media

If you are already registered in the social media game and have account in Twitter, LinkedIN or Facebook page, then you should make use of it to advertise your new mobile app. An ordinary banner with your app name and place where people can find it is everything you need:

17. Become Characterized On Mobile Application Review Websites

Getting reviews and press about your new mobile app is an easy and effective way to get advantage from another website’s traffic. If your app gets featured on The Next Web, then you may expect a couple of thousands of exceptional visitors during the first day to visit your site and your page on the App Store. If your app gets a review from a famous mobile application blog such as AppAdvice, you could expect the same amount of traffic to get through to your site and listing on the App Store.

18. Be Ready For the Press

Most part of the journalists are under pressure of deadlines for getting new content and due to this fact, they do not have much time to find more interesting news or information on stories which are sent to them. In order to make sure that you have a great chance of making your story being published, you will want to make sure that you have everything in your PR kit that a journalist might need. A great mobile application PR kit includes:

A) A Mobile Application Summary Guide Your mobile application summary guide is the demonstration of what your app is, how it can be used, for what audience it is created, the main problems it can easily solve and many other useful information explaining why the application was created and why it does matter.

B) The screenshots (App and Lifestyle) You are gonna need both lifestyle pictures and application screenshots in your PR kit. Make sure you have also included plenty of screenshots, even more than you think rational. If you are going to send this PR kit to a couple of dozen news agencies, you have to ensure they will have the variant of not selecting images which other news agencies have already published.

C) The App Press Release The press release is the main reason why you are contacting the press. It has to cover off the main problem which your app easily solves, explain why it is being presented right now and any other statements or useful facts underlying the benefits of using your new mobile app. This is the point when you make the sale to the press to publish this story.

D) Design Issues (Banners, Logos and Icons) Provide the news agencies with all the sizes of the icons, logos and other design issues they might need so that they could keep your branding clean in their article. The last thing you need is to be presented on TechCrunch with quite a blurry logo just because you sent journalists only one size of the image. Changes to such articles can be made in a few weeks while they are considered to be the lowest of priorities, so do not miss your chance.

E) Creating a video A great promo video could do wonders helping your potential customers understand what your new mobile app represents. Seeing app in action, people can make a very responsible decision about testing out your application.

19. Advertise Your App With A Promo Video

Having a good promo video is necessary for any mobile application. It is a fast and quite easy way for people to understand the most common ways of use of the given app and how they might use it as well. The extra advantage of the promo video is that you may benefit from video SEO.

For instance, if customers search for “the greatest list making application” and your video title on YouTube matches it, then your video is going to show up in top 5 before the other part of search results. A wonderful example is when you search for the word “hello” in Google. In spite of over 800 million possible results, the first thing you see is Adele’s new song Hello.

20. Use Your Accounts in Social Networks

Social media, in spite of the great focus by most companies, is still a much underestimated way of app advertising. Sending a message to your potential customers is good, but sending a couple of messages several times a month is even much better. The general Facebook page post gets about 16% of the fan base of this page. When you present something kind of a mobile app, it is a great achievement for the business company and it could mean any number of things for your potential customers. So do not miss an opportunity to advertise your app on Facebook.

21. Create An Announcement Blog

Presenting your new mobile app launch as the update of the company is a wonderful way to keep the customers constantly informed about great company changes. You can use an account in the social network in order to attract traffic and to make sure that people you are in contact with are aware of your new mobile application.

22. Put a link To your App In Your Email Signature

It may often take a few weeks and sometimes even months until all of your present customers find out that you have finally presented a mobile application. But these customers, who do not know, are likely to get emails from you every week or maybe even every day. So you can add your application download links to the landing page of your app to your email signature while it is quite an easy way to attract more downloads just sending the emails which you usually send.

23. Join Facebook and Linkedin Groups

Linkedin is a huge and popular social network which has over 400 million business specialists and Facebook can be proud of more than one billion users. They both represent many industries, markets and have groups for any thing you can think of. So you can find these groups which are made up of people who closely look like your present customers or your perfect customers and share your new mobile application with them. Try to explain the advantages of using the application and why people should use exactly this mobile app.

If you can find a great group, first contact the admin of this group and then ask them to be partners with you so that you could advertise your app there. It might be in exchange for a certain amount of money as a paid advertising or it might be a referral relationship where you pay for every download or every new customer.

