iPhone app marketing

Describe Your App..Before Others Do!

by Mike Vallez on March 27, 2011

app marketing

The number one location developers have access to to sell their applications is their app’s description in iTunes, the Android Market or another app market. Since iTunes is the largest we will focus on how iPhone and iPad developers can successfully use their app description to convince users to buy their app. Here are four tips on how to better compose your app description to increase your app sales.

1) Don’t be shy: This is where you the developer pull out all the stops and describe every feature of your app. Now, this does not mean be over technical and provide a description that only developers would understand, but think in terms of features. Explain what your app does and how it is going to make the users life either easier or more enjoyable (if a game). Be sure to boast about your app and don’t be shy to talk it up about your app. One key point, don’t make claims about your application that are beyond what your app is capable of doing. You will be called out faster than you can imagine in the user reviews if you make this mistake.

2) Honesty: Transitioning from the last point mentioned above, be brutally honest with your customers about your app whether good or bad news. For example if you become aware of an issue with your application and it is something that will take an update to correct then a good practice is to place a statement top of line in your description notifying customers you are aware of the situation and working to correct it. This does a couple things immediately. First it builds trust with your customer base and second this helps you to manage your customer service efforts better. The first place customers will go when their is a problem with their app is to the description to look for the support or customer service link. While working their way through the description they can see that you are aware of their issue and rest assured your are working to fix it. Here is an example of how to write an issue into your app’s description: “We are aware that the application crashes when trying to use the online co-operative game play mode. We have fixed this problem and have submitted an update to Apple. This issue should be resolved in 4 to 7 days.” This keeps users informed and reduces the number of nasty emails in your customer service inbox. You should also be honest about good news about your application, such as being featured in Apples New & Noteworthy or What’s Hot areas as this mentally helps users to make a purchase of your application because if Apple says your app is good then it must be worth purchasing.

3) Use your description space: All too often I will see an application description that is maybe a hundred words and usually bulleted. These app descriptions are usually confusing to me and I consider myself to be somewhat app savvy. Imagine how a casual app user feels when they go to purchase an application and there are 2 sentences in the description and 5 bulleted features with little clarification as to why users should purchase X app. This is a classic failure to communicate to potential customers what your application is all about. If your app has no features and only can muster 2 sentences worth of description than fine. For most apps this is not the case. Don’t be lazy with your application’s description and be sure to take your time to write a thought out description with the following parts: 1) Intro/teaser- critical information about the application that can stand alone if necessary 2) Body- bulk of description with features, reviews, in depth app history, developer history or any other information that is interesting about your app or that could help sell your app. 3) Links/Customer Service- Be sure to provide links to reviews that have been completed on your application. Include YouTube videos and if you do not have a video of your app in action consider having one made by CrazyMikesapps or another reviewer. Although, links are not hyperlinked in the description they are still relevant and can be cut and pasted from the web browser version of your applications iTunes description. Finally be sure to provide app support and or customer service website links for all of your applications. There is nothing that will hurt an application more than if there is a negative issue with an app and there is no way to inform the developer.

4) Ask for feedback: One of the very best places to get honest information about your application is from your customers. Think of this as your best focus group possible. Why? Because your users have either downloaded your free app or purchased your paid app for whatever reason, most likely because your app either solves a problem or provides enjoyment. Ask your users for tips on how you can make the app better. You will typically get solid feedback, which can help you make future versions of your application better. Additionally, ask users what other features/game play they would like in your application. Sometimes they may provide you with development ideas you may have never considered. Be sure to give your customers credit if they give you a development idea that you use and it makes your app better. Put a shout out in your “Description” and you will win over a customer and show other customers that you listen to customer feedback, which builds trust.

