After days, weeks or months writing code, designing a UI and testing an app just one last time, app promotion can often be left as an afterthought. Building the greatest app in the world, one that will revolutionize an industry or bring together the entire global community, is no longer good enough. That is only the first step (albeit a big one) on the path to app store success.
Marketing and promotion is often ignored, or at best stuck to the bottom of the list, in spite of the critical importance of getting the app noticed. In a study by App Promo, 52% of developers had no budget for promotion and spent under 5% of their time on marketing. It is probably no coincidence that two thirds of developed apps make less than $5000. The developers that had a marketing budget and a promotion strategy received significantly more revenue on average.
It is a well-known statistic that the iTunes app store has over a million apps, as does Google Play, and it is common sense to realize that a very small proportion of these apps will make any kind of impression on the hundreds of millions of potential customers available. It is absolutely essential to make a new app as visible as possible in the shortest possible time in order to gain the traction required to get a viral response and the tens or hundreds of thousands of downloads that are needed to make a significant profit. App developers need to be aware that the competition is intense and app promotion is the only way to make a dent in the market.
One excellent method of getting noticed by the crowds is to use the iTunes ranking system to get an app “above the fold” and in the faces of potential customers. The best way to achieve this is through reviews and ratings. Highly rated apps appear higher on the search results for both Apple and Google so it makes sense to pursue this avenue as much as possible.
There is a multitude of ways to achieve this. BestReviewApp.com is a portal that allows app developers to connect with real iOS and Android users and pay a small fee to have these users download the app, and review and rate it. Results are available within days and a boost in rankings and therefore views, downloads and revenue can happen literally overnight. With tens of thousands of registered iTunes and Android users, BestReviewApp.com has hit upon a unique, cost-effective and proven method of raising an app’s profile to stand out from the crowd and make a real impact on the overcrowded app market.
An app developer wants their product to be used, appreciated and, ideally, paid for. The only way this is going to happen is if it gets seen by enough of the right people. App promotion is a fundamental facet of the development process and should be treated as such.