This survey will help us all - How effective is your marketing?

apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
edited November -1 in Business and Marketing Theory
Hi,

I think we all realise that getting good sales figures for our games requires more than just developing a kick-ass app. A common theme on this Forum (and all over the Web) is, "How do I get more sales?", and it would seem no-one has a good answer.

There are lots of marketing 'specialists' who will tell you that you must have a blog, must sort out your SEO, must build up a huge Social Marketing following, etc. They will preach about in-bound marketing, paid PR, PPC advertising . . . and frankly I don't think any of them really have a reliable formula for promoting apps - it's just regurgitated theory that is untested but assumed to be correct.

The only really good article I have found on the subject - http://bit.ly/hLbESL - did a survey of developers to find out what they had found had worked and what hadn't.

It is so good, I thought I would repeat the survey with GS developers.

There are five questions that I think would be really insightful. The more of us that take part in the survey, and the more detail you can provide, the more useful it will be for all of us. I am happy to collate all the answers and present the results on this Forum. I am happy for you to post your answers as a reply to this topic, or you can email them to me at simon@octappus.com.

Many thanks,

Simon
www.octappus.com

Survey

1. How many apps do you have in the App Store at the moment?

2. What's the primary revenue source for your apps?

a. Paid app
b. Free app with in-app advertising
c. Other

3. What app marketing/promotion have you used? (Eg. Paid adverts, Facebook, Free review sites, paid review sites, SEO, Marketing company, etc – list everything you've tried. The more detail you can provide the better)

4. Which of these has been successful and by how much? Please highlight the single most successful technique.

5. Which of these has been unsuccessful?

Thanks for your time.

Comments

  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    To get things started, here are my survey answers:

    1. 3 apps in the App Store

    2. Primary revenue source is Paid app

    3. Facebook page, Twitter account, free review sites, promo codes to friends, local newspaper press releases, commenting on forums, own Website

    4. None of these techniques has impacted sales. Giving promo codes to friends got that app eight good reviews though.

    5. All have been unsuccessful
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    bump

    (Is bumping too old fashioned or frowned upon here?)
  • StormyStudioStormyStudio United KingdomMember Posts: 3,989
    1. 4
    2.free with iAds
    3. Have tried, facebook, posting on forums, price drop
    4. i dropped the price from 59p to free and sales shot up from about 5 to 75000 for a few days before settling back at about 200-1000.
    5. everything else pointless, except maybe some good reviews and a few good days extra sales posting on touch arcade and gizmodo before the price drop.
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Thanks Stormystudio. Very useful
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Just one response so far, so (if you don't mind) I'll bump this one more time to try and get some feedback and then I'll let it lie.
  • CodeCodeCodeCode Member Posts: 200
    Its no much of info but i hope it helps someone^^

    1. 1
    2. Paid app
    3. Facebook, Touch Arcade Forum.
    4. None
    5. All?
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Thanks Prodigio - your answers will be helpful.
  • noefreshnoefresh Member Posts: 6
    [edit] sorry wrong thread- interesting though. Will watch this one.
  • wsdomainwsdomain Member Posts: 35
    Yes search engine optimization is good to make your website more visible on search engines. With the right keywords and if the techniques is done right this will you make possible customers to visit your site. But for applications such as this i think Social Media Optimization ( SMO ) is more effective, if you build a huge fan base on facebook, subcribers at your youtube channel and followers on your twitter then it will give you direct promotion on your applications.
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Using Social Media seems to be what all the marketers are saying, and there are ways of getting lots of followers very quickly on Twitter and Facebook, but (in my experience) not many of these followers will be legitimate potential customers. Building up a substantial fan base of potential customers is quite time consuming . . . and I have yet to see any data showing SM marketing is effective for selling apps.
  • xyloFUNxyloFUN Member Posts: 1,593
    A few days ago, I've had a good talk with someone who specializes in software sales and he recommended a "landing page" for all of my apps.

    So far, I've got two done and will try to have one for each of my ten apps by the weekend!
    Here is what I have come up with the help of some googleing: http://littlecomposers.com/notes.php

    Any advise or constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! :)

    P.S. I am not completely happy with the head line ... so I might revise it later tonight.
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    I can understand that every product (of any kind) should have its own landing page, and this is probably an effective sales technique for desktop/laptop software or specialist software. If, for example, someone needs a video editing suite, then more often than not they'll google "video editing" and be directed to landing pages. In that case, you need good SEO and a good page to convert visitors to buyers.

    I think apps are very different, which is why I am questioning conventional marketing techniques.

    When people want an app, mostly they go to the app store first. This means the only influence we, as developers and sellers, have is our icons (http://bit.ly/hKRXcN), which could lead to the app's description, screenshots and reviews.

    I wonder how many potential customers really do go to review sites, and which ones, how many belong to Facebook pages, how many are influenced in app selection by twitter and YouTube and the other SM channels?

