As Seth Godin, American entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker once said: Marketing is a contest for people’s attention.
With the number of apps available in the Apple App Store for download being 2.2 million in January of 2017, marketing an iPhone app would definitely turn out to be a contest. Whether you win it or not would depend largely on a few well-thought-out strategies.
The best ways to market a new iPhone app:
Be ready with a great product
Make sure it is bug-free and crisp. People should have a reason to download it – whether it is brand new or a better version of something which is already in the market, attract customers with something unique. Create a strong value proposition statement that sets it apart from the others.
Find out which is the most important selling feature of your app – this should be the main starting point of your strategy.
Describe your app
Detail all the key features of your app so that the customer gets a complete idea. Relevant screenshots should be added that explains the best and unique features of the app clearly. The most important are the first three lines – so make sure to make them count.
Learn the rules for iPhone app development
The App store does not automatically accept any app that is sent in for review. Reasons for rejection are mostly found to be a failure of the app developers to follow instructions and terms & conditions set out by the App Store. It is always a good practice to read the guidelines set out by the App Store. Your app will never be accepted if it doesn’t fit the requirements and criteria set by them.
Also, keep a lookout for the new versions of iOS that Apple comes out with from time to time. A lot of new and interesting features get introduced.
Related Blog: 6 BEST MOBILE APP ON BOARDING STRATEGIES TO RETAIN USERS
Change release date of your app
Release date of an app is important because that makes it feature on the New Apps list and thus ensures free advertising. Usually, the release date is taken to be the date when the app was initially submitted to the Store. But this should be changed to the date when the app actually becomes available for download.
App Store optimization
App Store Optimization (ASO) is a process by which your app could gain visibility among the thousands that are being released every day. Some of these processes are:
 Name: Keep the name limited to 50 characters and URL-safe characters.
 Keywords: Always utilize all hundred characters that are allowed. Remember that ASO is a continuous process, so to remain visible and competitive, always improve it.
 Icon: Use of simple ideas, attractive colors, and innovative designs make for very useful icons. It is best to avoid the use of whole words for icons.
 Updates: Keep refreshing the ‘what’s new’ field of your app description and try to reply to all reviews coming in.
 Ratings: After launching the app, ask your friends and family to provide initial reviews and once the customer reviews start coming in, use software development kits (SDK) to send positive reviews to the App Store and the negative ones to your support team to work on corrections as soon as possible. For a newly launched app, the most critical period is the first couple of days. Extract bugs and create patches promptly.
Free version
It is often a good idea to offer a free version of your product with almost all features in place. Load it with enough features to interest a customer to download it, but hold back some crucial attributes that could make the customer want to buy the paid version.
Get reviews
A great start for an iPhone app development company would be to launch a web page. The same could be done in Social Media on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. You could also promote your apps on websites like Product Hunt, BetaList, The Startup Pitch, Launching Next, Hacker News and many more.
Other ways to get reviews would be to send press releases to newspaper columns and blogs.
Pause and amend
It is always a great practice to compare the goals that had been set and results achieved. This gives you an idea of the success of your strategies. There are analytical tools available to generate data and figure out which areas could do with more improvement.
Customers will always look for ways to make life easier for themselves. For anyone interested in iPhone app development and marketing, the aim is not to sell a product, but to sell a problem you are trying to solve. The quicker you address that and market it accordingly, will determine your eventual success.
How Push Notifications can Increase Your #mobileapps #engagement https://t.co/41az1RpoUI @mynegosentro #AppDev pic.twitter.com/b8KAOAOsTy
— OctalInfoSolutionSG (@octalsg) May 3, 2017
