Are you a new app startup about to or just launched their mobile app? Does this mobile app claim a significant chunk in your business expenses and revenue? If yes, you need a solid marketing plan that is sustainable, scalable and more importantly, cyclical to suit your growing revenue targets.
This app marketing checklist is ideal if you are a:
- Startup building the digital presence of your mobile app
- New app business about to launch their mobile app
- Solo app founder marketing and promoting independently
Let’s start!
Pre-Launch Preparation
1. Document your target audience
Identify your app’s target demographic and create detailed user personas to guide your marketing efforts.
2. Conduct Market Research
Analyse competitor apps, market trends, and user preferences to identify opportunities and challenges for your app. Note down the platforms your competitors are posting on, the kind of content they are using, and the influencers they have on-boarded to get the word out.
3. Develop a Marketing Strategy
This is the most strategic step of the checklist. Your overall marketing efforts will depend on how comprehensively you do this step. Start with documenting the digital marketing channels you can utilize for app marketing. The Best mobile app development company in Dubai divides marketing channels into organic and paid. Search engine optimization, social media and email marketing are the most popular – and three of them have organic and paid options.
Once you have these, write the unique selling proposition, differentiation, cost and features, data collection policies and problems your app solves. Now create content and posts with key messaging that revolves around these factors.
4. Build Pre-Launch Buzz
Create teaser campaigns, social media posts, and press releases to generate excitement for your app’s launch.
5. App Store Optimization (ASO)
This is another comprehensive step that adds to the success of mobile apps on leading marketplaces. If handled well, this step can actually skyrocket the visibility of your app and accelerate user acquisition.
Start with writing an app description that has relevant keywords and terms your target audience is searching for. Write a compelling app description and add high-quality screenshots. Use eye-catching app icons to improve visibility and downloads.
6. Create Marketing Collateral
These are the promotional materials such as demo videos, tutorials, app walkthroughs, and marketing graphics that showcase your app’s features and benefits. It would be ideal to build a content calendar with a balance of all of these marketing collaterals: texts, images, gifs, videos and infographics.
7. Build a Landing Page
Once you have your app marketing strategy lined up, you’ll have to create a landing page or at least a low-scale website to build the online presence of your app. You’ll have to buy a domain name and hosting plan – and when your website will be up and running, you’ll use this link to create pages on social handles and LinkedIn.
You can DIY a template-based website, or assign your project with this web developer company in dubai to do this for you. All in all, the end result should be a dedicated landing page for your app with compelling visuals, persuasive copy, and clear CTAs that capture user interest and drive sign-ups.
8. Coordinate Launch Date
When you have a website, announce a launching date. This could be chosen strategically to maximise visibility and engagement. Whichever date you choose and announce, make sure the app is there on that date. This means that you’ll have to submit your app for marketplace and community approvals at least 4 weeks before your launch date.
Now announce this launching date on all official platforms: social media handles, LinkedIn company profile, Reddit community, and email.
Launch Phase
9. Submit to App Stores
Publish your app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. These are the leading marketplaces that will bring you at least 94% of your target users.
10. Promote Across Channels
Post about your successful launching, free trial periods, freebies, and ad-free versions across all official platforms including social media handles, LinkedIn company profile, Reddit community, and email, YouTube channel and TikTok.
11. Gather Reviews and Ratings
Encourage users to leave honest reviews and ratings on app stores to improve your app’s credibility and ranking. Offer incentives or rewards for feedback to encourage participation. Also utilise this feedback to improve the user experience of your mobile app.
12. Monitor Performance
Track app store metrics, download numbers, and user feedback to analyse the early response to your app. Identify key areas that you can optimise.
Post-Launch Optimization
13. Engage with Users
Start engaging with your app community on social media, Reddit, Quora and LinkedIn. Check brand mentions, hashtags and comments that talk about your mobile app. If they highlight issues, respond and solve; if they appreciate, respond and encourage feedback on app stores.
14. Utilize App Analytics
Utilise app analytics tools to track user engagement, retention rates, conversion funnels, and other key performance indicators. These data-driven insights can help you build better marketing campaigns.
15. Paid Marketing
With regular organic posting and engagement, consider investing in paid channels to instantly see results and acquire a handsome chunk of users. This is ideal if you have built an MVP and want to gather market response and user feedback.
You can run beta testing rounds where you can incentivise users for giving honest feedback about navigation, user experience and utility of the app. Offer free trials, or extended access to a premium version.
16. Video marketing
Video marketing is getting super popular – and if you have launched a B2C app, then TikTok should definitely be on your hit list. With bite-sized video content, you can bring in quick views and impressions, get followers and turn them into downloads. If the organic marketing on TikTok works for your app, consider running TikTok ads because brands have been reporting high Return on Ad Spend from TikTok.
Conclusion
App marketing is a cyclical process – you want to acquire new users, while retaining the old ones and then attract more. For that, you have to regularly assess the effectiveness of your app marketing efforts. You can do so by actively tracking key metrics such as user acquisition costs, retention rates, lifetime value, and return on investment. Plus, you’ll have to adjust your marketing strategy based on performance data and market trends. This will help you optimise revenue results and drive sustainable growth for your app business.
