Steve Hoffman

Steve Hoffman

by Steve Hoffman, Publisher of Founders Space

Right before your app launch is the most critical time for marketing and promoting it.  You need to cement all the key relationships and make sure everyone knows your app is about to hit the App Store.   If you do a good enough job and are lucky enough to get on Apple’s radar, the chances of getting featured go way up.

Prelaunch Phase – Marking & Promotion

  • Create a webpage or website for your app, where users can go to get information, download the app, get help, etc.   Do everything you can to optimize this page for search engines.  SEO is critical to users discovering your app.
  • Add social features to your app and to your webpage/website, so users can “like” your app and recommend it to their friends.
  • Create a Facebook page for fans of your app, and link this to your website.
  • Make a video that shows how your app works.  Put this both on your webpage and on YouTube.   YouTube is a great place for people to discover your app.
  • Write a press release.  You don’t need to spend a lot of money to do this.  Just use a service like PRMac.com or PRWeb.com (which are cheap).  These sites don’t get a huge amount of press pickup, but they help with SEO and you can add the link to any emails you send out to journalists or bloggers.
  • Before your app launches, individually email or call key bloggers who cover your space.  Offer to give them a sneak peek of your app and tell why it’s interesting.
  • Best to focus marketing efforts right when your app launches.  If you’re lucky, your app will get featured.  This combined with marketing dollars can boost your app into the higher ranks.  So leading up to the launch date, you need to get all your marketing efforts lined up and ready to go.
  • There are numerous “App of the Day” sites that feature and give away apps.  Do your research and get a list of those sites, and then see if it’s worth getting your app featured.  Many of these sites charge money.
  • There are also a number of sites that review apps.  Compile a list of these too, so when you launch you can submit your app to them.
  • Create a great icon for your app – Apple won’t feature anything with a mediocre icon.
  • Create great screenshots for your app – Apple won’t feature anything with mediocre screenshots.
  • Keep the marketing text for your app brief – no one wants to read too much.