The glorious days of early 2008 where applications were praised one by one and individually grabbed attention across the entire internet are over. Flash forward to present day, the Fall of 2009, and we have nearly 100,000 applications (91,000+ as of October 1st) attacking the iTunes App Store with an average of 310 per day, according to 148apps.biz.

The necessity for companies and developers to market and promote their individual applications has never been more important than ever, and is often absolutely crucial to an app’s success. This is why Appmodo is going to tell you how to successfully market and promote your application, whether it is slated for the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch, or destined for other platforms such as Android or BlackBerry.

Quick History Lesson

Back in 2008 (so funny because it was just last year), it was much easier for companies and developers to promote their applications worldwide. There were fewer apps in the iTunes App Store resulting in less competition and it was easier to gain exposure across niche websites. Many applications that would be deemed “good” also made it into the Top 100, garnering even more exposure. The need for advertising was not really there yet, making it easier for developers to make a buck or two.

Now enclosing the Fall of 2009, we have a flooded App Store with nearly 100,000 applications and an imposing mass of competition. With 300 apps being released on a daily basis, it is much more difficult to gain free press at niche websites as well as make it into the Top 100 charts. This is where the practices of marketing and advertising are absolutely essential to survive in the App Store.

Plan of Attack

Your plan of attack should really begin before you even open Xcode. As with any other business model, you must cover all grounds including research, design, artwork and branding, coding and hardware, and advertising and marketing. Some initial questions you should raise are:

• Has your idea or concept already been developed in the App Store?
• Is it a ‘dead app’ segment?
• Is there a demand or a need for such application?
• Is the app you’ve designed or hope to design easy to use?
• Does it serve a niche market or is it geared towards a smaller population?

Designing a “killer” app also helps. If your application has bugs and other problems, it will not favor with customer reviews very well, so listen to the feedback of your customer reviews and adjust according to them. Make sure you iron out all of those details before releasing it to the wrath of the App Store.

Product Branding – Application Icon

Two words: Product… Branding. There are many great applications out there in the App Store that are poorly branded, followed by a lack of marketing. Product branding is absolutely essential, as it is the very first thing a customer sees and is more than likely a determining factor that attracts them to your app. According to Admob.com, 59% of apps are discovered in the top store rankings with 15% depending on brand recognition to help their selection.

Get the customer’s attention and make sure you have an attractive icon that best represents (and sells) your application to the user. If your application icon lacks any attention, your product branding awareness is doomed from the start.

Product Branding – iTunes Page

Update 10/1/09 6:35PM PST: We are awaiting response from Apple regarding the iTunes page selection process
Once you have grabbed the user’s attention and they’ve clicked on your application’s icon, don’t loose them again with a plain iTunes page. While it is not necessary, branding your iTunes application page is strongly suggested, but tread softly when selecting how to brand it. You want to customize the page with a different background to help attract the user and increase their brand awareness of the product. One perfect example that come’s to mind as I’m writing this is Firemint’s Real Racing.

Similar to social networking brand strategies found at Myspace or Xanga, re-branding your iTunes page is a great way to grab a user’s attention as well as diversify your application from any competition.

Small marketing strategies for your iTunes page include quoted app reviews from industry recognized niche websites such as those from Appmodo.com or Slidetoplay.com. You also want to make sure that your primary screen shot is your ‘money shot’ or selling point for your application. It should show a clear representation of game play or app use and should be positioned in the landscape mode (no vertical images displaying sideways). You can also use bullet lists for key features as well as utilize keywords to gain App Store search relevancy. Overall, if the game looks and sounds like it sucks, the user will click away faster than I can finish this sentence. You want to sell your application to the customer and tell them why they need to have it.

Marketing and Promotion – Pre Launch

Pre-launch hype is as important, if not more important, as post promotion and awareness. Building a buzz around your app and allowing users to become aware of it’s release will add to the success of an application. You can do this promotion and marketing yourself through iPhone forums, social networking platforms such as Twitter, and creating individual web pages dedicated to the application itself.