The app description is the #1 place to convince and convert app browsers to become customers. You can do this by providing a thorough explanation of your apps features, game play, provide industry review teasers, customer service promises, links to videos and anything else you can think of that helps to describe your application and what your app does. If your app description is lacking change it today and see if you can convert more app browsers into app purchasers. MV

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Why Your App Sucks! 4 Reasons to App Oblivion

by Mike Vallez on March 1, 2011

app marketing

You have spent either your time or money in the quest to develop the next great iPhone/iPad or Android app to get rich. Your plan is to join the likes of Rovio Mobile or Backflip Studios with a hit iPhone app that will create an almost never ending revenue stream. But hold on a second, your app isn’t selling, in fact, it appears if no one has even heard of your app because your only experiencing a handful of downloads a day at best ( that is one hand, 5 fingers). Does your app suck. Possibly! Here are apps that I would put in the category of “sucks.” Apps that 1) have no purpose 2) are broke and get hung up in endless memory leaks. 3) crash continuously 4) and those that a normal person cannot figure out how to use. Maybe a little harsh, but you have a small window to make someone a happy customer for paying money for your app. After all what is the best marketing method, word of mouth by a satisfied customer. Here are reasons “why your app sucks.”

1) Your App Name Sucks- If you are making an application that is for example involving baseball, perhaps you should include this in your title. The iTunes App Store and most likely but not for certain the Android Market use a search engine algorithm to provide search results to customers. If I search iTunes for “business cards” in iTunes I will be served up several apps that have the word “business” in their title. While this makes sense it does not make sense if you have created a business card application and you name it “The Connection App.” While there may be a deeper meaning for your app name that is full well if your customers knows what that meaning is, but they don’t. The point is do some keyword research in iTunes or the Android Market for your app’s niche. If it is a cooking application, search cooking applications, cooking, baking, recipes, etc to find the keywords you may want to use for your app.

2) Your App Functionality Sucks Because You Rushed Your App To Market- You were so confident your “kick ass” app was going to rock the iTunes App Store or the Android Market that you cut some corners in the development process to push the app out early. Naturally, once the app hit the market you saw little to no return on your time or money. Stunned you tried to figure out what went wrong when all along you knew deep down you were taking a chance by submitting your app without all the bugs fixed. Take your time and fight the urge to submit your app before it is ready. The consequences could harsh by plummeting your app to the bottom of either app store and worse yet you may incur the wrath of the customer by a flurry of negative reviews. Make sure your app is as good as possible with all advertised functionality working, within reason.

3) You Forgot to Create A Website Thus Your App Sucks Because You Have No Marketing Base of Operations- If your selling an application you should, at a minimum have a basic website, blog, or Squidoo page to hock your wares. You need a base of operations to provide customers, bloggers, press, and others a place to find out about your app. This is also the hub of all your marketing efforts. You should have search engine optimization (SEO) set up for this website to pull potential customers in from Google for the keywords that best fits your app. How about a place for feedback from customers, or complaints, which leads to no customer service if you do not have a website. No customer service or poor customer service equals poor reviews on iTunes and the Android Market and lessens the chances of bloggers looking to review your application. Website can be developed and hosted for less than a few hundred dollars self hosted and in most cases you can even getaway with a free website from the many different blog sites or free websites.

4) Zero Competitive Research on Your Part Caused Your App to Suck- Instead of doing a little fact checking, due diligence, or research you skipped all of that and went right into the development process for your app. Once completed you unfortunately found out that there were about 10 apps that did the same as yours, or you were unable to get the app name you wanted because it had already been taken, long before you thought of your app. These kinds of problems can easily be avoided if you research your app genera. You may find that there is a lack of functionality that can be exploited in your app niche or that it does not make sense to make another tip calculator app since there are about 10 or 20 free ones already developed. Do your research, determine if you should create a totally different app than you intended to.

Don’t sell yourself short and let your app SUCK! Take your time, do it right, build a website, do your research, name your app the best possible name you can to give your app a chance at being found in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. If you have tips on how to market your iPhone/iPad, or Android app please leave a comment below. Also, if willing please share your app horror story and how your app sucked! Thank you. MV

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How to Use Self Serve Press Release Services to Launch Your App

by Mike Vallez on February 17, 2011

app marketing

Every iPhone, iPad, or Android app launch should include a strategic press release campaign distributed to multiple press release services to get the word out about your awesome app! You have worked countless hours on your iPhone, iPad or Android app and you do not want all that work to have been done in vain. Press releases give you the opportunity to tell the world (selfishly) why your app “kicks ass” and why everyone in the world should buy it. That is a little over the top, but not really. This is truly your opportunity to wordsmith your way to the top of iTunes or the Android Market. Now it is not quite that easy and I don’t want to overstate the use of a press release, but don’t underestimate press releases. Take for example this scenario, you submit your press release, decently written and it gets picked up by Wired Magazine. This single pickup of your press release could shed some serious exposure i.e. traffic to your website, iTunes, or the Android Market and increase app sales. But how do you write a press release?

