A Step by Step App Promotion Effort.. in far too much detail!
TanningBooth App Promotion Document:
Submit Date: January 3rd 2011
Category: Entertainment
TanningBooth is an iPhone Application which allows the user to get an instant sun tan. The user takes a picture/select a picture from library of him/her or a friend and then selects how intense they want the sun tan to be, and the app then provides them with a sun-tanned picture! The user can then Facebook, Twitter, Save or Submit the image. If the user submits the image, it will go out to the TanningBooth community, and users can rate the Tan out 10. The user can also rate others if they wish. There is also a top 25, a list that every user wishes to be on!
Affects of a mild sun tan..
After seeing these results, it looks like review sites aren’t going to be helpful for launch promotion, however the post-launch they may be. It is good news that freeappaday sounded interested, as I have heard freeappaday is a great form of promotion. My advice would be use the list for post-launch promotion but not if you are wanting a source for a launch boost.
2) Press Release
The next thing I did was to use Mike’s advice from crazymikesapps.com he said: ‘I would suggest using prmac for a press release for sure.’ I set up an account on www.prmac.com and wrote a press release article about the release of TanningBooth. To add to the ‘hype’ of the release I said that the app would be 99c/59p for the first few days of the release and then go up to $1.99/£1.19, I am not sure if eventually I will charge $1.99/£1.19 for good, but I will put the prices up for a bit, to test it out, and so I don’t lie to all the people. I have scheduled the press release for a day or so before the app is accepted so that the youtube video and website will be up and people won’t forget about it.
I will update this when I found out how the press release goes and will provide my campaign score on prmac.com.
3) Twitter
I made a twitter page for TanningBooth, so that I could let people know about the launch and then general stuff about it after that.. I used the promotional tool www.BirdyAdder.com, to get some fans. I currently have around 600 fans, which should help. My twitter page is: www.Twitter.com/TanningBooth feel free to follow!
4) Facebook
I then made a Facebook page which hasn’t yet had much success, I made it for the sake of having a Facebook page really, it may increase as the app is launched. Also, when I link it to the website that should help too. Here is my facebook page, feel free to ‘Like’ it: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tannin...5042617?ref=ts
5) Website
There isn’t to much to say about it at the moment, as we are currently in the process of building the site, I will update this when the site comes out in a few days, here are my current suggestions for the site, so we have something to work on:
Website Suggestions:
When the user enters the website, make the first page time until app launch, and have a clock counting down ie (Days Hours Minutes Seconds), and then underneath have a large button saying Enter Website.
Have Twitter Updates on the side of every page and a Testimonial.
ONLY IF IT WILL WORK: Have the Top 25 rated pictures (from the app rating section).
Then you can add other stuff too, also it shouldn’t be in the same format as the website I gave you in the link.
6) Youtube Video
Not much to say here either at the moment, in a few days we will make the youtube video which should help promote the launch of the app.
I will post the video when it is up!
7) Connections
I was contacting mobclix (www.mobclix.com) about advertising and analytics, and I got talking to one of the staff about the launch promotion, and he is putting me through to one of their partner companies who may wish to do a launch promotion. I am awaiting upon their email now, I will update you!
...
That’s about it for now, I will update this daily and keep you informed! Please comment underneath!
TanningBooth App Promotion Document:
Submit Date: January 3rd 2011
Category: Entertainment
TanningBooth is an iPhone Application which allows the user to get an instant sun tan. The user takes a picture/select a picture from library of him/her or a friend and then selects how intense they want the sun tan to be, and the app then provides them with a sun-tanned picture! The user can then Facebook, Twitter, Save or Submit the image. If the user submits the image, it will go out to the TanningBooth community, and users can rate the Tan out 10. The user can also rate others if they wish. There is also a top 25, a list that every user wishes to be on!
Affects of a mild sun tan..
After seeing these results, it looks like review sites aren’t going to be helpful for launch promotion, however the post-launch they may be. It is good news that freeappaday sounded interested, as I have heard freeappaday is a great form of promotion. My advice would be use the list for post-launch promotion but not if you are wanting a source for a launch boost.
