Developing a great app takes a lot of effort. Not only does it require a lot of planning, but you also have to find a target audience. Removing all the bugs, testing it on different devices and ensuring that it is delivering an amazing experience is not the end. App development is only the first step of your app’s success. The next crucial step is to market it effectively. And get more downloads. After all, if no one would download your app then what’s the use of creating it? That’s why you’ll need to focus on marketing and improve ASO (app store optimization)
So, how to increase downloads of your app?
It’s easy. Whether you’re on the App store or the Google’s Play Store, you need to follow a specific ASO strategy to make sure you are ahead of your competition. Follow the right ASO strategy and you’ll succeed easily. What’s the best way to increase app downloads? Find out below:
Have a unique and optimized name
Your app’s name should be unique and entertaining. It should be memorable and easy to remember. This might sound easy but you’ll have to do a lot of brainstorming. Having a unique and good name will ensure that people remember it. Your app’s name could be in a different language (like Uber) or according to the purpose of the app (like SnapChat). Keep these things in mind while naming your app:
• It should be according to its brand
Naming 101: your app’s name should be according to its purpose. If the name isn’t related to the brand or the purpose then people will forget it. Evernote, Penzu, and Subway Surfers are a few examples of the app names that stick with the purpose.
• Grammar isn’t important
Tumblr, WhatsApp, and many other app names don’t make any grammatical sense. But does it matter?They are widely popular and amazingly successful. You can make little tweaks here and there to usual verbs and words to have a completely unique. This brings us to our next point.
• Stay unique
Don’t copy a name from another brand. When a person will see a ‘nearly’ copied name of another brand in your app’s name, he or she will immediately think, “Why don’t I just use the original one?” It makes your brand look bad and shows that you didn’t put effort into naming the app. Creative Bloq has an amazing post on naming apps. Your app’s name works at the forefront of marketing and so you should put an effort into it. Having a good name will definitely boost app downloads.
Use Social Media Platforms
Nothing can replace the importance of social media platforms. They are the best place to find your target audience and engage with them. You can find related conversations, QnAs and influencers in your niche on these platforms. However, the internet has so many social media platforms that it becomes quite difficult to market there. Each social media platform requires a different marketing strategy. But if you want to reap the rewards, you’ll have to put in the effort.
First, you’ll have to choose the platforms you’ll be marketing in. The best social media platforms to market your app are:
• YouTube
• And, LinkedIn
They are also the biggest platforms out there. So be prepared to face a lot of competition while marketing your app for more downloads.
How to stand apart from the competition?
To avail the maximum benefits from marketing on social media platforms, you’ll have to focus on your brand.
• What is your app’s brand voice?
• How does your app communicate with the users?
• Who is your target audience?
• How do they communicate with each other?
These are some simple questions you can answer to develop your app’s brand voice. Once you’ve determined your app’s brand voice, you should engage with the prospective customers accordingly. It will create a buzz in the market and people will soon begin to download your app. Reddit and Quora are also great places to engage with your prospects.
Ask your Customers for Reviews
If your app has some customers be sure to ask them for reviews (or feedback). Reviews are essential for effective ASO. Both application stores (App Store and Play Store) take customer feedback very seriously. They rely on customer reviews to ensure that the app is credible and worthy of promotion. In fact, reviews are the most important factor in app store optimization. It doesn’t mean you can buy reviews for your app. Inorganic or paid reviews do the opposite and damage your app’s growth. App stores can easily figure out which review was organic and which one wasn’t. On the other hand, when you’re asking for feedback, don’t ask too many times. You might irritate the user and force him or her to delete your app instead.
You can offer something in exchange of feedback too. It can cause more people to provide feedback. However, make sure your offer is for all kinds of feedbacks and not only the positive ones. You can get in touch with the influencers present in your niche and ask them to review your app. Finding influencers isn’t difficult (see tip #2). They’ll not only spike up the traffic coming to your app page, but they can also drive more downloads. Having more positive reviews will surely boost app downloads in both the App Store and Play Store.
Have an attractive Icon
Your app icon is just as important as its name. And like the name of the app, it should also be attractive and easy to spot. Many developers tend to overlook the importance of a good-looking app icon but you shouldn’t make that mistake. The app icon is the first thing a person will see. He or she might read the name later (or not read it at all) but he or she will see the icon definitely. And if the icon will look attractive enough it can lead them to click on it.
Here are a designer’s suggestions on creating a good app icon:
• Start from scratch. Don’t minimize your brand logo.
• Don’t have a cheap-looking icon
• Focus on simplicity
While you’re caring about the icon remember: don’t overdo it. Your app icon is a vital part of your brand and so, you would want it according to the same.
So, the design and colour choice of the app should be according to your brand and its voice.
Use Descriptive photos and videos
Visuals play an essential role in the marketing of any digital product. Your mobile app is also a digital product and the more visuals you can provide for it, the better will be the results. Providing detailed, attractive and descriptive images of your app will help you in many ways. You can also include videos and trailers of your app’s interface to enhance the user experience.