    This is perhaps why I've yet to see a consistently good marketing strategy for apps and this is why I opened the topic with the questions that I did. I'm trying to find, and then share, what developers have found successful and what they have found makes no difference.

    In response to xyloFUN, here are links to two great articles on landing pages: http://bit.ly/hcS0Yw (the headline isn't a comment on your page; just the title of the article!) and http://bit.ly/ebDuOJ. I hope they help you with your page design.
  • xyloFUNxyloFUN Member Posts: 1,593
    thanks a4e,
    much appreciated! :)

    I've just added google analytics to all of my pages (except the ones related to administration) so from now on, I don't have to rely on my web hosts data anymore.
    Soon, I will be selling windows versions so I need that stuff in place anyway :)
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Duh. How long did it take me to realise that a4e was me!

    xF (see what I did there?) - you're welcome. I completely redesigned my Website twice because of those two articles. I think they contain some of the best advice on the net (just my opinion though). I hope you find them just as useful.

    Simon
    www.octappus.com
  • xyloFUNxyloFUN Member Posts: 1,593
    wow a4 (see what I did?),
    your web site looks REALLY polished!

    One thing that sticks out to me ... why did you use iWeb?
    I just spent a whole day to recreate my iWeb pages because of the nasty way keywords need to be inserted plues, they tend to be big in size (when i upload content).

    But never the less, VERY VERY nice site! :)
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Thanks X (too familiar?!)

    I used iWeb because it is so quick and easy to create a page/site and then update it. I also really like the wysiwyg aspect. (I used Microsoft Publisher until I got a Mac, much to the horror of 'proper' Website developers).

    Keywords is a huge failing of iWeb, but I'm not convinced SEO is going to make much difference to selling apps so I'm not worried for now.
  • RushDawgRushDawg Member Posts: 86
    Thanks for putting this together! I'm looking forward to the results.

    1) 1
    2) Paid app - Tier 1
    3) YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Website. Free review site (smaller one). Banner ads on one smaller review site. Posting in GameFAQs and TouchArcade forums. Selling to friends and family.
    4) Single most successful technique was posting on GameFAQs - resulted in about 10 sales. Not counting sales from friends and family, which was around 20.
    5) Pretty much everything else
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Useful info - thanks RushDawg
  • palijorgepalijorge Member Posts: 18
    1. 1 app- Lite and Full Version

    2.Paid app

    3.This Forum,Twitter,Appadvice.com,crazymikeapps.com

    4. Will tell you in a week.Need to get the numbers together.I think
    that the paid adverts will bring a few customers.

    5. After 4 days my apps have been downloaded 229.
    free apps 213,paid 16. Nothing to be excited.Let's see in a week.

    Here's the game and thank you.
    Lite Version
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monkey-treats-lite-version/id426722963?mt=8
    Full Version
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monkey-treats-1/id426715573?mt=8
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Thanks for this - monkey treats looks really good. I'll download it later and have a play.

    I'm very interested to hear how your advertising goes (I hope successfully).

    Cheers,

    Simon

    image
  • RocketBrainRocketBrain Member, PRO Posts: 269
    Survey

    1. 3 currently (4th in review)

    2. Primary source was paid, all were failing so i switched to "Appvertisments"....technically did worse so far.

    3. Facebook, Word of Mouth, Review site, referrals from inside my apps, website

    4. Nothing has really done well enough to pick out a good strategy

    5. All unsuccessful

    My first game did the best. I think in part because of its name showed up near the front alphabetically, and for people that did a search for Asteroid, mine came up on the list "Asteroid Assault". I didnt make enough to overcome my startup costs but it wasnt bad for a first game. I listed it at 99 cents.

    Second game...well....tanked. "Assault Force Bravo" (tried the alphabet thing again). The UI was difficult to use, the music file was way too big and the icon was ugly. I think other than family i got maybe 6 downloads that first 2 weeks lol. I listed it at 99 cents too.

    Third game "Meteor Shower" was a knockoff of my first game. The point of it was to experiment with free with advertising. I had the most downloads out of any of them. however i made far far less money.

    My fourth game "Don't Eat My Cheese!" will be listing at free again with in-app advertising. I spent more time on it than Meteor Shower so its more polished. I'm going to spend more effort advertising it. All my beta testers love the game so i think it has a shot.

    I have yet to put any money into advertising. My cash flow is really short right now (so poor i've lost 50lbs in the last 3 months).

    Eventually i'd like to try hiring one of these companies that will do advertising for you but its a big risk and i just dont have the extra income to risk it.
  • apps4everyoneapps4everyone Member Posts: 103
    Thanks RW - all useful data.

    I wonder if paid adverts will help, and where those adverts are most effective. I also wonder if a PR/marketing company will really make the difference. I have yet to hear from anyone with that kind of experience.

    Good luck with your apps,

    Simon
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