Mobile App Marketing 101: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide in 2024

In today’s digital world, it is imperative to follow the golden rule that you should devote as much time to promoting your product as you did to creating it. For example, if you work for days writing a blog post, you should allocate the same amount of time to distributing it online.

The same principle applies to mobile applications. The amount of time invested in app development must be mirrored by months dedicated to marketing. We recognize the limitations of budgets, and even the most well-funded ventures will struggle with limited promotion options.

Understanding App Marketing

Mobile application marketing is a set of methods used to attract, retain, and keep app users, thereby increasing their lifetime value. It is essential to make people aware of both mobile and app marketing; however, it is vital to focus on app marketing if you wish to attract and keep customers.

Making an app isn’t easy, and it will be successful only if it is accessible to the right people who are interested in it.

You need to spend sleepless nights thinking and planning to get your product on the shelves of its intended audience. This is where mobile app marketing comes into action and helps fill the user funnel for your app.

Any firm launching a mobile app needs a marketing strategy. This strategy must be carefully planned, meticulously designed, and executed to ensure the app’s success.

Let’s look at the importance of App Marketing.

The future of advertising is mobile apps, considering that more than 85 percent of Americans and 70 percent of the majority of people have mobile devices.

However, almost all big brands and over 70% of small companies have already launched applications for mobile devices. The cost of creating applications in the world reached $28.1 billion as of 2021 and is expected to rise to nearly $35 billion by 2022.

The Plethora of applications is in the same position and is competing with yours, according to the area for your app. Even when you have an innovative idea for your app, you still have 8 seconds to get your audience’s attention. 

So, planning for app marketing is vital to achieve the app’s success.

1st Phase: The Awareness, Or Pre-Launch Stage

The awareness phase of a mobile app’s marketing strategy is the first and foremost step before launching the app in the market. This stage is to build brand awareness and promote the app’s visibility. Particularly, how will your potential customers discover the mobile application you have developed? Before beginning the awareness phase, you must have a solid knowledge of your brand’s message and position. A brand’s message resonates with consumers through its core values and mission, not just specific product features. Determining a brand’s position allows customers to connect with your product at the level of a deeper connection. Here is a list of actions and strategies you should use during the awareness stage of your marketing strategy.

1. Determine A Release Date

Compared with Google, Apple has a strict process for reviewing your product that can delay your launch, and you could face an unexpected setback you weren’t expecting. Preparing for your launch in advance will give you time to plan for the hard launch of your product and let you anticipate any eventualities that could be expected to occur.

Tips for Launching: When deciding on an event date, be aware of local events that could shadow the app’s launch.

2. Perform Market Research To Understand Your Customers

A frequent mistake made before launch happens because you must perform proper market research. Before you start any work on your app, it is essential to determine the top players within the app you are developing for your particular category. It doesn’t matter how comprehensive your marketing strategies are. Still, if your app does not resolve a problem that already has an existing app solution available, the product isn’t going to be a success. AddWeb Solution provides a substantial amount of market information. 

3. Create User Personas

During the awareness phase, a key goal is to discover who your ideal users are, what they value, and the primary point they face that can be addressed through your product. There could be a variety of mobile app users, and every user will have a unique user experience.

The persona of a user is a fictionalized representation of the ideal user. User personas contain everything regarding the demographics of a person’s background preference for mobile devices, their specific interests, and identification numbers. Personas for users also consider the main goals of a user and the obstacles they face today. User personas that are thorough provide the foundation of the design of user experiences and assist in tailoring every feature of your mobile app to meet your customer’s preferences and needs. From branding to app content, the platform you’ve chosen for your monetization strategy must be connected with the target audience. If you thoroughly define your intended audience using user profiles, you can address important questions that will shape the entire marketing strategy. Examples:

• What is the most significant issue that this group of people has to endure?
• Which mobile operating system is this user using? iOS Or Android?
• What kind of content does this particular audience consume on the internet?
• Which tone of voice and content style resonates with this specific audience?
• Are there any branding visual patterns in this audience’s online activities?
• Do they follow any influencers in this product’s niche on social media?
• Which platforms can you best utilize for paid advertisement?
• Are these users able to pay for apps or to make in-app purchases?

