11 Mobile App Growth Hacks To Acquire Users Driving mobile app downloads is far harder than building the product. That‘s a fact and we have to live with it. But who says this can‘t be made easier? What if I were to tell you that you can too drive up to a million downloads within the next one year? I have had the privilege of helping hundreds of entrepreneurs launch and grow their mobile app startups and have learnt many secrets (hacks) that some of the industry biggies use regularly to keep themselves at the top of the charts. I even wrote a book to help non-technical funders to launch a successful mobile app business. Instead of you spending your time reading a blog or searching across the net for ways to increase downloads, I‘ve put together this free email course to help you double your app downloads week after week. If you‘re in it for the long haul (read: building a successful and profitable business), then these hacks are just the one for you! And if you’re looking for an App Development firm to get your project off the ground, write to us at [email protected]. Don’t forget to check out our expert advice video series on marketing your startup – featuring experts such as Guy Kawasaki, Morgan Brown, Brian Balfour, Brian Dean, Rand Fishkin, etc. Arkenea - Technical Co-founders to your Mobile and Web Startup | www.arkenea.com 11 Mobile App Growth Hacks To Acquire Users #1 Did you know that a majority of social networks were started by emailing an initial database of people? • MySpace used an email marketing list of 100+ million people to send for first users. • Facebook used all the Harvard email lists to get the first 2,000 users in a day. I'm sure you do not have some such ready list to send to (you'd rather give away all your money than purchase a mailing list). So here's the best hack to get you started with your very own email list that you didn't know existed till now! 1 Open LinkedIn website. Click on Connections in the top menu. 2 Click the gear icon that appears in the top right corner of your connections page. 3 On the right hand column under Advanced Settings, click on Export LinkedIn Connections. 4 Choose the format you want it in and your download begins. 5 You now have a spreadsheet with the email addresses of all your LinkedIn connections. There you go, your very first email list to get started with! Arkenea - Technical Co-founders to your Mobile and Web Startup | www.arkenea.com 11 Mobile App Growth Hacks To Acquire Users #2 This may sound a bit gutsy, but it‘s a fantastic growth hack. If you‘re one of the few lucky ones who‘ve managed to budget marketing spend for your mobile app, then consider this: Typical marketing spends are spread out over a number of weeks or months. Consolidate this budget into a very short time frame. Depending on your overall marketing budget, spend all of the money within a day, a few days or at the most a week. Spread the advertising across all channels – Facebook, mobile advertising, you name it. The more the concentrated the advertising, the more likely that you will get a sharp spike in downloads for your app in a very short time. This will help your app store ranking as one of the factors is download numbers and over a certain period of time. Once you get to the top rankings in the app stores, this position will help get consistent download numbers. And who knows, this may even generate enough interest from Apple or Google to feature your app in the store, helping you gain users even after you‘ve burnt your advertising spend. Arkenea - Technical Co-founders to your Mobile and Web Startup | www.arkenea.com 11 Mobile App Growth Hacks To Acquire Users #3 There's nothing like reaching out to journalists and bloggers personally and crafting a personalized message. Use the 200+ App Review Sites List to get press contacts. Assuming you are preparing to launch your app, get in touch with the press at least two to four weeks before the scheduled launch date. Address the email directly at them (no one likes to receive a mass email). Write a brief note and describe the benefit of your product in one sentence. Include a link to your app's landing page or demo video. In the end, ask them if they would like to know more or would want to try out your product. Here's an email template that you can use: -------------------------------------------------------- Hi <insert reporter name>, I will be launching <YourProductName> for <platform:iOS/Android/Web> later this/next month. One unique feature of <YourProductName> is <BenefitStatement>. Here's a quick video about the product in action: <InsertLinkToVideo>. I've also put together a teaser webpage for the product: <LandingPageURL>. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to try out the beta. Thank you, <YourName> <YourContactDetails> -------------------------------------------------------- An example of Benefit Statement: One unique feature of Foster is that it lets you share content that your audience loves to read on social media and email. Never be too pushy or spam their mailbox. Follow up with a press release at least a week before the launch. All the best and let me know how many responses you received! Arkenea - Technical Co-founders to your Mobile and Web Startup | www.arkenea.com 11 Mobile App Growth Hacks To Acquire Users #4 Now, if you live in the US or UK or any other matured mobile app market, getting press is going to be a mammoth task. Imagine the number of requests that tech media would be getting each day from thousands of app developers or entrepreneurs like you. How then do you get through to the press? While you‘re at it – reaching out to the mainstream press, here‘s a strategy worth implementing to boost your downloads this week. Iliya Yordanov, founder of personal-finance app MoneyWiz has been successfully running his mobile startup, driving revenues upwards of the $1 million mark. When he launched his app on the app store, he thought contacting U.S. media and app review sites would get him the much needed publicity and get a spike in sales and downloads of his app. Much to his dismay, none of the media sites got back in touch with him. So Iliya went on to hack press coverage by customizing his app (even localizing the language would do) for a few select foreign markets with good app penetration -- Russia, Spain, Germany, Italy and France -- and contacting the media in those countries. To the media in these countries, getting an email from an indie developer wasn‘t as frequent as their counterpart in the US. The response and coverage from the media in these countries got them the No. 1 finance app ranking on the App Store. This helped them get noticed in the U.S., and they started going up the ranks in the U.S. app store, which got Apple‘s attention to feature them. And it then finally captured the fancy of the American media. Similarly, adapt to the local language of the countries (entire app, every mention of it on the app store including the screenshots and promotional materials) you‘ve identified and once the app is live, contact the local mainstream and business press in those countries on how your app could make a difference to their people. Use Fiverr to hire local inexpensive translators. Arkenea - Technical Co-founders to your Mobile and Web Startup | www.arkenea.com 11 Mobile App Growth Hacks To Acquire Users #5 Let's say 100 people land on your app's landing page or your website. How many people actually convert (sales, downloads, signups)? If you're doing exceedingly well, the number would be anywhere between 4-8%. What about the remaining 92% of the visitors then? Most businesses ignore them, but if you draw your attention to this segment, they will help you generate far more leads and business than you can imagine. The visitors who are not ready to buy on your website typically love to receive a free gift in exchange for their email address. You can continue to market to them through the email address, but more importantly, offering something for free and of value increases the chances of these visitors buying your product/service. The way we do it at Arkenea is by offering weekly strategies in building and marketing a mobile app. You can offer freebies in any format you like. Here are some examples: • Email course • Whitepaper • Checklists • eBook • Video or video series • Webinar • User guide or a coupon Whatever medium you choose, remember, the idea is to present yourself as offering value to the visitor. Arkenea - Technical Co-founders to your Mobile and Web Startup | www.arkenea.com 11 Mobile App Growth Hacks To Acquire Users #6 How to get featured in the Apple and Google app stores? You can't just expect to put up your app and get featured. At least, not anymore. You have to work for it. But it's totally worth it. How? It could get you 10,000 downloads a day for as long as you're in that coveted spot. So what do you do to get there? Here's a hack from Tamara Steffens. Engage with the people at Apple and Google.