The hard work of developing an app is now over. Perhaps you have already launched the app on
iTunes and
Google Play Store.
As an app developer in India (or an app developer from any country), you expect people to download the app in droves. After all, you put in a lot of effort to create your standout app.
But hang on a second, you are missing a beat if you don't leverage social media marketing to make your app a success.
Think of your app as a product competing with other great products for a limited market. Naturally, you would do anything to ensure people make it their number one choice.
This is where you turn yourself into a salesman. This is more so if you don't have the money to hire a marketing consultant. As an app developer, it is likely that learning a new Internet-based skill shouldn't present a steep learning curve for you or your team.
The most successful
mobile app development companies had to go down the route of social media marketing. So, if you want your mobile app development to be as successful, you have to embrace it too.
Frankly speaking, the world of marketing has gone beyond the traditional techniques. Social media is the way to go if you don't want the app to end up as another failed app that started out with a lot of promise.
So, these are the simple but effective social media marketing strategies most mobile app development companies employ.
1. Plan your campaign
Before you start your
social media marketing, the first step is to plan how you intend to go about it. Though this is the simplest part of the strategy, it is the foundation of any effective marketing strategy.
These are what you should work on at this stage:
• Choose the audience you want to target in terms of age, and sex.
• Decide on the sort of content suitable for your target audience
• Decide the social network you would use. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, are the obvious ones
Profiling your target audience in terms of age, sex, the social media channel they love and the content they like reading would help you focus your strategies in the right direction.
2. Create interesting and engaging content
Make sure you don't spare anything to create content of the highest quality. For that reason, your content must keep readers engrossed and engaged and panting for more.
One powerful strategy is to include videos about your app as part of the content. Infographics, if possible would be a nice touch too.
Thing is, videos and powerful graphics are known to grasp the attention of people far more than just texts.
So use videos of your app in action as a deliberate strategy. Accompany your texts with images of the various interfaces of the app.
3. Create a website and landing page for your mobile app
If you can build a mobile app, creating a website should not be a difficult process. Fortunately, building websites have become simpler over time.
However, if you don't have the time to do it yourself, your best option is to get a professional to do it for you. That shouldn't be hard. There are lots of people who specialize in designing websites for others.
The contents you created earlier would be published on this site.
Then you need a landing page. A good landing page linked to your website is what would convince people to click through and become believers in your project.
Never underestimate the importance of a landing page when you embark on promoting your app via social media marketing. Also, you can get someone to do it for you for a fee if you don't know how to create an effective landing page.
4. Have a reward plan in place
App developers in India have the advantage of a potential user-base that runs into hundreds of millions. However, new apps are up against thousands of good apps out there.
An important way to get people to download your app is to reward them for doing so. You can also give incentives if users refer their friends and families to use your app.
And since we are on social media marketing, encourage them with some sort of gifts to share the app on their own social media accounts.
The number of shares can give you an indication of the user experience. The rule of thumb is, people share with friends and people they know if they loved it.
5. Use Facebook
The first thing is to create a well-designed Facebook page for your app. Then go ahead and upload the content you created earlier to the Facebook page.
Remember, the contents should be interesting and engaging. To promote your page, invite friends to share the link and join as many Facebook groups as possible bearing in mind the profile of your target users.
Most or all of the content you published on the Website must be shared on Facebook. There are hundreds of millions of active daily users on Facebook. It is from here you are likely to attract the most users for your app.
6. Use Instagram
Just like Facebook, effective social marketing should involve
Instagram if you want to cover all bases.
Simply create a free account on Instagram and start uploading interesting images related to your app.
With hundreds of millions using Instagram each day, this is one medium you don't want to ignore if you want to get your app to the Promised Land.
So like Facebook, promote your app on Instagram by following people, posting links to your own app and asking people to help you spread the word around.
7. Twitter
Twitter is the third social medium that is as effective as Facebook and Instagram for any social media marketing campaign.
Again, create a
Twitter page for your app. Then follow similar Twitter accounts and people with similar interests. You can use the search bar to get a list of the accounts you need to follow.
Proceed to start tweeting your content on your account and retweeting the same content on the accounts of the people you follow. Encourage people to follow your app on Twitter.
They would gladly to do that if you have great, quality content and an awesome app too. As an added bonus, they would even share your tweets if they love your app and the contents you tweeted to promote the app.
There are other social media tools like Google+ where you can also run your marketing campaign. With the above three though, and with consistency and hard work, you would definitely achieve your aim.