how to get your first web and mobile app users
TRANSCRIPT
...AND THE TACTICS YOU CAN STEAL TO GET YOUR OWN
FIRST APP USERSHOW 7 WEB & MOBILESTARTUPS GOT THEIR
GROOVEHELP DESK TOOL
From 0 to 1,000 Users
TWITTER + BLOGGING +PRFIRST USERS FROM
GROOVEGroove reached out to 40 publications including The Next Web.Their The Next Web feature brought hundreds of signups and
created Twitter buzz about their service and company. They alsoshared a "behind the scenes" blog post about their success andreached #1 on Hacker News for half a day bringing more users.
PIPEDRIVESALES CRM
From 0 to 1,000 Users
NETWORKING + APPSUMOFIRST USERS FROM
PIPEDRIVEAfter four months of little sales Pipedrive reached out to
influencers that spread the word about their app. They also rana special deal for cost-conscious startups on AppSumo.
iDONE THISTEAM PERFORMANCE TOOL
From 0 to 5,000 Users
LIFEHACKER + REDDIT + HNFIRST USERS FROM
iDONETHISThe iDoneThis team posted their tool on Hacker News with thehook that they built it to keep their New Years Resolution. After
it was posted it was picked up by The Next Web for their first150 signups. Then they cross-posted to 3 subreddits and got
400 subscribers. A month later they sent a cold-email toLifehacker.com, got covered, and earned 4,500 signups.
TINTDISPLAY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS
From 0 to 10,000 Users
PARTNERS + SEO + GUEST BLOGSFIRST USERS FROM
TINTTint developed partnerships with website builders and third-party
app stores to get in front of their target audience. They thenfocused on SEO to cut their customer acquisition costs from $40
per customer to $0 per customer. Tint also used guest blogging totalk to their audience and earn high-quality backlinks to their site.
BAZZARTSOCIAL COLLAGE EDITORFrom 0 to 500,000 Users
PR + LOCALIZATION + ASOFIRST USERS FROM
BAZZARTThe Bazzart team made localization a priority from day one
translating their app into many languages. This helped them rankwell in the Russian App Store. They also researched their chances of
ranking for particular keywords and even researched keywords torank well in other countries. Lastly, they got coverage from a majorpublication they pitched by creating a collage of the writer's pins on
Pinterest.
I AM A PLAYERMOBILE FOOTBALL GAMEFrom 0 to 4,000,000 Users
CROSS PROMO + FB ADS + OPEN GRAPH
FIRST USERS FROM
I AM A PLAYERThe I Am Player team uses highly targeted Facebook ads based on
demographics and psycho-graphics to acquire users for their socialgame. The team also integrated with Open Graph to have their users'activity shared on their Facebook feed, which lead to huge numbers of
viral installs. Then the team used a cross-promotion tool like Appplifierand MauDau to bring in about 30,000 clicks in 3 days for FREE.
AUTOCAD WSDRAWINGS ON YOUR PHONE
From 0 to 10,000,000 Users
BLOGS + SEO + LOCALIZATION
FIRST USERS FROM
AUTOCAD WSAfter talking to other app developers, the VisualTao team (which was
later acquired by Autodesk) decided to target small and medium blogsthat were easier to reach instead of large blogs to get better, longer
lasting traffic to their site. They also went beyond localized appdescriptions and localized their promotional materials which doubled
their downloads.
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