How to Make Your Mobile App Stand Out in the Ever-Expanding App Market

You came up with a great idea, figured out your niche, hired developers and designers, and created your mobile app. However, the development and implementation are only half the battle. The next step is to market your mobile app correctly. Otherwise, it will get lost among all of the other apps available for users to download on their smartphones.
Every developer dreams of experiencing the same kind of success as apps like Angry Birds, Waze, Instagram, and Snapchat. A huge part of the success of those companies, besides their development, was their marketing strategy.
Here are 10 tips for how you can market your mobile app:

1. Be as Descriptive as Possible

Let’s start with the basics – the app’s description. A user should know, from thefirst sentence of the description, what your app does, and feel compelled to click the “more” button in order to keep reading.
The first line of your description should be direct and showcase the power of your app. You don’t need to squeeze in everything, but you should make the reader want to click. If you have industry credentials or have produced a killer app before, mention that up top; for example, “Brought to you by the creators of YouTube, the MixBit app helps people create videos together.”

That line alone guarantees that users will click. It shows that MixBit is an app that will help users make videos, and that it is made by the people who already help them make videos. Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn, because it’ll add credibility and make users interested in your creation.
After users hit the “more” button, make sure to spell out the possibilities and go into as much detail as you can about your app. Use bullet points so that the information is organized and easy to read. Include free or extra features that users can take advantage of, as well as other devices that the app is available on.
Emphasize what makes it different from an older version of your app or from other apps, and give some background about your company. If your app has gotten positive feedback from big blogs or news outlets, mention what they said. If you need inspiration, look at the back cover of a popular book. You’ll see that it includes the book’s description, along with short reviews from reliable sources and industry experts.

2. Pick the Best Keywords

Keywords, like the description, will let users know exactly what your app is aboutand entice them to buy or download it. Brainstorm with your team and come up with all the keyword possibilities for it. Don’t put your company name or app namein your list of keywords since they already can be searched within a marketplace.
Use keywords that are less common (to decrease competition in search results) by searching for popular ones in the app stores. If your app can be used in more than one language, include keywords in those languages as well.
Need some help finding the best keywords? There are tools like SensorTower, AppCod.es, Google’s AdWords, and App Store Optimization by MobileDevHQ that will help you figure that out. Though you have to pay for a lot of these services, MobileDevHQ offers an “indie” plan for part-time developers with one app who want to do keyword research. However, you’ll have to pay at least $350 to find the competitive keywords.

3. Invest in Stellar Graphics

When it comes to technology and the Internet, people are mostly visual. They go to whatever stands out and catches their eye. Graphics, like the first line of your description, have to be compelling.
Since colors influence moods, make sure that the colors you use align with the mood you want your app to capture. It’s no accident that the angry birds are red.
Your graphics should be original and draw users in by being aesthetically appealing. If your app is high energy, put out a graphic that shows that. If it’s meant to be calming, use the color blue. Consult with graphic designers to discover the best mood and image that will capture your app’s purpose.

4. Capture Exciting and Descriptive Screenshots

Include screenshots within the app description. Take shots from the most exciting and captivating parts of your app, and show just what the app does. Take up all of the available slots to showcase your screenshots, and don’t let any go to waste.
Make sure the shots are high quality, and type up captions and headlines that help to describe what users are seeing. Display them in the best order possible. If you’re showing how to go from point A to point B through your screenshots, it should make logical sense and appear in that order.
When you pitch to journalists and bloggers, send them the screenshots as well. Post the shots anywhere you can: on your website, Facebook page, Twitter background, and video demos.

5. Craft a Solid Pitch and Know Your Angle

When any company launches a new product or releases news, they have to know their angle. It’s what makes them unique and entices a reporter or blogger to cover them. The same thing applies for the announcement of a new app.
When emailing a member of the media, write a statement in the subject line that will be of value to the person on the receiving end. Communicate that your app offers a solution to the reader’s problem or satisfies the news outlet’s audience’s wants and needs. Don’t just say, “____ Launched a New App Today!” Make the subject interesting.
Inside the actual email, keep the pitch short, and be sure that it relates to the publication or what the reporter has written in the past. Don’t just pitch to the general editor, who most likely receives dozens of pitches every day. See who covers launches of apps and, specifically, the ones in your category.
Make it as easy as possible on the reporter, and offer interviews with your developers and app creators. Put a link to any relevant information, as well as one to your website.