How do images help in marketing your app?
They inform the users of your app’s capability. It aids your app description and lets them know what they can expect to find. Imagine you have to buy a new house. But you can’t see how it looks from the inside. What are the chances that you’ll buy it? They must be minute. The same logic applies to the importance of having good and attractive images on your app page. You can use the videos used in the marketing of your app on the page as well.
The images should also be according to your brand. They can be the screenshots of your app’s interface or descriptions of what your app can do.
Use Marketing Strategies
Only two things have a direct influence on your app’s downloads: Its performance and marketing. While the first one works after people download the app, the second one works before the same. So you’ll want to focus on the latter. You’ll have to market your app just like any other digital product. Publish content on various platforms, do guest blogs, get influencers, and run paid ads.
Don’t hesitate in spending your marketing budget. However, remember to market smartly. Target the right audience, provide value to the prospects and ensure that your marketing efforts are within your brand’s voice. Your marketing should also be unique. Using clever marketing tactics will help you get noticed easily. So you will not only have to do conventional marketing but also strive on doing something different. One of the best examples of using clever marketing is HeadSpace. They used animated videos and promoted them on social media platforms (primarily, YouTube).
Their videos laid emphasis on the benefits of meditation and at the end of the video, they’ll tell you to download the app. It worked. Right now, HeadSpace is a successful app on both app stores. The takeaway is, you should also focus on doing something creative and unique with the marketing and branding of your app. It will attract users and increase downloads fast.
If you have a paid app, you can offer limited period discounts on the price of your app. If your app offers in-app purchases, you can start a discount there.
Take the help of Press
You should send out press releases to multiple media outlets. Publications require content and something they can inform their users about. Your press release will help them in this regard. And you should reach to all kinds of media outlets that are related to your market.
This means if you think a tech-related publication in Australia isn’t related to your marketing, then you’re wrong. When media outlets publish news about your app, you will get more visibility and enhanced brand awareness. It has a direct impact on your app’s downloads.
“What if my app is new or if I don’t have a large brand?”
In that case, you should use images in your press releases too. According to Jeff Bullas, images increase the chance of a press release’s views 45%. Also, ask them to give feedback on your app. It can get you useful reviews on your app while increasing the chances of getting more views.
Make use of Analytics
Analytics give you valuable insights on how your users behave and you can use that data to further improve your app and give a better user experience. They empower you by telling you who uses the app, when it is used and how much it is used. Can you guess the best analytics tool?
Universal Analytics from Google. It gives you user count, analysis of their experiences and much more data about your users’ behaviours. With the help of analytics, you can also do A/B testing or Split Testing. The most striking benefit of using analytics tools is you can improve your users’ experience considerably. When you provide better user experience, you will obviously get more app downloads.
Focus on SEO
App store optimization great but you’ll also have to perform search engine optimization, aka, SEO. Why? Because SEO will improve your app’s visibility on search engines. Suppose you have a fitness app. It helps people in losing weight. If a person searches on Google or Bing for ‘an app to lose weight’, wouldn’t you want to appear in the search results?
Focusing on SEO will help you in this regard. Use high-quality and relevant keywords in your app’s description. If you have a dedicated site, you can publish relevant content with the keywords to enhance SEO. Neil Patel has an amazing tool on his site, UberSuggest. You can use it to find keywords. You can also use Google’s Keyword Tool for finding useful and accurate keywords. Be cautious when choosing keywords.
You don’t want to stuff your content and app description with irrelevant keywords. Search engines punish websites and pages which stuff their content in this way. Your choice of keywords should according to your app and its audience.
Update it regularly
You must update your app regularly to get more downloads. There are multiple reasons for it:
• They fix bugs:
Developers releases updates to fix the current bugs. Bugs not only degrade the user experience but also increase the security risk.
• They improve user experience:
Updates introduce better interfaces, options and features in the app. Using analytics, you can improve the user experience with the updates.
• They enhance ASO:
App stores prefer apps which are updated regularly and often. Your app will appear higher and more in the search results if it gets regular updates.
These reasons alone are sufficient to update an app regularly. Your app will appear more in the notification bar of the user too, because of the regular updates.
It will remind them of your app and they’ll keep using it.
Bonus Tip:
Kudos to you for making it to this point. Here’s the bonus tip on how to increase app downloads effectively:
Provide Value
If your app doesn’t offer value then you wouldn’t get more downloads. Make sure that your app offers value and makes the users’ life easier. That’s because app stores see if the user kept the app for at least 30 days or not. And this data affects your ASO considerably. And people will keep your app on the phone only when it helps them. Ensure your app is valuable and helpful and you’ll make great progress.
Conclusion
This is it. By following these 10 tips you will surely increase app downloads and get more users. There’s a lot to do but you’ll get the hang of it. What do you think of app marketing? Which one was your most favourite tip? Let us know.
