The top ten problems in app promotion: sometimes it’s not your fault if the sales volume cannot be increased!

Friends often ask, " I made an App , how do I promote it? " or " Our company has developed an App , and we want to get a huge amount of volume in a short period of time. " Others ask, " Is there any good channel that can get 1 million volume in three months, and the budget is 100,000 "... After seeing so many questions, I am speechless and I really don't know how to answer them.

Because I find that it is becoming more and more difficult to promote apps nowadays, and a large part of it is related to the promoted products and teams. Here are the top ten problems I have summarized.

User needs are too vertical

For example, a friend of mine developed an App for insomniac users, an IM tool for them. I feel that this user group is too segmented. On the one hand, many large IMs already have such functions. Why should those insomniac users download such an App ? What is the innovation? There are many questions that need to be considered, such as what kind of help it can provide to users. Therefore, it is very difficult to promote such an app .

There are many apps like this. The main reason is that user needs are too segmented. Although the user characteristics are very accurate, the number of users will be very small when promoted. Just like promoting 2D products on 2C media, the conversion rate must be very poor. Therefore, it is recommended that when starting an App business , you should not choose too segmented groups when choosing user groups, as this will make it very difficult to promote.

Poor app quality

In fact, many promoters do not pay attention to the quality issues of the App itself, such as the compatibility issues of the App . Many Apps are developed by a team. Basically, they are tested on a few mobile phones and then promoted if there are no problems. After the promoters take over, they start promoting the App. As a result, they spend a lot of effort to get store resources, but they are shocked when they see the conversion rate. The conversion rate is too low.

I have tested several friends' apps on testin cloud testing. After testing, I found that the compatibility of new apps is generally poor. Many mobile phones cannot be installed on them, and a large number of users are lost. Many times, when the number of users does not increase, the boss will usually blame the promoters for their ineffectiveness. In fact, this has nothing to do with the promoters. It is because the quality of the App developed by the program is too poor. Therefore, as a good App promoter, you should have an understanding of the quality of your own App . After all, when the number of users does not increase, the boss will mostly look for promoters. You cannot suffer this loss in silence.

No or low cost

People often ask me some questions, which is how to get a large number of App users without spending money or spending very little money. I am usually speechless when I encounter such questions, because it is obvious that the person is from a traditional industry. The popularity of the App industry has made a small number of people rich overnight and attracted many people from traditional industries to come and make money. Many teams may spend several months making an App and then start promoting it, thinking that they will soon have millions of users. If this is the case, so many App industry promoters would have become rich long ago. Nowadays, many CPs spend money to get volume and there are long queues. It is really difficult to get volume without spending money. Unless you know the boss of bat and ask them to put a download link for you on their official website, then there is definitely a chance. Therefore, under the current trend, there is almost no chance to promote the App without spending money.

No resource accumulation

Of course, there are always people who like to argue. Some people say that promotion is possible without spending money. Yes, it is possible, but the prerequisite is that you have accumulated resources. What is resource accumulation? It means that some people in your team have a large amount of traffic resources, or have strong connections. For example, there are many Internet promotion experts in the industry. Why are they experts? That is because they have accumulated resources over a long period of time. When they are working on a new project, they have already mobilized a lot of accumulated resources, such as traffic resources, media resources, etc., and rely on these resources to promote it, of course without spending any money. So, if your team has no accumulated resources and wants to promote an App without spending money, it will be harder than climbing Mount Everest. Everything has to start from scratch, and it must be very difficult to promote the App .

Short promotion cycle

Many CPs nowadays hope to gain users quickly, which I understand very well. The industry is developing very fast and there are many competitors. If you are a little slower, you will fall behind your competitors. Therefore, the requirements for promoters are very strict. They must reach a million users in two months. I feel that this is very difficult.

Any promotion has a lag, which is different from technical development. A product can be launched online after technical development, but for promotion, you may not see any volume even after one or two months. Promotion is actually a long process, a process of accumulation of quantity. Only when the quantity accumulates to a certain level will a qualitative change occur. When I was doing promotion, I set the promotion cycle in years. This kind of user growth is a gradual process and is not prone to problems. I like to watch the step-by-step growth of the background App user base, and I don’t want it to be like a roller coaster, with ups and downs. Therefore, if the promotion cycle is too short, it is difficult to launch a good product. If the promotion cycle is short, the quality of users will not be high. In this case, you have to spend more money than the market price to do the promotion, otherwise there is no other way.