Press releases should not be considered rocket science. You can find free resources by Googling the words “Free Press Release Examples” and you will get several decent examples of how to write a press release, some even provide instruction and explanations as to what goes where. There are also numerous sites such as PR Web and PR Mac that provide low cost do it yourself press release solutions. Each site also has an up sale product where they will write your press release and it is not overly pricey. PR Web has a huge reach to some 250,000 websites and over 30,000 journalists and bloggers. PR Mac’s real value is that press releases distributed by this site go almost strictly to Apple type blog sites and journalists (sorry Android folks) maybe someone should start PR Android press release services (domain taken, but not valid).

A press release must be used for the launch of an app and would also be well used in a pre-launch campaign to build momentum. But beyond pre-launch and launch there are other great opportunities to use press releases such as: 1) App Price Drops 2) App Update 3) Media Pickup of your App 4) Company Milestone and any other news worthy event to get your app out there on the web and on the top of mind of relevant bloggers and journalists. Another understated use of press releases is for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. By this stage of the game you should have a website to market your app. You use the link from your website, your app, and any other link relevant to put into the press release. Be sure to have the press release on your website already and at a minimum you will effortlessly build back links to your website, sorry if this is advanced, but this will help you trust me.

Press releases should not be considered only the area of the full service PR firms, at least not anymore. Use the low cost services of the press release sites and get your message out about your app. Be creative, use your imagination, and craft a press release that gets picked up my a major news website and it may be the best $100 you spent. MV

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4 Tips on How to Use YouTube to Market Your iPhone App (iPad/Android)

by Mike Vallez on February 15, 2011

app marketing

YouTube’s tag line is “Broadcast Yourself” for your app marketing purposes it needs to be “Broadcast Your App.” Why is YouTube so critical to your app marketing efforts? YouTube is the worlds 2nd largest search engine, only behind the worlds largest search engine, which is also owned by Google. YouTube is also the worlds largest video social networking site, with unbelievable amounts of video uploaded each minute, to be exact 35 hours a minute which is over a month old and surely larger than this metric now. You may ask yourself with so much video uploaded a minute how does my app have a chance of even getting noticed with so much video content. One word, “VIRAL.” While not technically a viral video, the video below is a silly iPhone app review I did a little over a year ago of the app “Talking Carl”:

This video, which I did with no script, no planning, has reached 120,778 views. This video does not meet the viral video definition, which is a video that receives over 1 million views. Give me a couple of years and It may be viral. All joking aside, cutting a demo of your app or a video review can really leverage and quite possibly help your app sales out tremendously. I have created to date 1,038 iPhone video app reviews on YouTube, with hundreds of them in the thousands of view range, many in the 10′s of thousands of views. I have also become a YouTube partner, which means I have achieved a preferred status with YouTube that allows me to make money off my YouTube channel. I have no video education nor professional video training, I just picked up a camera and went with it. I have learned numerous tips, below are 4 key tips to shooting an iPhone

1) Keep your video short- Most viral videos are between 10 and 30 seconds, yes you don’t have much time. I suggest between 30 to 45 seconds for a demo video set to music that plays well with the demo. If reviewing the app I suggest a time frame of 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes. The stats for viewer drop off begin to increase after 30 seconds.

2) Leverage Humor- Probably the number one way videos go viral is through humor. Usually, the humor in viral videos is spontaneous and not planned, but thinking up some clever humor can definitely help your viral chances.

3) Take numerous takes and retakes- While your video will not be a Hollywood production, remember others will be watching it so take a few takes until your satisfied. The video above was a 1 take video and it shows, yet, people are entertained by it, just saying. Today, it typically takes me 5 to 6 retakes unscripted before I get a clean take I am happy with.

