Best time to follow these 6 App Marketing Strategies
How do I effectively market an Android app in India to increase my app downloads?
More than 80 Chinese apps were banned citing threats to the country’s security.
And it’s not just Indian govt., the U.S. is also looking at banning more Chinese apps that could pose a national security threat.
But the good news is that it opens up numerous growth opportunities for the start-up firms to come up with alternative applications and fill the void in the app ecosystem.
For years, India’s tech start-ups have struggled to compete with the digital offerings of Chinese companies typically backed by huge volumes of capital and wide scale marketing campaigns.
From web browsing, gaming, video sharing to chat-based services, the latest ban has provided a much-desired gift to the Indian digital segment.
Talking about smartphones where more than 80% of the population of the world spend most of their time, your apps should be a space wholly customizable to their needs.
Creating an app opens up a whole new channel to interact with your current and potential customers but one crucial step so often missed after building the app is promotion.
Your app might be a package of value-driven and high-quality features but if you do not promote it effectively by highlighting what it truly stands for then the hard work will never be given the proper attention that it deserves.
A general rule of thumb is to spend about as much time promoting your product as you do for creating them.
For instance, if you are a blogger, spend two days writing a blog post then spend the next two days in the distribution to as many platforms and people as possible.
We have reached an era where everything is related to the mobile ecosystem.
Let’s understand into some of the effective app marketing strategies which are tried and proven.
These will help you to get more followers and downloads than you already have now!
1. App Store Optimization (ASO)
Before we dive into the optimization part, we need to begin with the basics.
As we know, the Google algorithm is quite complex and constantly changing. While Google aims to enhance the users’ experience on the Play Store, these frequent updates make it harder for the app publishers to maintain high visibility.
To do App Store Optimization effectively, it is crucial to understand the algorithm used by each app store.
The most important ranking factor when it comes to app store optimization is your app’s title.
As per the algorithm of both Google Play and Apple App store, they prioritize certain apps in the search results based on a variety of ranking factors as listed below:
a. App Name
b. App Subtitle/Description
c. Keyword Field/Backlinks
d. In-App Purchases
e. Rating and Reviews
f. Update Frequency
g. Download Statistics
h. Engagement & Usage Metrics
When it comes to ASO, it’s important to fill out all the information while submitting your app to the app store and carefully choose your categories.
Similar to traditional SEO, mentioning each social link is also incredibly important.
ASO Tip: In order to get a keyword indexed, it needs to be included between two to five times in the Google Play description or once in the App Title or Short Description.
Also, make the screenshots of your app’s features & designs appealing and recognizable.
2. Choose keywords considering your target users
Can you expect the audience to know your app name?
Of course not!
This example will help you understand more clearly,
For the Google Map’s listing in the Google Play Store, they played a well-thought-out user intent strategy, they kept the name as ‘Maps — Navigate & Explore’
They chose these two keywords to ensure that anyone who searches for a navigation solution without using their brand name will still find their app.
So, make sure you include more of long-tail phrases, as they tend to have a higher CTR.
According to an Ahrefs’ study of over 1.9 billion keywords, 29.13% of phrases with over 10,000 monthly searches were made up of three or more words!
You can use some of the App Store Optimization keyword planning tools like Keyword Tool and App Follow to be accurate and quick at your approach.
3. Treat your short description as an elevator pitch.
As per the research, people tend to respond higher on brand’s storytelling than to the brand which focuses only on promoting their features.
So, make a great impression by presenting your authentic app’s story to help your potential customers understand what you truly stand for.
Mention some relevant keywords but make sure that your message is crystal clear to the users.
Instagram does a great job at this with their claim: “Bringing you closer to the people and things you love”.
4. Show off your statistics to the app’s description
If you have any endorsement from your prestigious client then you should definitely show it off in your Google Play listing!
This will boost your credibility and help you stand out in this competitive market with the proof of achievement.
You can experiment with this approach yourself by doing an A/B test — one listing that doesn’t feature a particular number or customer endorsement, and one that does.
For example:
Check how Trivago, a holiday planning app has displayed their features and made sure that anyone browsing through the listing notices that they can search their ideal hotel from 1+ Million hotels, compare hotel prices & save money on their next holiday or trip.
5. Focus on SEO as well.
People search most of their queries on Google Search, hence, Google created App Packs — a special snippet featured near the top of search results.
An App Pack is a group of apps suggested by Google which appears on the mobile search result page and are directly linked to the corresponding app store listing.
Each app in the App Pack is represented with an overview containing a name, icon, price and rating.
If you summarize Mobile Apps SEO factors,
For On-page factors, consider URL (it also helps with ASO), Title / App Name, a short description and description.
And for Off-page, consider factors like User ratings/reviews, installs, and page authority/backlinks.
6. Stay ahead of your competitors
Google Algorithm updates history is known by every marketer, that’s the reason you should keep an eye on it.
Using the App Store Algorithm tracking tool will help you make sure you never fall victim to Play Store updates.
A tool like this will notify you for any unusual or abrupt keyword ranking changes for your app listing.
Then you can quickly check if it’s caused by an algorithm update and then adjust your app store content.
This prompt action will keep you ahead of your competitors.
Last but not the least, perform market research and competitor’s analysis regularly to enhance your strategies.
Always remember, your customers are people with emotions, they will only invest their time and money on something they find genuine with great value addition instead of something, that’s just easy to find.
Try these strategies and let me know what worked for you.
Thank you for your reading and do share this post!
Author: Akanksha Bohra
