Top 5 Pre-launch Mobile App Marketing Strategy

If you have built a mobile app, you already have faced the tough turf of competition. As per every piece of marketing wisdom starting early you can only gain more time, scope and opportunities to market your product. It is truer for a fiercely competitive field like mobile app marketing. So, launching your marketing campaign for an app actually should take off long before it is launched in the app marketplace. Widely dubbed as pre-launch marketing, this has become a secret cornerstone of success for marketing a mobile app.

With just the idea and a loose prototype of the product what you can really tell your prospective users? What should you do to market your app when it’s not even produced? Well, you can create expectations, vibe and buzz around your upcoming app, so that when it is launched, it can instantly becomes s hit with large user base. How can you make that happen or more precisely to say, what involves the pre-launch mobile app marketing strategy? Here are some time-tested tips to help any mobile app development company.

Competitive analysis and audience research

You should start with in-depth research on your users and competition. You need to gather a lot of data-driven insights on your users and competitor apps. To begin with, focus on only the most essential metrics. The key elements and metrics of audience research for your mobile app are as followed.

• Demographics are about the user age, ethnicity, location, gender, occupation, etc. Is your app targeted mainly for teens or is it for working women in particular? You need to know the particular demography of your target audience.
• Now you need to figure out the constraints and limitations of your audience regarding spending and usage. This is how you can determine how you should monetize the app.
• Based on the demographic data and related insights you can now determine the gross expected user behavior and reactions to similar kinds of apps. When you have a gross idea about the user preference from your app, the research comes to a full circle.
• Now, it is the turn of the competitive analysis of other apps in the same niche. Know the best selling points common in most such apps and also point out the common shortcomings.
• The last but not the least of competitive research should be on the target keywords. By sneaking into the competitor’s profiles, you can easily know the keywords they are targeting.

Start marketing app from early on

You need to start marketing the app as early as the time of starting with app development. Primarily you need to announce the upcoming app to your own customers and engaged audience in other channels. Thereafter you need to put your effort to make the buzz around your app louder to reach more people and to build solid interest among people who want to give the app a try once it is launched. Consider the following steps and tips.

• Reach out to your friends, peers, colleagues, customers, business associates, peer groups, social media friends and everyone you know early and often.
• To create interest and engage audience quickly take suggestions and ask for feedback from everyone.
• Make use of email marketing to create buzz and reach out to the audience far and wide.

Create a website for your app

Mobile apps and web presence go hand in hand when it comes to marketing. The same goes true when it comes to pre-launch marketing. When you already have a website, you can easily reach out to your audience and create buzz on the upcoming app through your website only. Let us tell you about some effective ways to promote your app on your website.

• First of all, you should publish expert blogs targeting keywords that help your app get more traction through the search engine.
• Secondly, to push your existing audience for taking a positive interest in the app, roll out interesting campaigns like quizzes, some promotional competitions, etc.
• Thirdly, you can always show attractive banner ads above the fold to attract attention to your new app.
• Lastly, you can create a separate landing page describing the app and asking for the visitors to sign up for a free demo.

Social media marketing play key role

The social media campaign is obviously the most influential element in any marketing strategy and when it comes to pre-launch marketing social business pages and targeted campaigns can easily create quick buzz than other avenues. Follow the following tips.

• First of all, create social profiles and business pages for your upcoming app.
• Interact with your existing audience and ask for feedback and suggestions.
• Roll out some interesting campaigns to make more people interested in the feedback gathering for your new app.
• Share screenshots and small videos on the app story or ‘how-to’ aspects.
• Make a beta version of the app and make it reviewed by industry influencers.
• Do not target all social platforms as you cannot ensure steady engagement in all of them. Instead just pick out 3 or 4 platforms where most of your audience keeps visiting.
• Post frequently and often about your app and other interesting topics enjoyed by your users.
• Offer a mixed bag of contents in social posts including small bite-sized text, high quality images, funny GIFs and illustrations and small engaging video.
• Comment, share and follow other similar profiles and pages to get the same actions from them.
• Focus on building a strong community with the people of your niche.

Outreach bloggers and prepare for press release

To make your app quickly discoverable to the largest audience, it is important to reach influencers on the web. Reach out well-known bloggers of your industry and publish a press release describing your app and all the user advantages. By publishing reports, blogs and press releases you can quickly gain the attention of industry influencers and create quick and credible buzz. Press copy and reputed blogs mentioning your app actually give you better credibility score for the app.

Conclusion

As the competition in mobile app marketplace is mounting up, no app can just afford to remain silent on marketing part until the app is launched. If early start cannot guarantee any competitive advantage, at least it ensures your app to remain at par with other apps in respect of marketing.