4) Use a microphone- A Lavalier microphone costs about $30 including shipping and will work with any video camera that has a standard audio input jack. I just purchased one and it works great. Nothing worse than a great video, with horrible sound, we have all watched these videos.

A few more pointers in regards your app video (demos usually are recored to music). Do not be monotone, pay someone to do a voiceover if you cannot pull this off. Explain the features, but don’t explain everything, leave a little to the imagination and tease the viewer, and be sure to name the app, the developers name or company name, and any other top of the mind information you want the viewer to remember.

Creating a video app review or video demo of your iPhone, iPad, or Android app may be the vehicle that launches your app into the iTunes App Store or the Android Market. Making a video is cheap, relatively easy, and may be the best marketing strategy to get your app noticed. MV

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How to Build A Community to Launch Your iPhone/iPad, or Android App

by Mike Vallez on February 14, 2011

app marketing

Your great app idea does not mean squat without a customer base that is going to buy it. So how do you build a customer base or community to launch your app? Actually, you can begin to build your app’s customer base early in the development cycle, preferably in the brainstorming stage before any coding begins. Once you have your app named or brand nailed down it is time to get busy with your web 2.0 infrastructure.

Start by creating a website, build a blog (that you will actually blog on), and establish all relevant social media profiles to leverage the ability to market your product directly to your customer. I suggest at a minimum establishing a Twitter channel and Facebook fan page in the name of your app or developer company name. This is the infrastructure you will use to market directly to your customers.

Now it is time to begin to build momentum about your new app. Start by blogging about what it is exactly that your app will do (if possible), your apps functionality, the importance your app is going to mean to your customers, basically tease your customers all throughout the development process to build interest. This process should not be overlooked as it is here you begin to build relationships with potential customers. Communicate with them, answer their questions, ask them questions about what they want in an iPhone, iPad, or Android app. Any relationships you can make here may payback big dividends when you launch your app. This is the beginning of your community.

So far all of the suggestions on building a community have been pre-launch, now it is post launch and this is where you have to have a long range plan. You need to look beyond your current app or at least ahead to the update of your new app that has not even launched yet. This is counter intuitive, but necessary. You have the opportunity to build an email list through your iTunes or Android Market app descriptions. Take advantage by providing customers an email address to contact you for any issues whatsoever. An additional opportunity is to put an email capture function right into your app. The email list you build here will be huge in future app launches or other sales opportunities you want to market to your customers. Tips to create, increase, and keep a happy customer base (community) are: 1) answer customer questions in a timely manner 2) Fix any bugs ASAP 3) provide updates with customer provided feedback in mind 4) provide new content at no charge, additional levels, new functionality, but give them customers more for their money. These tips will most definitely keep your customers happy and your community growing.

Building a community for your new iPhone, iPad, or Android app does not need to be a monumental task. Plan on spending a 1/2 hour a day to complete your marketing functions and to begin building your community. Yes, there may be days you need to spend more time in this area, but I have seen this pay off and pay off big. I will provide a case study on developers who have build successful communities and have reaped the monetary rewards from doing so. MV

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Does Changing Your iPhone App Price to Free Increase Paid App Sales?

by Mike Vallez on February 13, 2011

The iTunes App Store is a highly competitive environment with hundreds of thousands of competing apps for customer purchase dollars. No one has found the “secret sauce” to get an app charting (selling) in the top 200 with repeated success. Some bigger developers are able to realize charting success by shear numbers and quality of their highly developed app, However, for the regular mom and pop developer outfits getting their iPhone app to chart well is a monster challenge. One technique certain websites use like http://www.freeappaday.com/ and http://www.freeappcalendar.com/ are to help developers change their app price to free for a set period of time, then the app price is switched back to paid in hopes to increase paid app sales. A look at the last 14 days of FAAD’s featured free apps reveals only 2 apps that have charted into the top 200 paid overall and both apps rode the coattails of apps by those developers. (see the charts below via www.appshopper.com)

app marketingapp marketing

app marketing

The charts are not very easy to read, but show each app is flat, or out of the top 200 paid overall or paid category (app specific category) while free. Once the app goes back paid, in the case of both these apps they charted well, for a short period of time and then dropped. The reason Backbreaker Football and Stenches did so well when dropped free, then put back to paid is there are additional/newer apps by the developers of these apps that are charting better than these apps. Stenches was the Halloween version of Trenches and Backbreaker Football has a newer second version called Backbreaker 2: Vengeance. A look at the last 30 days of FAAD featured apps show no other apps that have made it in the top 200 paid. There are numerous apps in the top 200 free, but unless you are working an advertising revenue model this is of little consequence. As far as Free App Calendar, of their last 30 days featured free apps not one shows up in the top 200 paid at the time of this blog post.