Users have high quality requirements

During the promotion, another problem we discovered is that people have increasingly higher requirements for user quality. In fact, the higher your requirements for user quality, the more stringent the conditions for screening users will be. Many apps , especially those for dating, registration, games , etc. , have very strict requirements. Many operators treat users as fools because they want to get more from users. In fact, today's users are getting smarter and they know these traps and purposes too well. The result of harsh screening conditions is that users abandon you because the choice of App is always in the hands of users. Therefore, don't give up the interests of users for the sake of your own goals. Otherwise, your product will not last long and it will be more difficult to promote it.

Difficulty in attracting talent

Another problem is the difficulty in attracting talent. Many teams are unable to recruit the best talent. I once encountered a team where the technical personnel they recruited couldn’t even solve a problem that I could solve, such as the problem of lost signatures. I think this is not entrepreneurship at all, it is a waste of life. Recruiting such rookie technical talents and expecting to succeed is like an ant trying to shake a tree. It is difficult to attract talents because everyone wants to get excellent talents at a cheap price. I think this is almost impossible. We should analyze the trend at all times, just like if you open a digital store in Zhongguancun shopping mall to sell digital products, you will definitely lose money because the trend has changed. It is the same now. Today's App industry is booming and it is very difficult to recruit talents. At the same time, many big names are paid very well. If you want to recruit talents cheaply, it is no different from daydreaming. You spend 5K to recruit a junior developer and 50K to recruit a technical big name. The technical big name may be able to accomplish a lot of things in a month, but a beginner may find it difficult to produce a finished product in a year. Therefore, if you want to recruit good talents, you must be willing to spend money.

Subsequent funding is difficult

There are also some entrepreneurial teams that are basically in the initial stage of starting a business. The initial funds are invested by themselves, and they start to start a business without any follow-up funds. I feel that this is really a life-and-death struggle. When even eating becomes a problem, how can a person concentrate on doing things? In ancient military tactics, there is a saying that "food and grass must be sent before troops move". Many entrepreneurial teams have basically no follow-up promotion funds. In the early stage, they can only rely on some very low-cost promotion methods to promote their business. It is difficult to survive until the business is successful. At the same time, without any resource accumulation, the gamble is too high with just enthusiasm. The funds for promotion are only enough to create a buzz in the early stages, but if it cannot be sustained, it will inevitably fail.

Bad timing in the Red Ocean era

Another problem with the current app promotion is the bad timing. In 2010 , many apps easily gained millions of users, but now it is different. There are too many people entering the mobile Internet industry, and app entrepreneurship has become a red ocean. It is too difficult to succeed in this red ocean. Nowadays, app stores are highly concentrated, traffic is decreasing, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to promote apps . Therefore, bad timing has also made it very difficult to promote many apps .

No strategic direction

The last one is the strategic direction. I found that many Apps can only imitate others. Whatever App others make, I make that App . I do whatever others do. I have seen two Apps competing. When this App held an event, the person in charge of that App would order the people below to make one as well. When that App updated a certain function, this App would also quickly add the same function. I feel that such a team is really pitfalls. The person in charge stares at the opponent every day. I feel that the result of this is that they will never be able to catch up with others. In fact, when promoting an App , you must have your own promotion direction and plan. Blindly following and imitating will only make yourself die faster. The work of many promotion personnel is always interfered with by their leaders. In fact, many leaders basically don’t promote, so it will really harm people if this continues. Therefore, when promoting an App , you must have a plan and steps, rather than just being a follower.

So App promotion is not that easy. App promotion has a lot to do with a company's product demand, product quality, team background, and self-promotion. Some teams are rich, but they are not good at promotion. Some companies are very small but still do a good job in promotion. These are all related to " people " . If the team can overcome the above ten problems, then promotion will become easier.