2) Press Release
The next thing I did was to use Mike’s advice from crazymikesapps.com he said: ‘I would suggest using prmac for a press release for sure.’ I set up an account on prMac: Publish Once, Broadcast the World and wrote a press release article about the release of TanningBooth. To add to the ‘hype’ of the release I said that the app would be 99c/59p for the first few days of the release and then go up to $1.99/£1.19, I am not sure if eventually I will charge $1.99/£1.19 for good, but I will put the prices up for a bit, to test it out, and so I don’t lie to all the people. I have scheduled the press release for a day or so before the app is accepted so that the youtube video and website will be up and people won’t forget about it.
I will update this when I found out how the press release goes and will provide my campaign score on prmac.com.
3) Twitter
I made a twitter page for TanningBooth, so that I could let people know about the launch and then general stuff about it after that.. I used the promotional tool birdy adder, to get some fans. I currently have around 600 fans, which should help. My twitter page is: FreeAppsEachDay (TanningBooth) on Twitter feel free to follow!
4) Facebook
I then made a Facebook page which hasn’t yet had much success, I made it for the sake of having a Facebook page really, it may increase as the app is launched. Also, when I link it to the website that should help too. Here is my facebook page, feel free to ‘Like’ it: TanningBooth iPhone App | Facebook
5) Website
There isn’t to much to say about it at the moment, as we are currently in the process of building the site, I will update this when the site comes out in a few days, here are my current suggestions for the site, so we have something to work on:
Website Suggestions:
When the user enters the website, make the first page time until app launch, and have a clock counting down ie (Days Hours Minutes Seconds), and then underneath have a large button saying Enter Website.
Have an example iphone 4 which flicks through the different stages up the app (image 1-7), an example is on this website: Templatic Themes Demo
Have a ‘Available on the App Store’ button, linking it to the app store, like on the website in the link above.
Have Twitter Updates on the side of every page and a Testimonial.
ONLY IF IT WILL WORK: Have the Top 25 rated pictures (from the app rating section).
Then you can add other stuff too, also it shouldn’t be in the same format as the website I gave you in the link.
6) Youtube Video
Not much to say here either at the moment, in a few days we will make the youtube video which should help promote the launch of the app.
I will post the video when it is up!
7) Connections
I was contacting mobclix (Apple iPhone App Analytics, Mobile Ad Exchange: Mobclix) about advertising and analytics, and I got talking to one of the staff about the launch promotion, and he is putting me through to one of their partner companies who may wish to do a launch promotion. I am awaiting upon their email now, I will update you!
...
That’s about it for now, I will update this daily and keep you informed! Please comment underneath!
Seems pretty standard. Good luck
__________________
Haters gonna Hate
Likers gonna Like
Personally, I'd also set up the Twitter account to proactively go hunting for Fatbooth/Ageingbooth users (when they post, it says Fatbooth in their post, use this as the search term), and do something like 'Hey @XXXX, why not try TanningBooth as well? blah blah blah". I wrote a script for that exact purpose recently and every hour hits the last 50 people to mention XYZ.
What has happened is that when we launched we found out that it is not working on iPhone's, so I have put a notice up saying DO NOT DOWNLOAD IF ON AN IPHONE, this obviously has had a big effect on sales!
So also, I cancelled all Press releases and stuff.
One thing that has helped a bit is 'Review Exchange' with others, it's a fair system, with honest reviews, and improves you ranks.
Sales (99c)
Day 1: 42
Day 2: 56
Considering I didn't do much for the launch due to the iphone problem.. and iphone users can't use it.. I'm quite pleased.
When you say it's not working on iPhone do you mean the original iPhone or ANY iPhone (3G, 3GS, 4). Because if it's the latter, ouch. How do you miss that?
What has happened is that when we launched we found out that it is not working on iPhone's, so I have put a notice up saying DO NOT DOWNLOAD IF ON AN IPHONE, this obviously has had a big effect on sales!
So also, I cancelled all Press releases and stuff.