 6. Generate Buzz on the Right Media Outlets

After you come up with your pitch, reach out to the correct media outlets. If you want teenagers to use your app, pitch to the blogs they read. Contact editors and reporters at fitness magazines if your app helps people lose weight. Know who thekey influencers are in your app’s field, because they are who your audience will listen to and seek guidance and advice from.
If your app is for men ages 18-24, look at the games they play, topics they’re interested in, food they eat, and media they consume. Broaden your horizon and think about more than what your app actually does. Think “if this, then what?” If 18-24 year old men are going to play my app, will they also look at sports and fitness magazines? During a test run of your app, see who responds best to it and target that audience.

7. Advertise Where Your Audience Lives Online

Along with knowing what your audience reads, you need to figure out where they hang out in the digital space. Take out ads on the websites they visit and interact with them on the sites they frequent. For example, you could pay for Facebook ads and identify the distinct audience you want to reach, or hold a Google Hangout with your app’s creators.
Create memes for different Reddit categories. Pay for spoken ads on podcasts. List yourself on an app discovery site like Appolicious. The possibilities are endless, but you have to pinpoint your exact demographic before making a move. Don’t just throw ideas out there or money for ads and see what sticks. Figure out who it is that you want to use your app before you make a move.

8. Engage on Social Media

App users are Internet savvy. When you’re doing your demographics research, try to discover which social media sites your core audience goes on. Through Twitter, you should tweet at your app’s fans, give them promotions and discounts, teach them about the app’s different features, and announce any upcoming news.
On Facebook, it’s critical that you use images, since the engagement rate for photos is 37% higher than that for text. If you’re on Pinterest, pin photos and videos of pertinent categories to your board. For example, if you launch a cooking app, pin photos of food, cookbooks, and videos that show baking demonstrations.
All of your accounts, if possible, should be customized and include a description of your app, company background, a website address, contact information, press, reviews, and any other relevant content

9. Create a Website with Great Content

Your app needs to exist outside of a store or marketplace. You have to make a website that is an extension of your app and shows what it’s about, how to use it, screenshots, and anything else you included in the store. Your website is where you can expand upon store or marketplace information and demonstrate even more features.
When people are looking for an app, they are going to turn to Google in addition to an app store. You want to make sure that you rank high for your category by putting great content on your site. Google Panda is now ranking pages with well-written content and credibility as opposed to just looking at SEO keywords.
Place a blog on your site that contains content that pertains to your app’s users. Update the blog as frequently as possible, and hire the best writer you have on your team to run it. Whenever you post, tweet it out, add a link on Facebook, and email it to your list of subscribers. Otherwise, it’ll fall on deaf ears.
Waze is an example of an app with an excellent website. Like the app, it’s simple to navigate and minimalist. There are blog posts about company news, meetups, and crowdsourcing, as well as some on new features that help users find cheaper gas prices.

10. Make a How-to Video

Due to the visual nature of the Internet, it’s important that you create a video for YouTube that shows off your app. If people are paying even 99 cents for your app, they may want to watch a how-to or demonstration video before purchasing.
In the video, illustrate what your app does with live action shots and screenshots. Since YouTube is the second largest search engine, you want to make sure your app has some clout there. It’ll increase your Google ranking if people are clicking on the video and engaging with it.
As an added bonus, you can direct that traffic to your website. Fill out the description and keywords, upload your company’s logo as your icon, and make a customized page. All of those steps will help with branding.
The video should be short and sweet – about three minutes or less – since users typically have a short attention span. Put a call to action at the end for users to download the app in the different marketplaces and go to your website.
Send the video to bloggers and key influencers, post it on your other social media sites, and place it in the blog/about section of your website.