Cutting your app price to free or reducing your app price has benefit, but only if you are leveraging that price cut with another strategy. Another strategy like a new app rollout, an update to the app, or a giveaway. There are other strategies that may help your app chart (sell) well when cutting the price, but remember one thing. Your apps best chance at charting (selling) is the initial launch, which is why it is so very important to plan a thoughtful strategy around each and every app you launch.

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4 Ways To Better Market Your iPhone/iPad/Android App

by Mike Vallez on February 12, 2011

app marketing

Planing your app marketing efforts for your iPhone, iPad, or Android app is critical. Marketing your app is not as daunting as one would think. That being said there is still a process or strategy that should be put into place to give your app a chance at succeeding in the very competitive world of iPhone/iPad and Android apps. There are 316,229 approved iPhone apps, 67,931 iPad apps (via http://www.appshopper.com) and 113,124 (via http://www.androlib.com/) at the time of this post, indicating that there is a lot of competition in the app world. According to Gartner the industry leader in market research, app sales will approach 15 billion dollars in 2011 (via TechCrunch). With the increases app sales there will be increased development and more competition. Here are 4 ways to better market your iPhone/iPad or Android app to success.

1) Start early- Before you start coding you should develop a marketing plan around your app idea. Determine who you are targeting, the branding, genera, niche market, how are you going to get your app noticed and incorporate this into the development process. A check of the competition is also a good idea before development starts. For example if you are making a “Flashlight” app you may want to see what the competition is in this utility category so you can add a feature or concept to make your app stand out from your competition.

2) Create A Web Page- Developing a web page for an iPhone app is mission critical. You should look at your app as a product, if you look at any different then you are short changing yourself. In this day and age if you have are selling a product and have no website are not meeting the consumer where they are looking for information, which is on the web. The cost to set up a website is 0, so the decision to do so is a no brainer. A developer outfit that has a great blog, which can suffice as a website is Bolt Creative, the creators of the hugely popular “Pocket God” iPhone, iPad, and Android app. (link to website: http://pocketgod.blogspot.com/). A couple of important features you should include in your website are 1) upcoming news about your app release, updates, improvements, etc and 2) contact information for customer service. A third bit of information that would be useful on an app website are FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) for users to solve their own problems without having to contact you.

app marketing

3) Create Social Media Profiles- Once you have determined your branding before you app development or during app development (lets be realistic) you need to create profiles in all the major social media networks. The social media networks to concentrate on are Twitter, Facebook (Fan Page), Friend Feed, Touch Arcade, YouTube, MySpace, and any other social network where you can disseminate status updates about your new app. One of the social networks that is grossly under used by developers is YouTube. If you can develop an app you can do a short video trailer for your app to some cool and post to YouTube. Another tip is to use your friends and your own personal social footprint to help grow your new app branded social media profiles.

4) Plan Your Launch- Keep it simple stupid is the best plan of attack here. Here is what my simple plan would include: 1) send out a press release using prmac, which costs about $20. 2) Hold a giveaway by using your Facebook profile, Twitter, etc to get people to share that your app has launched. You can giveaway promo codes, iTunes gift cards, but giving away and iPad or iPod Touch will generate some buzz and you want all the buzz you can get. A few tips, for giveaways, keep the time frame of the giveaway short like a day to no more than 7 days and make the requirements for winning easy to do such as “Please like my fan page” to win.

The 4 tips in this blog post will help you to get a handle on planning to market your iPhone, iPad, or Android app. While these tips are but a few they are meant to give you a better chance at making your app chart to success and higher revenues. MV

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