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8 Tips To Boost Mobile App Download For Android & iOS

8 Little-Known Ways to Get More People
8 Little-Known Ways to Get More People
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What do you think is the number of apps on Google’s Play store & Apple’s App store today? Take a wild guess.

According to Statista, today there are approx 2.47 million apps on the Play store while App Store comes in at second with approx 1.8 million apps.

Do you think that’s an intimidating number? Read on.

As per App Annie’s State of Mobile report 2019, of the 10 biggest mobile markets in the world, mobile users in 7 countries have more than 90 apps installed in their phones at any given time. (Indians are at a little less than 70)

How many they constantly use? – Not even 40.

As you can see, the aforementioned numbers are a testament to the fierce competition you can find yourself in, if you’re launching a mobile app. But when there are over 5 billion mobile users in the world, you cannot just NOT have an app for your business today.

Trying to break through all the noise and make your app stand out, takes more than just a great UI / UX or non-conventional offerings today.

While there’re many different types of campaigns you can run to help you get more users or have different strategies to market your app, often times, a few little-known ways can also help you score a home run.

Doesn’t matter if you already have a web-based audience you want to persuade to download your app, or if you’re a mobile-only firm, these eight little-known ways can help you increase your app downloads.

Table of Contents:

1. Get more reviews with an app plug-in
2. Try influencer marketing campaigns
3. Put a link to your app in your email signature
4. Create a demo video
5. Create a QR code for your app
6. Upload your app to alternative app stores
7. Host a giveaway
8. Write a guest post

1. Get more reviews with an app plug-in

Online reviews are readily accessible these days, and positive reviews can turn a curious reader into a user. Research shows that 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

However, getting reviews isn’t always easy. Rather than hoping for reviews to roll in, use an app review plugin to encourage more reviews.

A plugin like Appirater asks users to review your app after it’s used a certain number of times, or after a certain period of time – you decide. If the user agrees to “rate your app,” he or she is immediately taken to the app store to leave a review.

Here’s how the app encourages users to leave a review:

 

2. Try influencer marketing campaigns

Influencer marketing is all the rage right now. It’s not a new concept, but the extensive use and reach of social media has made it a highly effective marketing tool.

What is influencer marketing? It’s like getting a celebrity endorsement; only in this case, the celebrity is defined as someone who has a significant influence on social media. For instance, a well-known photographer with a million followers on Instagram could work with the makers of a photography app to spread the word.

The idea is to connect with someone who has “social pull” with your Target Audience, and work together to create a campaign that promotes your app. For instance, the well-known photographer could use your app to take three photos, share them on their Instagram page and tout your app.

Fifty-one percent of marketers believe they acquire better customers through influencer marketing because the relationship starts with a trusted source.

Most influencer marketing campaigns do cost money. Here’s a chart from IZEA, an influencer marketing platform that gives you average costs of promotional posts: (A better image here)

 

While Influencer Marketing can be a little costly venture depending upon the stature of your influencer and how large of a following you want to tap into, it’s still a great way to generate buzz about your brand and gain users who’re bound to experience your product as it has been vouched for by a higher authority – something which other marketing avenues don’t promise.

It’s for this reason that marketers, even with all the costs involved, prefer to go down the influencer marketing route, with increasing the app downloads one of the major objectives here.

How many emails do you send a day? The average person will send and receive an estimated 246 emails every day by 2019, according to a report from The Radicati Group.

That kind of email traffic could mean a lot of exposure for your app and a tactic without any. Simply add a link to your app in your email signature.

Here’s an example of what it could look like:

Email Signature With WebEngage

Most people already have an email signature that contains their full name, address, phone number, and company website. But, you can add just about anything you want to your email signature – including the logo and link to your app. You can even add a custom link to this to track the increase in your app downloads.

Depending on which email provider you use, here are quick links to set up or edit your email signature:
· Gmail
· Outlook
· Apple iPhone and iPad

Bonus Read: In-App Messaging Gives As Much As 53% Higher Customer Retention. Find Out How?

4. Create a demo video

Video is a powerful marketing tool. As per a study published by Smart Insights, 63% of millennial viewers are more likely to engage with a brand, after watching a video in their social media feed.

Once your app is ready for the public, create several 60-second videos that show potential users exactly what your app does and how it makes life easier. Of course, 60 seconds is a very limited time to show customers everything that your app can do. But that’s ok. The idea behind these small demonstrations is to piqué curiosity enough to convince someone to download the app.

At the end of the video, you’ll need a call-to-action, or a CTA, that takes viewers right to the app store or a landing page to download the app immediately.

If you don’t have the video skills needed to create a demonstration, there are companies that specialize in creating promotional app videos. AppDemoVideos.com, for example, does this kind of work.

Once you have the video, share it on all of your social channels, put it on your website and include it in  triggered email campaigns.

