How to Market and Publicize iPhone Apps

The following table provides a list of sites that provide reviews and directories for iPhone applications. Many accept submissions for review, some are automated:

A great blog with survey stats from iPhone developers on what works and what doesn’t – iPhone App Marketing: What Works (and What Doesn’t)?, some of key findings from the blog’a survey:

Marketing Techniques Employed

The two most common marketing practices were:

• publicizing their app on forums (employed by 71% of respondents);
• and creating a supporting website for the application (66%).

Other common techniques included:

• Making frequent updates to their app to increase App Store visibility – 57%
• Offering a “lite” version of their paid app to stimulate trial – 57%
• Submitting their app to review blogs – 57%
• Soliciting user reviews within the App Store – 51%
• Making price cuts to stimulate demand – 43%

Other techniques tried by a minority  include:

• Purchasing advertising on other websites – 14%
• Purchasing Google AdWords to attract buyers – 14%
• Purchasing / trading for in-app advertising – 14%
• Hiring paid Public Relations help – 11%
• Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) supporting websites – 11%

Marketing Technique Effectiveness

Despite the broad array of marketing techniques employed by developers, relatively few were reported to be worth the investment of time and money. On a 3-point scale, from Most Effective (valued at 3 points) to Least (1 point), five techniques received an average rating greater than 2. The leaders (including the average rating / number of responses) include:

• Paid PR – rating 3 / 2 responses
• Offering a Lite version – 2.58 / 12 responses
• Submitting to app review blogs – 2.4 / 10 responses
• Making frequent updates to increase App Store visibility – 2.3 / 10 responses
• Soliciting user reviews – 2.01 / 7 responses

Three other techniques were judged to be somewhat effective, including:

• Cutting price – 1.88 / 8 responses
• Posting to forums – 1.8 / 10 responses
• Creating a supporting website / landing page – 1.63 / 8 responses

And three were viewed as the least effective (at least among the small population who had tried them):

• Keyword advertising (Google AdWords, etc) – 1 / 2 responses
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – 1 / 2 responses
• Paid advertising in apps (AdMob, etc) – 1 / 1 response

 

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What do you think drives app downloads the most – share your opinion and see what others think - http://www.communitypriorities.com/appmarketing