So, you’ve chosen your platform (iPhone for the win!) and decided how you’re going to make your money. Now comes the hard/fun part—the marketing!

Without marketing, there’s a very good chance your app is going to be doing the doggie paddle in the FAIL pool. The app marketplace is an incredibly competitive space these days and chances are, if your app isn’t in the top ten on iTunes, it’s not going to be seen by as many people as you’d like. That’s why you need to market your sweet bippy off! 

There is a certain element of luck in the success of any app, but with successful marketing you can put yourself in a position to get lucky. There are many pieces to the marketing of an app, and today we’re going to go over some of the basic elements that make up a solid marketing plan.

Have a website

This doesn’t have to be a huge website with multiple pages. It can be just a mini site that really helps you promote your app and gives app shoppers a little more information than they find on iTunes. You’re pretty limited as to what you can say about your app on iTunes, so a website is a great way to really do it up nicely. Plus, if you have a website, you can use Google Adwords to get a little more traffic. You may also want to consider having a blog since frequently updated content is good for SEO. Plus, it goes a long way toward engaging your users.

Enlist help

The power of the Internet is in your hands!  Leverage that power and reap the rewards!  Reach out to relevant bloggers and groups to help you build some buzz. You may have to pay some folks to write about your app, but that’s ok. It will be worth it!

Create a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and a Twitter account 

Being social can help you promote your app, get user feedback and develop a user base. Not only will this help you launch, but it will be great in the long run as you have updates and changes to announce to your users.

Hook them in for free! 

It’s tough to get people to buy an app—especially if they’ve never heard of it before. iPhone users are far more likely to do this than Android users, but even they need some cajoling. So, to get things off the ground, let people have your app for free. Once they’re hooked, you can work on getting them to buy an upgrade for a fancier version.

The data you don’t see is important! 

Meta data is the data you don’t see, but search engines do!  Your descriptions and keywords are very important now that iTunes preview pages are crawled by search engines. This means that your keywords and descriptions are everything, so do your homework and make sure you avoid using generic terms. Also, make sure you keep categories in mind. Choose the category that is most relevant but has the least amount of competition.

But what else can you do, GLAD WORKS friends?  These are the basics, but as with any kind of marketing, you’ve got to be creative if you want to be successful. 

As a special treat, next week we have an interview with Melissa Lion, a working mom and professional marketer who’s in the process of marketing an app she invented. As a fellow expert, we thought it would be fun to “talk shop” and get her perspective.

See you next week! It’s a FUN one!