Free and still the best way to promote anything, you’ve just got to make something worth talking about and get the ball rolling! Despite everyone seeming to acknowledge it’s importance, the power of good, old-fashioned word of mouth still seems to be frequently overlooked and neglected by many app creators. Fortunately you don’t have to make the same mistake, so start right now and tell everyone you know who might be interested in your app: talk about it on your Facebook status; contact (but don’t pester!) prominent bloggers; journalists or others who might be interested; and don’t forget…
Friends…
…colleagues, contacts. Your personal Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter. It’s not every day you launch an iPhone App or iPad App so tell them about it! While the success of Angry Birds cannot be attributed to word of mouth alone (it is a well polished app with a decent budget, and a concept designed specifically for touch-screen devices), itis interesting to see that the guys at Rovio (Angry Bird’s producers) never ran any paid advertising. Instead they told friends about the game (who clearly told many others) and before they knew it they were #1 in their ‘home’ App Store in Finland. From there on the app became #1 in neighbouring countries as well (and so on) and the rest is history.
…who have friends
If they like the app, ask them nicely to pass it on to other friends or contacts who might enjoy it. If they’re savvy with social media they could post about it on their Facebook, Twitter or blog too. Don’t be offended if they don’t, but there’s no harm in politely asking them either.
User reviews and ratings
You could also ask the same people to post a review on the App Store if they like the app. Of course if your app is poor a few good reviews from your friends are not going to get stop a tidal wave of bad ones, but if your app is being well received there’s no harm in asking them to post an honest review and rate the app. An app with a lot of four and five star ratings and a few positive reviews a few days after launch is certainly going to look better than no reviews or ratings at all (which screams ‘no-one has ever downloaded this app’). You’re just helping things along.
It is also worth noting that reviews and ratings are only unique to the App Store for that country. If you are targeting a worldwide audience and you have some friends in different parts of the world (eg UK and US, which both have different App Stores) then ask to post a review as well to give your app a boost in these other App Stores.
