Strategies to promote the launch of a new application

With the number of apps available for download from the world's top app stores, totaling more than four million, companies are well aware that a meticulous digital marketing strategy is the only way to stand out in today's app market. So knowing how to promote the launch of a new application is essential.

While the focus on developing applications for mobile devices and creating an app that works correctly is a central factor for success, if users don't know that the product exists, their hard work will be useless.

Mobile app marketing covers all user interactions from the moment they learn about the product to when they become a loyal user.

Marketing a mobile app involves effectively defining a target audience, learning how to reach them, how to communicate with them, and analyzing behavior in the app to make continuous improvements as users move through the acquisition funnel. It does not matter if it is an application to remove backgrounds from images or relationship applications.

Finally, the goal of a strategy should be to acquire users who not only promote repeat engagement, but also become loyal product advocates. Learn about the strategies to promote the launch of a new application right after!

1. Awareness or pre-launch

The awareness stage of a mobile app marketing strategy occurs before the launch of a new app. This step is aimed at brand awareness and product visibility.

Specifically, how will your target users discover your mobile app? Before starting with the awareness stage, it is important to have a complete understanding of your brand's messages and positioning. Only then can you start your journey to earn money with your app.

A brand resonates with customers through its values ​​and purpose, not through individual product features. Defining a brand position gives users the chance to connect with your product at a deeper level.

Below is a list of steps and strategies to be followed during the awareness stage of your marketing plan.

Determine a release date

Compared to Google, Apple has a rigorous review process that may delay its launch or it is possible to encounter a setback that it did not anticipate.

Planning well in advance will give you enough time to prepare for the difficult launch of your product and allow you to forecast and contingencies that may occur.

Conduct market research to understand your customers

One of the most common mistakes before launching a new application is not doing market research correctly. Before starting any development work, you need to identify the main players in your specific application category.

No matter how thorough your marketing efforts are – if your application doesn't address a user's pain point or a pain point that already has a thriving app solution on the market, your product will simply not succeed.

Create user personas

A main objective throughout the awareness stage is to find out who the target user is, what they value and the central point they experience that their product will address. There can be multiple groups of users for a mobile app and each persona of the user will have their unique journey.

A user persona is a partially fictional representation of your ideal user. User personas include everything about a user’s demographics, history, mobile preferences, interests, and unique identifiers.

User personas also address the user’s core goals and the challenges they face today. Detailed personas create the basis for the design of the user journey and help to customize all aspects of your mobile product according to your preferences and needs.

Everything from branding and in-app content to features, features, platform choice and monetization strategy must have an impact on the target user.

By thoroughly describing your target audience with users' personas, you will answer essential questions that will guide your entire marketing strategy. For example:

• What is the central point of pain that this public experiences collectively?
• What mobile operating system does this target audience use? iOS or Android?
• What types of content does this audience engage with online?
• What tone, voice and style of content resonate well with this audience?
• Are there visual branding patterns that appear in this target audience's online activity?
• Do these users follow respectable influencers on social media?
• Which platforms are best for taking advantage of paid advertising?
• Are these users known to pay for apps or make in-app purchases?

Using personas to answer questions like these will help you coordinate design, business and marketing decisions to attract the right audience for your product. If you haven’t researched your target audience properly, you won’t be able to launch a new app that’s relevant to their needs.

Perform a competitive analysis

Your application will have competition. Make a list of your top five competitors, current price, monetization model, app store rating, pros and cons of user experience (UX) and important reviews.

You can even create a competitive matrix to determine how the application compares. Make sure the application does not repeat any poorly designed features or UX elements that users have negatively reviewed.

Think about what would make your app stand out against your competitors. These are important considerations that should influence your entire marketing approach.

Create a website or landing page

Mobile sites are the number one source of app installs. Creating a landing page before launch or, at the very least, a promotional video for your product has become standard practice.

Once you have a video on your website, you can recycle the content by placing it in app stores, on social platforms or even using it in paid ads.

In addition to creating a hype around your application, having a pre-launch website is also a great way to optimize SEO (search engine) by starting to develop your domain authority.

When setting up your site, collect emails to keep your followers up to date and notify them when the mobile app starts and when you have new updates and features. It is also beneficial to display 5-star reviews on the website, check if the reviews are authentic or your brand will appear unincorporated.

Promote on social media

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social networks allow you to expand your presence on the Web and communicate directly with your target audience.

If your app targets specific age groups, identify the most popular social media among people in that demographics and focus on them. Be sure to consider the following:

• Is it clear that you have an app from the first look of your social profile?
• Is the purpose of the app obvious?
• Is there a link to download it?

Post company updates and features that will keep followers excited about the launch. Create hashtags on Instagram and other platforms and use them in posts when appropriate.

Publish and share not only promotional content, but fun and engaging content related to your app to create a community behind it. You can search for what questions to ask on Instagram Stories to build engagement and build a community behind the app, for example.

The acquisition stage

With a user acquisition strategy, the possibilities are endless. It is important to use different methods, be creative and continually refine your strategy.

Try to get as many downloads as possible in the first week after launch. The faster your app downloads, the higher the ranking in search results.

It is important for users to start downloading your application to track the source of the downloads. That way, you can focus on the most profitable channels and improve the others.

Paid strategy

After the launch of the application, start distributing advertisements, such as advertisements on social platforms such as Facebook, which are extremely effective in acquiring users.

Depending on your target audience, you should also consider other platforms like Instagram and Twitter, although the reach is not that great, it is still effective, especially for the millennial generation.

Facebook's ad platform is great for allowing companies to target the desired audience based on their interests, location and more.

If you’re targeting your audience through social media ads, remember that people have less attention span, so your ads convey the product’s purpose in a few seconds.

If you're providing a solution that your users are looking for, Google Search ads can also be a good option.

The retention stage

Most people think a lot about acquisition marketing, but after acquiring users, if no one is using the app, the product will not be generating business.

Your next step should be to develop an action plan for retention marketing to convert your new customers into lifetime users. Below is a list of strategies that can be used to increase retention.

Establish two-way communication

The more closely your app's experience is aligned with the user's needs and preferences, the more likely they are to continue using the product. Brands that use in-app messaging to communicate with users will have user retention within 28 days of receiving a 61% to 74% message range.

In-app messages are notifications that do not require immediate action, but are important to receive. This may include warnings about application problems, payment failures, or version updates.

Keep in mind that not all messages sent will be relevant to all users. Segmenting your target audience before launching a new application offers the ability to ensure that the information received is valuable to them.

Push notification

Push notifications have been shown to increase user retention, with statistics showing somewhere between 56% and 180%. Users who chose to receive push notifications exhibit 88% more application engagement than those who did not.

The higher the retention rate, the better the rating in the app store. Encouraging users to use your app can also go a long way.

Mobile-specific rewards, access to specialized content, coupons, special promotions and other offers will help drive conversions and encourage engagement.

Don't promise too much

An important part of any marketing strategy is not to overdo it. Word of mouth is by far the most effective marketing strategy when launching a mobile app, no matter what type.

This means that you cannot advertise or commit too much. You need to ensure that your messages remain consistent or will inevitably result in frustrated users and high uninstall rates.

When it comes to defining a broad marketing strategy, it is essential to diversify your strategy. Some people connect with video, others with images or text.

Create diverse content and ensure that app reviewers have easy access to it all the time. Remember that your strategy must be dynamic with iterations and continuous optimization will be the key to finding the perfect balance between different approaches.