Five tips to nail your App Marketing

Here are Qvik’s AD Liisa Stenberg‘s and Wolt‘s Elias Pietilä‘s insider tips on how to make your launch and early app marketing a success.

1. Find your early adopters

Before the wider launch of your app, your main target audience should be the early adopters. They are the first to try out new services, new technologies, new restaurants, new styles and simply new ways to do things, and this makes them a great test group. Often active on social media, they’re also eager to brag about the exciting, cool things they discovered first. Remember to keep them involved throughout the launch process. Lure the opinion leaders of the group in by creating something fun with your early marketing budget. Free trials, parties, surprises or other VIP shenanigans will make them fall head over heels for your service. Create some hype!

2. Timing is everything

Link your app directly to the users’ daily life by reacting to calendar year events or to a current hot topic in public discussion. This makes it easy for the press to react to your story, and mount it to any recurring news pieces. Plan an app marketing calendar and think ahead – this will make executing your engagements a lot easier when the time comes. Don’t let the right timing pass you by!

Optimise your App Marketing by creating a clear strategy.

3. Listen and serve your best crowd – the users

Don’t underestimate the power of great customer service as a marketing tool. Make your users feel like you want their opinions about the app. Ask, use analytics, do group testing and send short questionnaires. When you choose to fulfil users’ requests or ideas, make sure they know that you did it for them and because of their feedback.

Any positive messages or flattering mentions from your users are very important to place in limelights. However, especially in the early stage of your app, it’s also vital to take care of every complaint, bug report or social media rage as fast as you can. Not all user feedback is always relevant or fair, but this is to prevent any false information or individual user heartaches from catching fire on social media.

Last but not least, remember to train your staff to be your app ambassadors, too. Users often expect that anyone proudly carrying the brand name on their sleeve is able to answer questions or give help. Every touchpoint matters.

4. Make the press talk

Buying users with advertising is very expensive, so instead, try to make the press tell your story for free. Create press releases that are true and honest, but have a good angle and create a story around your topic – link it to a wider entity or a current phenomenon, for example. Media has tight deadlines, so make press pictures and info easily accessible and of good quality. Send the press materials to the right members of the editorial staff depending on your story’s angle and topic – the subeditor is often a good choice.

5. Stay visible where you need to be

Plan your app marketing with the user flow in mind. Try to make sure your existing and potential users have an encounter with your app exactly when they need it, for maximum effect. Make sure your app is seen and accessible in the appropriate stores, coffee shops, passageways or your company’s and partners’ premises. These are great spots for more traditional ad marketing. In addition to physical places, the visibility should reach your website, social media, and all of your marketing materials from paid ads to targeted company newsletters.

Overall, to reach the best outcome, you should keep the target groups, marketing goals and launch strategy in mind from the start – beginning from the very moment you start crafting the concept for your future app.