In this seventh weekly app promotion tip together with our friends at App Promo, we focus on networking within your circle professional and personal circles to increase the effectiveness of your marketing promotions. Tell your friends, your co-workers, and your business contacts about your product, and they may be able to spread the word exponentially. Also look for opportunities to market yourself and your product at conferences, tradeshows, and networking events. In this article, you’ll find out how to use networking to create opportunities for marketing your app. Read more after the jump.
You don’t have to look too far for opportunities to market your app. The best place to start is with you and your networks. Word-of-mouth is still the most effective way to promote your app so make sure you are telling everyone you meet and know about your product and get them talking about it for you.
Use your networks to spread the word
No one can do a better job of selling your app than you, which is why using your own network is extremely important to get the word out. If you work for a company, send out internal announcements to your team announcing the launch, success stories and feature updates for your app. Ask your co-workers to download, rate and review your product. Also ask them to become subscribers to your Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn feeds.
Use your own social networks to post announcements and send links. Both personal (Facebook) and professional (LinkedIn) networks will come in handy here. Now is not the time to be shy with your accomplishments. Use your network to push the word out and ask your network to help share the announcement with their networks.
Update your business materials with a call to action to download your app using a QR code and/or the direct download link. Use this in your email signature, on your business card, and letterhead. Showcase your app on your social networks. Mention it on your voicemail. A good rule of thumb is that anywhere you would traditionally plug your website you should now start to include marketing for your app.
Market at conferences, workshops & networking events
As a representative of your app, a great way to increase your network and gain visibility for your product is through attending, sponsoring and speaking at conferences, industry and network events. If you are speaking at or exhibiting at an event, arrange for a giveaway of your app to the participants. Use promo codes if you have them available. Or issue a one-day sale corresponding to the day of the event. Be sure to update your entire event collateral with a clear call to action to get your app. If you have the technical know-how, hackathons or workshop are other great events where you can network and grow your community. For all events, make sure you come equipped with business cards providing your Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn details.
Submit your app for awards & recognition
Nothing gives credibility faster to an app than awards. But you don’t need to win the grand prize in order to see the benefits. Getting nominated for awards from credible sources is as much a marketing opportunity as winning one. Of course the latter is a bigger story. Whether you are nominated or have won an award, update your marketing collateral to reflect this achievement including your app product page and even release notes.
Talk directly to users in forums
Being active within forums related to your app is a great way to seed word of mouth directly with users, as well as to gain valuable insight in what your audience would expect from your product. For example, Sony Mobile engineers actively participate in Android developer forums, including StackOverflow and xda-developers, to monitor issues and resolve technical questions.
Become a valuable resource within these public forums to further your credibility and sell your app. Ask and answer questions. Add to the conversation. Avoid hard selling your app. Make the community aware of your app by including it in the signature of your posts. Choose your avatar as your app icon and for your forum name, use your brand or app name.
When you choose to explicitly use forums for marketing keep your messages beneficial to the community and in context to the conversation. Often times forums have topics started specific for this purpose. It’s a great idea to post your releases here, as often bloggers are members and will crawl these communities for future stories.
Hey Android developers, have you tried to reach out to your personal and professional circles in order to promote your app? What kind of networking has worked best? Share your experiences with other developers using the Comments section below.
***
App Promo is a leading app marketing and strategy firm whose goal is to assist developers and app owners in succeeding in the business of applications. App Promo provides services geared towards increasing discovery, optimising revenue and ensuring better positioning of applications to set them up for success.
More information
- Read our previous App Promo developer tip on reaching out through social media.
- Check out all the app promotion tips (we’ll be adding more weekly).
- Learn more about App Promo services for app developers and app owners.
- Follow @Apppromo on Twitter.
- Check out our other helpful tutorials for mobile developers.
Źródło: App Promo tip #7: Build your network and community connections
Category: Sony Ericsson | Tags: None
Related Posts
- No related posts found.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