[alenaniga-blog]

AdWords Selects Mobile App Market as an Object of Attention with New Mobile App Advertising Ad Format

What’s news in the world of mobile application advertising? Find out the new opportunities for successful promoting your app that Google may offer.

Google has recently opened a new Application Advertising Ad which allows its users to download your new mobile application directly from the Google Play Store and iTunes, adding to their already existing impressive line-up of various mobile innovations. They have also launched a new mobile application advertising ad template for app promoters to easily build the new App Advertising ads. The New Application advertising ads are kind of the next generation of click-to-download advertisements that have existed for a couple of years now.

The new Application Advertising Advertisements are currently available only if you have modernized to increased campaigns. Google also recommends mobile app promoters to create some new app advertising ads in order to replace the older ones, present click-to-download advertisements, so that they could take advantage of the new built-in and much smarter ad-targeting facilities of the App Advertising Ad. The new ad-creation template and modernized click-to-download advertisement format are both the part of the Increased Campaigns that should be accessible by now to all AdWords accounts (detailed information on mobile app marketing you can find here https://applead.net/en).

The mobile application market is a tremendous, quickly growing market which today has over 700,000 iPhone and Android apps. Actually, in 2012 the mobile application industry was considered by some assessments to be a $30 billion market– which is extremely remarkable statistic in respect that this industry did not even exist five years ago! And Google seems to have noticed it as well, and so they have opened this new App Advertising Ad and mobile application advertising ad template in order to solve for this common promotion use case.

How to Promote your New Mobile Application on Google AdWords

Promoting your mobile application in Google is much easier now than ever. In order to design a “Application Advertising Ad" advertisement in your account in AdWords, find the button “New Ad” and click on the option “Application or Digital Content Ad”. You should keep in mind that this works only for increased campaigns.

After that, pick the Application Platform, iOS or Android. (If you are a Blackberry or Microsoft user or app developer, at this time your mobile phone is not supported!) When you have chosen the application platform, then you may search for your mobile app in the corresponding app store (iTunes or Google Play). Fill in the name of your mobile app, then click “Look up application,” then choose the mobile app which you are trying to advertise.

After that, fill in the description and headline for your advertisement. Google is going to show you an advertisement preview in order to give you some idea of how your application advertising ad is going to look like on a mobile phone and on a tablet. So you can understand that the new application advertising ad format noticeably features the icon of your mobile app, and a direct green link to the application download page, both of which will draw additional attention to your mobile app listing and attract more application installs.

What's News With the App Advertising Ad? How does it differ from the Preceding Click to Download Advertisement? It Just Works

The new application advertising ad format is an enormous step forward in terms of ease of use compared to the preceding way of doing it, and it is a great part of Google’s master plan for making advertisements much smarter and even more responsive to context of users. When this week we talked to Surojit Chatterjee, he explained:

Preliminary there was not any easy way to be able to do this. And now you can just put a URL to Google Play or iTunes, we will find out whether it works on a mobile phone or tablet, and then we are going to show the ads only to the right people. So, in case you have an iPhone application, we are not going to present this advertisement on a tablet or to an Android user if it cannot run even on the tablet. We will automatically find it out because we also have much better ad formatting than we did before. Most of the cases of Application developer use seem to be nicely dealt with.

New Extensions of Mobile Application Ad!

In addition to the rolling out of the App Advertising Ad, Google has also presented a recently revised variant of the Mobile Application Extension that lets mobile app promoters deep link to a particular page inside of their mobile application, directly from the advertisement. In order to create a Mobile Application Extension, you should go to the “Advertisement Extension” tab, and then choose “App Extension” option. For instance, a user who has already downloaded your mobile app and installed it can be brought to a particular section inside of your mobile application, and could finish a conversion inside of your mobile app.

Mobile App Promotion Made Simple

If you are a mobile application developer, specifically if you are going to launch a new mobile app, then you have to invest in getting trust of the users in terms of a great number of reviews and installs so that everyone who is looking for your kind of application chooses your mobile app from the given list. As alternative, in case you have already earned a great number of app installs and various reviews, you may employ this promotion as a good way to attain even more positive reviews and downloads and deprive competing applications of a chance to win.

Summing up, the new application advertising ad format is a quite powerful, simple and efficient way to make people find and constantly use your mobile application right away. Modernize to increased campaigns so that you could start taking some advantage of this ad format as a great part of your mobile promotion strategy now! If you are interested in this topic, check out this site.