How To Prepare An Effective Marketing Strategy For Your Mobile App Pre-Launch 4 tips to create a successful pre-launch mobile app marketing strategy.

From the minute your idea to create a mobile app takes form, you should also have a marketing strategy in place. Many tend to get caught up in the app development part and forget that the app's intended user should also be able to anticipate its release. What are the chances that they would download your app? How will you be able to attract their attention in the first place? These are questions that need to be properly addressed and answered from the word go.

In one of my previous pieces, I had addressed the various challenges faced by startups when developing mobile apps and marketing was one of them. Today I will address this issue, with an indepth look on how to prepare an effective marketing strategy for your mobile app prior to its launch date.

1. Bring in the users opinion

These are people who are genuinely interested in your app since it solves a problem for them. Ensure that you make them feel important, that they have been part of the team that helped develop the app. You will be surprised at how these actual users will act as a network of word-of-mouth marketers who spread the word about your app!

Let them have a feel of your app before it hits the market, then take their feedback seriously. One of the best ways to gain interested app users is through Twitter, where there are plenty of tech-savvy individuals always willing to share their opinion. With a tool like Social Crawlytics, you will be able to identify the people who are relevant to the type of industry you are venturing into. Use the right hashtags and include helpful information to attract their interest and eventual loyalty.

2. Have a sound social media marketing strategy

Have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+ to create prior awareness and hype. Keep an active blog as well so you can update useful content for the interested or potential audience. What this step does is that it helps you with search engine rankings. Once you launch your app, the user will get a wide array of information online, so they will immediately view your app as genuine. You should also have a website that will avail your app for download to app users who will not necessarily access it from app stores.

Remember to keep updating your blog and sharing the posts on social media so you can generate reasonable site traffic. Get creative with your plan. Some give special offers or sneak peeks as a reward for sharing or showing interest in their content. Whatever you do, just ensure that it is enough to keep this audience interested until the official release date.

3. Send strategic emails

The first strategy we had talked about reaches the tech savvy users who will test your product, but emails will reach the majority of mobile device users. These are the ones you are really relying on to be the market for your app. It is important that take time to come up with creative emails that will catch their attention, entice them and keep them anticipating for your app's release.

As a smart mobile app developer, you should have a smart way of selecting these targeted users. One of the ways that works is, by collecting their emails as they visit your website or blog. A person who leaves you their email willingly is giving you the permission to contact them so they are likely to be more receptive. Remember to keep them engaged so they do not lose interest or forget about your app!

4. Make a press kit that pops

Describe your app in a way that makes the user want to learn more. Provide your app's release date, official website, high quality and attractive app store screenshots, an impressive promo video among other things needed for a launch. These are the things you do when your app is ready for release. Generate more media buzz by approaching other influencers like bloggers who already have an audience that keenly follows their posts. Getting reviews even before your release will really promote your app marketing efforts.

You must, however, keep in mind that nothing generates more app downloads than customer reviews, so focus on giving them a good lasting impression. Once you have marketed to your customer, they will market you to others and what could be more credible than the word of someone who has actually tried and tested your product?

Looking to be big in the app stores? Focus on these key mobile app marketing strategies. Your creativity will set you apart from the rest and will make it easier for you to catch your customer's eye. At the end of the day, a smart marketer has a bigger chance of making it than the one who has a big budget but no strategy in place.

So invest as much time in your app development procedure as you will in your marketing plan. We are not saying that you will be guaranteed endless downloads, but you will be in a better position to actually get noticed as an app marketer and this is always the most important step.