How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success

How to
Market Your iOS App:
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
APP STORE SUCCESS

Table of Contents
2 Introduction
4 The Fundamentals
7 A quality app: The path to getting featured by Apple
10 Pre-launch Hype: Success starts early
14 Push: The importance of media and how to get coverage
20 Optimize: Prepping for the App Store “shelves”
25 Final Thoughts

HOW TO MARKET YOUR iOS APP: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO APP STORE SUCCESS 2

There's something special about building a product that can be used
by over 500 million people across the world.

When creating an iPhone or iPad application, it is your opportunity to
do just that – reach a massive customer base that only continues to
grow. However, where opportunity exists, competition soon follows,
and the Apple App Store is no exception.

As of September 2012, there were over 700,000 iPhone and iPad apps
in the App Store. This is an astounding number considering there were
just 500 apps when the App Store opened in 2008. In fact, it's
estimated that the App Store
Review Team receives over 1,000
app submissions daily. More-
over, 90 percent of the apps in
the Apple App Store are down-
loaded each month.

Of course, that 90 percent ﬁgure
includes many apps that are
downloaded very few times. A
single download doesn't make a
business, nor does it mean
success. So how can developers
market their apps to reach more potential customers?

While there’s no universal formula behind a “hit” app, there are proven
techniques that increase the odds of an app being successful. Just look
at mobile developers like tap tap tap and Real Mac Software –
they've been able to turn out multiple App Store “hits” because they
not only build compelling apps, but they also know how to expose
them to a wide audience.

This book will detail many proven app-marketing techniques to help
you get your app the attention it deserves.


The app store isn’t your only marketing channel. Seeing your app
in the App Store may be an awesome feeling, but just because it’s
there, doesn't mean that anyone else will discover it. You should not
rely on the App Store to be the sole driver of traﬃc to your app.
Successful apps, like most successful products, require a mix of
marketing channels – a combination that reaches an audience wide
enough to give your app the exposure it needs to build and sustain
momentum.

Building a website, conducting
email marketing, and leveraging
social media channels to funnel
prospective customers to your App
Store listing are important compo-
nents in mobile marketing. Hoping
to be found, on the other hand,
isn’t a viable strategy.

Start early and get ahead.
Building interest in your app should
begin the moment you come up
with a viable idea for the product. Don't wait until you're in the App
Store to come up with a promotional plan. Instead parallel track your
vision for how the app will get built and how it will get discovered.

Creating an app is a journey, and every app is competing for limited
“real estate” in the App Store and on the user’s device. The App Store
Charts showcase only what Apple thinks will sell. Familiarizing yourself
with Apple’s preferences ahead of time will give you the best chance at
separating yourself from the hundreds of thousands of other apps
vying for the consumers’ attention.

Invest in quality design. Design is key to App Store success. This
doesn't just mean how the app looks, but also how it functions.
If you look through the top apps in each category, the majority have a
carefully executed UX – one designed to help users understand what
the app does and how easy it is to do it.

3

A Quality App:
The Path to Getting
Featured by Apple


The best marketing begins with a
high quality product. Apple is
ultimately a meritocracy. If your
app is poor, it's unlikely that it will
be a “hit.” Crafting a quality app is
challenging, but when you make
an awesome product, marketing
begins to fall into place.

Keep it simple. Shoot to build an
app that solves a specific problem
in an efficient and beautiful way.
It may seem like there's an app for
everything, but there is room for major improvements in certain
categories. For instance, there were over 6,000 to-do list apps in the
App Store before Clear came along and grabbed the lion's share of
attention in the category.

What did Clear do right? It turned a rote to-do list into something fun.
It overwhelmed the market with simplicity. Partly because of Clear's
intuitive design, the app was also featured by Apple and jumped to the
top of the App Store charts.

What's your edge? Identify your app’s “unfair advantage” early. How
will it differ from similar apps? Does it have a killer feature? A radically
different UX? Is integration its “secret sauce”? Whatever it is, build that
utility first and cut features that distract from your advantage. “More”
isn’t necessarily better when it comes to mobile apps. Allegedly,
Tumblr CEO David Karp requires that for every feature added one
must be removed. He understands that “feature creep” often corrodes
the user’s experience.

When Instagram first started, it was a location-based social network
packed with a whole bunch of features. As a result, the app didn't take
off the way the company wanted it to. Yet when they pared it down to
its core – making it simple to create and share beautiful photos –
Instagram took off.

The value Instagram provided – making everyone feel like a photogra-
pher – was what attracted their initial customer base. This led to more


photos being created, and ultimately the opportunity for a full-blown
social network revolving around photos to be born.

Focus on the core utility that your app provides to your customers first
and keep your feature set to a minimum.

