Promoting your app. Probably the hardest thing for a developer to do. There are lots of ways to promote your app or game, but which ones are the best? We’ve got a ton of ways to promote your app and they are all listed in this article.
Create a website
It may seem like common sense, but you should always create a website for your app or game. It gives people a landing page to learn more about your app. And you do a lot more with a website than you can a Play Store description. It’s important to have a description of the app, as well as a video or two. And of course a button to the Play Store and the App Store (if applicable).
Start a Blog or a Tumblr
A lot of developers have a Tumblr for their app. It’s a great way to keep your readers informed of upcoming changes, updates, and even acquisitions. And if you use Tumblr, you don’t have to worry about hosting or anything. Tumblr also allows you to use your own domain, which would be preferred.
Get a Paid App Review
Paid App Reviews are pretty common, and a good way to get your app’s name out there. Android app advertising, can sometimes be hard to find. But we do offer it here at Android Headlines.
Get Lots of Press
To go along with paid app reviews, another way to get your app’s name out there is to get some press coverage. If you have a big update coming up, it’s a good idea to send a press release to a ton of Android sites, including us, about the upcoming update. Feel free to ask the press if they’d like to get an early copy of the app under embargo or NDA.
Get the RIGHT Press
This goes in with the last tip, but make sure you get the right press. For example if you have an app that is only available on Android, then sites that cover technology like CNET, and TechCrunch likely won’t pay much attention to your app.
Teaser Website
If you are about to launch a new app, put some time into creating a teaser website, and share it across all your social media profiles. This starts to build the hype for your upcoming app, and is important for word-of-mouth advertising.
Using Facebook is a must. Facebook is still the largest social network out there, by far. So you’ll want to make a fan page for your app or game. Here you can posts updates for your app, as well as get feedback from your users which is always important.
Facebook Ads
While you may not want to spend money on ads for your Facebook page, it’s important. While Facebook has the most users, you’ll get the most bang for your buck from Facebook ads.
A Quick Overview Video
Google Play allows you to upload a video along with screenshots to the Play Store. Not every developer does this, but I’d say it’s highly necessary. Many users will watch the video to see if it’s an app they’d be interested in.
6-second How To Videos on Vine
Going with the whole social media thing, creating 6-second long videos that show users how to do different things in the app on Vine will go a long way. You can even embed them on your site that we talked about earlier.
For some reason, Pinterest has the reputation of being for soccer moms. So what? That’s still users that can use your app. Pinterest is an untapped gold mine for a lot of people. You can use Pinterest to pin links to your site, your Google Play listing and even your videos about your app.
Collecting Emails
Now this is a double edged sword. It’s a good idea to collect emails for an email list to email your users about upcoming updates and such, but make sure you are collecting them in a way that the user knows you are.
Many apps utilize Twitter for it’s short posts, as you can communicate with your users easily, as well as post links to updates to your app. You can even tease upcoming features on Twitter.
Resolve Negative Reviews
On Google Play, Google allows you to respond to reviews now. So you can communicate with your users that have left negative reviews and see what can be done to fix that review and make it positive. This is important as most people look at reviews before downloading an app.
Contests/Giveaways
Do a contest for a new flagship smartphone. Or if you have a premium version of your app, give away a few premium licenses for it. In the giveaway, I’d highly suggest having ways for users to share your app with others so that word of mouth spreads even more.
Google+ Communities
Create a Google+ community for your app. This is a good idea for a few reasons. One it allows you to have a small group of users for beta testing (which Google Play does with Google+ communities). It’s also a place where your users can come and talk about the app and what needs to be fixed, or maybe what they’d like to see added.
Play Store listing Optimization
It’s important to optimize your Play Store listing. List all of the features of your app in the description. Make sure to use keywords as well. Remember to keep quotes from news sites like ours out of the Play Store description as Google has banned that.
Your Email signature
In your email signature, make a catchy one-liner about your app. It’s also a good idea to leave a link in there to get users that you email to click on the link and check out your app.
Integrate social media sites into the app
Integrating social media sites into your app is a big deal. Even if it’s just the normal Android share menu. This way users can share data from the app onto social media sites like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Tumblr, and other places.
While Instagram isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it is a pretty popular social network and has millions and millions of users, that you can reach. When posting on Instagram be sure to use short URLs in the description, as well as high-quality images showcasing the app you’ve developed.
Snapchat
Snapchat is also a bit tricky, but you can take pictures or screenshots from the app and share them on Snapchat or even send them to users. You could also get on Snapchat’s Discover, but that requires big bucks.
Google+ Pages
In addition to Google+ Communities, pages are also important. Having a page that users can follow for updates, teasers, and more, is a good way to build up your audience as well. It’s especially useful if you include Google’s Sign In.
Facebook Groups
Creating a Facebook Group with common interests is a good way to find users as well. A group with the same niche won’t be as big as just using Facebook as a whole, but it allows you to target these users you are looking for.
Forums
Post your app on forums. Let the forum users know what exactly your app is about. A good example is using XDA-Developers forum. As they get a lot of traffic, and that means a lot of eyeballs on your post about your app.
Share across Social Media
When you post an update to your app, make sure to share it across all your social media accounts. Both your personal ones and your app’s social media accounts. That way everyone knows what’s going on with it.
Twitter Advertising
Promoted tweets will help get more eye balls on your app as well. While it doesn’t come cheap, you can get a ton of new users for your app, which is what we’re after anyways.
Google Play Advertising
Google Play recently announced advertising, where you can get your app promoted for certain keywords. If you have a pretty new app, this is a good way to get more people noticing your app and thus downloading it.
Contact Podcasts about being a guest
We constantly have developers on our Podcast to talk about their app as well as developing for Android. Many of them reach out to us. So it’s a good way to get more people interested in your app. It’s even better to do this before your app launches to help build some hype for it.
Amazon App Store
While the Google Play Store is huge, and available on every device, the Amazon App Store is another way to promote your app. Putting your app in the Amazon app store is important as those with Kindle Fire’s and other devices will be able to download it.
App Sales
App Sales are important too. Especially if you have a premium version, or it’s not a free app. Making your app go on sale for $0.99 or less will be a big traffic booster for you.
Final Thoughts
We’ve gone over a lot of tips for marketing your app here today. So feel free to bookmark this page and come back to it often to market your app. Also feel free to reach out to us about paid app reviews.
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