5. Create a QR code for your app

If you thought QR Codes were a thing of the past, think again. Social messaging apps are making QR Codes popular once again. Fortune just ran an article on this phenomenon. There’s a great piece which talks about some of the most high-profile use cases of QR Codes, from people who have used it effectively.

What’s a QR Code? It’s a square-shaped bar code that can be read by a smartphone. When scanned, the code takes a potential customer to a specific webpage. It looks like this:

QR Scan Code | WebEngage
Image Source: Wikipedia

You can create a QR Code that directs traffic to download your app.

QR Codes can be placed just about anywhere. When you print business cards, put the QR Code on the back. You can place a QR Code on marketing posters, postcards you mail to potential customers, or promotional items that you give away. And when some of the biggest brands in the world, with the likes of Reebok, Yelp & Rovio (Angry Birds), use it, you have no reason not to.

Be smart about QR Code placement. Putting it on your website or social channels doesn’t make sense because customers have to use their smartphone to scan the code. Put the code on marketing material that customers will see or interact with to increase user engagement.

How do you create a QR Code for your app? There are tools that can help. Try sites like QRStuff or Visualead. Visualead actually creates a QR Code that looks more like art than a dotted, black square. Here’s an example of their QR Code:

Visualead With WebEngage

6. Upload your app to alternative app stores

The App Store and Google Play are by far the most popular places to find and download apps, but they aren’t the only ones in the business. There are alternative app stores that you can upload your app to, and it might provide the boost in users that you need.

Research from One Platform Foundation says if an app is submitted on other “less popular” stores it will increase the expected downloads 200% more compared to Google Play.

Some of the alternative stores, like AppChina, for example, get great traffic in foreign markets, so you have some real potential to increase your app’s reach by offering it in alternative locations.

Here’s a great breakdown of the monthly downloads that alternative app stores are getting:

App Store Downloads With WebEngage

Check out the stores mentioned in the graph, and in addition, here are a few other stores to investigate:
GetJar
AppsLib
Aptoide
AppsZoom

7. Host a giveaway

Get potential users to market your app for you through a giveaway or contest. You can giveaway prizes to users that download your app, share your app on social, leave a review or talk about the app in certain circles.

Tools like Rafflecopter or Wishpond can help you set up giveaways like this.

When running a giveaway or contest, it’s best to make it as simple as possible. You should be able to explain how to enter and win in a few words. A confusing entry process will only frustrate potential users.

Give prizes away that have a connection to your app. For instance, if your app helps people find great activities in their area, you could giveaway a travel basket that has road maps, coloring activities to keep kids entertained, an iPhone mount for the car and 20 music downloads to listen to while traveling.

Lotus, an app that connects users with hot electronic deals, ran a contest and gave people a chance to win free movie tickets after downloading their app. The prize has a connection to the app’s purpose.

Host A Giveaway | WebEngage

Giveaways, similar to referral campaigns, are a potent tool for driving app downloads.

8. Write a guest post

Expose your app to a new audience by guest writing content for a tech blog, or a blog with an audience that’s likely to boost your app conversion rate. For instance, if your app provides easy meal plans for busy moms, you should research blogs that cater to that audience.

If you have identified blogs that you’d like to guest write for, reach out to the site’s owner and discuss the opportunity. You can also review lists of sites that accept guest blogs. (We have lists below for you to check out)

Keep in mind that a guest blog isn’t an advertisement; it’s meant to offer advice to the blog’s audience. At a minimum, most blog owners allow guests to include their company link, or a link to their app, in their bio. In some cases, you can even include a link or two in the article to sites of your choice.

Sites that regularly accept guest posts typically have a set of guidelines that spell out what you can and can’t do. In addition, there will likely be a word-count requirement. Some of the well-known sites that accept guest posts require 1000+ words, and are fanatic about the quality of the content so be prepared for an extensive review process.

The best part about guest posting is that apart from helping you increase app downloads, you can accomplish a breadth of other objectives like email subscription, traffic, product reviews, etc.

Here are a few resources to help you find guest blogging opportunities:
· 25 Tech Blogs that Allow Guest Posts
· Ultimate List of Family Blogs that Accept Guest Posts
· A list of 1193 Niche Blogs that Accept Guest Posts

Specific blogs that accept guest posts about apps and mobile games
· Apptamin – general app blog
· Appency Blog – general app blog
· Signity Solutions – for mobile game apps

Apps are an important communication tool for every company, but getting your customer base to download the app can be a challenge. That’s why it’s important to use creative, out-of-the-box marketing techniques like those listed above to ensure your app not only gets noticed but also downloaded.

Bonus Read: Boost Mobile Conversion Rates By As Much As 40%

Author

Content Marketer, 

McEwen's Media

Lisa is a WebEngage Blog contributor, freelance journalist, and co-owner of a media company, McEwen’s Media.

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