What is common between a convenience store, a multi-billion dollar airline company, and a new e-commerce startup?

They can all leverage mobile apps to market their products and services. 

The ubiquity of mobile apps is slowly becoming as apparent as that of websites. It won’t be surprising to see mobile apps become as common as websites in the near future. DIY app making solutions are already making it possible to build a WooCommerce or WordPress app without writing code. 

Launching a mobile app in this day and age is a sign of progression. However, it is not a guarantee for success. Mobile apps fail all the time. 

There are many reasons why a mobile app fails. The most frustrating reason of all is sub-par marketing. 

If a company creates a good app that offers a reasonably good service, then it deserves a decent user base as well. Bad marketing can throw all the good work a company does in developing an app down the drain. 

Our focus in this article is to provide a powerful user acquisition strategy. 

The goal: power your app to 10,000 downloads within the first month of app launch. 

The following sections provide a breakdown of this strategy. By the end, you will have a clear idea of where you need to start with your app marketing campaign. 

Step #1 – Start app promotion before launch

Generally, companies start marketing their mobile app after it finally goes live on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

This is not a bad approach. After all, companies sap most of their energy figuring out how to create an app until they finally do so. This leaves little room for app marketing. 

However, this approach will not work if you want to reach 10K downloads within a month after launch.

You need to raise awareness before app launch too. 

A film studio starts promoting a new release weeks and months before it officially hits the screen. You need to do the same for your mobile app. Use your website or blog as a base to start talking about the app you’re building. This will help some of your regular readers to know about your app. 

Write social media posts and engaging blogs on external websites to discuss the key problem your new app will solve. Leverage every channel at your disposal to make sure people know about your app at the very least.

This ensures you to complete the first stage of a marketing funnel, awareness, before the app launch. Reaching a target like 10K downloads within a month requires a meaty build-up. 

Step #2 – App Store Optimization: Make no mistakes with the easy stuff

App store optimization (ASO) can help you acquire new app downloads organically. It is perhaps the easiest way to create a stream of app downloads. You don’t even need to invest ridiculous amounts of money to master app store optimization.

What is ASO?

It simply refers to the process of optimizing various meta fields of a typical app listing. These meta fields include the likes of the mobile app title, description, tags, images, and so on. 

An app store ranks mobile apps on certain search keywords based on how optimized the app listing is. If your meta fields contain certain relevant keywords, the ranking strength of your app naturally grows.

There are various tools you can use to research important keywords. Some of them are listed below: 

• Appnique
• Sensor Tower
• AppMind.co
• TheTool.io
• Search Man

These tools will help you find relevant keywords to rank your mobile app for. 

However, do note that the app store rankings don’t just depend on the presence of relevant keywords in your description. Other factors like volume of downloads, listing page conversion rate, ratings, and app reviews are also some other factors that contribute to rankings. Some of these factors are out of your control. You should thus focus on solely improving the meta fields of your app.

Do note that you must, always, stay away from mindlessly stuffing keywords in your content as that may do more harm than good for your app.

Another factor to remember here is the aesthetic appeal of your app listing. You can rank well on important keywords but still miss out on app downloads if your icon and screenshots are poorly made. Create a captivating icon and an appealing set of screenshots can have a direct impact on conversions. 

Step #3 – Make early adopters a priority

Someone moderately familiar with app marketing would jump to social media and app install campaigns after getting over ASO. 

Social media and app install campaigns are important. However, getting to 10K downloads within a month after app launch mandates the use of some unconventional tactics. 

Hitting such a high volume of downloads is not easy. You don’t just have to reach a large number of people within your target audience set. More than anything else, you need to reach people who’ll convert quickly. 

In other words, you need early adopters. 

Early adopters simply refers to a segment of users who’re the first to adopt any new product or technology. Making these people download an app is easy because they have a natural interest in the niche the app belongs to. 

How can you reach early adopters? Here are a few tactics which may help – 

Guest posts

A deep online search will help you find numerous blogs in your niche with a core base of dedicated readers. You should request these blogs to feature your app on their to create awareness. 

You can also offer to submit a guest post on their website. Some of them will be open to a free guest post as well, provided your content is relevant. Others may charge you a fee for the same. 

Effectively utilize your marketing budget to publish a blog post on these highly-trafficked blogs. Promote the standout features you’re offering and dangle attractive rewards to close the deal. 

Getting backlinks for your app listing page may even help enhance your app store rankings as well. There are various studies done by ASO experts which find a correlation between the number of backlinks an app listing page has with its overall rankings. 

These guest posts will reach the core readers. These readers are generally industry professionals who’re always interested in trying out new apps related to their field. In other words, these are the early adopters you need to reach in order to hit the 10K mark.

Smart Influencer Marketing

People generally see influencer marketing as a practice that involves paying Instagram celebrities and YouTubers to promote a product or app. 

This is partially true. However, influencer marketing is much more than hiring social media stars.

The digital world is full of influential personalities. You may not have the resources to go after the influencers with millions of followers. However, you can identify smaller influencers with a growing base of followers. 

Influencer marketing is not a binary choice between getting the biggest influencers or getting no one. You can target smaller influencers that are popular within a narrow (and highly engaging) audience. 

Step #4 – Run outbound campaigns

You will have to consider running social media and app install campaigns at some point. These platforms are too big to ignore and promise widespread reach. 

The main challenge in running an outbound campaign is ready. There are simply too many platforms advertisers can leverage to run an outreach campaign. Keeping the social media platforms aside, there are numerous mobile ad networks and video marketing options which advertises can also pursue.

The solution? Choose specific platforms which promise maximum reach instead of trying to raise awareness everywhere you can. If your goal is conversions and downloads, it makes a lot of sense to invest in mobile ad networks. Many ad networks facilitate CPA campaigns that can have a strong impact on the campaign.

In conclusion

Besides the tactical nature of the job, getting to 10K downloads is a matter of will and persistence. The steps mentioned in this piece will help give your app marketing campaign a clear direction and purpose. However, you will have to figure out the nitty-gritties of each measure on your own. 

Using a mobile app builder, you can easily create a premium app for Android and iOS devices. App development in other words has already been simplified. 

The next frontier is app marketing. This article provides a solid framework to run an app marketing campaign. It is up to you now to deploy these steps for your own mobile app promotion campaign.

Author bio

AppMySite is the world’s first AI-powered mobile app builder that helps businesses create native mobile applications for their WordPress and WooCommerce websites without coding. AppMySite writes about everything related to mobile apps and its marketing.