I’ve mentioned a few times now that it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for apps to be found in the ever expanding sea of other apps. With 775,000 in Apples app store alone, it’s easy to understand why. Having a solid marketing strategy is key to overcoming this hurdle, but often it’s something that is an afterthought, as businesses become hung up on making the app itself just right.

So here’s six top tips to market you mobile app and make sure it’s at the number one spot in weeks!

Beta/launch list

Testing by the techies is one thing, but making sure your app is compatible with your target audience and that the features are useful and useable is another. Draw up a list of beta testers who get ‘exclusive access’ to your app before anyone else. You may find there is a handful of brand advocates on your social networks who’ll be suitable, or you could run a competition. Make sure they all provide feedback and give yourself enough time between beta testing and the hard launch to address any issues raised.

Teasers

Don’t just throw your app out there; build up some suspense via email marketing or social channels. Use screenshots, screencasts or videos to give your audience a glimpse of what’s to come and to build interest before the launch. Doing a lot of the hard work pre-launch, will make it much easier post-launch.

Create a website or landing page

Utilise the traffic you already have to an existing website by creating a temporary landing page or pop-up alerting visitors to your app. If you don’t want the close association consider building the app a website of it’s own and capitalise on keywords. You could also consider running some Google PPC ads particularly if there is a high search volume for keywords which link directly to your app.

Leverage existing community

Make the most of the audience you already have, they are already interested in your brand and will likely be some of the first to download your app, so include them in the process. Let them know what’s going on, ask them if there’s anything they’d like to see in the app perhaps consider a competition to design elements of the app or name it. Having that audience there already is a vital tool in the marketing of an app.

PR/Reviews

Once your app in launched set some PR wheels in motion. Many of the daily newspapers and glossy mags regularly review mobile apps or compile top ten’s of their own. There are also loads of websites out there that specifically review mobile apps.

Make the most of the App store

This is one that should never be overlooked. Whilst you concentrate on driving traffic to the app store to download your app, it still needs to be appealing when they get there. There’ll also be a certain volume of traffic which comes directly from the app store itself, so getting your listing right is imperative. The first two things people will see are the name of your app and the icon, if that grabs attention users will want to see screenshots of the app, details as to what it’s all about and how it works, as well as customer reviews.

It might be all about mobile, but that doesn’t mean your marketing should be restricted to mobile!

Image source: Flickr