Market you apps !

Market you apps !

10 useful tips to get a maximum of users with minimal effort.

Author : Guillaume Gouchon

Inspired by James Kaye's Droidcon Talk : "Top 10 tips for marketing your mobile games".

I am not a marketing expert.

But nowadays, developers may have to wear many hats at the same time !

• Project manager
• Product owner
• Developer
• Designer
• Data analyst
• Marketing guru
• Sometimes, developers also even have to cook... or call a famous American pizza restaurant (private joke)

One-man team personal experience

Dungeon Quest = Android RPG, 46k downloads, rated 3.8/5

Warlords Online = Android Strategy Game, 38k downloads, rated 4.1/5

Total time spent on marketing : 20 mn !

How to attract users easily ?

What did work for my apps ?

What did not ?

1) Benchmark

Identify and keep an eye on the competitors.

What's new in my product ?

+ Advantages / differences with similar apps ?

+ Position towards the market ?

Do I have a chance to find my audience ?

2) Have a Strategy

When to launch ?NO travel apps during January ! 

During the first 30 days, apps are in New Apps category = Great way to be on top of the charts even with a few downloads !

Blog about it before and after launch.

Plan the upcoming releases (date + new features) to retain users' interest.

Find who are your users, and focus on them. Even having a few fanatic users is great, they won't count what they'll spend and will promote your apps well.

3) Understand the app store "Funnel"

4) Get to grips with ASO

App name is IMPORTANT ! NO accents, NO special characters !

Embed keywords in app name

Embed keywords in app description Avoid nonsense list of keywords in the description !!!

Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

5) First impression counts

Users are doing snap decisions. So, here are the key points :

- Take good screenshots, with descriptive overlays.

- Make a short video (around 30s long, less than one minute).

- Keep the description short. 10 concise lines full of keywords are enough, most users won't read 50 lines of text on their phones...

6) Understand the app store owners

In order to get more chances to be featured (= Holy Grail).

Google != Apple != Amazon != Samsung

Follow platform's design guidelines !

For example on Android, do not copy iPhone design, Google do not like it at all.

Use platform's new APIs or APIs that other platforms do not have (NFC, rich notifications, ...).

7) Spread the word

- Have a media plan (blogs, HN, tech websites...).A good video is important.

- Do not expect any guarantee from media.

- Post the video on Youtube !

- Of course, use Social Networks. Facebook page, etc...

- Ask for feedbacks on platforms such as Reddit, forums, ...You will get improvement ideas + potential users at the same time !

8) Mobile advertising

Spend huge money or do not spend anything at all.

9) Cross Promotion

Add links to your other apps on every app you publish.It really works and it is free.

10) Produce Quality apps

Obvious but it is needed to have your apps auto-promoted by your users.

Bonus ! Miscellaneous own tips(Warning : these are highly subjective)

Obvious : make appear a rating popup after a few launches.Add a "rate app" button in the settings.Ratings are the KEY (numbers + level). I personnaly prefer more ratings, even bad ones, than a 5/5 stars app with fewer ratings.

Add a contact button in the settings.A quick answer to a user's question grants you a 5 star rating and a great review most of the time !

Remove the splashscreen after some launches.

Replies to bad ratings on the store, most of the time these are due to technical problems or incomprehension.

If your app is just a demo and users need to buy the full app, tell it in the app's description because transparency is cool and it avoids users' unexpected reactions.

Thanks for coming !

Questions time !

(BTW : Did you find the 3 awesome actors hidden in this presentation ?)