Promote your app successfully Reviews lets potential buyers to know how users feel about your app. It is an important way of giving feedback to developers. Let allow your apps to be submitted on large number of quality review sites. At the same time in this app world, large number of apps were submitted for reviews, so in order to make your apps standout you have to follow some certain unique promotional techniques like contacting some popular press releases like prmac.com that makes some noise about your release and that brings you more exposure about your apps. Placing creative ads on high converting sites which will increase awareness,attract the users and lead to steady growth. Posting your app in social media signals like Facebook,Twitter, and YouTube which will generate more leads towards your app.
Yeah I'm targeting devs and app related websites only through twitter & facebook which I've already had in place. The board seems empty for 2 reasons though, 1 because we launched this project on Dec. 15th, 2012 right before 2 major holidays & 2 because the board is so big in an effort to make it extremely affordable for indie devs. We didn't want to over charge just to make a smaller board. I've had a few press releases dropped since the launch of this project and another one will come out tomorrow. I will say that our website traffic & Alexa ranking has definitely seen a huge increase. My app Notes on a Roll has seen a bump in sales. Plenty of emails have been sent out about the project to New York Times and such but you have to remember we're intentionally leaving out bigger companies in an effort to get indie devs our own thing going for marketing. Trust me I will not let this project fail by any means. Thanks.
I'd get as many people as I can to write a review, since the game is free. This shouldn't be too hard. Get family and friends to, and you could even do a give away for a $10 iTunes card on here (in the promocodes section) People do that often and generally get around 15 reviews for the small cost of $10 Reviews are hugely important. Don't underestimate the power of reviews! People are generally leave good reviews when there's a iTunes card to be won too, which is nice. Secondly, after you have your reviews from that, start putting your game up to $1.99 then reduce it to 99c, then free. Do that every week, so it'll show up on appzap and appshopper and whatnot. It really helps get exposure. And thirdly, next time you make a game, put more effort into it, you said yourself you don't think your games are very good. If you don't have faith in your own games who will? You have to love yourself before anyone else can love you! Spend more time creating a game your proud of. Lets just say you have 10 games on the AppStore, if instead of all the time you used to make 10 games, instead if you just made ONE game, the game would be of much higher quality. In the AppStore, it's quality over quantity. Doesn't matter if you have 100 games. If they're all crap no one will take any notice, it only takes ONE good game to be noticed and praised by sites like TA and pocketgamer. I saw a few of your games and I wouldn't personally download any, sorry but its the truth. I think you could get downloads by people who are new to the AppStore, or people who only download free games.. Alot of people don't have a credit card, especially kids and teens.. So marketing your games towards them could be a good idea. Maybe follow the trends, often trends help boost downloads.. Cheesy things like a gangnam style game or something.. Be careful not to copywrite anything though, I've seen alot of gangnam style games lately and they actually seem to get noticed, even if it is in a novelty sort of a way. Simple games can really be popular if you do it right. Look at games like doodle jump.. Very simple concept, simple graphics, etc and that got hugely popular and made millions of dollars! Same with fruit ninja and what not. Instead of just making a game as a filler, think of a really good idea, one that simple even, then put everything into it! Give it alot of polish because the AppStore loves polish and I've never seen a game go mainstream unless its very polished. So- something simple, something that's a novelty or a trend. For example, something funny like a gangnam style endless jumper. So it plays like doodle jump, but instead you are psy from gangnam style, jumping up on all the platforms doing the cowboy dance on a horse, and maybe even allow players to unlock new characters and items like hats or better horses. Something funny like that. Teens love that sort of novelty stuff, long as you polish it nicely and it plays smoothly, games like that have much more chance of getting popular. (Don't forget to go from free to paid to get more exposure as well)
On the one hand, you warn "not to copywrite anything" (presumably you mean to avoid copyright violation), but then you spend a great deal of your post suggesting making a game based on Gangnam Style/PSY. How do you suppose that is reconciled? As soon as you use the words "Gangnam Style" or "PSY," or you use the song's audio or PSY's likeness, you're in the realm of copyright infringement - and since, as far as I'm aware, there is an official Gangnam Style-inspired app already on the store, I presume they'll be vigilant of unlicensed knock-offs. At worst, you'll get sued, but at best, you've spent the time developing an app which either never gets approved for the App Store or gets pulled soon after. So what do you do? Make a character that almost, but not quite, looks like PSY who does a dance almost, but not quite, similar to the Gangnam Style dance to music which almost, but not quite, sounds like the actual Gangnam Style song? What's the point? But even if your app gets approved and not pulled, I still wonder if you're going to be able to get anyone to download a Gangnam Style/PSY-inspired app at any price in twelve months, or six, or three. I know that dude's ship has already sailed with me
Really nice suggestion. But I can't agree with some of your opinion. Like you say to use funny name like Gangnum Style. I don't think that's legal. Because that thing is some one else's property. And iTunes have some strict copyright policy. You use it as an example as I can see. Good point though. But your opinion about reviewing apps is really good. I think I may going to try that one. And thanks for reply.
@Tannorexic thanks for the useful tips regarding contests and stepping down the price. We're already having good success with a contest in this forum and are planning on using your pricing strategy at some point - once the game is a bit more established and is being tracked by the sites you mention.
Come on man! This is the 1st part of marketing your app - MAKE IT GOOD! If you don't feel your game lives up to the standard you should make it in your eyes be the best! If you don't believe in your game then why should anyone else?
A word of advice... do not use ComboApp to help market your app. They do not deliver what they promise. Dealing with them was most frustrating!
Try reading this article about mobile app marketing. However, I do not recommend any of these agencies, you can easily waste huge amount of money with very little results. Instead, try to get in touch with some fellow developers and share know how. Also, if you want to try Chartboost or PlayHaven, do not hesitate to contact them. They are really willing to help. Last time I was in San Francisco, we just set up a meeting and grab a coffee together. Those guys will explain you everything and even give you more contacts which can help you a lot more than some marketing agency hiding everything from you.
Hey, I just developed an iPad app for mobile game devs, that aims to help indies with marketing and PR for mobile games. It is not on the App Store yet, but i have a few codes available. Message me if interested.
The basic gameplay, icon and screenshots have to be excellent. Choose you app stire subcategory and keywords well. Having achieved the above, you can work on the following: i) Facebook Page - to showcase game images, levels, gameplay mechanics ii) Twitter to interact with other developers, learn from there experience, help them. iii) Reach out the reviewers iv) Blogs/ Forums v) Localization of game: Translation in different languages
