How to Get Users for Your New Mobile App

How to Get Tons of New Users for Your New Mobile App

I was recently interviewed by Matt Frary for his Podcast “Chaos Makes Sense” to talk about my success growing a social media app’s user base in a crowded market. We had some fun talking about social media and digital marketing. You can listen to the whole thing and let me know what you think.

After we had a few laughs, we got down to business talking about user and customer acquisition in today’s crowded app marketplace. There are some big marketing challenges to get your app noticed and then used by consumers when it seems like everyone has an app for everything. Think about how many apps you have on your device. How many of those do you use on a regular basis? Could the companies that are behind the apps get you to use them more by marketing to you more effectively? Do you even remember what some of them do?

User Growth and the Third Screen

Matt tried to trick me by talking about the 3^rd screen (TV, Computers, Mobile) of marketing, but I was not to be fooled… Today all of your customers are mobile and their device is either their first or only screen. The challenge of course is getting customers to download and install your app. With thousands of apps available, how do you get yours noticed and installed? That of course is the marketing opportunity. App companies cannot rely on an “if they build it they will come” mentality. If you are working on an app, make sure you budget aggressively for a marketing launch and ongoing marketing efforts.

With all the talk about app marketing and mobile marketing, many app marketers forget about some of the basics of digital marketing (or just basics of marketing in today’s world). Here is some of the advice I shared with Matt that will help you acquire more customers. If any of these ideas weren’t covered in the podcast, consider them a bonus for reading this far:

Build a website – sounds simple by there are examples of companies trying to skip this step and just launching their app.
Identify your target marketing (sorry, your app is probably not for everyone).
Create messages and test to figure out what works for each persona.
Optimize your store listing (ASO) and website (SEO) for your potential consumers (if they can’t find you, you don’t exist).
Decide what your PR plan is.
Plan how will you use social media and content marketing.
Remember that Facebook is a goldmine for app install campaigns, but you have to know how to work the system and target users effectively.
Decide and plan which other app networks you will use to get the word out. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, test a few different channels.
Don’t discount paid search efforts.
If you have a revenue model, consider different affiliate marketing programs.
Set up your KPIs
Cost per customer
- Cost per install
- LTV goals
- Revenue goals
- Engagement goals (how much usage do you think should take place after an install)

Launching and growing your App

Once you have this data, you can test and roll out different media to maximize these KPIs.

Set up analytics tools to measure activity and marketing attribution
- Google Analytics
- App metrics tool like AppBoy or Localytics
- Third party attribution tracking (I use Tune but there are others)
- App Annie – great for keeping track of daily stats and seeing how other apps are performing in your category.

Create a plan for engaging with your app users
- How will you use email
- In app messages
- Push notifications

I realize this is a lot of information, so leave me a comment and I will try to address your question. Or just contact me offline and we can discuss.

Don’t forget to listen to the podcast and hear a few more of my Secrets of Customer Acquisition to grow an App’s user base. It is only 24 minutes long and if nothing else, you will get a laugh or two. But I think you will agree that you will learn and lot information and that your time will be well spent.