Founders frequently vastly overstate the impact of launching an app in the App Store or Google Play, expecting throngs of users to download and test out their new product. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Marketing a mobile application is neither straightforward nor inexpensive, but there are a few free options for drawing customers to your new software.
Website
You should take care of the mobile app's website and/or landing page before it is released. A website gives your application its own space on the internet, allowing you to interact with consumers under your own terms.
You ought to have the landing page available a few months before the application launches, since it will allow you to get key insights on your application and collect contact details from your tech-savvy digital natives. When the application is finished, drop an email to anyone who has indicated interest in it and ask for opinions; if executed properly, this should provide you with a good foundation of early users. You may write emails using free services like mail chimp and see how engaged your recipients are.
A webpage will also facilitate new subscribers to locate your app via search engines. You'll score high in search engines for your target keyword if you choose a decent web domain, provide quality content, and use SEO guiding principles. This is a time-consuming process, but if you're diligent and do it well, it will repay you in the long run.
The best part is that if you aren't technically skilled, you may not have to hire developers to build your website. You can simply utilize online services that come with easy and intuitive tools at a modest cost or even free to construct your website. Wix and WordPress are two such options.
Social Networks
If you've done your homework as a leader well, you ought to be able to determine your target market with pinpoint accuracy, which will aid in the acquisition of new clients.
Everybody in societies today probably spends at least some time every day on social networking, and these platforms have shown to be quite efficient in acquiring new consumers. Using social media marketing is a great way to attract new consumers on social networks, but they aren't inexpensive, and there are still plenty of stuff you can do without paying a dime.
To begin, you must determine where your target market spends the majority of its time online. For example, if you've a mobile application that provides styling tips, you may discover that many of your prospective clients spend a significant amount of time on Instagram.
Create social accounts for your application on all of the main platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and connect with individuals and groups that communicate your application's objectives.
Obviously, it is a time consuming, but eventually, you'll begin to create a network surrounding your product. You might want to consider reworking on the core idea if your product doesn't make it. It generally means your product has not achieved product-market fit, as of yet.
Placing your mobile application on discussion boards like Reddit in /subreddits where your target demographic sits is a lot faster means of gaining quick feedback or clients. If we're talking about the same style guidance application, you might market it on r/malefashionadvice, r/streetwear, r/femalefashionadvice, r/sneakers, and other style subreddits. In business subreddits like r/Entrepreneur, r/startups, r/growmybusiness, and r/ladybusiness, you may verify your design concept and obtain comments on its present state.
Promoting about your software on forums like ProductHunt or IndieHackers is yet another extremely efficient and quick approach to contact consumers and gain reviews. A well-crafted ProductHunt article, complete with eye-catching promotional materials and a persuasive presentation, would bring in handful, if not hundreds, of new consumers in a short amount of time (approx. 24 hours). Furthermore, the networks that surround those platforms are quite useful, and they will point out numerous areas where your product may be enhanced.
There are other online forums like HackerNews and tech blogs like TechCrunch, but you'll have difficulty getting to the first page except if your software has had some momentum and accomplishes something really original.
If your tool enables people to accomplish some activity, for example an application that allows you pick the correct clothes from your closet for a certain occasion, responding to questions about this particular task on sites such as Quora and promoting your product.
The first guideline for marketing via social media is: don't spam! Nobody really enjoys reading or view advertising, so if you submit material, be sure it gives important information only, and make sure you don't come across as trying too hard to sell your product.
This challenging task takes months to use social sites to find new consumers. Shortcuts such as uploading on ProductHunt or submitting to a sub-editing system, but generally workarounds that will offer you a good jump in 24 hour downloads. However, they could not be employed for new consumers' funnel.
For the other techniques described, the outcomes are not as black and white, but if done effectively, they can always provide a steady funnel for new users.
Meetups and Conferences
Introducing a new product, your first priority should be to collect as much information as possible and adapt your strategy to discover the product-market fit. The greatest approach to get feedback is to chat to consumers and observe their responses when they try out your goods.
Conventions and events are excellent venues to connect with tech-savvy individuals, early adopters, and businesspeople who can provide advice on how to improve the product. Meetup is a fantastic site for discovering meetups. Furthermore, you should attend technology conferences focused on the domain of your product, or even participate in a startup competition and showcase your concept in front of big audiences. In addition to guidance and the opportunity to meet with others who share your passion, the startup competition might provide you with worldwide exposure and perhaps financing if that is what you are looking for.
There is no simple method to convince people to sample your product for free, at least not in the beginning; the whole process is complicated and time-intensive. Yet, understanding who your target group is and how to contact them may make things lot easier, and this is why we encourage that all of our founders attend a One-Day Discovery Workshop before delving into executing and developing their concept.
