October 2017

​It will be 10 years for the biggest industry on this planet in 2018 – the Mobile App Ecosystem. It consists of millions app developers and billions of smartphone owners who use mobile apps daily and make this industry thrive. The Statistica forecast states that there will be 197 billion app downloads by the end of the year 2017 as compared to 90 billion in 2016. 
Source: http://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-statistics/  

Entering this industry is not as easy, the mobile app company or individual needs to stand out of the crowd. An app requires the correct marketing techniques to promote the mobile app. To market any product, traditionally, one needs

• A powerful, intuitive website
• Influencers, brand ambassadors, reviewers
• Investment in paid advertisement

But now with the advent and reach of social media, attracting new customers or users has become easier. You can promote your mobile app by using both, free and paid tactics. Let’s take a look at some social media apps that are commonly used by the users of this day and age and how you can promote your apps:

Facebook Groups and Messenger  

Facebook ads are a great way to advertise your app. However, if you don’t wish to spend to promote these apps, you can also post about your app on organic groups to rapidly build your audience. You can check a case study on Bruce Dally, a man selling drone parts who got 1000 orders in 6 months by being a part of Facebook Groups and a loyalty program. Eventually his product was so good that the consumers started advertising his product for free.
Case Study Source: http://www.rewardcamp.com/case-study-using-rewards-and-facebook-groups-to-get-1000-orders-in-first-year/

Snapchat

Geofilters is one of Snapchat’s best and cheapest ways of promoting the app. It is the best way to target a young crowd. You could find Snapchat’s on-demand custom geo-filters a little expensive but they are still cheaper than other forms of advertising. Another way to showcase your product on Snapchat is by playing your ad between Snapchat stories. You can also grow your own following but that doesn’t work for short term campaigns. 

​Instagram

Instagram’s user base has a consistently growth since the past 4 years. 

​The same strategy applies here as on Snapchat; you can either build your own following or run Instagram ads. Since, Instagram uses Facebook’s ad targeting functionality, you can choose your target audience according to the geographic location, age, gender, etc.
Instagram offers three kinds of ad options:

• Picture ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads

According Lucas Miller, “Influencer marketing is another option you can explore on Instagram. The platform’s engagement rate is 58x that of Facebook and 210x that of Twitter while 84% of users will take action based on opinions of others. Brands have also seen ROIs of up to 6.5x with influencer marketing.”
Source: http://www.jeffbullas.com/get-amazing-results-instagram-influencer-marketing/

 
Twitter

Twitter is another great source to advertise your app via social media. If you add your mobile app link to Twitter, it automatically creates an app card for your app:

​Once the link is updated, the audience will see a call to action which will either ask them to open the app or download the app from the app store. Tweeting about your app can also gain you followers and help build a fan base.

LinkedIn

With more than 450 million followers on LinkedIn, the suggested way is to take an organic route to build your company following, engage your target market and getting active in groups. There are different types of LinkedIn marketing options: 

​These tips provide powerful and actionable methods for promoting apps on social media. People spend more time on social media and this trend will definitely continue. Even if you can ace two to three platforms it can bring your app a lot of success.
 
Remember:

Promote your mobile apps and games with a powerful trailer

A trailer should be exciting and energetic to draw in the audience. It should include a call-to-action either in the video or in the content of the post. Share the video on all social media sites. Use paid tactics if necessary.

Use content marketing and reach out to influencers, blogs and publications

Content marketing especially creating the right captions is very effective to increase your app downloads. Use influencers to share your content and encourage your daily users to do so too. Include a clear actions such as download now or download here or Like or Share. You can go a little crazy with your content, people like unexpected and memorable content on social media.

Be consistent with social media marketing

Build a fan base and keep engaging and reengaging with them. You need to post updates regularly.

Define your social media voice and build a fan base
​
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and even LinkedIn are some of the best social media sites to update your content. But don’t limit yourself to that; the idea is to build a fan base by creating conversations and relationships. When someone comments on an update, photo or video, jump into the conversation and offer your two pieces of advice. Offer small incentives, hold weekly contests; it’s the best way to draw attention and build royalty. 

​Apps are built for two purposes – business awareness or monetary benefit –or both! We all agree that apps like businesses need monetary funding to keep running. Apps require you to invest in technological, content and graphic updates, and this requires money. So do all apps make money?
Well, if you have an app and if you use the right tactic, you can make money too! 

App Monetization Options

In-App Purchases

Here, the user is allowed to download a free version of the app. For example, Candy Crush users are allowed to download the game for free but if they wish to buy more extra lives they need to make a payment. The same thing is available in dating apps such as Tinder, Woo – in these apps by making a payment, you can send crushes to other users and your profile is also given a boost to get you more likes and matches; whereas a user who doesn’t pay doesn’t receive these benefits.
According to statistical research, in-app purchases get 76% of all the revenue in the Apple App Store in the US, and over 90% in the Asian markets.

In-App Advertising

You can make monetary benefits by using the age old traditional model of advertising. Free apps can give certain placements, sizes and positions to the advertisers. The money earned from advertising can vary according to the kind of ad and the user. Click-through are paid differently, where as videos are paid more than static ads. Also, the payment differs from user to user, for example, a user accessing the ad from the States will contribute more monetarily than the user from India.