BONUS TIP: Ask for Reviews

After the app is released, ask for feedback from members of the media and your users. Reviews will push you to the top of Google ranking and increase the chatter about your app online.
On the app store or marketplace, provide a support email address where customers can ask you questions or address certain issues. Add a “more” section to your app that encourages people to leave reviews and express their opinions.
Try programs like Apptentive and Appboy, which let you see data about your reviews, or AskingPoint, which will enable you to send feedback polls and questions to a specific group of your app’s users.
Within the app, you also should ask for a positive review about 10 days or so after a user has downloaded it. Persuade them, if they like the app, to give you feedback, but also give them an option to stop the notification from popping up. The worst thing you can do is get on your user’s nerves or be too pushy.
When people do give you feedback, listen and reply to them. Engage in conversation and figure out how to solve your app’s issues. Customer service is key and will only help your marketing strategy.By implementing these 10 tips, you’ll be able to stand out in a saturated app market and reach your core demographic of users.

Stay Healthy With These 3 Free iPhone and iPad Apps

As an entrepreneur, you're probably so busy taking care of your business that you skip taking care of yourself. Not such a good idea, especially if you're being treated for a medical condition.
Your business can't afford to lose you, so here are three free apps from Apple that can help you take control of your healthcare so it doesn't take control of you.
1. Mango Health
If you're on medication, Mango Health for the iPhone or iPad can not only help you remember to take your daily dose, but it can even reward you for taking it safely and on time. Simply list all of your medications and when you need to take them. When it's time, the app will send a push notification and an alert tone to your phone. If you're busy, there's a snooze button that will continue to remind you at 10-minute intervals. Every time you take your medicine, the app rewards you with points that can be redeemed for gift cards and charity donations.
When you enter a new medication, the app also checks for potential interactions with your other meds or certain foods or drinks. Can't remember if you took your last pill? A quick look at the large dashboard will let you know if you're on schedule.
Mango Health recently updated the app to include a "how are you feeling" button on the medication reminder. Pick from a set of emoticons that range from awesome to sick and the app saves your choice in the history. You can also jot down notes about symptoms or side-effects so you'll have a clear record of your response to a given medication.
2. Symple - Symptom Tracker & Health Diary
If you're dealing with an ongoing medical condition, tracking your symptoms is vitally important and Symple can help you do that. Symple for the iPhone or iPad is made up of two components: symptoms and factors.
Every day you rate up to 20 potential symptoms on a five-point scale that ranges from none to severe. Then you check off any outside factors that may have influenced your symptoms, such as a 30-minute walk, alcohol consumption, travel or a stressful day at work.
The app produces a set of graphs so you can compare the effect a factor had on your symptoms over time or compare the severity of two symptoms. You can also download the data to a spreadsheet to share with your doctor.
To complete the picture, there's a journaling section where you can write notes for your doctor or store photos related to your condition.
3. Hello Doctor
If you're seeing multiple doctors, Hello Doctor for the iPad can help you manage all of your medical records. The app uses Smartlists to categorize your reports into areas such as blood tests, prescriptions, and specialists. You can write notes on any part of any document so you won't forget what you wanted to ask when you have your next doctor visit.
Add new records by photographing them with your iPad or pull in scans from Dropbox. Or, you can email your records to the Hello Doctor team and they'll tag and load them for you.
Need to share records from one doctor with another? There's an email or fax option if your doctor is old school and can't handle an iPad.

Taking a Giant Leap on New Gaming App Flying Felix

 

Editor's Note: The TrepLabs column puts 
little-known but notable apps and their makers in the spotlight each week. For more information on how to become a TrepLabs app, go to TrepLabs.com, and to contribute to the discussion surrounding these apps, tweet us @TrepLabs.
Based in British Columbia, the 35-year-old Englishman until October 2012 was a technical director for Electronic Arts, working for years on the Redwood City, Calif.-based company’s FIFA soccer video games for PlayStation and Xbox. And despite leaving the gaming biz to work a stint at Tactus Therapy Solutions, a speech therapy app startup, he got back in the game at his earliest opportunity.
When a friend approached Carter in April about improving a trapeze-themed app game, Flying Felix, he jumped at the chance to “polish it off” and joined a new startup called Giant Leap Games.
“Going back to video games. That’s always where my passion is and always where my heart will be,” Carter says. “Lots of people have ideas for games. But actually making them fun and something that someone else wants to play, that’s a real challenge."
So far, so good. Flying Felix debuted in both iTunes and the Google Play store in July.

