After a lot of hard work, you’ve created a mobile app, one you know users will want. Perhaps it provides sales options or coupons toward your products, or maybe it solves some specific problem that a user might have, like keeping information organized or gaining quicker access to a service. Regardless, you now need to find a way to encourage potential customers to download and use your app, which is no easy task.
We asked members from Young Entrepreneur Council offer their advice for getting people excited about downloading a business’s new app. Here’s what they suggest:
Provide a Trial Offer
Giving a people a taste of how it works can get them excited. The “try me, buy me” approach often helps because the hands-on approach can create the necessary engagement. I give a limited time where they can try it to see if it helps them.
– Drew Hendricks of Buttercup
Create a Video
In the past few years, the iOS app store has allowed not only screenshots but video previews as well! Let your potential customers see exactly what they can expect, as well as show off cool features or use cases that your mobile app has. You can also use the video on your website, and in ads, to drive more traffic.
– Torrey Tayenaka of Sparkhouse
Add Gamification Features
Adding any type of competition or challenge to the app, including some reward or incentives, gets people excited nowadays. This also gets them using it, so they can discover how much they need it.
– Angela Ruth of Due
Let Influencers Share Stories
We’ve been very successful by reaching out to influencers, sharing our story with them, having them use our mobile app and then having them tell stories about their experience with it to their audience. It’s the combination of the influencer’s clout, and their ability to communicate their personal experience with our app, that allowed us to really connect with our audience and drive sales.
– Mark Krassner of Expectful
Have Users Talk About Their Successes
People want to hear how great a mobile app is from people that have already used it. Create content on social media demonstrating how much people are loving the new app and how they are benefiting from its use. People don’t want to be left out: If there is something great happening, they will join in.
– Renato Libric of Bouxtie Inc
Get Featured on Industry Blogs
Find out which blogs your customers are reading, and build relationships with those writers or editors. Have them feature or review your app in a blog post, and make sure that post is sent to their email list and social networks. Update your own social channels when another blog features or reviews your app. This will provide social proof and lots of conversion opportunities for people to download your app.
– Andrew Saladino of Kitchen Cabinet Kings
Reach Out to Newsletter Subscribers
A great way to get people hyped about a new app is by sending them exclusive sneak peeks in your weekly or monthly email newsletter. Your newsletter subscribers are already interested in your product and brand, so sharing the news with them about upcoming launches will most likely be well received. You could even do a countdown to launch to keep the release date on the forefront of everyone’s mind.
– Jared Brown of Hubstaff Talent
Advertise via Podcast Channels
If you want people to be excited about your mobile app, make sure you create something that’s worth getting excited about, and then advertise it through channels that are likely to appeal to your target audience. Podcasts targeted at iOS and Android users are particularly effective, and the Overcast podcast app offers in-app advertising for specific podcast categories.
– Justin Blanchard of ServerMania Inc.
Make an App People Won’t Want to Live Without
Even top marketing dollars won’t get people to download a useless app. Instead of focusing on marketing tactics to convince people to download your phone app, make it so irresistibly good that users can’t live without it. Build a network effect into your app, so that once someone discovers and loves what you have, they will have to share it with someone else to make it work.
– Diego Orjuela of Cables & Sensors
Hammer Your Unique Value Proposition
Truly understand why anyone would want to use the product and hammer it home in your communications. Once you have the UVP refined, take it in a concise pitch to friends and influences to get feedback. After this initial round, work to get coverage on industry publications and tech blogs.
– Chris Van Dusen of Parcon Media
Include Functions to Prevent App Abandonment
Whether its storing loyalty information or exclusive coupons, make sure the app functionality is enticing enough for users to download the app. But don’t stop there: App abandonment is at an all-time high. Make sure you utilize app-engagement ads to get users coming back, in order to ensure your app provides real business value beyond the download numbers.
– Dan Golden of BFO (Be Found Online)
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