how to market your ios app: the definitive guide to app store success

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How to Market Your iOS App: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO APP STORE SUCCESS

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Kinvey's eBook, “How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success,” helps app developers promote the app they’ve built. It’s practical tips about cutting through the App Store clutter.

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Page 1: How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success

How to Market Your iOS App:THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TOAPP STORE SUCCESS

Page 2: How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success

Table of ContentsIntroduction

The Fundamentals

A quality app: The path to getting featured by Apple

Pre-launch Hype: Success starts early

Push: The importance of media and how to get coverage

2

4

7

10

14

Optimize: Prepping for the App Store “shelves”20

Final Thoughts25

Page 3: How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success

Introduction

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Page 4: How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success

There's something special about building a product that can be used by over 500 million people across the world. When creating an iPhone or iPad application, it is your opportunity to do just that – reach a massive customer base that only continues to grow. However, where opportunity exists, competition soon follows, and the Apple App Store is no exception. As of September 2012, there were over 700,000 iPhone and iPad apps in the App Store. This is an astounding number considering there were just 500 apps when the App Store opened in 2008. In fact, it's

estimated that the App Store Review Team receives over 1,000 app submissions daily. More-over, 90 percent of the apps in the Apple App Store are down-loaded each month. Of course, that 90 percent figure includes many apps that are downloaded very few times. A single download doesn't make a business, nor does it mean success. So how can developers

market their apps to reach more potential customers? While there’s no universal formula behind a “hit” app, there are proven techniques that increase the odds of an app being successful. Just look at mobile developers like tap tap tap and Real Mac Software – they've been able to turn out multiple App Store “hits” because they not only build compelling apps, but they also know how to expose them to a wide audience. This book will detail many proven app-marketing techniques to help you get your app the attention it deserves.

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The Fundamentals

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4

The app store isn’t your only marketing channel. Seeing your app in the App Store may be an awesome feeling, but just because it’s there, doesn't mean that anyone else will discover it. You should not rely on the App Store to be the sole driver of traffic to your app. Successful apps, like most successful products, require a mix of marketing channels – a combination that reaches an audience wide enough to give your app the exposure it needs to build and sustain momentum. Building a website, conducting email marketing, and leveraging social media channels to funnel prospective customers to your App Store listing are important compo-nents in mobile marketing. Hoping to be found, on the other hand, isn’t a viable strategy. Start early and get ahead. Building interest in your app should begin the moment you come up with a viable idea for the product. Don't wait until you're in the App Store to come up with a promotional plan. Instead parallel track your vision for how the app will get built and how it will get discovered. Creating an app is a journey, and every app is competing for limited “real estate” in the App Store and on the user’s device. The App Store Charts showcase only what Apple thinks will sell. Familiarizing yourself with Apple’s preferences ahead of time will give you the best chance at separating yourself from the hundreds of thousands of other apps vying for the consumers’ attention. Invest in quality design. Design is key to App Store success. This doesn't just mean how the app looks, but also how it functions. If you look through the top apps in each category, the majority have a carefully executed UX – one designed to help users understand what the app does and how easy it is to do it.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR iOS APP: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO APP STORE SUCCESS

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A Quality App: The Path to GettingFeatured by Apple

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The best marketing begins with a high quality product. Apple is ultimately a meritocracy. If your app is poor, it's unlikely that it will be a “hit.” Crafting a quality app is challenging, but when you make an awesome product, marketing begins to fall into place.

Keep it simple. Shoot to build an app that solves a specific problem in an efficient and beautiful way. It may seem like there's an app for everything, but there is room for major improvements in certain categories. For instance, there were over 6,000 to-do list apps in the App Store before Clear came along and grabbed the lion's share of attention in the category. What did Clear do right? It turned a rote to-do list into something fun. It overwhelmed the market with simplicity. Partly because of Clear's intuitive design, the app was also featured by Apple and jumped to the top of the App Store charts. What's your edge? Identify your app’s “unfair advantage” early. How will it differ from similar apps? Does it have a killer feature? A radically different UX? Is integration its “secret sauce”? Whatever it is, build that utility first and cut features that distract from your advantage. “More” isn’t necessarily better when it comes to mobile apps. Allegedly, Tumblr CEO David Karp requires that for every feature added one must be removed. He understands that “feature creep” often corrodes the user’s experience. When Instagram first started, it was a location-based social network packed with a whole bunch of features. As a result, the app didn't take off the way the company wanted it to. Yet when they pared it down to its core – making it simple to create and share beautiful photos – Instagram took off.

