So you have gone through the rigorous, time-consuming and very expensive cycle of idea generation, coding, design, app testing, etc., and have created an app that you hope would “break” the Apple App and Google Play Store when it is launched. Congratulations! You have done a great job. However, you must remember that creating the first part of the app development process. The other part (which is even more important) is ensuring that you publicize the app so that more people will see and use it. The goal is to make your app stand out from among the millions of apps on the various app stores.

Most app development companies focus on paid advertising method to drive traffic to their app. You can follow the same pattern if you are buoyant enough. Otherwise, you can adopt a more cost-effective marketing strategy like Social Media Marketing.

Over time, app developers India experts have taken advantage of the vast opportunity Social Media presence to market their mobile apps successfully.

Social media has established itself as the most effective, economical and viable marketing platform. For example, there are over 2 Billion Facebook Users. Being on Facebook, for example, offers app developers (irrespective of their financial status) the opportunity to connect with many potential buyers from around the world free of charge. Many other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Google+, WhatsApp, etc., have millions of users. This shows a strategic social media campaign is what you need to make a success of that app.

Plan

Before beginning your social media campaign, you need to plan. You need to ask and find answers to certain questions before you begin signing up on social media platforms and sharing content. For example, you must decide the kind of content you want your potential audience to see. During the app development stage, you must have identified your target audience. It is now time to ascertain the kind of content they might be interested it.

Secondly, you must decide the social network platform that would be suited for the content you want to share. Are you going to use Facebook, Twitter or Google+? The decision of the platform to use is dependent on where your target audience is.

Be Creative

Ensure your app is good enough in terms of User experience, Functionality, Performance, usability, etc. before thinking about marketing. There is no need marketing a poorly designed, bug-infested app. People will download the app and still delete it. Put your app through various types of test to ensure it is “good to go.”

Having done that, the next thing to do is slides and videos that explain how the app works, its features and functionality. Post them on your Social Media pages (as your banner or profile Photos on Facebook and pin them on Twitter). To generate traffic, you can add keywords each time you post them.

Content is key. As you go about your Social Media campaign, ensure that you create unique and high-quality content that will catch and maintain the attention of your users. If you run a travel booking app, write posts on ‘the best holiday destinations in the world,' ‘amazing but cheap hotels around the world,' ‘how to survive winters,' airlines, travel kits, etc. Even though it is important to engage your user by posting content on social media regularly, endeavor not to bore anyone with too many unimportant posts. Doing so would make the user want to use the ‘unlike’ or ‘unfollow’ button.

Reward Users For Their Loyalty

Everyone loves to be appreciated and rewarded. One way to reward your social media fans is to give them gifts when they download your app through social media. You can offer them virtual currency, coupons, as a way of appreciating their loyalty. Better still, you can celebrate your most loyal fans by following them and sharing their content on your page. Placing a photo to celebrate their birthdays or special events can be worth more than money. Star buck has been doing this over the years.

You can also set up referral reward scheme where you appreciate loyal fans that are motivating their friends, relatives, and colleagues to download and sign up for the app. Apart from helping you increase your app downloads, you can track the downloads and also monitor your app’s UX.

Keep Your Tone Personal and Human

The business of mobile app development is quite tasking. However, take a cue from App developers India experts: in spite of their busy schedules, they do not adopt a tailored marketing approach but rather, they take the time to create updates with personal and human tone. Users can sense the tone of each post.

The tone tells the user how enthusiastic and passionate you are about the app. Your post should let the user feel you are referring to him and him alone. Interacting with your audience and asking for feedback would help to improve your app and promote user-retention. As you engage and converse with your user, acknowledge mistakes and errors when he points them out, surprise them with new features of your app.

Automate As Much As You Can

One way to generate traffic for your app is to post unique content. Constantly updating your posts can be very challenging; you may not have the time to publish new content every day steadily. In that case, you can post scheduled content. There are a number of automated tools that can help you to engage your users by posting content at specific times and days on your behalf. ‘Hootsuite’ is one of such tools.

Keep the Users Coming

Downloading an app is not the goal. The fact that they downloaded the app does not guarantee usage or retention. Many of them will immediately abandon your app if it does not work as it should. Thus App developers India experts and other specialists are concerned about making the first contact a user has with an app memorable. Your role as an app developer is to identify and fix the bottlenecks that affect the functionality, performance and user retention of the app.

Get Influencers To Spread the Word

People do not usually download new apps. They prefer to stick with old ones. In spite of the ads on the media, they may still not check it out until they are told to do so by friends, or family. Influencers are those who are already established in the field of marketing such that many users trust them and their judgment. These individuals have a cult-like following, and just a few app reviews from them can make your app go viral in no time.

App developers have mastered the art of using social networking sights to market their apps at little or no cost. You also can do the same, and your app would be the better for it!

Author Bio:

Harnil Oza is a CEO of Hyperlink Infosystem, a mobile app development company based in USA & India having a team of best app developers who deliver best mobile solutions mainly on Android and iOS platform. He regularly contributes his knowledge on the leading blogging sites.

Image Source: Photo courtesy of Harnil Oza