Two examples of promotional game web pages are BoomBrigade.com by 10Tons Ltd and 33rd Division by Craneballs Studios.

Aside from word of mouth promotions, pre-launch hype also begins with advertisement campaigns and website takeovers. Nothing is better than having your application branded across a website for a certain amount of time. However for many companies and developers, the pre-launch promotional budgets are simply not available. So if you are in that situation, what can you do?

Send out ad-hoc builds of your application to review websites, iPhone and iPod Touch bloggers, and YouTube app reviewers. While these pre-builds may not include all of the features of your application or game, they can provide early feedback from users letting you know what should be added or changed, raising your chances of success in the App Store. Plus you get to enjoy the benefits of free press, buzz, and hype that can be generated over these “sneak peeks”.

Other ways to gain recognition are Press Releases, demonstration videos on YouTube, and user reviews.

Marketing and Promotion – Post Launch

So you’ve generated pages of user hype on Twitter, YouTube, and app review websites, and finally receive approval of your app from Apple within the App Store. What do you do now?

Increase production of Press Releases as well achieve recognized editorial from app review websites. With each released version of your app, Apple offers 50 promotional codes. Use them wisely! While it is smart to give them out to your friends and family, the constructive criticism you will receive will not be as great as those from notable niche websites. Gathering opinion from industry professionals will benefit your application greatly.

Promote your app via multiple advertising outlets. Unfortunately for $0.99 cent apps, the return on investment (ROI) or profit margin can be much more difficult to obtain without using the proper pre and post marketing and promotion strategies. For example if it costs $1,500 for a CPM based advertisement for the period of 1 week, you would have to generate 2,142 sales to just break even ($1,500 divided by $0.70 profit per unit, subtracting Apple’s cut).

However, using multiple advertisement strategies can be extremely effective if you create the right pre and post marketing and promotion hype. If success is not found in one application, you’ve at least built a brand for your name or company, something that is very crucial for future releases.

Combining advertisement strategies with sales tactics can also be highly effective. Customers love free items or when they are on sale. A great way to create a jump in the Top 100 rankings is to offer a sale of your application for a limited time and match it with your ad strategies. An example of this was when Pangea Software offered a “Black Friday” sale, selling over 48,000 apps in one day. Not only that, but 5 of their applications made it into the top 10 paid apps, very impressive! Promote your sale within your advertisements across the net and try to gain attention from app review websites and social media.

Other ways to create post launch hype and promotion is to offer updates for your application that relate not only to user feedback but add new features, correct any bugs, and indirectly creates hype about the application on a continual basis. Bolt Creative have been unbelievably successful at this with Pocket God.

Odds and Ends, Other Tips

There are some smaller ways to gain attention across the net and within the App Store. You can cause your app to jump back into the “new” charts by changing the release date of the app to the date at which your update was approved, which allows your app to be released in the next batch of updates that hit the App Store.

Another great idea is to offer “lite” versions of your application, especially if they are higher priced. Not only will it offer free promotion but if the user is impressed enough, they’ll spring for the full version. Think “try before you buy”. Make sure the lite version includes a majority of the features offered in the full version, otherwise a user will move on and you potentially lost a buck to begin with.

In app advertising can be effective. Look into services like Admob.com where you can target users by device, country, websites, and more directly from their iPhone or iPod Touch.

Conclusion

If your thoughts of landing on a gold mine like the old pioneers did in California during the gold rush of the 1800′s, you are unfortunately out of luck. If you are however interested in providing mobile application content that can be used around the entire world, market and promote them effectively with the concepts and ideas listed within this article, as well as create your own self promotion or brand awareness for your company, then I hope that the article you just read can help you successfully market and promote your own iPhone applications.

Special thanks to Brian Greenstone, CEO of Pangea Software for his contributions with this article.

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