5 Mistakes to Avoid When Marketing Your App

By Gabrielle Montoute

Mobile usage has become an increasingly popular tool for individuals to do just about everything. Whether it’s to read the news, watch television, communicate, socialize, shop, make decisions, navigate…you name it, there’s an app for it! But for app development agencies, getting their app into consumer’s hands is harder than ever. As such a personal medium, it’s crucial to avoid these common mistakes when marketing your next app:

 

image:pixabay.com

1. Failing to plan ahead

In case you haven’t already noticed, there are already around 2 million apps listed just in the Apple App Store. And as a new app on the scene, that is a ton of clutter to cut through. This is all the reason to plan ahead and create your marketing strategy before your app even launches. It is critical to create awareness, build anticipation and get people talking about your app before it even hits the app store so you can have users waiting and ready to hit download. Like the saying goes: fail to plan, plan to fail.

2. Foregoing the desktop

Just because you’re marketing an app, doesn’t mean you can completely forget about the desktop. This is especially important when conducting your pre-launch marketing. While you may not need an entire full-blown website, it definitely doesn’t hurt to have a microsite or landing page to connect to your social media channels to provide users with more information and increase visibility. Having a digital storefront can also become useful in collecting data from your soon-to- be and current users as it can be a powerful place to receive contact information or feedback for the future marketing initiatives.

3. Promoting False Claims

While this should be self-explanatory, it’s worth mentioning. No one and I mean no one likes being lied to and while it may boost your downloads for a quick minute, it will deteriorate your app and your brand credibility in an instant. It’s also worth noting that while an app is easy to download, it’s even easier and takes less time to delete it completely.

4. Ignoring App Store Optimization (ASO)

Yup, that’s a thing now. And it is just as important as SEO is to websites. App Store Optimization (ASO) is a crucial element in marketing your app and increasing its visibility in the App Store. Like we’ve already mentioned, there are already 2 million apps in the Apple App Store alone, so ensuring your app is optimized it critical to increasing downloads. It’s also important to remember that each app store has its own set of best practices just like Google and Bing! do; so make sure to do your research and optimize accordingly.

5. Generalizing Your Audience

If your goal is to get your app in as many hands (or phones) as possible, you need to tailor your marketing messages to the various audiences who you are targeting. Aside from gaining insights in regards to an audience’s demographics, you should also consider the various platforms your users will be accessing your app on, such as Apple vs. Android. Mobile apps are a powerful way to connect with your audience and provide value. But with that power comes responsibility and as a marketer, it’s up to you to avoid these crucial marketing mistakes.