One Time Purchase

In this kind of purchase, the user needs to pay for the apps only once and all the other features and upgrades are expected to be free. In this kind of scheme, there is no repeat revenue from the customer unless it sells paid merchandises or a yearly renewal (or based on a renewal system).
Free Apps with Advertising
You can make a good amount of money on your app if it is something that users constantly logs into, for example, a news agency apps that the user uses on a day-to-day basis to keep up with the news can earn a lot of money through advertising.
But advertising should also be done prudently; the user experience should not be frustrating. A study done in 2015 states “the top performing banner ad sizes/positions by conversion rate were about 320×50 or 300×250 pixels and took up either a slice of the bottom of the screen, the lower half of the app, or a slice across the center of the screen. Interstitial ads, commonly found in gaming apps, are full-screen video or static image advertisements that can be very obtrusive if not timed correctly”.
Source: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/What-Display-Ad-Sizes-Drive-Best-Viewability-Rates/1011670
There are also native ad concepts that can be incorporated that are designed to look like a part of the app. For example, videos and advertisements are found in intervals in apps like Facebook and Instagram.

Introspecting Your App for Monetization

Now, let’s take a look step-by-step if your mobile application can earn you some revenue:

• Identify similar apps like yours and identify the opportunities they missed to monetize their app.
• If your app is free, then you can include paid features in your app to monetize it, for example, if it is a gaming app, you can give an option to the user to pay for certain advantages.
• If you charge for your app provide subscriptions or renewal fees over a set amount of time.
• Find the correct ad for your app, for example, if your page is about exercising, rent some space to advertisers that promote health products, healthy lifestyle or sport gears or equipments.
• If your app is meant to boost your existing brand or business, try not including in-app purchases or advertising. 
• Grow a large user base for your app by sponsoring your app ads on social media pages in intervals.
• Know your app market and users by carrying out a market research and getting an in-depth knowledge about your competitor’s mistakes or profits.

Remember, the best in-app purchases are intuitive and just make sense within the context of the user experience. Whatever strategy you adopt, keep a track of your own data and monitor it. Try new things based on the data, test them and find the monetization strategy that works in your favor. It’s time to get rich folks! 

​With the multitude of new startups and entrepreneurs rising in the society, every business in the world needs to upscale itself and make it better than the rest of the pack. Having said that, it is also necessary to understand that the right method should be used to promote or start your business.
So the first question we come to is, “what does your business really need?” With the online culture getting continuously evolved and rapidly changing trends, it’s important to know the correct meaning of the keywords that are generally used in the tech industry.
Do you actually know the exact differences between Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Proof of Concept (POC) and a Prototype? Let’s understand each term in their entirety. 

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

MVP is the work-in-progress version of your technical solution. It allows you to do a test run with the target customers and see their reaction when they use the product. This helps you save a lot of money instead of making a complete product that the customer’s don’t want to use. MVP is a way to understand if people want to buy the solution that you are trying to build.
Eric Ries, an American entrepreneur, blogger and author of The Lean Startup, quotes, “The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”

Proof of Concept (POC)

A proof of concept (POC) is a demonstration, the purpose of which is to verify that certain concepts or theories have the potential for real-world application. POC is therefore a prototype that is designed to determine feasibility, but does not represent deliverables.
Definition Source: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4066/proof-of-concept-poc 
In one short sentence, proof of concept is all about testing if a certain idea or concept is feasible or not.  For example, the client needs to build a messaging app. It’s something that people use a lot but it might not do as well because people are already using Whats App and Facebook Messenger, so your app needs to now come up with a little extra something that could spice up your app. Well that “little extra” something could use some POC.

Prototype

Before the entire development of the application, it is necessary to build interactive prototypes to understand the screen for core app flows, usability of the app and special features to test out. The prototype involves stakeholders and investors. It will be valuable to know how people would interact with your product.
 
MVP vs. POC vs. Prototype

Trying to decide how and where to fit these methodologies while developing your app is surely a struggle! Let’s clearly understand with the help of an example.
A certain toy company has designed a new toy and has decided to build a company around it. Firstly, they would need to implement the POC method to ensure that they are not wasting time on something that doesn’t interest the users. The concept needs to be proved in the market. To achieve a POC, you need to ask questions like, “Does this toy have any extra features or values that the other toy doesn’t offer? Or “Is there a need for this toy?” If there is a positive answer or a solution to these questions then your idea is validated.
Once your idea has been validated, the next step is to build a prototype. You need to feature the prototype in a mall that has different toys and see if it generates any interest from the target audience. If there is no positive response from the audience, then it clearly will not get a response later either.
But, if it does get a good response from the audience, it’s time to move on to the MVP stage where you make your first batch of toys with the most basic features and test it in the marketplace. People will actually buy the product and test it by paying money. This will also help you understand if you have priced it correctly.

Remember

A MVP app is the core-value-proposition-wrapped-up-in-essential-features-only version of the product to bring value to the market as soon as possible. The approach towards MVP should be, “What is the core value of the app?”
The proof of concept (POC) method revolves around testing if an idea is doable. It is the simplest, fastest, most precise way you can think of to either confirm or infirm your hypothesis about the user and your app. The approach towards POC should be, “Is this concept feasible?”
A prototype of an app is an interactive, working visualization of the product, meant to identify usability flaws in design. The approach towards prototypes should be, “How should you build the application?”

Isn’t it simple; now, we are sure you know what your business needs!