App Marketing - First Steps

[Ducky13]

Hi all, hope you are doing well.

I am in the process of developing an app / game, due to launch in a month or two. I basically had an idea for an app / game that I am in the process of bringing to life via an app developer. I have zero knowledge about app creation, development, monetisation, marketing, legalities etc. I've managed to get this far by paying a developer to develop the app after sharing my vision& a lawyer to help me with legal documents.

Now it's time for me to think about a marketing plan, which I think is probably the single most important detail when launching an app. Unfortunately my knowledge on the subject is a big fat zero, other than having a general idea of my target audience. My developer has agreed to market the app for a monthly fee, however, I am under the impression that his passion to really get it to the mass audience will not be attune to mine. Hence I wanted to at least make an attempt to better my understanding of app marketing & how it needs to be done so that I can at least know what my developer is doing, whether it is in my best interests & if it's worth the cost.

In light of the above, can anyone recommend some current educational material to get me started or even an online crash course or something along those lines? A simple Google search of "how to market my app" yielded plenty of results, but it got a bit messy. Hence I thought I would ask here.

Thank you & apologies for the long post

Ducky

 

[fisicx]

No one can answer the question without details of the app, who you are targeting, the benefits of the app, if it a freebie or has in app purchases and so on.

That being said, the chances of success are slim. New apps are launched every day. 99.9% of them will fail. The few that succeed tend to have a big marketing budget and offer something desirable.

 

[Ducky13]

Thanks. It is free to download & there are in app purchases that users can purchase at their discretion. In app advertising would be the main revenue generator, followed by in-app purchases. Main demographic target would be 15 to 25 year olds. The app itself would involve peer-to-peer photo sharing. Apologies for the last point being vague, but I don't want to divulge too much information about the concept.

 

[fisicx]

If this is the case you stand almost zero chance of success. There are already a huge number of photo sharing apps, one more isn't going to set the world alight.

Sorry to be all doom an gloom but you aren't offering anything new.

Maybe if you spend £50K on a huge social media campaign, use influencers and adverts on those channels your target use you might get some traction. But it's not going to be easy.

 

[Ducky13]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I will shut shop then.

 

[mattk]

There isn't a silver bullet to market apps unfortunately. The are the same as any product or service, you need to identify your target market, your USP and then point it at where your audience resides.

As @fisicx says, you need to be clear what advantage your app provides compared to the vast number of other social apps and app with enormous reach.

Photo sharing is very vague, I already have at least three apps on my phone which allow me to share photos in various forms. You need to be very clear what makes your app stand out from this very crowded market, as that will form the basis of your marketing strategy.

Again, it is hard to give you specifics or examples of what works based on your description, but @fisicx has covered the generic bases.

Have you clearly thought through how you are going to monetise your app? There is nothing worse than picking up some viral traction only to not have your moneytisation in place and miss your big money making opportunity.

 

[Ducky13]

Thanks Mattk. There is more to the app than just photo sharing, but I didn't want to share more information here. I understand that is unhelpful given the circumstances so I guess that is my loss. I am aware of my target market & my USP's. It's the "pointing it to where my target audience resides" that I wanted to get some understanding on.

I'll go down the route of online courses, just to get a basic understanding of app marketing & monetisation fundamentals for now.

 

[fisicx]

It's the "pointing it to where my target audience resides" that I wanted to get some understanding on.

They reside everywhere: instagram, snapchat, whatsapp and a zillion other social media channels.

And then there are the myrias of image sharing websites: flickr, tumblr, imgur and so on.

You then need to look at all the niche sites relating to hobbies, sport and leisure.

It's a long slow slog, you just need to spend hours and hours trawling the net and then spending money to see if anyone will bite.

 

[Ducky13]

Thank you. That was actually informative!

So after I look at all the websites & trawl the internet etc., then what? What do I spend money on? Sorry if the answer is obvious

 

[fisicx]

Adverts!

Suppose you find a site with lots of Spurs fans complaining about limits on image sizes or whatever. You post an advert with something like ' fed up with upload limits? Share you footie images for free with duckyapp'.

When I was researching a project it took me just over 18 months before I found the right combination.

Also worth pointing out your market research will drive the app functionality and design. So be prepared to change the app.

And adverts on you app could kill any mass take up. Think about the apps you use, how many have you binned because of adverts and constant 'upgrade for $$$' messages?

 

[Ducky13]

That is very useful. Thank you.

 

[meteora]

does sms marketing help, will people react to an sms and install an app or they prefer seeing a visual advert on another app or online