The value Instagram provided – making everyone feel like a photogra-pher – was what attracted their initial customer base. This led to more

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photos being created, and ultimately the opportunity for a full-blown social network revolving around photos to be born. Focus on the core utility that your app provides to your customers first and keep your feature set to a minimum. Invest in good design. There's no question that design is a core pillar to App Store success. Apple is synonymous with exceptional design and it is a huge part of what has made the company one of the most profitable organizations in the world. Keep in mind that good design is more than interface deep. Good design permeates all levels of an app. As Steve Jobs said, "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

In other words, allocate a large portion of your time to get the flow, signup steps, and transitions right for each screen in your app. Ensure that it's crystal clear for your customers to understand what they should do next. If you have a background in mobile design, awesome. If not, consider investing in a professional mobile designer. It may be an up-front expense, but the return on quality design is significant.

Getting featured. One way to increase your app’s chances of being featured in the App Store is for it to use elements from Apple's latest OS and/or hardware releases. Featuring apps that have integrated with Apple's most recent OS or hardware is in the company’s best interest. For instance, when Apple released iCloud, apps that integrated with Apple’s personal cloud service enjoyed special atten-tion. Stay informed on Apple’s latest updates and consider making use of them in your app.

click to tweet

“Design is not just what it looks and

feels like. Design is how it works.”

–Steve Jobs

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Pre-Launch Hype: Success Starts Early

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Think about how Mailbox launched. The app achieved months of hype created through multiple marketing channels: social media, blogger previews, even a dose of gamifica-tion (pre-registrants were told how many people were in front of them and behind them “in line” for the download). Mailbox proved you don’t need an Apple-like budget to create an Apple-like launch. You need a great product, a multi-channel mindset, and a bit of moxie. You also need to think ascreatively about marketing as you did for the app itself. Mailbox’s gamification triggered the lion’s share of its social media exposure – and the app wasn’t even in general availability yet. The current App Store ranking algorithm places a disproportionate weight on the first four days an app is in the App Store. Time matters. You have a very short period of time to generate the groundswell of interest needed to boost your app’s placement to the top of the charts. By starting to build up interest before your app is accepted to the App Store, you'll have a running start while your competition is flat-footed. Get a website. From the moment you begin to develop your app, build a landing page to collect emails – even if it only features an email signup box and a simple description of your concept. Your landing page can later evolve into a website that will serve as the hub of your marketing efforts, giving you a channel to reach and inform customers outside of the App Store walls. Use a hype-generating tactic. It’s noisy out there, and getting noticed is becoming increasingly difficult. Many successful apps have turned their community members into thousands of individual marketing channels. In other words, they found unconventional ways to create hype in advance of their app’s release. Here are some examples:

1. Limit supply to create a sense of scarcity and privilege among those who successfully register.

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Connect.me allowed new signups to reserve their username. This simple tactic generated roughly 20,000 sign-ups before the website went live.

2. Use an invite-only and referral system

Mailbox created an invite-only program that granted access to a limited number of people at a time. This helped the app generate media coverage from most major technology publi- cations and created hype on Twitter from influential members

of the mobile community. Share your story. Storytelling is one of the best ways to connect with people on a deeper emo-tional level. Research shows that our brains become more active when we hear a narrative versus read a list of bullet points. Think about why you decided to build your app in the first place. Tell this story on your website when you speak to customers, partners,

and the media to help them identify with your project. Personal motivation app Everest fostered a powerful sense of emotion on its website by highlighting the aspirations of members of its community. As you're creating your app, build momentum by sharing elements like:

• A demo video • Photos of your team • Real life profiles of users (even beta users) • Sketches of app designs in the works

Where to tell your story:

1. Setup a blog

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Use a blog as your central story-telling channel.

2. Setup your social channels

Create a Facebook and Twitter account for your app and use them as channels to share your progress. Think of Facebook and Twitter as vehicles to distribute your story, with an emph- asis on the people behind your app. Remember that nobody befriends a logo. People turn to social media to engage with other people. Be sure your team enjoys your social media spotlight. Even while you're deep in developing your app, don't neglect updating your followers with what you're working on or what will be coming soon. These are powerful ways to keep your audience engaged.

