10 Growth-Hacking Strategies to Boost Your App Downloads — TekRevol

Building your mobile app isn’t easy. However, coming up with a strategy that helps you continue getting more and more app users after months and even years of going live, is more challenging.

Every business with a mobile app would find themselves asking some questions at one point in their journey. How do I increase my app downloads organically? How do you introduce a new app to the market? Do mobile apps increase sales?

For all of you with a tight user acquisition budget or looking to increase app downloads or app revenue, here are some growth-hacking strategies that can help you achieve your goal without any/ a lot of investment.

In-app referrals

According to statistics, around 83 percent of users trust recommendations and reviews from friends and other consumers. In-app referral campaigns are a great way to advertise an app and scale faster growth with the help of its viral nature.

Referral programs create a win-win situation, as when your users are happy with the overall experience to deliver, and you are pleased about the positive word they spread about you.

Airbnb is one of the era-defining, revolutionary apps, and it is also a great example of a business that used this growth-hacking strategy. The referral program by Airbnb incentivizes both the referrer and the referee using Airbnb credits.

According to a yearly download volume of popular apps worldwide study conducted by Statista, the company found that during the measured period, the mobile downloads of Airbnb’s increased by 31.7 percent in comparison to the corresponding month in the preceding year.

Make the best of web traffic

One of the greatest hacks to increase app downloads is to integrate your web domain with the app zone. You will need a fantastic landing page with a sensational call-to-action and take advantage of smart web banners that allow users to send an app-downloadable link to their smartphones via SMS or email.

Moreover, thousands of apps are being launched to Google Play Store and Apple Store. Hence, it is has become imperative for mobile app development professionals and marketers to use other channels to increase app downloads. This also includes making most of the old tactics of search engine optimization.

Search engines are still one of the most popular places where smartphone users go to look for solutions. That said, by using a targeted list of keywords you can better reach these users from a relatively uncluttered space in comparison to app stores.

Innovative product design

The actual design of your product is one of the biggest growth hacks for app marketing, as it is closely associated with the users’ overall experience. By incorporating innovation into your mobile app design you are not only providing an experience that meets users’ expectations, but you are also empowering your app growth.

Mobile apps that have innovative design at the core of their growth are prone to do better because these apps are built to fulfill users’ expectation. Tinder is a fantastic example as its design complements the thumb zone, the most comfortable area for touch with one-handed use of a smartphone. Thumb zone is a term coined by Steven Hoober in his book called Designing Mobile Interface.

The innovative left and right swipe design feature in Tinder plays a part in keeping members hooked to the app, as it makes them continue swiping until they find a match. This makes Tinder fun, addictive and easy.

Build a strong community

Many businesses around the world are using the power of the community to boost their product awareness and engagement. Marketers can use this growth strategy to advertise an app in various ways such as building their network on Facebook or other channels.

Building your community on online channels helps you make your brand positioning more powerful and directly reach your target audience. Many businesses are leveraging their growth strategy on the power of the engaged community. It helps them secure a positive image in the market and make an impact on driver level and user level.

Stay relevant

The addition of new features and regular app updates is one of the useful growth hacks for increasing app downloads. It tells your users that you are dedicated to mobile app development and their user experience. It is imperative for app marketers to keep up with app analytics. They should understand the data and consult users’ feedback to improve the existing app features and update new ones.

There are a lot of app analytics solutions available in the market. You can easily integrate it with your app and closely track the metrics from the point of launching your app.

Canva is one of the most prevalently used design tools used across the globe, and it has seen phenomenal growth over its journey. After its web app skyrocketed, the users started demanding for Canva’s mobile app as well. The brand then received great feedback and traffic on the Canva iPad app. With time users are turning towards and expecting better technological options, hence it is crucial to stay relevant for your audiences.

Email marketing

Email marketing delivers a return on investment of $44 on every $1 spent, on average. Email marketing still is an effective way to reach your audience.

A landing page and online presence can help you generate business leads of people who might be interested in using your app. Email is a great channel to engage with target users and boost up app downloads.

However, later on you can also use the same channel to engage with your app users and keep enjoying high retention rates.

Promote on social media

According to research, there are about 3.5 billion active social media users worldwide in 2019. This means social media is an excellent way to engage with your target audience who are using social platforms for personal or professional reasons. Some tips to effectively engage with your audience include:

• Share creative content (text, images, and videos) to build anticipation around your app.
• Actively participate in ongoing conversations.
• Build your brand by sharing your vision and values.
• Host engaging contests and competitions.
• Utilize the paid app campaigns.
• Smart place links to boost app install experience.

App store optimization

If you want your target users to find organically, you cannot find a way around your app store optimization (ASO). Searching for apps on an app store is the first thing a user does when they first identify the need, and if you are not there in the detailed results, you are out of the competition.

ASO helps you improve your app’s visibility and discover ability in the app stores by optimizing various aspects of your app that defines it for the users. Some of the basic tactics of ASO include:

• Find the targeted app store keywords for your app.
• Use app title that drives downloads.
• Optimize your app description, icons, and screenshots.
• Localize your app listing for a more personalized experience.

App rates and reviews

Another great way for app marketing and increase app downloads is to have more positive app reviews and ratings. While improving your app ranking on the app store, it also encourages new users to download and give your app a try.

Furthermore, it is a typical practice of smartphone users to go through the app ratings and reviews section before they download it. It almost reassures them that this app is worth their time. However, negative feedback will also have an impact on app downloads. Hence, make sure your app offers a great experience to avoid getting negative feedback.

App directories

Creating your app takes time, but getting actual people to download and use your app makes more time and effort. Some businesses even spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to acquire users but still are not able to reach enough of them. That’s why submitting your app to relevant directory platforms makes all the difference.

App directories help you be visible to users who are interested in your particular niche, and it could be anything games, social media, business analytics or others. It is all about having a presence on the right directories that your users are most likely to view.

Originally published at https://www.tekrevol.com on January 21, 2020.