10 Latest Mobile App Marketing Strategies to Use in 2019

Your mobile app needs more than just a great launch. If you want people to choose your app over hundreds of similar apps available in your niche, then you need great marketing. Many apps are downloaded every day and a number of them are either abandoned or never used again.

To make sure your mobile app makes the cut, you need a long-term marketing strategy. Here are the latest mobile app marketing strategies that can help your app get more installs and retain existing users.

1.  App Store Optimization

App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of optimizing your app to rank it higher in an app store search result. The main goal of ASO is to increase the number of downloads. From a latest study by Statista, it is clear that most apps are discovered through app store search. To simply put this, you need to increase your app’s search ranking to help your potential customers find your app easily when they need it the most.

So how can you leverage the app’s top discovery channel – app stores? When it comes to ASO, there are a few factors that you must focus on to impress your potential users.

• Title: It must be readable, short, focused, keyword-specific, and include brand name if you want users to remember your app.
• Keywords: You get 100 characters to fill in this field without any spaces. Put the most relevant, strong and descriptive keywords that didn’t fit the title. Do not use variations such as plural form or misspellings in the keyword field.
• Description: Your app description has to be enticing and must persuade people to give your app a try.

 2.  Social Media Advertisement

Social media is great because it is a cost-effective way to engage more people and make them download your app. Whether your app is brand new or available for years now, social media marketing can drive more installs and lead to higher conversions. Here is how to leverage social media platforms as a mobile app marketing tool:

• Promote your app before it launches
• Create a more authentic interaction with your audience through live streaming option of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
• Leverage social media influencers
• Post regularly and at the right time
• Get feedback and make changes in your app to get more positive reviews socially
• Go for Facebook paid ads, Sponsored Twitter posts or join groups on social channels

 3.   Content Marketing

Content marketing is fast and valuable form of marketing that can help you build brand presence, authority and consumer trust. It takes time and experts to figure out what content to promote. You need to create the right content that interests the right people. For example, you can create an article that has a strong connection to your app and explains its value proposition. Other content pieces you should create to get your demographics into the awareness stage:

• Blogs or guest blogs
• Newsletter
• Podcasts
• Infographics
• Announcements for discounts and offers
• Videos
• Free guides and eBooks

To determine the success of content marketing, evaluate unique traffic each week or month, brand impact, and lifetime value. If done the right way, you can convert a large number of visitors into app advocates.

4.  Organize Contests

There are several ways of utilizing contests and competitions to increase app downloads. You can encourage viral sharing by offering giveaways for sharing your Facebook page, signing up to a newsletter or liking a post. Run social media promotions asking people to complete few steps and download your app for a chance to win a prize or coupons.People are motivated when they get incentives for a download. Offer in-app coupons that can be redeemed to avail discounts and rewards from your business.

The most popular gaming app-PUBG became a sensation in the app world because of its competitive tournaments, where famous companies like Intel sponsored its contests. Therefore, organizing competitions cannot be ignored if you wish to get brand recognition and want more people to talk about your app. How to run a successful contest to drive app engagement or installs?

• Determine your end goal –engagement or downloads
• Set your budget and decide which channels are perfect for this contest
• Create a landing page and craft a compelling contest copy to attract more people
• Promote the contest through emails, blogs, social media, forums, social ads or website
• Choose winners, announce names and send out contest prizes

 5.  Video Marketing

According to eMarketer, videos made up 61% of app marketing budget in 2017, and is only expected to increase of app marketing video budgets, 30% was used towards full-screen videos, 24% to social videos, and 7% for in-feed videos. So how your app can utilize videos to drive installs?

• Go for Snapchat if your demographics fall under 25 years of age as most users on this platform are from this age bracket. More than 397 major brands such as Lyft, Pepsi, and Olay are doing video marketing on Snapchat’s Discover channels.
• Instagram has more than 600 million monthly active users. Its noteworthy video advertising option is perfect for your mobile app marketing. Go for Instagram carousel ads or videos in one ad.
• Facebook video advertising is an evergreen platform for acquiring and retaining customers.

 6.   Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a broad term that aims to develop a relation with the influential people who have the power to create visibility for your app.These are a mix of platforms and ways to find influencers and enhance your reach. These platforms include Viral Nation, Crowd, August United, Influncer Champions, Amplifr, Social Chain and more. You can directly approach social media influencers to promote your app and provide them commissions for each install they drive through their social accounts.

7.   Get Listed on Review Sites

Getting your app listed on top App Review Sites is a great way to capitalize on their site traffic. You have to convince those review sites that your app is good enough to be featured on their site. For example, if you get featured on “The Next Web,” you can expect millions of unique visitors in the first 24 hours to hit your App Store page. So to get listed you must provide them:

• Beautiful screenshots of your app
• Original and unique content describing your app
• App with no bugs, crashes and slow loading times
• A support material containing a link to your app in the app store, app icon, links to videos of your app from YouTube and a short description why what makes your app stand out

  8.   Register for App Awards

Another great way to promote your app is to participate in app awards. It gives you huge exposure and many good reviews. If your app idea is unique and app design is good, you can expect to get a few awards too. There are a few popular app award websites to start with:

• Apple Design Awards
• Best Mobile App Awards
• Mobile Excellence Award
• Best App Ever Awards
• Global Mobile Awards
• The Webby Awards

9.  Big Data and AI Marketing

Utilizing Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a game changer in the app marketing sector. They can help you streamline information, provide powerful user insights, and enable you to engage the users in a more interactive way. So here is how data-backed AI marketing can help you in app promotion:

• Behavioral targeting is a great way to target your app on social media and other marketing channels toward the users who have expressed interests in your app.
• Machine learning application of AI can help you understand how to get the best profit for each marketing dollar invested, so you will make smart and better choices.
• Machine learning is helpful in discovering users who are probably going to finish in-app activities. 
• Machine learning also empowers you to broadcast the right messages to the apt users at the right time.

10.  Outsource mobile app marketing to a specialist

Marketing an app requires a great deal of time and efforts, which you may not get as you have to run your business too. Having a marketing expert on your side can make things easier for you as they have experts, tools, platforms and links to test out different marketing strategies for your app.If you need help promoting your app, feel free to contact us to discuss your goals with one of our expert growth hackers.

Conclusion

Developing a mobile app is not just enough, marketing it strategically is important to gain visibility, more downloads and to retain users. The more exposure your app gets, the greater the chances of increase in the number of downloads.The above-listed marketing strategies can really help you to promote your mobile app.Try them and tell us in the comments below if they work for you.