How to Win the iPhone App Popularity Contest

Guest writer Matthew Palmer is an experienced online marketer for the technology industry, having created successful marketing campaigns for companies such as IBM and Intel. He offers more tips on how to successfully sell iPhone apps on his website, Marketing Your App.

What if you threw a party and no one showed up? That is the fear many iPhone developers have when launching their app in the App Store. After long hours creating their app (followed by lots of testing), they want to make sure their app is popular with customers.

You can put those fears aside because successfully selling your iPhone app is actually quite similar to throwing a good party. Better yet, you don’t have to be the most popular app in town to attract a lot of attention. Here are three app marketing tips to help you get sales worth celebrating.

No one wants to be the first at the party

When your app just arrives in the App Store, one of your first goals should be getting good ratings and reviews. You’ll need a total of five ratings and reviews before the ratings will show any stars. Until then, it looks like no one has shown up at your party.

People may be eager to add a comment to a lively discussion online, but they’re much less likely to be the first to stick their head out and leave a review. But until you have those five people, App Store shoppers don’t know what real people think about your app. They don’t know how well liked it is and how much they’ll enjoy having it.

So, planning the guest list to your app launch is crucial. While you’re waiting for your app to be reviewed, line up some people who are likely to give you a quick and positive review… previous customers, colleagues, friends, etc. Have them be the first to rate your app to encourage others to join in too.

If everyone’s going, it must be good!

Many app developers want to build buzz around their apps, but it’s difficult to start all on its own. Instead of waiting for sales and publicity to come to you, you can take charge and build buzz yourself. Do it by proving to people how much other customers love your app and how excited they are to talk about it.

It’s the idea of “social proof” – that there are real customers out there who like your app. If other people like it, the thinking goes, there must be a good reason for it. Having other people endorse your app makes someone more likely to buy it.

Some developers wait around and hope that buzz and social proof with start on their own, but it’s often better to help them along. Show potential customers how much your users love your app by getting quotes from your Facebook and Twitter accounts. It’s like a testimonial in 140 characters or less. Give examples of people talking about your app and put them on your website and your app description in the App Store.

Social media is the perfect way to build social proof. Spark a conversation on Twitter about your app, and then share what your users say. It’s a buzz-building cycle that will grow and grow.

Have your friends invite their friends

When trying to convince as many people as possible to come to your band’s latest show, what’s easier… inviting everyone yourself or asking your friends to ask their friends? Word of mouth is a powerful tool, but it can be very hard to do by yourself.

Yet many apps try to go it alone, wits against the world, not knowing that your strongest tool is actually other people. Knowing how to leverage this will put you far ahead of many other apps.

You can start with the app itself and make it a social experience. Invite people to email their friends and post to Twitter with what they’re doing in the app. At the same time they’re bragging about their high score, they’re marketing your app.

Then, continue with your app’s website. Make it is easy for users to share what they found (your wonderful app website) with their friends on their favorite social network. You can do this by putting large sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and other popular social networking and social bookmarking sites. It’s almost like your customers are doing your marketing for you.

Using these three strategies will help you spread the word about your app, and since you’re leveraging your social network, reach potential customers you might not reach otherwise. Plus, using the idea of social proof, you can more effectively convince people to buy your app. Putting all of these powerful tactics together can help you win the iPhone app popular contest.