3 strategies for APP overseas promotion!

Entering 2019, overseas traffic costs are still on the rise. How to promote and attract new customers at low cost has become a problem that more and more overseas companies have to face. In the face of new forms, overseas operations and promotions must be bold in innovation and try some new methods. Below we will discuss 3 "unconventional" promotion strategies.

1. Cooperate with video bloggers and bloggers to expand the promotion of APP through KOL

Contacting bloggers and video bloggers in related vertical fields, or submitting the APP to app review websites and promoting the APP through the influence of KOLs is an effective way. Word-of-mouth marketing is a method that deserves attention. We should not underestimate the impact of app reviews. When users, especially KOLs, praise your app and recommend it to their fans on social media, it can effectively promote the download and installation of the app.

Some larger blogger channels will charge you a fee, but for those KOLs who are interested in your product, you can give them a free trial or some in-app rewards in exchange for a review and help promote it on social media. So, how do you promote your app to vloggers and bloggers, or app review sites? Please refer to the following detailed steps:

1). Determine the target KOL list

Make a list of influencers, bloggers, and vloggers who have a similar target audience to you, and then reach out to them through social media and other channels. How to find the target KOL? There are many ways to do this. One of them is to find influencers in related fields through hashtags on social media, or to use some tools to quickly search, such as Audiense. For details, please refer to the previous article Three Magic Tools to Improve Overseas Social Media Operation Efficiency

2). Recommended words

You need to prepare a set of recommendation scripts to introduce your products and their attractions to KOLs. In fact, this means thinking about your USP (unique selling point). If you haven’t done so already, try to summarize your product in a sentence or two that anyone would be excited to try.

3). Use personalized emails.

This sounds time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. First, it is important to make it clear that the email is written for each KOL, including their name and being familiar with their situation and the needs of their fans, and then explain why your app can attract their audience and what value it can provide.

4). Find the right entry point.

Do you have a fascinating story about the growth of your app and team? Or is your app keeping up with industry trends in some way that better solves user pain points? Whichever it is, finding the right entry point and using it in your referral pitch can increase your chances of success.

5). Help KOL prepare promotional materials

If you can provide material for the KOL’s blog, such as screenshots and a video trailer of your app, the blogger may be more inclined to help you. After all, making things convenient for others is making things convenient for yourself.

6). Create news writing materials

KOLs and reviewers will often ask you for a press release, so it makes sense to prepare this, including a headline, app description, links to your app, and any other marketing materials. It will also make you look more professional.

7) Perseverance

In addition to KOLs, we can also try contacting app review sites (such as 148apps, AppStoreApps or AppAdvice, etc.), but we also need to understand that these high-profile blogs and websites will receive a lot of recommendation applications from other apps, so don’t be disappointed if you don’t receive a response. This is a no-loss attempt and we need to persevere in contacting more bloggers or websites.

8). Build relationships.

If you can get in touch with KOLs in advance through some activities and establish a preliminary relationship with them, you can increase the probability of them recommending your app. Therefore, it is important to stay in touch with KOLs and attend events to build a network of contacts.

9). Create rewards.

To incentivize KOLs to help promote your product, we need to create a reward mechanism that provides them with free access to premium features and some kind of unique in-app feature, discount code, etc. for their audience.

10) Update recommended words regularly

Whenever your APP has a new version or launches new product features, you should also update the recommendation script in a timely manner so that you can contact and cooperate with KOLs at any time.

2. Hold a contest to encourage users to share your app

By holding prize contests on social media, you can encourage users to share your app with their friends, thereby increasing product awareness and downloads. Taking the game application Plato as an example, the Plato team wanted to promote their APP by holding a competition on social media. So they created a 3D Werewolf sticker and released it via Snapchat. They held a best video competition, encouraging users to post videos using the game stickers and have their friends share and repost them. The videos with the most shares and reposts will be featured on the official Snapchat channel, and the top ten entries will receive cash prizes.

Plato video ad on Snapchat

The target group of Plato's event is young people in Europe and the United States, and the event has achieved impressive results. The number of installs in the first week was over 18,000, with a CPI of just $0.36, and a total of over 1,000 people downloaded the video. Compared with traditional advertising models, it can be said that it has achieved a very high cost-effectiveness.

There are a few points to note when analyzing the success of this event:

First, it is necessary to design reasonable activity game rules based on the target audience. As a werewolf killing game, Plato’s main target group is teenagers. Based on the clear target group, we plan the activity plan by taking advantage of teenagers’ pursuit of novelty and their love of sharing.

The second is to choose the appropriate activity channel. Based on the target group of European and American teenagers, Snapchat is a more accurate choice compared to Facebook, Twitter, etc. Third, be good at using new technologies and new ways of playing to increase the viral transmission effect. The Plato team used 3DAR Werewolf stickers in the event, which was the highlight of the event. It was precisely because of the use of this new gameplay and new technology that users were willing to share, not just for the bonus, because it has been proven that many activities that rely solely on bonuses are difficult to be sustainable and explosive.

In summary, in order to encourage users to share APP by holding competitions, it is necessary to select appropriate channels based on clear target users, make good use of new technologies and new gameplay, and guide users to actively share.

Holding competitions to encourage users to share apps is a type of social media activity that has something in common with other activities. The first step in organizing an event on social media is to determine the goal of the event. For example, the goal of the above event is to encourage users to share the app. But there is more than one goal for activities on social media. We can plan activities according to different needs at different stages. Social media competitions can achieve multiple marketing goals, including: 1) Increase the number of followers - A good way to enhance the influence of social media accounts is to create a social media competition. Users must like or follow your account to participate in the event. 2) Collect email lists – Unlike the domestic marketing environment, email marketing still plays an important role in overseas markets. The accuracy and high opening rate of email marketing force us not to ignore this important marketing method. The first step of email marketing is to collect the user's email list. So collecting names and email addresses of potential customers through social media campaigns is an effective way. 3) Direct traffic to the website – It is a good way to direct users to the website through social media event competitions and then make corresponding conversions.

4) Social media viral marketing - Users share your app through social media, creating a viral effect is a good way to expose your brand to thousands of people in a short period of time and increase the number of app downloads. This is also the core logic behind us encouraging users to share the APP by holding competitions! 5) Increased customer engagement – ​​Users are more likely to engage with campaign content than regular posts because they are interesting and offer rewards. 6) Encourage user-generated UGC – Title contests or asking fans to submit content according to the rules are two ways most brands achieve this. You can then share this content across your accounts and build stronger, more meaningful relationships with your followers. 7) Increase customer lifetime value (LTV) – Prizes through competitions and events can make users feel valued and respected, and they will not easily turn to competing products, thereby improving user retention and thus increasing their LTV. Later, a special article will analyze the detailed process and key points of conducting activities on social media.

3. Cross-promote with other apps

I have discussed the topic of cross-promotion in previous articles. If you choose the right partners and do cross-promotion in the right way, it can be a win-win strategy. Find products with similar user profiles to your app and help them promote their products in exchange for them promoting your app.

Author: Overseas Operations

Source: Overseas Operations