App promotion – a key element of every successful app launch

204 billion mobile apps were downloaded in 2019 and the app market is constantly growing. The competition for the user’s attention is fierce – if you want to stand out from the crowd not only will you have to build an outstanding product, but also come up with an effective app promotion strategy. 

While promotion is a key component of a successful app launch, it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Here are 20 ideas for free app promotion. 

How to promote an app for free? 

Don’t worry if you have limited resources to promote your app. There are plenty of ways for free app promotion. However, ‘free’ doesn’t mean no work will be required on your end – quite the opposite, but you don’t have to pay for exposure. 

1. Optimize your app for the app store 

A lot of app searches are performed on Google Play (53%) or on the Apple Store (47%). This makes app store optimization crucial to ensure your app is easily discoverable. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while optimizing your app. Pick the right app name, write an appealing app description, include relevant keywords, and prepare app screenshots or videos.

2. Create a landing page

A good idea for mobile app marketing is to build a landing page. It will give you a chance to better communicate the benefits associated with your app, address any questions that your target users might have, and include testimonials that will boost your credibility. Creating a landing page will also make your app discoverable by search engines – this can constitute a great source of leads. 

3. Ask customers for reviews 

Ask your users to leave you a review on Google Play or on the App Store. Positive reviews drive purchasing decisions and have a direct impact on the app store algorithms – they enhance your credibility and position in search results. You can also consider other review sites like G2Crowd, Capterra, or Serchen – remember to respond to each review. 

4. Create unique content

Create content related to your mobile app. You can publish it on your blog. If you don’t have one, you can turn to Medium. Creating content is a great way to bring more traffic to your website as well as build brand awareness and credibility. 

5. Produce guest posts

Find high authority blogs that are relevant to your niche and try to get an article published on one of them. Not only will you be able to share your knowledge, but you will also earn a few backlinks to your website. The more backlinks you have, the better your positioning on Google. In the long term, this should help you with lead generation. 

6. Take advantage of social media 

Promote your app on social media. Select channels that your audience is the most active on. Share any updates about your app among other useful content for your target audience.  

7. Join groups on social media

There are many groups on LinkedIn and Facebook where you can share content and, as a result, promote your app for free. Bear in mind that frequently it’s not allowed to share promotional content within groups, so stick with educational content. Save your sales/marketing messaging for your LinkedIn or Facebook company page. 

8. Get featured on a podcast

Podcasts are growing in popularity – as of January 2020, there are over 900k podcasts available on iTunes, while there are over 1 billion blogs worldwide. This makes the podcasting space less competitive than written content – take advantage of it while it lasts. Select a few podcasts that your target audience listens to and try to get featured as a guest speaker. It’s a great way to spread the word about your app to a large audience for free.

9. Create an email signature

Emails are still a popular communication tool, with people sending 246.5 billion emails a day. Not including a link to your app in your email signature is a missed opportunity for generating leads. 91% of people check their emails daily, so include a link to your app in your email signature to boost your brand’s visibility. 

10. Attend online meetups and webinars

Attend online events where you can either be a speaker or where you can at least talk to people who could be your potential prospects. 

11. Get featured in blog articles

Do you recall some of the articles written around “the best tools for”? Try to get mentioned in one of those. Focus on brands with high domain authority – they usually rank better on Google, which means more traffic to your app. 

12. Feature your app on Product Hunt

Product Hunt is full of app enthusiasts. Promoting your app on Product Hunt will not only allow you to gain a lot of exposure but it can also become a great source of leads. Especially if your app is placed in the top 3 products of the day. 

RobinHood, a cost-free and commission-free brokerage app, is one of PH’s success stories. The campaign contributed to RobinHood getting $176 million in total funding. 

13. Use referrals 

Create a referral system to encourage your existing users to invite their friends to download your app. You can include a “refer a friend” button in your app and offer users rewards for each referral. The previously mentioned Robin Hood offers one free share of stock for each new friend who joins the app – the referrer could get a stock worth between $2 and $200. 

14. Use app directories

List your mobile app in one or a few app directories such as appchatter, androidapplog, apps400, preapp. The higher the number of listings your app is on, the higher the chance of getting discovered by potential users. 

15. Partner with other apps

Another idea for successful app promotion is partnering with apps that are complementary to yours. For instance, if you sell a survey app, then you could partner with a  brand selling a Customer Relationship Management platform. You can do a cross-promotion – they could feature your app in the newsletter sent to their customer base and you could do the same for them. 

16. Release a demo video

Nowadays marketing revolves around video. According to a study by Hubspot, 54% of consumers would like to see more video content from brands they like and support. If you want to gain more attention, create a 30-second video showing how users can benefit from your app, promote it on your social media channels, and include it on your website. 

17. Submit your app for rewards 

How else can you market your app? You can enter a mobile app competition like the Best Mobile App Awards. Not only will it allow you to get more exposure, but if you win, it will also boost your credibility. Here are a few competitions you can consider: 

• Appy Awards

• Best Mobile App Awards

• Appsters Awards

• Apple Design Awards

• Best App Ever Awards

18. Get involved in forums

Show off your expertise by answering questions on forums related to your market. You can try to find relevant questions on Quora – it has over 300 million active users, with over 35% of Americans declaring they use Quora. Avoid answering questions that have too many responses, as your visibility will be limited. Focus on questions with a high following but few answers. 

19. Team up with influencers

I know what you’re thinking: “involving influencers will cost me a fortune”. Only if you decide to cooperate with business celebrities, which is not required. You can instead work with micro-influencers or tech enthusiasts who have a decent social media following. 

Get them interested in your app, if they decide to use it and they like it, they might review your app and post it on their social media channels. 

20. Pitch to App Store editors

You can try to pitch your app to App Store curators to have it featured in the “Today” tab. Bear in mind that they receive thousands of pitches daily, so you have to ensure your pitch is carefully crafted. Outline what your app does and what’s unique about it. 

While reviewing apps, Apple editors pay attention to high app quality, sleek design, and good storytelling. If you’re lucky enough to get selected, you can count on a large number of impressions, click-throughs, and installs.

Use various techniques to boost your app exposure for free 

Building an outstanding mobile app doesn’t guarantee success – you still have to put time and effort into promoting it. Luckily, it doesn’t have to strain your marketing budget, as there are plenty of free app promotion tactics that you can use. One of the most beneficial ones is optimizing your app for app stores, as the majority of consumers search for apps on Google Play and App Store.

Show off your expertise by answering questions on forums like Quora, creating content relevant to your niche and sharing it on social media. Getting positive customer reviews and submitting your app for awards will have a positive impact on your brand image as it will boost your credibility.

Now that you know how to promote an app, why don’t you test some of the ideas that we mentioned above? Let us know how it goes. 

The following article has been originally posted by Kacper Rafalski on NetGuru