Channels to market mobile apps

Of all the marketing channels for apps, like:

social media as facebook, twitter, google+…
email campaigns,
releasing PR articles on Media
Building your own website or blog,
running ads campaigns,
sending your apps to app review websites,
app store optimization(to get higher rank and more exposure)

I m just wondering which of them works the best especially for small app or game developers?:confused:

Is there anyone who has any successful or bad experience on whatever channel you ever used?

I personally found the fact (using google analytics) that the email campaigns which I thought is outdated now actually keep providing us pretty good traffic:)

How do you start e-mail campaigns? Do you buy campaigns somewhere?

We have used campaign monitor and mail chimp to create campaigns. Don’t know how much it costs though…

Looks like it’s about $0.01-$0.02 for e-mail. But it looks like you need to provide e-mail database yourself?

I prefer mobile ad networks, because they’re really good at it.

I think you may reach success if you combine all these methods. E.g., receive reviews from community members to get feedback and fix smth, make ASO (a must-have for organic downloads), use PR to receive additional buzz, provide incentivized ads campaigns to receive more downloads (users prefer to install apps that have some downloads already), perform ads campaigns to reach new users.

If you are a mailchimp and database guru, focus on emails, and use other methods as additional. If you are perfect in pitching, focus on PR, etc. I think there is no only method (except ads campaigns) that can assure you a lot of downloads.

In terms of my experience, the most effective channel to app marketing is advertising. We have to admit the useful of advertising, although it is expensive. If you spend some money to other channels but get not good result, why you should invest in advertisement. There are some methods to advertising:

  1. advertising in some popular social media and relevant forums
  2. create a video to advertising your app
  3. hold a campaign to attract more potential users
  4. offline advertising, like put a post in subway, bus station, elevator, etc.
  5. cross advertising(cooperate with other app developers)
  6. Find a responsible app store optimization company, like Asotop1

Hi there, based on my experience, for small app developer, one of the best way to market your app is app store optimization. You can target keywords which with low competition and lower search volumes, which are much easier to rank for. After gaining the initial momentum, start using keywords with higher traffic and reasonable difficulty.

About running ads campaigns, it’s a little expensive. If I were you, I would ratherbuy app keyword installs to boost app ranking on the app stores, which can boost app ranking in hours, most people discover new apps by browsing or searching on the app stores, and most of the just browsing the top10 apps.

Sending app to app review sites is also a good way to promote app. There are many sites you can submit your app, such as cnet,mashable, techrunch, app advice, appbrain,etc.If you get reviewed by a popular app blog like AppAdvice, you can expect a similar amount of traffic to flow through to your App Store listing.

About the social media, cooperating with influencers is a good way to promote your app. Because most people prefer to follow the words of influencers or some famous persons.Having high-profile Facebook pages with 100,000+Likes recommending your app is a huge win.

More effective ways to promote your app:
Apply for Awards and Contests
- One great way to get exposure for your mobile app is to enter – and win – contests. While it is great to get the top spot, even submitting your app to awards will give your app exposure, which is always beneficial for a marketing plan on a tight budget.

Alternative App Stores- Besides Google Play Store and Apple Store, there are various other app stores on the online market where you can upload your app. According to One Platform Foundation, if an app is submitted on other relatively less popular stores, it will increase the expected downloads 200% more compared to Google Play.

Hope these methods are useful to you.