Tips to Implement on Your Way to the Top

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by our colleague, Tsipi Joseph, at AppGo2Market.

Many developers get really excited working on their mobile apps… just to realize, a little too late, that they haven’t set the right marketing infrastructure that will help their app shine in the very crowded app store markets.

Sooner or later, you have to learn the ropes of the app marketing business. Don’t let it happen it happen the hard way – the putting out fires sort of way.

We have put together a few tips we recommend you follow from an early stage to make sure that when the time is right, you have made all the necessary decisions and have the knowledge and tools in place to start pushing your app to market effectively.

1. No need to develop everything yourself! Luckily, our young industry has already started producing some best practices and conventions around mobile app distribution, engagement, and monetization. As such, there are many service providers in the ecosystem, providing developers with off-the shelf solutions to many of the basic building blocks of a successful mobile app. Many of those are around marketing your mobile app: Inbound and outbound analytics, push messaging, A/B testing, in-app feedback, and more. So, there’s no longer the need to develop everything yourself. That’s great news! BUT, it is important to select the right vendors for you, your specific challenges, your goals, and your needs. And you may need help doing that!
2. Seek recommendations and advice. Join mobile app related social groups – especially in Facebook and Google+. You can easily find app professionals who are eager to help their industry bros. You’d be surprised how quickly you can get priceless tips and answers to your questions. You can have meaningful discussions that will help you get smarter about your app promotion. There is also a lot of information out there that you can read, but it can sometimes get confusing and overwhelming. For best results, identify a few resources where you can get all the information you need and stick to them.
3. Keep your balance. Once you start looking for information, you will see that the information out there is close to endless. The set of decisions you need to take is huge, and a lot of them will be based on intuition, at least in the beginning. Don’t get lost and lose focus. Always seek the balance between the time you spend learning the business and the time you do the actual work.
4. Know where you’re going. Speaking of actual work, you need to know where you are going. It all starts with a plan, with goals, with you knowing what the word “success” means for you. Is it reaching the top five in the app store category? Achieving 10K downloads? Is it about user engagement? Maybe “60% of my users log in at least once a month” is what success looks like to you? Whatever it is, you can only get there if you know where you’re going.
5. Know how you’re going to get there. Once your destination is set, you need to decide on the best ways to reach that destination. It’s called planning. One important pointer – When you come to evaluate your plan, try and explain why you believe each chosen tactic can bring you closer to your destination. All done? You are good to go. No matter if your way is made of buzz creation, viral marketing or even burst campaigns, just make sure it’s connected to your goals. It’s that simple.

About Appgo2market:
Appgo2market is a DIY Mobile app marketing resource center that supports appreneurs with (almost) everything they need to execute top-of-the-line marketing in order to meet and exceed their distribution, engagement and monetization goals:

Here is what you can find on Appgo2market:

• A huge, and constantly updated library of how-to trainings (e.g., ASO, acquisition, Social, PR and more).
• Downloadable templates tailored specifically to mobile app pros – you can just download and use as needed (Graphical, UX, spreadsheets and more ).
• Access to top mobile app experts – Members can post specific questions to our “consulting zone” and get answers from relevant industry experts.