MY KILLER APP MARKETING TIPS AND TECHNIQUES - App Trillionaires: How To Become An App Developer: Enjoy Life, Make Money, and Live Your Dreams! (2013)

App Trillionaires: How To Become An App Developer: Enjoy Life, Make Money, and Live Your Dreams! (2013)

15. MY KILLER APP MARKETING TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Once you have an active app in the app store and the various app markets, and you’ve followed all the ASO and KITS advice and have set things up correctly, then the next step involves increasing your downloads and sales volume.

Okay, so now let me share with you some of my killer marketing tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way that I know works and can help you increase sales and download volumes!

KILLER TIP #1: LOCALIZED KEYWORDS!

Something neat happens when you start to add languages to your app using what is known as localization…You get another 100 characters for totally different keywords! What I like to do is research keywords in different languages that people would type in and for English based languages I can have up to about 4 different keyword sets! US English, Canadian English, Australian English and British English! This is a really neat tip that has helped me to start gaining higher rankings due to a higher amount of keywords in my apps.

KILLER TIP #2: LOCALIZED TITLES!

You may not be able to get your top coveted title in the US App store, however you may be able to get a translated title that is a hot heavy hitter in another country! This could easily increase your global sales and hence your revenues! Always look for translated titles that can help you increase your downloads!

KILLER TIP #3: HOLD A CONTEST

I have used this successfully time and time again and I end up getting honest feedback and ratings fast, without issues, and all for just giving away a $15 iTunes Gift Card!

a. Simply sign up to TouchArcade.com forums and then post a contest as a developer for a $15 iTunes Gift Card.

b. Purchase your iTunes Gift Cards either from your local Walmart, or from JerryCards.com if you are overseas.

c. Give each valid user review a ticket number and track ticket numbers inside of a spreadsheet.

d. On the draw date you have selected, use Random.org to select a random number from the range of ticket id’s you have obtained.

e. Draw a winner and give away the gift card.

Now after the contest you’re considered a solid developer as you gain new fans who love you for giving away a $15 iTunes Gift Card. You’ve also received app reviews FAST! In most cases I usually get a minimum of 10 app reviews and many of them turn out to be pretty decent. The best part is that all of the reviews are HONEST and are helpful in making sure I create the best quality apps. This helps give my app the BEST chance at making it successfully.

KILLER TIP #4: APP UPDATES

Always update your app! Not only will you get more users, you’ll also keep your previous users happy!

KILLER TIP #5: PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

I personally can recommend a few push notification services. One that I have used successfully has been PushWoosh.com and another one that I have just started investigating heavily is PushWizard.com.

Push notifications are what I like to call Cash for Clicks! You simply grow your push notification user base over time, then during certain times in the year, change the price of one of your apps that are related to the app that has the push notifications built in and send a push message to that user base.

Instantly you should see an inflow of sales the next day, and in some cases this could mean thousands of dollars from a simple click of the mouse to send your message via push notification. For this reason, I like to call this Cash for Clicks!

KILLER TIP #6: IN PERSON MARKETING

This is one area that not many app developers are doing much if at all! Word of mouth is truly the most powerful method of marketing and what I have done to help increase app sales has been creating flyers and physical marketing material to help me promote my apps in my local market. To add to it, I have created business cards with my website, email, link to the App Store with our apps and my information on it. I then go around to various venues throughout the month and meet with other business owners and individuals to promote my business in person.

On the next pages are a few of the print ready flyers I have made that I use to promote our two apps Intimate Fireplace and My Clock Station Pro.

img_7.tiff

My Clock Station Pro Flyer

(NON DIE-CUT)

img_8.tiff

Intimate Fireplace Flyer

(NON DIE-CUT)

KILLER TIP #7: MULTIPLE MARKETS

To make more money and market your apps even more, I highly recommend getting your apps into as many markets as you can. This will help to give you maximum exposure and revenues as you start to grow your business online.

KILLER TIP #8: HARO

This one is an interesting new tool I’ve been using that has helped me to get my apps out there. It’s a website called HelpAReporter.com better known as HARO. On this site, reporters from all around the world come and request pitches for products or expertise from various industries. There are many times where you can easily get your app into prominent magazines and websites simply by pitching your app. This is a great way to really get the word out there! HARO is a secret weapon I’ve been using successfully for a while now and I plan to continue to use it even more going forward!

KILLER TIP #9: MARKETING FORUMS

There are several marketing forums out there that are always keeping up to date with the latest in Mobile Marketing techniques. The ones I am listing here are ones that I have personally used and am a part of. I try not to spend too much time talking on these websites, but trying to learn and help out others as well, with whatever little knowledge I may have been blessed with in this industry.

Warrior Forum (http://www.warriorforum.com)

Digital Point Forums (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/)

KILLER TIP #10: THE RIGHT PRICE POINT

The sweet spot price now going into 2013 is FREE. Yes you read right…FREE! So how the heck do you make money from something for free? The solution to this is called In App Purchases and Mobile In App Advertising.

This method works extremely well for games, however for utilities and apps in other categories I use a LITE/FULL version method where I release a free version of the app with limited functionality and then using push notifications I hold price promotions randomly.

In the past a common method that also worked well was PRICE FLIPPING in which a person would take their app that was more expensive than $0.99 and would put it down to just $0.99. This also works but not as well as it use to. I find that a better method is to use a Freemium model for games and using in-app purchases let people unlock your app. This same method has been used in the software industry for years and was known as “SHAREWARE” in which a user would get a limited functionality app and would purchase a full license to unlock all the features.

Freemium is now becoming the norm, however I still urge you to try out the various techniques to see what works best for your app. It may be a mixture of several methods or maybe one specific method, but you’ll have to keep tweaking and testing until you get it just right!

Each app is a different beast so what works for one app in pricing may not work for another one. In any case always try and monetize your apps using In-App advertising and Push Notifications!

KILLER TIP #11: LOCALIZATION

Localization is a fancy term for simply changing the language of your app from English to another language around the world. By doing this you open up your app to a worldwide audience and an increased chance at sales. You can literally see an increase in downloads simply by having a popular title for your app in a different language or may even start to see downloads from users who finally understand what your app is about.

Another great feature of localizing your app meta data and info is that you can gain another chance at adding even more keywords and screenshots to your app, which in turn means MORE marketing and a higher chance of downloads. In any case, localization is a great way to really push your app to its maximum potential.

Okay so now you know some killer tactics you can use to help grow your business and increase your downloads and revenue. What comes next is having a killer mindset to handle your newfound income!

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people would consider HARD WORK or BORING AUTONOMOUS work. Only persistence yields results!

— Abhinav Gupta