Marketing and Monetizing Mobile Applications.

Katie Lips.

Appostles.

★ iPhone and Android Specialists.

★ Agency with growing team of experts. Hiring!

★ Strategy. Concept. Design. Build. Marketing.

★ Partners with agencies. Works for brands.

★ Liverpool. London. Amsterdam.

Why are we here?

Oldskool Mobile.

“While the mobile data industry holds considerable promise in future, the existing ecosystem is challenging for the grassroots entrepreneur.”- Ajit Jaokar, Open Gardens.

1.0 Landscape.★ Complex Development & Testing

★ Poor End User Experiences

★ Bureaucratic Walled Garden Mentality

★ Low Financial Incentive

★ A Stagnated Industry

★ Little Incentive to Innovate or Take Risks

Mobile 2.0?

★ It’s all about Platforms

★ iPhone

★ Android

★ Blackberry

★ ... and others

Customers

iPhone &iPod Touch

Developers & App Store

Ecosystem

iPhone Focus.

Q3 07 Q4 07 Q1 08 Q2 08 Q3 08 Q4 08 Q1-09

Units sold in Quarter

270,000 1,119,000 2,315,000 1,703,000 717,000 6,892,000 4,363,000

iPhone Sales by Quarter

0

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

Q3 07Q4 07

Q1 08Q2 08

Q3 08Q4 08

Q1 09

Cumulative iPhone Sales

Operating System Share

Symbian 44%

iPhone (and iPod Touch) 32%

RIM (Blackberry) 9%

Windows Mobile 8%

Palm 4%

Other 3%

Handset OSMarket Share

Source: AdMob - using Admob Analysed Apps

Snapshot Feb ‘09

★ 17 Million iPhones in 80 countries

★ 32% Worldwide Smartphone market share

★ Apple #3 Mobile Phone manufacturer

★ 20,000 Apps / 2.2 million downloads each day

★ 500 million apps downloaded (half a billion!)

App Store

The Opportunity?★ Investors - speculate (KPCB’s iFund)

★ Enterprise - mobile workforce

★ Brands - your brand in 17m pockets

★ Web Services - extend reach via mobile

★ Mobile Services - The App business

★ Disposable Apps - apps as accessories

★ Games Developers - a new platform

Example Apps★ Investors - Loopt

★ Enterprise - Salesforce.com

★ Brands - Carling’s iPint, Audi,

★ Web Services - Facebook, Remember the Milk

★ Mobile Services - Urban Spoon, Flirtomatic

★ Disposables - iFart, Sonic Lighter, Ocarina

★ Games - Rolando from ng:moco

Marketing your App

Coffee Buzzwww.coffeebuzzapp.com

What we learnt...

App Store Catch 22

★ Ratings are based on volume and revenue.

★ You need to sell a lot to get in the featured / top 25 list.

★ You need to be in the featured / top 25 list of you’re to sell lots of copies!

Hard Facts!

★ You need to market / advertise / promote your app however you can.

★ Apps with great reviews from happy customers can still be at the bottom of the list.

★ There’s a lot of bad apps in the App Store. Being at the bottom of the list is bad!

Tactics!★ Use launch momentum (you’ll be ‘new’).

★ Do what you can to build that momentum.

★ Get early good reviews.

★ Maximize off App Store PR (web, social networks, ads).

★ Pay to grow volume (via AdMob ads or similar in other apps for example).

Insider Advice: Ads

★ Once you’ve sustained being in the top 25 for a while, it becomes organic.

★ If you spent $5000 getting there, you should be able to make it back by including ads in your app!

★ (...Says an Ad Network Rep!)

Insider Advice: Price

★ Start high. You can always drop the price.

★ Time limited price drops rebuild volume and listings position.

★ If you were selling at £2.39, selling at 59p (a quarter) wil increase sales by more than four fold.

Cheaper = More Volume = Higher Ranking = More

Sales = More Profit

However this theory has lead to

downward pricing pressure.

Which we don’t like!

Free Ad supported Free App

Paid App plus a ‘Lite’

version

Low price e.g. Tier 1

59p

Mid price e.g. Tier 4

£2.39

Volume ++ ++ + - --

Reward if your app

stays in top 25-- +++ ++ +++ ++

Reward if your app gets

lost-- -- -- -- --

Models

Strategies for Marketing your

Apps

PR★ App Store is not a marketing magic wand

★ Reviews, your App Store page, and even icon are important

★ Blogs, App Listings, and review sites are very useful

★ Get Social Media Savvy (tell your friends, and their friends)

★ Resort to ‘traditional’ PR!

Easy Advertising

★ On Blogs, App Listings, and review sites

★ Via Google AdWords Ads & Facebook Ads

★ Within other related social networks, and yes, iPhone owners seem to like Twitter!

★ In trade press (e.g. Coffee related magazines)

★ Plus........

Pro Advertising

★ AdMob - Ads and Analytics

★ MobClix - Ads and Analytics

★ Pinch Media - Ads and Analytics

★ PurpleTalk - (Ad Sharing)

★ Chillingo - Print Ads Partnerships

If you’re serious about your App as a Business you need a

robust strategy!