Invest in good design. There's no question that design is a core pillar
to App Store success. Apple is synonymous with exceptional design
and it is a huge part of what has made the company one of the most
profitable organizations in the world. Keep in mind that good design is
more than interface deep. Good design permeates all levels of an app.
As Steve Jobs said, "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works."

In other words, allocate a large portion
of your time to get the flow, signup
“Design is not just steps, and transitions right for each
what it looks and screen in your app. Ensure that it's
feels like. Design is crystal clear for your customers to
how it works.” understand what they should do next.
–Steve Jobs
If you have a background in mobile
design, awesome. If not, consider
investing in a professional mobile
click to tweet designer. It may be an up-front
expense, but the return on quality
design is significant.

Getting featured. One way to increase your app’s chances of being
featured in the App Store is for it to use elements from Apple's latest
OS and/or hardware releases. Featuring apps that have integrated
with Apple's most recent OS or hardware is in the company’s best
interest. For instance, when Apple released iCloud, apps that
integrated with Apple’s personal cloud service enjoyed special atten-
tion. Stay informed on Apple’s latest updates and consider making use
of them in your app.

4

Pre-Launch Hype:
Success Starts Early


Think about how Mailbox launched.
The app achieved months of hype
created through multiple marketing
channels: social media, blogger
previews, even a dose of gamifica-
tion (pre-registrants were told how
many people were in front of them
and behind them “in line” for the
download). Mailbox proved you don’t
need an Apple-like budget to create
an Apple-like launch. You need a
great product, a multi-channel
mindset, and a bit of moxie. You also
need to think ascreatively about marketing as you did for the app
itself. Mailbox’s gamification triggered the lion’s share of its social
media exposure – and the app wasn’t even in general availability yet.

The current App Store ranking algorithm places a disproportionate
weight on the first four days an app is in the App Store. Time matters.
You have a very short period of time to generate the groundswell of
interest needed to boost your app’s placement to the top of the
charts. By starting to build up interest before your app is accepted to
the App Store, you'll have a running start while your competition is
flat-footed.

Get a website. From the moment you begin to develop your app,
build a landing page to collect emails – even if it only features an email
signup box and a simple description of your concept. Your landing
page can later evolve into a website that will serve as the hub of your
marketing efforts, giving you a channel to reach and inform customers
outside of the App Store walls.

Use a hype-generating tactic. It’s noisy out there, and getting noticed
is becoming increasingly difficult. Many successful apps have turned
their community members into thousands of individual marketing
channels. In other words, they found unconventional ways to create
hype in advance of their app’s release.
Here are some examples:

1. Limit supply to create a sense of scarcity and privilege
among those who successfully register.


Connect.me allowed new signups to reserve their username.
This simple tactic generated roughly 20,000 sign-ups before
the website went live.

2. Use an invite-only and referral system

Mailbox created an invite-only program that granted access
to a limited number of people at a time. This helped the app
generate media coverage from most major technology publi-
cations and created hype on Twitter from influential members
of the mobile community.

Share your story. Storytelling is
one of the best ways to connect
with people on a deeper emo-
tional level. Research shows that
our brains become more active
when we hear a narrative versus
read a list of bullet points. Think
about why you decided to build
your app in the first place. Tell
this story on your website when
you speak to customers, partners,
and the media to help them identify with your project. Personal
motivation app Everest fostered a powerful sense of emotion on its
website by highlighting the aspirations of members of its community.
As you're creating your app, build momentum by sharing elements
like:

• A demo video
• Photos of your team
• Real life profiles of users (even beta users)
• Sketches of app designs in the works

Where to tell your story:

1. Setup a blog


Use a blog as your central story-telling channel.

2. Setup your social channels

Create a Facebook and Twitter account for your app and use
them as channels to share your progress. Think of Facebook
and Twitter as vehicles to distribute your story, with an emph-
asis on the people behind your app. Remember that nobody
befriends a logo. People turn to social media to engage with
other people. Be sure your team enjoys your social media
spotlight.

Even while you're deep in developing your app, don't neglect updating
your followers with what you're working on or what will be coming
soon. These are powerful ways to keep your audience engaged.

5

Push: The Importance of Media
and How to Get Coverage


Getting press coverage is challeng-
ing, but the payoﬀ can be huge. If
the “right” reporters or bloggers
write about your app, you stand to
gain a huge amount of registra-
tions or downloads in a short
period of time. This success alone
can catapult your app up the App
Store charts. If you accept pre-
registrations, then you may want
to give journalists a preview of
your app. Let them use a late stage beta. Permit them to write about it
ahead of time, provided, of course, your landing page has the means
to capture the email addresses of those who wish to sign-up for your
release. Alternatively, you can preview the app to several reporters,
and ask that they all hold oﬀ writing until launch. If you follow this
tactic, be sure to build in no more than a week between preview and
launch. The more time that passes the more likely it is that (a.) some-
one breaks the embargo (this will disrupt the relationships you are
trying to build with the reporters), or (b.) the reporters who have tried
your product forget about it or lose interest in reporting on it.

