[APP Promotion] How to promote and operate a new App?

Since I often write about App promotion, friends often call me to consult about the promotion of new apps. Some are travel apps, some are women's apps, and some are social apps. The questions they ask are all kinds of things. Some say they don't have a budget, so how can they promote it? Some say they have a little budget but not much, so how can they promote it? I often call my friends to answer questions, so I'm going to write down my thoughts today to share with friends who are just starting out in the promotion industry. If you are an industry expert, you can skip this.

Let me first talk about the preliminary promotion ideas. When a new App is released, you can follow this approach regardless of whether you have a budget or not.
Step 1: Create a wiki for your app.

A newly released app will definitely have a blank page on the Internet. There is no information about the new app on the Internet. Create an encyclopedia about the app. When users search for it, they can get to know you in more detail from the encyclopedia. At the same time, if you do brand marketing in the future, it can also attract more potential users for you. Of course, the encyclopedia is not necessarily just Baidu Encyclopedia. You can draw inferences from one example and create your entries in various encyclopedias. The more you create, the easier it will be for users to search for them quickly. Building an encyclopedia seems to be a very simple thing, but it is not. Some encyclopedias look simple and clear, while others look confusing. This also involves technical content, so when creating an encyclopedia, you must make sure it is well organized, the language is easy to understand, and it is accompanied by clear screenshots so that users can understand it more quickly. The encyclopedias of many domestic apps are poorly written. Why are they so bad? First, they are written very professionally. Second, there are many modifying words. Third, they are very wordy. Such entries are highly subjective and users will not like them. Therefore, it is easier for them to download them if you tell them in simple terms what your app can do for them.

Step 2: Create a Weibo account for your app

Weibo is a popular product and may be installed on many people's mobile phones. After users learn about your app from the entries, they can easily follow you through Weibo and interact with you, including providing feedback. Some people say that users can interact with you through the "message feedback" in the app. This is totally wrong. Many users will not easily download an app before they understand it, unless the app is a must-download. In addition, user feedback on many apps is hidden very deeply and users generally cannot find it. On the contrary, through Weibo, users can get to know you in real time, and good Weibo content will also cause users to forward and spread it. These are the benefits of establishing Weibo. Of course, Weibo is not only Sina Weibo, other Weibo accounts must also be included. Don't let users of Tencent Weibo find you on Sina Weibo, that is impossible.

Step 3: Post in a high-authority forum

By filling in information from encyclopedias and Weibo, a new app can be said to have a certain brand foundation. The next step is to post on the forum. Don’t underestimate posting. I once had an advertising post that spread millions of pages, and was used as a tutorial by various Taobao stores and directly pasted in the manuals of mobile phones. What I mean is that don’t underestimate a post. You have to write the post carefully, from the user’s perspective, so that users will find it very useful. After the post is written, you need to find a forum to post it. What kind of forum should you look for? You must look for one with high authority. Which website forums have the highest authority? It is recommended to use the webmaster query. The search engine crawling speed of the forum with high weight is the fastest, usually within one minute. I suggest posting in 20 to 50 forums. When promoting the APP before, the traffic brought by the forum could be as high as 10,000 or 20,000 activations, and now it should be more.

Step 4: Expand 200 channels

After talking so much about the first three steps, they are actually all about placing keywords on the Internet to facilitate user searches and increase the exposure and self-propagation of the app. The next step is to expand channels, upload the new app to various application stores, software download sites, and expand 200 channels. There are currently many channels, and you can classify them according to categories and discover some new channels at the same time. The definition of a channel is an online medium that can bring display and downloads to your APP. Talking about channels does not only refer to those APP stores. For example, some free Wi-Fi on buses also provides APP downloads, which are also your channels. In addition, some application self-media with a large number of WeChat fans often recommend some APPs and can also provide some downloads for your APP. These are also your channels. In addition, laying channels is a relatively tiring job, but it is indeed useful. I once brought in a volume of one million just by laying channels. Another benefit of laying out channels is that through natural downloads you can know what position an app holds in the minds of users, and whether your app is good or not. It can also help you understand the quality of each channel in more detail, laying the foundation for future paid promotions. Of course, laying out channels is not just a simple process. In the process, it is necessary to understand some situations of the channels, such as whether there are promotional resources and first-release resources for the new APP, so as to pave the way for subsequent large-scale promotion.

Step 5: Combine the target audience to conduct event marketing

What I have said before are all some ways to promote APP for free. Of course, if you have a small budget, you can do some marketing activities, which will not cost much. You can hold some activities in forums and channels. The activities should be simple and playable, and the prizes should be attractive. Through user participation, you can increase the download volume of APP and provide exposure. Event marketing should be combined with the attributes of your APP to find your specific audience. For example, if you are making an APP for women, you can hold events on campus or in an online women's community. If you are making a travel APP, you can cooperate with some travel agencies, etc. Therefore, when doing event marketing, you must cooperate with the target audience.

These are some new APP promotion ideas and methods. When promoting APP, you should have a broad vision, learn from one example and apply it to other situations, and never be stereotyped. At the same time, you should consider the problem from the user's perspective. Now when new APPs come out, most of them start with exchanging volume. It is recommended not to do this. On the one hand, this kind of promotion method of exchanging volume has a greater impact on the product, and on the other hand, it has no meaning for the product. Exchanging volume is suitable for making junk APPs. In addition, the ideas in this article are suitable for individuals and small and medium-sized teams without resources.