In 2020, consumers all over the world downloaded a smashing 218 billion mobile applications.
The mobile app market is overcrowded, and the competition for consumers' attention is higher than ever. If you want your app to stand out from the crowd, it's not enough to just build an outstanding product. You also need to come up with an effective strategy for its promotion, a critical component of a successful launch. But here's the good news: it doesn't have to cost you lots of money.
Here are 12 ideas to help you promote your app for free and capture your target market.
Table of contents:
- What is app promotion a key element of a successful launch?
- 12 app promotion tips you must know
- Use our techniques to boost your app for free!
What is app promotion a key element of a successful launch?
Mobile marketing is critical if you're looking to launch a product in this overcrowded market. Even if you build a flawless app that delivers an amazing user experience and helps people solve a real problem, you need me to find a way to present it to your audience.
Apart from rare cases, the app isn't going to promote itself on its own. If you want to win this game, you need to be one step ahead of your competition. You can bet that your direct competitors are using all kinds of strategies available to them for promoting their applications. If you end up not doing anything and believe that the quality alone will attract customers, you're wrong.
Users browse through millions of apps in app stores every day. You need to help them find your product. A well-executed marketing campaign ensures that you attract new customers but also inspire them to bond with you and even recommend your app to other people.
Mobile technologies allow creating long-term relationships with customers by nature. And mobile app marketing allows connecting with users in a truly personalized way. You need to bring your solution in front of the people who will find it valuable. Otherwise, you risk missing out on an amazing chance to build that rapport early on and get ahead of your competition.
12 app promotion tips you must know
1. Try guest posting
Take a look around your niche and find high authority blogs where that receive a fair amount of traffic. Write an expert article and try to get it published on one of them.
That way, you will not only share your knowledge and help people solve problems but also earn valuable backlinks to your website. The more backlinks you gain, the higher your domain authority will be – and this translates into your position in the search results.
In the long term, this strategy puts your brand in front of your potential customers. Building that type of brand awareness early on is critical if you want to capture your market segment.
2. Leverage social media
Create channels on the social networks your target audiences use. You can't be present on every single channel, so select them carefully. Always share updates about your app and other related content. Curate content on your channel and bring your audience things they want to consume – this is how you build a relationship with them.
Don't turn your social media channels into purely promotional media. Instead, use them to start conversations with your customers.
3. Get your app featured on Product Hunt
Product Hunt is a great place for sharing unique designs and fantastic mobile apps. Promote your app to gain more exposure and use it as a source of leads. If you end up on the list of the top three products of the day, the chances are that more people visit your site and download your app.
Take RobinHood as an example. This free brokerage app is an incredible ProductHunt success story - the campaign there helped the app to score $176 million in total funding.
4. Try your hand at podcasting
The popularity of podcasts is rising. Did you know that in 2020, there were over 900k podcasts available on iTunes?
The podcasting space is still less competitive than written content, so it's smart to reap benefits from it while they're not so many competitors out there. Pick a few podcasts that cover topics your target audience is interested in and try to get featured there is a guest speaker. This is a brilliant way to spread the word about your application to a larger audience and increase your brand awareness.
5. Attend webinars and meetups
Every niche is full of online and offline events that offer plenty of opportunities for connecting with your target audience in a context that feels comfortable to them. You can either become a speaker at the meeting or use the opportunity to talk to people who could become your potential prospects.
Avoid an overly salesy attitude and be more interested in the people – and how can you help them solve problems in the most efficient way? Invite them to try your app and give their feedback - who knows; you might score a few early evangelists that way!
6. Take advantage of social media groups
Facebook and LinkedIn have a large number of groups that allow sharing content and promoting products for free. Make sure that you read the rules of a given group before sharing your content.
Some of them might not allow overly promotional content, and your brand might end up looking bad in the eyes of its members. To be on the safe side, stick to educational content and save your marketing messaging for your company pages.
7. Get featured in popular blog articles
Many blogs publish articles about the best tools for carrying out a task or solving a problem. Do your best to get mentioned in one of them. Focus your efforts on blogs with high domain authority. Most of the time, they run higher on Google, which means they will bring more traffic to your application.
8. Partner with influencers
Involving influencers in promoting your app doesn't have to cost you a fortune. Sure, if you'd like to collaborate with a business celebrity, it might break your wallet.
But what if you pick micro-influencers or tech enthusiasts who have a decent number of followers and significant engagement? Then the situation looks completely different. This is still a smart way to gain more credibility.
9. Create a referral system
If you have existing users, they're an excellent resource for increasing your reach. You can start by building a referral system and encouraging your users to invite their friends and family to download your app. This can take the form of a Share this with a friend button in your application. You can also offer rewards for every referral. RobinHood offered one free share of stock for each new friend that joined the app so the referee could end up getting a stick worth from $2 to even $200.
10. Feature your app in app directories
It's worth listing your mobile app in a few app directories such as androidapplog, appchatter, apps400, or preapp. The more listings you get, the higher the chance of getting discovered by new users.
11. Develop partnerships with other apps
Another idea for free app promotion is partnering with applications that offer services complementary to yours. For example, if your app helps people to create surveys, you could partner with an app that sells Customer Relationship Management systems. That way, you can engage in what is called cross-promotion.
They could feature your app in their newsletter, and you could do the same for them. This is by far the best way to reach new audiences at a low cost.
12. Submit your application for awards
Entering a mobile app competition is an excellent method for getting more exposure and increasing your credibility if you manage to win one of those contests. Here are a few competitions that might come in handy:
- Appy Awards
- Best Mobile App Awards
- Appsters Awards
- Apple Design Awards
- Best App Ever Awards
Use our techniques to boost your app for free!
The mobile marketing best practices are bound to help you increase the awareness of your brand and encourage more users to try your app. If you believe that what you've built is truly outstanding, it would be a shame not to let other people know about that - especially if you're solving a real problem.
We hope that this list of free marketing tactics helps your app stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of your target audience.
And if you ever need help in the technical aspects of mobile development, don't hesitate to reach out to us. Our mobile development has plenty of experience in building mobile products that outshine their competitors.