What you'll need to prepare to get press coverage:

Make a demo video. A demo video is an important piece of content
to include when you're reaching out for press coverage. An app
without a demo video is like a movie without a trailer. Demo videos
help people understand what your app does, convert website visitors
into customers, and give the press content to share with their audi-
ence.

If done right, a trailer video can lead to increased conversions when
added to your website and improve the chances of the press covering
your story.


Write your press release
and assemble your press kit

Your press release and press kit will be given to journalists
after they express initial interest in your story.

Here’s what you should include in your press release:

Basics
• App Name
• App Store Link: (to be updated on launch day)
• Category: (i.e. Music, Productivity, etc.)
• About: A clear, concise (3-4 paragraphs max.) story
of what your app does and what makes it unique, how
your app came to be, or what problem it solves

Links
• Demo Video
• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook

Contact Info
• Your Name
• Your Email
• Your Personal Twitter
• Your Phone Number

Once you’ve written your press release, you should include it
within your press kit along with:

• App icon Images (include pixel sizes: 56x56, 114x114,
256x256, 512x512)
• Screenshots
• Marketing Images
• Team Photos


Target the right journalist. App review and press sites are not
created equal. Some will convert much better than others and certain
journalists will be much more interested in your app. It’s important to
identify journalists that fit your app’s industry.

One way to find targeted leads:

1. Go to alexa.com

2. Search for one of your competitor’s websites

3. Click “Sites Linking In”

This strategy helps you identify
which journalists covered one of
your competitors or a company in
your industry, which means they
will probably be more interested
in hearing about your app.

The “Sites Linking In” list created
by Alexa shows the top 100 sites
with inbound links to the app and
helps you find the most reputable
sites that covered one of your
competitors or companies in your industry.

Create a Google Spreadsheet of these writers that includes:

• Name

• Contact Email

• Link to the article they’ve written in the past that relates to
your app

Check out Muck Rack, a comprehensive database of journalists. It’s
significantly less expensive than other similar PR services, and it
includes the reporters’ social media identities, which makes it easier to
contact them in more social environments.


Pitching the press

Make sure to keep your email message short and to the point.
Journalists are very busy and many receive hundreds of pitches
a day. Here’s a pitch email example that helped us get press
coverage:

Subject

Hi – Launch story for a new app
Author’s first name

that
Secret sauce or unique value of your app

Body

Hey ,
Author’s first name

A while back you wrote an interesting piece about

An app similar to yours or maybe a piece the author wrote about your space

and how it .
Something interesting from that article

.
Your opinion or write a sentence about how this relates to your app

Our app, , is building a
Your app name

.
Unique value of your app

We’re launching in the App Store on .
Your launch day

Do you think this could be an interesting story for

your readers?

Thanks,

Your first name


Be sure to customize this pitch according to what the reporter wrote.
And be doubly certain you have actually read the journalist’s articles.
Honesty is key when interacting with the press.

Begin this process at least a month prior to your launch or release
update and don't look at getting press as a one-time thing. Building
relationships with journalists for the long-term can help you get
additional exposure on future releases of your app and sustain
growth.

The most important thing to do is be mindful about the journalist’s
readers. Make sure to structure your app's story diﬀerently for each
writer based on past content they've written and the publication’s
particular niche.

6

Optimize: Prepping for
the App Store “Shelves”


Searching the App Store still remains the number one way people find
mobile apps, so it's important that your listing is formatted to gain as
much exposure from App Store search as possible.

Much like Google's search engine, the App Store has an algorithm that
ranks apps for different search terms. Preparing your app listing to be
optimized in the App Store can result in a marked increase in down-
loads.

The goal of App Store Optimiza-
App Store Ranking Factors
tion is to get your app to rank
higher than its competitors for
specific keywords that people Although it remains some-
search in the App Store. what of a mystery, it has
been reported that the App
Store algorithm takes into
In order to rank well in the App account four main factors to
Store, focus on these 3 steps: determine an app's ranking:

1. Keywords in your
1. Identify the right keywords app title

Over 80 percent of App Store 2. Keyword frequency
in your app description
searches are related to the
function an app does, not the 3. Number of down-
app’s name. Use Google Key- loads over time
word Tool and apply a filter to 4. App Store ratings
your search to show keyword
ideas and statistics for “all
mobile devices.” Applying this
filter helps you find keywords that people are searching Google for
when using mobile devices.