One thing that has helped a bit is 'Review Exchange' with others, it's a fair system, with honest reviews, and improves you ranks.
Sales (99c)
Day 1: 42
Day 2: 56
Considering I didn't do much for the launch due to the iphone problem.. and iphone users can't use it.. I'm quite pleased.
Thoughts?
Thanks x
I wouldn't read too much into those numbers. Pretty typical for an entertainment app at your price point during release. The real test will be once its off the new releases list.
Not to rub salt into the wound, but there are 3 things every developer needs to check before they release to iTunes. I learned a two of these (the last two) the hard way unfortunately.
Test on actual hardare. Cardinal Rule #1. The Simulator is fantastic, but it's not the real thing, and it never will be. Unless you test on actual hardware (and as many Model and iOS combinations as possible), you can't assume it will work for actual customers.
Set your iOS Deployment Target as low as possible. The fact is that not everyone upgrades as quickly as they should, so if you don't target older iOS versions, you limit your potential customer base dramatically.
Keep the app size under 20MB. This may not apply to all apps, but unless you've got a big marketing budget or a "must have" app, it should apply to you. Any app over 20MB cannot be downloaded via 3G. It's WiFi only, which -- again -- limits your potential customer base dramatically.
Best of luck with the re-launch and let us know how it goes!
[*]Keep the app size under 20MB. This may not apply to all apps, but unless you've got a big marketing budget or a "must have" app, it should apply to you. Any app over 20MB cannot be downloaded via 3G. It's WiFi only, which -- again -- limits your potential customer base dramatically.[/list]
I thought it was 10 megs... It's 20?
edit: wow I'm behind the times. they changed that a year ago. good to know.
Yeah, Basically my iphone went through the wash the week we were testing... so yeah really screwed things up!!
Doesn't work on ANY iphones!!!
Also, we are changing to photography so we get in the top 100, more visibility than being 300 on entertainment.
Thanks, a lot for this thread it was very useful to me...i just released my app 2 weeks ago as well in phototography Picture Processor app
The first 2 weeks i didn't do anything in terms of marketing because i was still submitting updates...anyway it got downloaded 15 times in total (including friends) i have emailed a few website for reviews and din't get any replies and finally i chose 2 buy 2 paid reviews... i'll post the approx numbers to let u know how paid reviews went
Basically, when the picture is taken on the iphone camera it autorotates and stretches it... but when you chose from library on iTouch nothing happens.. it works.
Thanks, I would like to see your numbers!
Also, we are going up still...
Day 3: 56
Ranking's: US Entertainment: 302 UK Entertainment: 202 UK Entertainment Top Gross: 242
I will post my latest sales update in a few hours!
Great share! You have spotted most of the important tactics. For pre-launch try yournextapp.com like beta testers. And consider mobile advertising, app installs once the app came out.
Just thought I would let you know, it has been going for about a week or two and has averaged $25 a day, constantly.. and it only works on the latest ipod touch nothing else. The update has been put in, along with a lite version, so we are expecting to increase!
Just thought I would let you know, it has been going for about a week or two and has averaged $25 a day, constantly.. and it only works on the latest ipod touch nothing else. The update has been put in, along with a lite version, so we are expecting to increase!
Nobooooody Caressss! You've had it on the App Store for a few weeks. A lot of us have been on the App Store +1 Year and we've seen figures over and over and over again so stop spamming the forum with posts about your App.
Nobooooody Caressss! You've had it on the App Store for a few weeks. A lot of us have been on the App Store +1 Year and we've seen figures over and over and over again so stop spamming the forum with posts about your App.
IphoneSdk I'm starting to like your posts. This was on definitely your best. Haha
__________________
Haters gonna Hate
Likers gonna Like
Ermm, I have been on the app store over a year. And people do care.. I was ASKED to post my latest stats... if you don't want to read it don't click it! Go play sports.
Yes Im one of those who cares! All developers should be in-tune with their peers on what works and doesn't. Give the guy a break, he wrote all that for YOU not for himself. Thanks OP I really appreciate your detailed post.
A Step by Step App Promotion Effort.. in far too much detail!
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