Market opportunity: Carter thinks Flying Felix will be popular because similar so-called physics-puzzle games like Angry Birds or Cut the Rope have been all the rage.
“We thought we could give people another option,” Carter said. “It’s a physics game, but with a difference. It’s not crashing into things. It’s not cutting into things.”
The game is about navigating through levels of trapeze, trampolines, cannons and magic doors. “’Everybody likes circus and Cirque du Soleil, feats of daring,” Carter says.
Carter heavily drew on his FIFA experiences when it came to timing and the increasing difficulty of play of the game’s 60 levels, divided into four “tents.” Play takes place with intuitive, one-touch controls.
The app is free for the first tent, 15 levels. A player can then play the rest of the levels for 99 cents.
Challenges: People who've played the game say they like it, but the download numbers could be better. A few thousand people have downloaded Flying Felix on iTunes. As for Google, Carter says it's hard to tell -- especially since tens of thousands of people in China appear to be playing the game without downloading it through the Google Play Store.
“We know that there a significant number of people in China using the game, but we haven’t seen the money,” Carter said.
Besides reducing the chance of scoring sales, the low download numbers further hurt the chance to make useful tweaks to the game because there are not many users to run analytics off of. “It’s hard to know exactly what they want because the downloads have been few,” Carter says. But "how do you get someone to download it in the first place?”
His first thought? Expand beyond YouTube and Twitter, where Giant Leap Games now has a presence. “We don’t have a website or Facebook or something like that. We want to give people a landing place and something for them to find out about us some more,” says Carter.
Strengths: He's also betting that his game-designing know how will eventually pay off.
“I’ve always worked on the game mechanics…What makes a game interesting for people? Why would they want to play it, keep playing it, come back again?” says Carter. "That’s where I think my strengths are for Flying Felix and for hopefully for future games."
Even as he tries to better market Flying Felix, he is working on a second game app that is presently under wraps.
“We want to build a brand. We want Giant Leaps to be known for polished, physics-type, puzzle games,” adds Carter. “It’s all about fun at the end of the day.”

How Blind Smartphone Users Helped This Startup Test the Waters

It was midnight in London when Ioannis Verdelis got the call from his co-founder Kostas Eleftheriou that gave him the insight for how to take on his company's biggest competitor.
During the conversation, Eleftheriou explained how their product had a true, life-changing connection with their target demographic -- blind people.
While presenting at their first demo in 2012 in front of a visually-impaired audience, people were moved to tears using their product Fleksy, a mobile application that allows people to use their phones without looking at the device. It was the first time many of these people experienced a product that is designed to help them forget their disability.
It was this news that inspired Verdelis to give it his all, no matter what he was up against.
Related: 3 Mobile Apps for Converting Voice to Text 
While aspirations were high, the then 27-year-old co-founders faced considerable challenges. Among others, they had no funding and little experience disrupting a competitive mobile text-input market.
Still, their past milestones did help prepare them. Verdelis and Eletheriou had always known they wanted to start something together but needed to find the perfect opportunity.
Despite becoming fast friends during college, the two ended up parting ways after graduation with Verdelis taking up a consulting job in the United Kingdom and Eleftheriou moving to California to start a new venture. While living miles apart, both shared the same frustrations with their smartphones: It was hard to type text messages and emails on them. Deciding that this was the opportunity they had been waiting for to collaborate together, the two kicked into action.
The pair began chatting over Skype a few days a week about starting a business with their prototype. That lead to in person meetings. And then, as Fleksy started to gain momentum, Eletherious convinced Verdelis to pack up and move to California.

Ioannis Verdelis (pictured) and Kostas Eleftheriou, the co-founders of Fleksy, introduced their hands-free messaging app to a group of people who could give them key feedback: blind people.

They demoed early versions to friends and family and were surprised with the positive results.
"It was important for us to have a prototype because we didn't have to explain anything, we could just show them," Verdelis recalls.
A prototype, alone, wouldn't be enough, however. Verdelis and Eletheriou realized that even in the most fortunate of cases, they would not be a million-dollar company overnight. It was going to take years of struggle, hard work and resilience.
So, they broke their vision into smaller, more tangible pieces -- starting with their target market. Instead of going after the hands-free loving public at large, they chose instead to focus on the niche market of blind and visually impaired people.
"As you break down the big target into smaller targets, you're refining your idea, learning and measuring progress along the way," says Verdelis.
An added benefit: This decision put their product in the hands of people that would help them know how to develop it even better. The test market of blind people isn't huge, but it wound up being big enough to provide revenues to continue adding features and proving the product's need in the marketplace.
As a result of their testing and strategic scaling, on day one of their launch in the AppStore, they were the third most downloaded app worldwide in the "productivity" category in iTunes. To date, they've raised $3.9 million in funding from prominent angel investors and VC firms including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Highland Capital Partners and Middleland Capital.
They now have plans to roll out a version suited for the mainstream market by end of year.

