How to market your app for your audience

It’s a tale as old as time: you work for months, maybe even years coming up with the perfect idea for an app. You find the right developers, surround yourself with the best team, create the design and make sure it works perfectly for what you need it to do, only for it to launch with little pomp and ceremony and fizzle down the app charts to achieve little interest or success.

Launching your app is about more than just having the perfect product. It’s about marketing in the right way to the right people, and making sure your app is being seen by your target audience. There so many ways to get the word out nowadays that you might find yourself spoilt for choice, so it’s more important than ever to remember one thing: your audience.

Who your audience is will affect where and how you market your product, so it’s necessary to paint a portrait of who they are before you launch. Once you know that, you can strategise the best ways to market your app to your actual audience.

Social media marketing

A method of marketing that’s ever-growing in popularity, using social media for your app launch marketing is a no-brainer. However, there’s a large number of social channels you can use to market your products, each with their own specific demographic.

If your target audience is busy professionals, using Snapchat to get the word out is probably not the best method, whereas LinkedIn would be perfect. For an app that helps style and fitness enthusiasts, Instagram is a much better place to go than Twitter.

Each channel has its merits, and you might find that more than one will work for you. It might be worth investing a little money in trying out different channels and seeing which one yields the best results.

Press releases and guest blogs

A press release is the best way to reach a targeted audience. An app launch is perfect for gaining the interest of key publications, so finding a professional agency with contacts in your industry is the best idea. Readers are more likely to trust what they read if it’s coming from specialist industry publications in their area of interest. Ensure you’re marketing through industry-specific publications to garner the most engagement.

It will also be worthwhile to send out messages to online news sources and bloggers who have an interest in your industry and ask them if they’d write or publish a guest blog on their site. Again, this is a great way to be seen by a specific audience.

Paid advertising

Depending on your budget, and your audience persona, paid advertising could be a very efficient way to get your app in front of the right people. The advertising format and channel will again be dictated by your audience, as your budget will need to be directed at those websites or platforms that match your own demographic. It could be that the demographic options Facebook offers its advertisers give you the precise reach you need. For beauty, travel and fitness apps, Instagram ads could be a safer bet. Display ads, paid search and sponsored content placed on selected blogs or trade media outlets are also worth considering.