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Push: The Importance of Mediaand How to Get Coverage

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Getting press coverage is challeng-ing, but the payoff can be huge. If the “right” reporters or bloggers write about your app, you stand to gain a huge amount of registra-tions or downloads in a short period of time. This success alone can catapult your app up the App Store charts. If you accept pre-registrations, then you may want to give journalists a preview of your app. Let them use a late stage beta. Permit them to write about it ahead of time, provided, of course, your landing page has the means to capture the email addresses of those who wish to sign-up for your release. Alternatively, you can preview the app to several reporters, and ask that they all hold off writing until launch. If you follow this tactic, be sure to build in no more than a week between preview and launch. The more time that passes the more likely it is that (a.) some-one breaks the embargo (this will disrupt the relationships you are trying to build with the reporters), or (b.) the reporters who have tried your product forget about it or lose interest in reporting on it.

What you'll need to prepare to get press coverage:

Make a demo video. A demo video is an important piece of content to include when you're reaching out for press coverage. An app without a demo video is like a movie without a trailer. Demo videos help people understand what your app does, convert website visitors into customers, and give the press content to share with their audi-ence. If done right, a trailer video can lead to increased conversions when added to your website and improve the chances of the press covering your story.

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Write your press releaseand assemble your press kit

Your press release and press kit will be given to journalists after they express initial interest in your story. Here’s what you should include in your press release:

Basics • App Name • App Store Link: (to be updated on launch day) • Category: (i.e. Music, Productivity, etc.) • About: A clear, concise (3-4 paragraphs max.) story of what your app does and what makes it unique, how your app came to be, or what problem it solves

Links • Demo Video • Website • Twitter • Facebook

Contact Info • Your Name • Your Email • Your Personal Twitter • Your Phone Number Once you’ve written your press release, you should include it within your press kit along with:

• App icon Images (include pixel sizes: 56x56, 114x114, 256x256, 512x512) • Screenshots • Marketing Images • Team Photos

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Target the right journalist. App review and press sites are not created equal. Some will convert much better than others and certain journalists will be much more interested in your app. It’s important to identify journalists that fit your app’s industry. One way to find targeted leads:

1. Go to alexa.com

2. Search for one of your competitor’s websites

3. Click “Sites Linking In” This strategy helps you identify which journalists covered one of your competitors or a company in your industry, which means they will probably be more interested in hearing about your app. The “Sites Linking In” list created by Alexa shows the top 100 sites with inbound links to the app and helps you find the most reputable sites that covered one of your

competitors or companies in your industry. Create a Google Spreadsheet of these writers that includes:

• Name

• Contact Email

• Link to the article they’ve written in the past that relates to your app

Check out Muck Rack, a comprehensive database of journalists. It’s significantly less expensive than other similar PR services, and it includes the reporters’ social media identities, which makes it easier to contact them in more social environments.

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Pitching the press

Make sure to keep your email message short and to the point. Journalists are very busy and many receive hundreds of pitches a day. Here’s a pitch email example that helped us get press coverage: Subject Hi – Launch story for a new app that

Body Hey ,

A while back you wrote an interesting piece about

and how it .

. Our app, , is building a

.

We’re launching in the App Store on .

Do you think this could be an interesting story for

your readers? Thanks,

Author’s first name

Secret sauce or unique value of your app

Author’s first name

An app similar to yours or maybe a piece the author wrote about your space

Something interesting from that article

Unique value of your app

Your first name

Your opinion or write a sentence about how this relates to your app

Your app name

Your launch day

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Be sure to customize this pitch according to what the reporter wrote. And be doubly certain you have actually read the journalist’s articles. Honesty is key when interacting with the press. Begin this process at least a month prior to your launch or release update and don't look at getting press as a one-time thing. Building relationships with journalists for the long-term can help you get additional exposure on future releases of your app and sustain growth. The most important thing to do is be mindful about the journalist’s readers. Make sure to structure your app's story differently for each writer based on past content they've written and the publication’s particular niche.

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Optimize: Prepping for the App Store “Shelves”

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Searching the App Store still remains the number one way people find mobile apps, so it's important that your listing is formatted to gain as much exposure from App Store search as possible. Much like Google's search engine, the App Store has an algorithm that ranks apps for different search terms. Preparing your app listing to be optimized in the App Store can result in a marked increase in down-loads. The goal of App Store Optimiza-tion is to get your app to rank higher than its competitors for specific keywords that people search in the App Store. In order to rank well in the App Store, focus on these 3 steps: 1. Identify the right keywords

Over 80 percent of App Store searches are related to the function an app does, not the app’s name. Use Google Key-word Tool and apply a filter to your search to show keyword ideas and statistics for “all mobile devices.” Applying this filter helps you find keywords that people are searching Google for when using mobile devices. Look for relatively low competition, high volume keywords and/or keyword phrases (two to three keywords linked together). Don't try and compete against popular apps for their same keywords. Instead, optimize for longer keyword phrases that have lower competition, but high search volume.