We Test It: Scribd's All-You-Can Read Digital Buffet

Each month, Field Test columnist and contributing editor Jenna Schnuer tries out gadgets and services designed to simplify life on the road.
In a recent interview with The New York Times Sunday Book Review, author Donna Tartt said “I’ve always got a dozen books going, which is why my suitcases are always so heavy.”
I understand. I’m a fickle reader, always reading one (or three) but with my eye on a dozen others. I’m all about the backups.

But since I did tire of having an aching shoulder from schlepping said books around, I made the switch some time back to traveling with, mostly, digital books. Yes, a trade paperback or two usually makes its way into my carry-on (paper smells so good and I hate the thought of going without) but, other than that, e-books it is.
That took a lot of pressure off my shoulder but it didn’t ease my bank account’s pain. Since going e-book, my book shopping habit has gone a little crazy. (See? I don’t even take responsibility for it. It’s the book shopping’s fault.) Now that I can shop around-the-clock and up in the air for books, the receipts from e-book sellers fly in at all hours. I decided that Scribd’s online subscription service, sort of a Netflix for new and backlist books, was worth a tryout.
Scribd’s promise: Subscribers pay $8.99 a month for an all-you-can-e-read buffet of books (ranging from a major publisher’s catalog to self-published volumes), brochures, catalogs, and other content from the site’s 6 years as a free document sharing site. Read the books on your computer or on your tablet or phone with the Scribd app. Have a WiFi-only device? No worries. You can store the books right on your tablet, no connection necessary.
Our reality: Overall, I was pretty impressed. For less than the price of buying one new book a month (e- or otherwise), you can wander through more than 50,000 books. Most are older titles, however. So, as of late October, I could re-read Donna Tartt's stellar first novel, The Secret History, but had to go elsewhere for her new The Goldfinch. It feels a lot like the online borrowing service most public libraries offer but with one big bonus—you don’t have to wait for somebody else to check back in one of the few copies. That’s a good thing for those of us who change what we’re reading with every mood, and don’t like to wait.
When reading on Scribd.com, you can scroll through a book’s pages or choose the more, um, traditional e-book flipping pages method. On iPad and iPhone, you can tap or flick your finger on the screen to flip pages. Books appear pretty much as you would see them on page. Charts, graphs and words were totally readable, something that’s not always the case on e-reading platforms.
Signing up is a fairly quick process, and the company offers steps to suggest books you might like—from both classic and modern business books to fiction (literary and otherwise) and plenty of cookbooks. Really, there’s a lot there to keep a reader busy. You can build to-read lists and, best of all, save your place in case you want to pick up on your phone where you left off on your computer.
Now to the problem. They just have one major publisher signed on: HarperCollins. To be fair: the service is new, new, new, and launched just over a month ago. But while HarperCollins publishes a lot of books, having one publishing house leaves Scribd feeling a bit like a house organ. As you wander through the books, it's pretty much all HarperCollins. So no dipping into Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, while waiting for a train or any Malcolm Gladwell during a last-minute bit of book browsing before the flight attendants tell you to power down. A little weird but, hopefully, that will change soon. Though I haven’t heard back from Scribd yet on the who’s-signing-on-next-front, they’ve done some interviews recently that make it clear that, yes, they’re working on it. So I’ll cut the service some slack. But if I hit a month where I don’t want even a single book that they have on offer (which, really, I doubt since HarperCollins’ Agatha Christie offerings could keep me very happy on flights for the next year), I’m out.
Travelers should keep in mind that it’s still an e-service so … that means powering down for takeoff for now until new FAA changes take place (likely by the end of the year). So, yes, I’ll still have to tote a paperback everywhere I go or, at least, until somebody puts out a satisfactory paper-scented perfume