Aizaku

Hello everybody today I will talk about how to promote an app and much more.

But first, a little bit of information about the app industry.

I don’t know if I should call this a burgeoning industry since millions of people are downloading apps each and every single day but the experts say that this is only the beginning and that it’s going to get even more popular.

Why? Because mobile phones these days aren’t phones anymore.

Think about it, is “the phone” aspect of a mobile phone really the defining feature of a mobile phone: NO.

It really is a miniature computer that you can take pictures with, send text messages with, access the Internet with and do all sorts of other things with.

Plus – it’s with you all the time. It’s the world’s first personal media.

Think about that for a second, you can share your radio with someone, your TV with someone and even your computer; but nobody, I mean nobody, can use your smart phone. It’s equivalent to someone using your toothbrush – No Way!

Let us not also forget that mobile phones and smart phones allow people in developing countries to access the Internet because before they couldn’t afford computers.

As you can imagine the number of people accessing the Internet via smart phone and mobile phone dwarfs the number of people accessing the Internet by computer.

Perhaps you’re seeing all the potential now on how to promote an app, it’s mind boggling.

Okay so I gave you guys some things to think about when it comes to the future of Internet marketing or should I say mobile marketing. Now let’s get into how to come up with an app, where to outsource your app and how to promote an app.

Come Up With An App Idea

Internet marketing traditionalist would start off their marketing plans, website creation and/or product creation based on keyword research.

Here is where things are a little bit different. From my understanding, there are two ways of approaching app concept creation.

First, go to the iPhone store or android app area and find apps that are popular and in high demand.

Then you will create an app similar to the app that you found but with added features and improvements.

The second way is to take the traditionalist approach with a minor tweak.

Go to the Google keywords research tool and click “mobile devices with full Internet browsers” in the advanced options and filters area of the tool.

After that, you should apply traditional keyword research methods by looking for exact keywords and sorting out your competition.

Or you could marry the two methods and come up with an app by checking out pre-existing apps that are popular and by finding out what people are looking for.

Outsource Your App Creation

If you’re like me and you know diddly squat about programming then you’re going to want to outsource your mobile app creation.

This can be super and extremely expensive if your app is a complex one.

Let’s say that you want to make something of an easy one, like that ‘shake and fart’ app which is nowhere near as complicated to program as ‘angry birds’.

An easy one like that might run you about $600 if you outsource it intelligently. And by intelligently I mean Odesk.

Put up a job ad that clearly states what you would like the programmer to create. Don’t give away the idea but give away the details.

You will then check each and every programmer that responds to you and find out their rating score. Choose the programmer with the best reputation.

Here is where Odesk really shines; they have a feature called ‘work diary’ which allows you to peer into your programmer’s computer screen and to see if he or she is actually working.

If they are goofing off fire them on the spot because time is money and we can’t afford to waste any of it. You should also ask after every work day how many more days will he or she need to complete the app.

Get them to commit to a number of days in order to ensure the fairest possible deal for both parties.

How To Promote an App

You want to hit the ground running! And how do you do this? Well, there are two techniques that you should apply.

I’m going to assume that you created a website for your app.

This is easily done using WordPress. You can easily upload app website templates on to your WordPress for cheap and even for free.

Okay let’s get back to promoting apps – You will need to find app review websites. Do several quick searches online for them. You should be able to find and contact many of them and asked them to review your app.

Some of them will do it for free and some of them will charge you a small fee. You decide what’s best for your promoting efforts but you need to have at least 10 app reviews sites review your app. This goes without saying, but make sure that they have a healthy monthly traffic volume coming into their site.

The second tip is to use Google Adwords. You have the option with Google ad words to advertise on specific platforms. If you’re promoting an iPhone app then only advertise/promote your app on i Phones.

You can entice your audience by giving away free content or whatever else that is associated with your app’s theme and your target audience.

The main point here is to apply these two methods simultaneously and to create as much buzz around your new app as possible within the first week of your app’s release.

Think Of It, Make It and Promote it!

In this post we talked about many things. We talked about how to promote an app, where to outsource your app and how to come up with app ideas.

I want you to look at this post more like a jumping off point then a definitive end all tutorial. I’m still learning myself but what I presented here seems to be the path that many app developers and marketers take.

I invite all of you to share your knowledge, experiences, know-how and information relating to app/mobile marketing and creation. Please share your knowledge in the comments section below.

Thank you and take care.