Marketing Mobile Applications

How Many Downloads Does it Take to Make the iOS App Store Top 10?

Marketing Mobile Apps — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:44:55 -0500

Gizmodo has some interesting information on what it takes to make the top 10 on the iOS App Store:

Research firm Distimo put out the first in a series of posts attempting to cut through the mystery of the iOS App Store. They found that more people download apps on the weekend (not shocking), and that it takes considerably less apps to crack the top lists in other countries (also not shocking).

But what about the top 2 or 3 free apps? Some developers on Quora say that depending on the day, those apps are doing 200,000-300,000 downloads. If that's true, that's wild. And if it's a particularly busy day, it may take as many as 80,000 downloads to crack the top 10.

Damn.

Looking for Additional Revenue Sources? Consider T-shirts & Toys

Marketing Mobile Apps — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:01:38 -0400

Looking for additional revenue sources for your app? TechCrunch reports that Rovio, makers of the incredibly popular Angry Birds games, is selling one million t-shirts and one million toys per month.

Back in December of 2010, Rovio launched a series of Angry Birds plush toys. By March of this year, they had sold just over 2 million of ‘em. Today, they’re selling another million each and every month.

The same goes for their line of T-shirts: every month, they’re selling another million.

While you might not get rich on the additional sales, they're also a great way to get your customers to spread the word about your app.

Just So We Know What's Possible on Android... $640k Per Month

Marketing Mobile Apps — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:04:46 -0400

Inside Mobile Apps reports that Android app Paradise Island has hit $640k in monthly revenue.

Game Insight, which makes Android’s top-grossing app in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, said its hit title “Paradise Island” raked in $640,000 in net revenue this May.

This gives developers a sense of the current upper revenue bound on the Android platform — at least through in-app purchases and paid apps. (The top-grossing list doesn’t include revenue from offer walls or advertising, so there may be other higher-earning titles with ads such as Rovio Mobile’s Angry Birds.)

For comparison’s sake, it’s possible for a game on iOS to earn more than $3 million per month, according to conversations we’ve had with leading third-party advertising and analytics providers and top developers.

So with these assumptions, we’re looking at a 5:1 ratio when comparing potential run-rates on both platforms for a single game right now.

While there's still more money on iOS, it's nice to know that there's potential for big money in Android apps...

Free Copy of App Savvy Book for Tweeting

Marketing Mobile Apps — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:34:51 -0400

You can get a free access to a HTML version of the excellent O'Reilly marketing and design book App Savvy by Ken Yarmosh by tweeting (link). It's up to you if becoming a Twitter whore is worth a $4 Kindle edition or $20 print edition.

I'm currently reading App Savvy and there's a ton of great advice, interviews, ideas, and suggestions.

By the way, this is a great way to promote your app, book, etc.

Enable Your Customers to Gift Your App

Marketing Mobile Apps — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:38:55 -0400

I bet very few iPhone users know that you can gift an app, and Rune's blog has an excellent suggestion: enable your customers to give a copy of your app to friends.

I have a feeling lots of App Store customers do not know about the gifting feature. Imagine if you’ve already convinced one person that your app is awesome, they’ll actually purchase your app again and give it to their friend/family. You’ve just saved yourself having to try and get that person’s attention and convince them why they should buy your – their friend and your current user just did!

While this isn’t factual, I actually think users find it much easier spending another $1.99 (or whatever your app costs) to give a great app to a friend, over buying the app without knowing anything about it. Once the user is hooked and love your app and want to share the experience with their friends, they’re more prone to purchase to app again for a friend.

When I discover a cool new app I'd love to gift it to a few friends, especially if it's free or low-cost.

Rune also suggests enabling customer to share the app on Facebook, Twitter, by e-mail, etc. If the average user has 130 friends, a quick review or post on Facebook by a few hundred happy customers could get you exposed to thousands or tens of thousands of potential customers.

Sell T-shirts for Exposure & Cash

Marketing Mobile Apps — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:21:45 -0400

Unless you have an incredibly popular app, it's unlikely you'll get rich selling t-shirts, but it's a great way to make some extra cash and get some exposure. TUAW reports that the Fruit Ninja folks (Halfbrick) have done a deal to sell t-shirts through Hot Topic.

Giving t-shirts to fellow developers and key influencers might cost a few bucks, but can be an easy way to get exposure and make some new friends (everyone loves a good quality t-shirt).

The Lack of Android Tablet Apps is a Huge Opportunity

Marketing Mobile Apps — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:11:16 -0400

There was some buzz about the lack of Android tablet apps, but I think it's an opportunity. From carpeaqua:

My criteria for considering an app for this list is that it either requires Android 3.0 or have its user interface be specifically designed for a tablet experience. I didn’t count games or existing Android apps that are just upconverted to take advantage of the existing screen real estate. While it is a marginally better experience than trying to run an iPhone app on an iPad, I’m not counting it given that Apple doesn’t count the hundreds of thousands of iPhone exclusive apps in its 65,000 iPad app count. There is little point in buying a $600 - $800 device just to run larger versions of apps you run on your phone.

It'll be easier to be noticed if your app is one of the first to be designed for Android tablets, and if you're early you'll see more reviews and sales as the market grows. The Android tablet app market is smaller, but given the fast rise of Android phones I expect we'll see a lot of sales of tablets to Android phone owners.

Your App Name & Icon Design Are Marketing, Too

Marketing Mobile Apps — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:56:59 -0400

The Brooks Review takes a look at how important the name of an app and the icon are to sales.

Have you noticed how absolutely stupid some iOS app names are? I really mean this — just calling your app “InstaX” doesn’t mean it is as good or as cool as the original.¹ When I am browsing the App Store you have two chances to catch my attention:

With your icon.

With your app name.

I can't tell you many apps I didn't buy because of the name or the icon. First impression do matter, so sweat these details.

Plan Your Marketing Campaign Long Before Your Product is Launched

Marketing Mobile Apps — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:59:58 -0400

Many years ago a friend created a how-to video and wondered why it wasn't selling, so she asked me how to generate sales. So I told her: 3 months before shipping you start your marketing and PR planning... It took a while, but a marketing strategy was developed and over time a number of videos were sold.

Jonathan Beebe has launched five apps, and shares his marketing plan for the next one:

A common scenario is that a developer pours their heart and soul (maybe?) into creating their masterpiece, and then once it’s finished, it’s “wait and see” time… almost like a break to take a step back and see how it performs out in the wild.

Unfortunately, hoping that the initial day of visibility is enough to make your game go viral is about as dependable as planning to win the lottery. Developing your game—I hate to say it—is only the beginning (which is why a high quality rapid development SDK such as Corona is essential, in my opinion).

After releasing five games to the iOS app store, I’ve made my share of mistakes, but I’ve learned from each and every one of them. I documented what works, what doesn’t, what needs improvement, what needs to be done, and what needs to be tried with every single one of my launches from here on out.

What I’m going to share with you is my personal plan-of-attack for our next release (and I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes once the game does get released). The following is exactly what I’m going to do pre-launch, and post-launch to help increase my chances of having the next successful game.

Giving Away Music from Your App to Generate Buzz

Marketing Mobile Apps — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:44:03 -0400

Andreas Illiger, developer of the highly-addictive game Tiny Wings, is giving away the original song from the game (for non-commercial purposes). What a great marketing idea -- give away something that costs you nothing.

Illiger has created a top-selling game with a sparse website, Twitter account, and demo video, presented here in case you haven't seen it:

Another related marketing idea might be to give away wallpaper images.