Although it remains some-what of a mystery, it has been reported that the App Store algorithm takes into account four main factors to determine an app's ranking:

1. Keywords in your app title

2. Keyword frequency in your app description

3. Number of down- loads over time

4. App Store ratings

App Store Ranking Factors

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2. Include keywords in your app name, description, and keywords field

App Store search results currently only display one app at a time, which means most people won't look past the first five to ten search results, thus people are more likely to search for longer keyword phrases to get better results. App name. Your App Store name is the main text people will see once they've found your app. It is also the text that affects how your app ranks in the App Store the most. Narrow your list of keywords down to a couple of the most important and try to incorporate them in your App Store name. In other words, competing on keyword phrases like

"transit maps" versus just "maps" can help make it easier for customers to find your app. For example, the Flixster app is called "Movies by Flixster with Rotten Toma-toes." This title contains multiple keywords, "Movies" "Rotten Toma-toes" and "Flixster" to improve App Store search discoverability. This is much better than simply naming the app "Flixster." Your app name can be between up to 255 characters but Apple recommends that you try to keep it to fewer than 35

characters to display optimally on the App Store for iPhone. App description. The first line you write of your App Store description is what App Store browsers see without having to click "more" when they visit your app listing in the App Store. Most people shopping for apps won't read your full description anyway, so try and pique their interest with your first sentence. If you receive any notable reviews from press or design awards make sure to mention them in your App Store description as well. These

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click to tweet

“Your App Store name is the text that affects how your app ranks in the App Store

the most.”

HOW TO MARKET YOUR iOS APP: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO APP STORE SUCCESS

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accolades and reviews can increase the chances of converting an App Store browser into a customer.

The full length of your App Store description can be as long as you like, but the first few lines should tell what your app does and how it works in about the length of a tweet.

Keywords. When you list your app in the App Store, there's a field where you can list all of your keywords. You're allowed to put a maxi-mum of 100 characters.

Optimize this listing by:

1. Looking for longer keyword phrases (2-3 keywords linked together) that are less com- petitive and could be used to

describe your app's function

2. Adding as many keywordsas possible in the keywords field

3. Not using spaces whenlisting your keywords. Use "flixster,movies" not "flixster,

movies"

3. Convert App Store views intodownloads with beauty

The icon. Pixel for pixel, your app icon will be the most important thing you will design. In terms of size, it's a small part of the overall design work that you'll be doing but it represents everything about your app - attention to detail, quality, and creativity. It's also the main visual that App Store browsers and your customers will use to identify your app.

A useful way to test if your icon stands out is to compare it against your competitors. Someone should easily be able to get a sense of what your app does simply by viewing the icon.

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O O R D D

K E Y W W

S K E Y Y

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Think of the App Store as filled with window shoppers, who are easily swayed to move on to the next store down the road. Make sure your icon not only pops, but helps people understand exactly what your app does.

Screenshots. Once prospects have clicked on your App Store listing, they will go to a more detailed page that shows your app's description and screenshots. The reality is most people may only read the first line of your app description before scrolling down to look at your screen-shots.

Make sure that you're showing off the best aspects of your app. A good test would be to see if someone can tell exactly what your app does and how benefits them simply by looking at your screenshots.

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Final Thoughts

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Although it may seem mature, the App Store is still in its early days. A massive opportunity exists for those who understand its inner-workings, regardless of how many apps they’ve developed in the past.

The mobile industry is literally the fastest growing industry in history, so it's important that you keep pushing your app forward. Listen to input from your customers and use your instincts to stay on top of

your market.

Finally, remember that you should not simply rely on the App Store as your core marketing channel. Using a combination of channels like your own website, a blog, and social media as vehicles for your app’s story is an instrumental piece in turning your app into a success.

Although there are challenges, and not all apps will be mega-hits like Instagram or Angry Birds, the App Store gives you access to one of the largest, most fruitful marketplaces in the world.

“Remember that you should not

simply rely on the App Store as your

core marketing channel. Using

a combination of channels is an instrumental

piece in turning your app into

a success.”

HOW TO MARKET YOUR iOS APP: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO APP STORE SUCCESS

click to tweet

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Mikael is the co-founder of ooomf, where the most talented mobile & web creators connect with projects they love. Mikael writes more posts on product marketing and psychology over on the ooomf blog. Hit him on Twitter @mikaelcho anytime.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR iOS APP: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO APP STORE SUCCESS

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