The Only Marketing That Counts
On this week’s episode of Build and Analyze, Marco asked how other developers have tried marketing. Ten days ago I released my first real app, Box Cat. Here’s what I’ve tried:
Make a Video
I spent a week making a launch trailer. It was viewed 3000 times.
Email Friends
I thought some of my friends would enjoy Box Cat, so I sent them an email.
Email the Press
Promoter has links to 300 game publications from around the world. So I sent 300 emails. 18 sites have posted a review. I received better responses when I personalized the messages.
Send a Few Tweets
I tweeted “@” a few people I respect. Just the few I thought would dig Box Cat. They retweeted. I have less than 200 followers, so just a few friends see what I tweet. But through retweets, thousands of Twitter accounts were told about Box Cat.
App Ad
I made a fun ad in my first app and dropped the price to free. This reached about 5000 people.
Get Featured
After a week on the App Store, only few hundred Box Cats were sold. Most were from the first day. But the reviews were great: A five star average.
Then on Thursday Apple featured Box Cat in New and Noteworthy. On Saturday Box Cat broke into the Top 200.
What I Learned
A few months ago I heard an interview with the two brothers from NimbleBit:
“The only role that marketing plays is Apple’s marketing and if they feature you or not.”
Bingo. Being featured has improved sales more than all my other marketing combined. But most apps won’t be featured. Apple only promotes apps that make iOS look good. So I believe the most important “marketing step” is trying to make a great app.