Look for relatively low competition, high volume keywords and/or
keyword phrases (two to three keywords linked together). Don't try
and compete against popular apps for their same keywords. Instead,
optimize for longer keyword phrases that have lower competition, but
high search volume.


2. Include keywords in your app name, description, and keywords field

App Store search results currently only display one app at a time,
which means most people won't look past the first five to ten search
results, thus people are more likely to search for longer keyword
phrases to get better results.

App name. Your App Store name is the main text people will see once
they've found your app. It is also the text that affects how your app
ranks in the App Store the most. Narrow your list of keywords down to
a couple of the most important and try to incorporate them in your
App Store name. In other words, competing on keyword phrases like
"transit maps" versus just "maps" can
help make it easier for customers to
find your app.
“Your App Store
For example, the Flixster app is called
name is the text
"Movies by Flixster with Rotten Toma-
that affects how
toes." This title contains multiple
your app ranks
keywords, "Movies" "Rotten Toma-
in the App Store
toes" and "Flixster" to improve App
the most.” Store search discoverability. This is
much better than simply naming the
app "Flixster."

click to tweet
Your app name can be between up to
255 characters but Apple recommends
that you try to keep it to fewer than 35
characters to display optimally on the App Store for iPhone.

App description. The first line you write of your App Store description
is what App Store browsers see without having to click "more" when
they visit your app listing in the App Store. Most people shopping for
apps won't read your full description anyway, so try and pique their
interest with your first sentence.

If you receive any notable reviews from press or design awards make
sure to mention them in your App Store description as well. These


accolades and reviews can increase the chances of converting an App
Store browser into a customer.

The full length of your App Store description can be as long as you like,
but the first few lines should tell what your app does and how it works
in about the length of a tweet.

Keywords. When you list your app in the App Store, there's a field
where you can list all of your keywords. You're allowed to put a maxi-
mum of 100 characters.

Optimize this listing by:

1. Looking for longer keyword phrases (2-3 keywords linked
together) that are less com-
petitive and could be used to
describe your app's function
K E Y W W
2. Adding as many keywords
as possible in the keywords
field
O O R D D
3. Not using spaces when
listing your keywords. Use
"flixster,movies" not "flixster,
movies"
S K E Y Y
3. Convert App Store views into
downloads with beauty

The icon. Pixel for pixel, your app icon will be the most important
thing you will design. In terms of size, it's a small part of the overall
design work that you'll be doing but it represents everything about
your app - attention to detail, quality, and creativity. It's also the main
visual that App Store browsers and your customers will use to identify
your app.

A useful way to test if your icon stands out is to compare it against
your competitors. Someone should easily be able to get a sense of
what your app does simply by viewing the icon.


Think of the App Store as filled with window shoppers, who are easily
swayed to move on to the next store down the road. Make sure your
icon not only pops, but helps people understand exactly what your
app does.

Screenshots. Once prospects have clicked on your App Store listing,
they will go to a more detailed page that shows your app's description
and screenshots. The reality is most people may only read the first line
of your app description before scrolling down to look at your screen-
shots.

Make sure that you're showing off the best aspects of your app. A
good test would be to see if someone can tell exactly what your app
does and how benefits them simply by looking at your screenshots.


Although it may seem mature, the App Store is still in its early days.
A massive opportunity exists for those who understand its inner-
workings, regardless of how many apps they’ve developed in the past.

The mobile industry is literally the fastest growing industry in history,
so it's important that you keep pushing your app forward. Listen to
input from your customers and use your instincts to stay on top of
your market.

Finally, remember that you should not
“Remember that simply rely on the App Store as your
you should not core marketing channel. Using a
simply rely on the combination of channels like your own
website, a blog, and social media as
App Store as your
vehicles for your app’s story is an
core marketing
instrumental piece in turning your app
channel. Using
into a success.
a combination of
channels is an Although there are challenges, and
instrumental not all apps will be mega-hits like
piece in turning Instagram or Angry Birds, the App
your app into Store gives you access to one of the
a success.” largest, most fruitful marketplaces
in the world.

click to tweet

HOW TO MARKET YOUR iOS APP: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO APP STORE SUCCESS

Written by Designed by

Mikael Cho Miguel Gaydosh
Mikael is the co-founder of ooomf,
where the most talented mobile & web
Project Manager
creators connect with projects they love.
Mikael writes more posts on product Kelly Rice
marketing and psychology over on the
ooomf blog. Hit him on Twitter
@mikaelcho anytime.

What is Kinvey? Kinvey makes a fully-featured Backend as a
Service solution, offering 3rd party data integrations, multi-plat-
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How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success

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How to Market Your iOS App: The Definitive Guide to App Store Success