How to Market a Mobile App: Where to Start

Mobile Magic Developers has several applications on various mobile marketplaces now. My 2 year old daughter loves Cow Says Moo. My mother in law has been playing This to That for years. Our friends get goodnatured laughs with Said Obama. All in all, developing mobile applications has been a really positive experience.

In graduate school marketing classes, we spent a lot of energy discussing myriad ways large organization with massive marketing budgets could broaden their customer bases. I'm sure that information is still somehow useful but it surely doesn't help independent developers like Mobile Magic Developers who don't have a marketing budget, let alone enough to hire an MBA marketing consultant. In fact, our marketing campaigns like the rest of our expenses, are still being paid out of our pockets.

So, where do you start on the quest to release a popular mobile application?

I Have No Clue O.o

I sincerely have no idea. I've read a lot of good blog posts about marketing mobile applications. I've purchase some really interesting books on the topic. My brother has a BA in marketing. I did get some marketing exposure in college. Despite all of this, I still have some really great apps nobody uses.

That's why I'm starting the How to Market a Mobile App series (well, that and I haven't blogged in almost 2 years and it's high time I get back to it). I'm going to start by introducing, with complete candor, where we are with This to That for iOS today and how we spent the last few years getting to what is effectively a good starting point.

I have a new plan for spreading the word about This to That with a limited budget over the next few months. I'll blog about every strategy I try and how each idea fails and succeeds (including all of the nitty-gritty and sometimes embarrassing details). Every time I add a new post, I'll include it in the index below so bookmark this page for a convenient starting point.

Worst Case Scenario? :*(

Well, as I've shared, I don't really know much about successfully marketing a mobile application, but I have learned a handful of things not to do. That tells me that the worst case scenario of writing this series both for me the writer and you the reader (and subscriber hopefully) is that together we learn a few more things not to do. But, who knows? Perhaps we'll figure out the right formula for getting our wonderful apps into the hands of the target audience who can get the most value out of them.

How to Successfully Market a Mobile Application

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