Marketing your application does not need to be an ultimate time suck, nor does it have to be considered some form of black magic that only the people with an unfaltering love for buzzwords can perform.
Recall the one man band busker who stands on some city street corner? He is playing the harmonica, drums and guitar simultaneously and all without missing a beat, singing the lyrics to some power ballad with a smile. Many application developers are that busker. They are all the members of a one person team, wearing several hats as they work on an application that started out as a simple idea. Before they know it, they are not just developers, but designers, or reluctantly, marketers.
This blog series is intended for the solo developer (or maybe a strategist, maybe a designer…I don’t want to exclude any particular discipline) who has no idea how to market their own application, but knows that they need it. Topics that this series will cover in no particular order may include ( heh, I don’t want to over-promise and then under-deliver):
- Market Research ( How to in 3 Simple Steps)
- What is in a Name (tools, resources and techniques for Naming)
- The Importance of an Icon
- Descriptions that Drive Downloads
- Smart Screenshots
- User Feedback
- Monetization
- Creating a Promotional Site
- Leveraging Social Networks
- Post Launch Support
I’ll include a whole bunch of tools and resources throughout to help discuss a variety of tactics and approaches to help raise the quality of an application, in addition to everyone’s favorite task of trying to market it. Expect the odd interview with various experts as well – I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert icon designer or an exceptional copywriter, better to just get some expert advice, from well, the experts.