8 Unique Ways to Attract App Users

After working for months, or possibly years, to get your app on the app store, its time to market for your app. Your success will be measured mostly by downloads, and every other metric being tied to the downloads you get. 

You can have the most smooth and useful app in the world, but if no one knows about it, its going to be wasted. We will teach you everything you need to know about marketing for your app, and also how to get more downloads to the App Store and Play Store. 

All it takes is a few groups to download your app, and that’s where the exponential growth happens. They each tell a friend or two about their latest download, and from there, it turns into a wildfire. We are going to give you 8 unique tips to get more downloads on your app, and hopefully, this gives your app the jolt its been needing. 

1. Create and Choose a Catchy App Icon

All customers are visual. They want to see what they are getting before they ever read about the features and benefits of your app. That doesn’t mean that you need to have a very in-depth icon, but it also means that you need to put more thought into the icon than most. This should be both appealing and recognizable. 

If you already have a company logo, this would be a great time to create an icon that is a more simplistic version of said logo. Although you only have a small space for the icon, it should give potential users a strong idea of what they’ll be getting with the app if they download it. This icon will go hand-in-hand with the branding of your app. 

2. Launch a Website and Blog 

If you are serious about getting traction on your app, the App and Play store can’t be the only place that you are getting views from. A good blog and website will also have viewers turning into users. If you created a productivity app, you should be posting and writing about how to start your day, how to save time, and other pain points that you help solve. 

Getting a sustainable website and blog will also allow you to make money from other parts of your business – not just the app. But on the flip side, if you can learn to provide valuable content, potential customers will be far more inclined to download your app and buy your SaaS products and offerings. 

On top of all of this, make sure your website has an entire section dedicated to teaching users how to get the most out of your app. Although it may seem like this is the place that existing users will get tips, its actually going to be where you convince most viewers to give your app a shot. 

3. Create a Demo Video 

This should be placed on the first slide in the app store, and also on the landing page of your website. If a viewer has shown enough interest to click on your icon or visit your website, odds are that they want to see if you would be a good candidate for a download. A clear and concise demo video is exactly what they want to see. 

This video should be about 30 seconds long, highlighting the best parts of your app. Show a screen recording of how easy it is to use your app, and how simple it is to work into your everyday life. If you already have social media pages, make sure to post it there as well.

4. Prioritize App Store Optimization

If you’ve already made your website and blog, you are likely familiar with search engine optimization (SEO). But this is the time to jump into app store optimization, also known as ASO. 

The two types of optimization are somewhat similar, but ASO is specifically designed to get more eyes and downloads on your app, rather than the website or blog. 

Keyword Relevance: One of the most important things you can do to rank well on app stores is to have the right key words in your description and your title of the app. Use Google’s AdWords keyword tool or a keyword tracker like Sensor Tower or App Radar to identify the most relevant search terms.

• Categories: When you are submitting your app to your selected stores, make sure you are choosing your categories wisely. Finding the category that is relevant to your app is important, but be strategic with your selection. Make sure that specific category isn’t too saturated. 
• Positive Reviews: As you get more positive feedback from real users that have downloaded your app, you are going to rank higher on the searches for apps just like yours. Prompting in-app reviews after a positive experience will help this more than asking friends and family ever could. 
• App Downloads: The number of downloads and the frequency of downloads will positively impact the ranking of your app on app stores as well. 
• Location: Find out where your target audience lives, and create an advertisement and description that is tailored in that specific language. This isn’t the time to use Google Translate. If the description and title don’t translate in perfect grammar, that is a major red flag for anyone somewhat interested in downloading your app. 
• App use: Your app ranking will also be determined by how many people are using your app on a day-to-day basis. Having someone download your app is only half of the battle. Although app usage isn’t the only thing that is important for ASO, it is a major factor. Make sure you are engaging with your users through notifications and reasons for people to open your app on a regular basis. 
• Social Proof: Believe it or not, the popularity of your app on social media can impact the ranking of your app. Building and populating a social media account for your app is as important as ever. Make sure your posts are up to date and you are staying active in your social communities. 

5. Leverage in-app Tracking 

The data you are constantly getting from your app users is something that is more valuable than you may realize. This will help you learn where you app is succeeding and where it is lacking. 

With in-app tracking, you can understanding the users behaviors and choices made inside of the app each time they open it. Are they quitting out of the app at a certain point? On average, how much time are they spending inside of the app? Are there features that are simply not being used at all? Is there a certain page that users are spending too much or too little time on? All of these questions are ones that can be answered when diving into the analytics from in-app tracking. 

6. Promote on Social Media 

Your social media pages are the perfect place to promote your new app. There are more than 3.5 billion social media users across the planet, so it’s important to know that your app, if marketed correctly, will get in front of plenty of eyes. 

Because marketing on social media can be a bit intimidating, its important to find your market before anything else. If you audience is industry and business professionals, Twitter and LinkdIn are your first places to start. Instagram and Facebook are more important for actual products like toys, kitchen items, or anything else that’s a one-time purchase. 

Once you have your pages made, made sure to use the popular hashtags that the most popular accounts are using. This will group you in with the best accounts on the platform. Paying for views is also something that is going garner lots of downloads. 

• Use a combination of sponsored stories and promoted posts targeted to mobile news feeds via Facebook.
• Use promoted tweets on Twitter to drive mobile app downloads.
• Explore influencer marketing, particularly on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
• Run contests to get people to try your app.
• Encourage user-generated content to illustrate the value of your app.
• Use platforms like Quora and Reddit to position yourself as a niche authority.

7. Use Ad Retargeting 

One of the hidden gems is targeting people that have paid your website a visit but never turned into a user of your app. If you are using the right tracking systems, those on-the-fence visitors will begin seeing ads reminding them about your app on Google, Facebook, and other websites that support Google Ads. According to ReadyCloud, people who see retargeting ads are up to 70% more likely to convert, and these types of ads have a click-through rate that’s about 10 times higher than display ads.

8. Hire an Influencer 

The age of social media influencers is upon us, and its not going away anytime soon. If you are willing to shell out the cash, there can be a lot of value in hiring to speak about your app. Whether it be on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or even Tik Tok, there’s real value when someone with a lot of followers markets for you. 

These influencers will speak and promote with confidence. Their audience is inclined to listen to them, as they have garnered the respect of the masses. This is turning out to be one of the most popular ways to market on social media right now.