Utilizing personas to answer such queries can help you make the right design, business, and marketing strategies to draw the right people towards your offering. If you haven’t researched your target audience, how will you deliver an item that is pertinent to their requirements?

4. Conduct A Competitive Analysis

Your app is likely to face competition. Make a list of your top five competitors’ current prices, their monetization strategies, the app’s ranking on the store, UX (UX) advantages and disadvantages, and noteworthy reviews. You can even create an assessment of the competitive landscape to see the way your app is positioned. Check to see if your app doesn’t duplicate badly designed functions or UX elements that users have criticized. Consider what could make your app stand out from your competitors. These are crucial aspects that will influence the entire marketing strategy for your app.

5. Create A Website Or Landing Page

The mobile web is the most popular source for app downloads. Making a landing page for your app before launch or at least an introduction video to promote your product is a common practice. If you’ve got an online video, you can reuse the content by making it available on the app store and social media platforms, or you can use it as a paid advertisement. Apart from creating an image for your app, the website presence before launch can also be an excellent opportunity to start initial Search Engine Optimization SEO to establish your domain’s credibility. When you’ve established your site, make sure you collect email addresses so that it can keep customers up-to-date. Inform them when your mobile app is launched and you’ve released new features and updates. It’s also beneficial to display 5-star reviews on your site. Be sure the reviews are genuine. Otherwise, your brand may worsen the condition. 

6. Outreach Initiatives

One of the least understood aspects of marketing a brand-new mobile app is outreach efforts, such as contacting publications, influencers, and bloggers to get backlinks and provide honest feedback. Make a contact list relevant to your particular industry or area of expertise that you can write about or review your application. Make your pitch as short as possible with the URL to your landing page or press kit. This way, if they want to write about the application, they’ll have all the required details.

7. Promote On Social Platforms

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and many other social networks enable you to increase your web presence and connect directly with your targeted customers. Suppose your application is targeted to specific age groups. In that case, you need to identify the social media platforms that are the most popular among this demographic and concentrate on these platforms. Be sure to consider the following factors:

8. Create A Content Marketing Strategy

Begin writing your blog months before you plan to launch. When you’re about to launch the product, you’ll become an expert in your field with followers. Start with an introductory launch blog post, discuss the features available, and showcase videos and screenshots. Here are some benefits of using content for marketing your application:

• Increase conversions, traffic, and brand recognition with engaging content.
• Develop a brand for your app by establishing yourself as an expert in your area of expertise
• Create trust with users by providing content
• Blog posts can be used to send out emails, marketing to engage contacts, or for social media.

2nd Phase: The Acquisition Stage

Implementing a strategy to acquire users will open the doors to success. Keep your mind open, be flexible, and try to get the maximum number of downloads within the first week following the launch. Monitor user sources so that you can focus on the most profitable channels and make improvements to other channels. Here are some ways to draw customers in:

1. Paid Strategy

Once you have launched your app, start advertising on platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook, as they both effectively acquire users. Think about platforms such as Instagram and Twitter as well, particularly for those who are millennials. LinkedIn’s advertising platform permits specific targeting based on the user’s interests and location. Remember that users on social media have short attention spans, so keep your advertisements short. Google Search ads are also efficient if your application offers the solution users seek.

2. App Store Optimization (ASO)

App Store Optimization (ASO) increases access and downloads by increasing the search engine’s ranking and conversion rate. An optimized app will maintain an excellent ranking for months, which results in increased downloads. The most important elements are titles and keywords strategically positioned to draw users. Incorporating images, videos, and localization enhances the appeal.

3. Pitch To Apple’s Editorial Team To Be Featured In The App Store

The ability to establish a presence on The App Store is a tool that marketers use in their marketing plans. Being featured provides more chances for apps to gain popularity and downloads, which could lead to lower acquisition costs, more active users, and increased revenues.

