Important things to remember when planning your app marketing

Whatever function your new app design is intended for and regardless of your specific intended audience, there’s little doubt that you’ll need a sound marketing plan to raise awareness about your creation. As with anything, planning is the secret to success here – the more organised and detailed you are when devising your marketing approach, the more likely you are of making a success with it. Here are a few important things that you’ll need to remember at this stage.

1. You must set a realistic budget

Whether you are bootstrapping your app design and marketing or have a generous marketing fund to use, setting a realistic budget (and sticking to it) is the single most important thing you can do. It’s tempting to go over budget when opportunities come along but a realistic budget at the start should make this harder to do.

If you are on a limited budget for marketing, this can be an especially difficult task to accomplish but, setting a realistic amount – even if that amount is zero – is crucial. If you aren’t looking to spend much, knowing this upfront will also ensure you don’t waste hours of time planning a campaign that isn’t feasible. Instead, you can direct all of your energy into being creative and developing no-cost ideas.

2. It’s important to define and segment your audience

Unless your app is very niche, it’s likely that it will appeal to a few different types of user. For each category of user you intend to market your app too, you’ll need to create a persona. This is a generalised depiction of your audience and will usually cover things such as age, gender, disposable income, likes, dislikes etc. Taking the time to define these personas means that your marketing will be targeted and relevant and your plan much more useful than would otherwise be the case.

3. Not all marketing is paid for

Irrespective of the size of your budget, be mindful of the fact that not all marketing is paid for. As your app gathers users, reviews are an important part of making a name for yourself and establishing a bigger profile so you’ll need to allow time to solicit reviews and reply to reviews. You should also keep this in mind when it comes to defining activities, as there are plenty of little to no cost options using your own assets and marketing collateral that you can leverage. These include your website, blog, social media and email marketing channels as well as things like partnerships and collaborations with other brands.