After reading many posts on this forum, this raised a question; Is all the marketing effort worth the couple of extra downloads?
I am a student and together with a friend we are developing and marketing an application, for our thesis, focused on business people to make their networking easier using integration with LinkedIn.
I am responsible for the marketing, but from many topics I understand that a lot of effort only leads to a small increase in downloads. We do have a budget though, which can be increased in case something really boosts downloads/sales. The app will be priced 1-2 dollars.
These are the things I want to do to get our app out there:
- Facebook fan page, twitter account and linkedin page
- Contacting App review sites
- Set up own website (vital i guess)
- Participate in forums
- Promo video
- Mail campaign
- Admob?
- Personal network promotion
Are any of these actions considered useless, because I do not want to waste time on something that does not generate more downloads.
I am really interested in what you think of these actions, as it might help me graduating
Well they all help to some extent but whether or not it's "worth it" really depends right? If you are getting 1-2 sales/day, and doing those things gets you another 1-2 sales, then sure, you've just doubled your sales. But if you are getting 100 sales/day, none of those things will magically double your sales to 200. From my experience, none of those things makes a large difference in sales one way or the other. I'd rather pump time into making the product better.
You first need to have a good product that looks good, works good and is extremely useful. If the product is bad, then all the marketing is going to be a waste of time.
Your list looks good, but just keep in mind some of those things might be very time/money intensive.
If this is your first app, you might consider releasing the app with little fanfare, getting some user feedback, fix bugs, make upgrades and then do your marketing push with version 2.0 or 3.0. just a thought.
Marketing the app surely get you some added visibility which is more important! You have spotted the right techniques here and sometimes the reviews may help you. More than that the app needs to be of minimum quality to the users. I don't recommend the admin campaign and better you can try out some app install strategies.
I disagree on the last part. An completely useless app could still make it if it is fun to use.
To me fun = useful.
But the point is, you have a lot of games out there that are simply boring to play and the developers spend all their time "marketing" it and trying to get people to see it, but none of that is going to help if the game bites.
you need to make sure the game is popular before you start marketing, not the other way around, which is the mistake most people make.
After reading many posts on this forum, this raised a question; Is all the marketing effort worth the couple of extra downloads?
I am a student and together with a friend we are developing and marketing an application, for our thesis, focused on business people to make their networking easier using integration with LinkedIn.
I am responsible for the marketing, but from many topics I understand that a lot of effort only leads to a small increase in downloads. We do have a budget though, which can be increased in case something really boosts downloads/sales. The app will be priced 1-2 dollars.
These are the things I want to do to get our app out there:
- Facebook fan page, twitter account and linkedin page
- Contacting App review sites
- Set up own website (vital i guess)
- Participate in forums
- Promo video
- Mail campaign
- Admob?
- Personal network promotion
Are any of these actions considered useless, because I do not want to waste time on something that does not generate more downloads.
I am really interested in what you think of these actions, as it might help me graduating
Grtz, Mark
I recommend all the points you have mentioned will help your marketing efforts. When it comes to Admob campaign be sure that your app has some unique features or something unique in the app category then you can go for admob campaign.
They are absolutely worth it, I call it the marketing funnel in which all of these sites eventually lead the person to your app purchase page. They learn more about you, about your app, what kind of developer you are, etc. and that 10% the follow through will most likely pick up the app.
You first need to have a good product that looks good, works good and is extremely useful. If the product is bad, then all the marketing is going to be a waste of time.
Your list looks good, but just keep in mind some of those things might be very time/money intensive.
If this is your first app, you might consider releasing the app with little fanfare, getting some user feedback, fix bugs, make upgrades and then do your marketing push with version 2.0 or 3.0. just a thought.
Thanks for your reply. I was thinking the same thing, it is not possible to include all functions before the expected launch date, and we have some great ideas to include in 2.0. But is the first launch in the Appstore not the biggest chance to get your app noticed?
I recommend all the points you have mentioned will help your marketing efforts. When it comes to Admob campaign be sure that your app has some unique features or something unique in the app category then you can go for admob campaign.
Regarding Admob, the app really has a unique feature, but I was wondering from other experiences if Admob is worth the money related to extra downloads?
One of the lectures that I just watched in iTunesU was a developer that tried AdMob and ended up PAYING people to download the app! He suggested the banner ads instead. I think I would wait till you have an income base before you gamble in AdMob. His $200 went quick and resulted in a net loss.
Yes, your 1st day is important, but getting a good update in the second version should cover that.
The speaker also mentioned that almost all the paid reviews were second rate.
After reading many posts on this forum, this raised a question; Is all the marketing effort worth the couple of extra downloads?
I am a student and together with a friend we are developing and marketing an application, for our thesis, focused on business people to make their networking easier using integration with LinkedIn.
I am responsible for the marketing, but from many topics I understand that a lot of effort only leads to a small increase in downloads. We do have a budget though, which can be increased in case something really boosts downloads/sales. The app will be priced 1-2 dollars.
These are the things I want to do to get our app out there:
- Facebook fan page, twitter account and linkedin page
- Contacting App review sites
- Set up own website (vital i guess)
- Participate in forums
- Promo video
- Mail campaign
- Admob?
- Personal network promotion
Are any of these actions considered useless, because I do not want to waste time on something that does not generate more downloads.
I am really interested in what you think of these actions, as it might help me graduating
Grtz, Mark
Yes, it is all worth it and all worth your time! It all depends on how much time and energy you put into each. Also, each element is different so be prepared. You can create a facebook page and no one will become a fan and so on. Good luck! You will graduate!!
After reading many posts on this forum, this raised a question; Is all the marketing effort worth the couple of extra downloads?
I am a student and together with a friend we are developing and marketing an application, for our thesis, focused on business people to make their networking easier using integration with LinkedIn.
I am responsible for the marketing, but from many topics I understand that a lot of effort only leads to a small increase in downloads. We do have a budget though, which can be increased in case something really boosts downloads/sales. The app will be priced 1-2 dollars.
These are the things I want to do to get our app out there:
- Facebook fan page, twitter account and linkedin page
- Contacting App review sites
- Set up own website (vital i guess)
- Participate in forums
- Promo video
- Mail campaign
- Admob?
- Personal network promotion
Are any of these actions considered useless, because I do not want to waste time on something that does not generate more downloads.
I am really interested in what you think of these actions, as it might help me graduating
Grtz, Mark
We believe that:
- Contacting App review sites
- Set up own website (vital i guess)
- Promo video
are important. Promo video is needed so that reviewers at app review sites could get impression about your app without installing it.
__________________ iSpreadNews.com - VERY CHEAP (from $63) way to send your iPhone/iPad app announcement to hundreds of blog owners over the globe.
Just remember that US AppStore is not the only AppStore in the world.
Is it all worth it?
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