Every day, professional App Store managers evaluate free or paid games and apps. Apple receives thousands of requests to showcase mobile applications. This technique can be beneficial if it is done convincingly. Make a convincing pitch that defines your app’s features and why it’s different.

3rd Phase: The Retention Stage

Most people put a lot of effort into acquisition marketing; however, once you’ve gathered customers, if nobody uses your application, it’s not producing profits for your business. Your next step should be to devise an action plan for retention marketing that will turn the new customers you’ve acquired into lifetime customers. Below is a list of methods that you can use to increase retention

1. Establish Two-Way Communication

The more in line your app’s experience is with the user’s preferences and needs, the more likely they are to connect with the app. Companies that use in-app messaging to engage with their users will see retention in the first 28 days after receiving a message. This ranges between 61 and 74.

The messages in-app are those that do not need immediate action but are nevertheless important to receive. They can be a warning about issues with your app, payment failures, or even version updates. Be aware that the messages you send are relevant to every user. Segmentation of the audience assures that the information they’re receiving is helpful to them.

2. Push Notifications

Push notifications feature have been proven to boost user retention, with data ranging between 56% and an increase of 180. People who have chosen to receive push notifications show 88% higher engagement in apps over those who don’t. The greater the retention rate the higher the rank on the store for apps.

Steps To Get Success in App Marketing

1. Ask Users For Feedback

If your users use your application regularly, they have formed an emotional connection with the product. Allow them to share their thoughts through a pop-up that invites them to leave a comment. Be aware that this method shouldn’t compromise users’ experience. Consider when and how you would like to request a review and ensure it is in line with user experience so it doesn’t annoy users. The more thoughtfully the pop-up is set up, the higher the chance of getting favourable reviews.

2. Consider A Burst Campaign

“Burst campaign” or “burst campaign” is one of the most well-known strategies often used by mobile app developers seeking to get to the top ranks of app stores. The concept behind a burst campaign is to give your app a “burst” of exposure. In this method, you purchase a hefty amount of paid media coverage for a brief period, typically between 24 and 72 hours, according to your budget.

The objective is to gain as many paid installations as feasible, thus increasing your ranking. This is all in the hopes of increasing the number of organic, quality installs that should occur when your app is sufficiently high to be found. In addition, you will be able to attract more organic downloads through the success of your burst campaigns. Paid advertising on a regular basis will keep the downloads steady. It is important to keep up the momentum.

3. Offer A Referral Bonus

Giving your users a reward or a benefit when they share your app on social media is an effective method to encourage them to promote your app. With an impressive 3900 percent increase in growth, Dropbox is an excellent illustration of how effective referrers can prove. Dropbox had just 1,000,000 registered users in 2008, which grew to 4,000,000 in just 15 months thanks to its referral system.

3. Set Goals And Track Key Metrics

Monitor marketing success by tracking app performance over time. Constantly track engagement, acquisition, conversion, and retention metrics. The most important metrics are churn rate and day-to-day active users (DAUs) and session duration, intervals, and the cost per purchase. Find effective ways to increase app downloads.

4. Avoid Over Promising

Be careful and avoid overpromising to maintain credibility and satisfaction with the user. Make sure your marketing strategies are tailored to different preferences, including texts, videos, or images. Continuously refine strategies to achieve the perfect equilibrium. Set up key performance Indicators (KPIs) in advance to monitor the user’s journey and identify issues in real-time to improve application performance.

Conclusion

There are endless opportunities to make money with app marketing. Social media marketing platforms, email marketing, influencer marketing, and in-app purchases are some practical methods for advertising mobile apps. 

Like any traditional launch, you should approach your launch with the same zeal by committing time and effort to establish a solid strategy for acquiring users on your app. Be aware that quality is more important than quantity in terms of the number of users of your application.

Make sure you comprehend your audience so that you can design ads that speak to them. If you’re looking for effective app promotion, contact AddWeb Solution. Have a dedicated team of digital marketing professionals to assist you with everything from developing your app to the most effective promotional efforts.