Everyone seems to be marketing a mobile app these days. Most of them use the "Field of Dreams" marketing strategy. If you build it, they will come. In the beginning sometimes, they do come, because Apple is always looking for new apps to feature in the App Store, which sometimes results in making the app a "top 10" in its category (again on the AppStore) for a brief period of time. And sometimes the media picks up on the launch announcement, resulting in positive blog postings that may drive additional traffic at launch.
But then, the traffic often grinds to a halt.
What can be done? Especially for apps with limited budgets and time? Before you throw away your money on "awareness" campaigns. I recommend starting from the product and working your way out.
Product audit: What can you do to optimize your product for the people who use it? Is it easy to download and get started? Do people who use your product love it? How engaged are your current users? Does the app reward or encourage deep usage? Does the product have easy ways for those people to refer their friends, or share thier feelings via social media? Can you communicate with these users, either via email or within the app itself, so you can learn from their feedback and improve their experience? Key elements to consider in the product: registration, engagement, sharing, referrals, and communication with you.
User analysis: Do you know who uses your app and why? If you don't, you need to figure it out fast. In the
beginning, you may have just "thrown the product out there to see who would use it" but as soon as you have data, you should built around what you learn. Make sure your messages and new features support the community you are building.
Awareness: Only invest in awareness building after you know who you want to target and what you want to say to them, and only after you know that your product provides a great experience for those people and optimizes for referrals from happy users. Start with the App Store Profile Page. Make sure it is enticing, that it explains your benefits, and touts your successes. So many Profile pages are poorly done afterthoughts.
As with any new type of offering, the early adopters are willing to put up with poor marketing and will seek out the next new thing. But if you really want to win with the broader mass market, you need to understand and coneect with your audience.
