Beginners Guide To Choosing A Top Mobile Marketing Agency

You had a great idea, started implementing, and now you’ve built a superb app. You’re confident users are going to love it. But there’s one huge element missing- the marketing.

How will you launch your app? How do you plan to competitively position it against 2.2 million apps on Apple’s App Store, and 2.8 million others on Google’s Play Store?

Well, your best bet is hiring a top mobile marketing agency.

Role of Mobile Marketing Agencies

You’ve already spent a lot of time developing and testing your app. It would be a nightmare diving into the world of app marketing, since learning the ropes will probably take you years. To make matters worse, you’ll also have to wear multiple hats- app development, support and marketing, all of which are very complicated, and require a lot of dedication.

And that’s why mobile marketing agencies were formed. They are firms that essentially handle part or all of your marketing, while you worry about support and development. While some focus only on single channels, the top mobile marketing agencies operate holistically, covering multiple channels, to comprehensively address the entire marketing stack.

With worldwide revenue that’s projected to hit $188.9 billion by 2020, the mobile app industry is undoubtedly very lucrative. And that, unfortunately, means that there are possibly more black hat agencies than white hat firms.

The thing about black hat agencies is that seem very promising on paper. They appear to generate incredible results by employing shady strategies like paid app reviews and bot installs. Sadly, in addition to risking being blacklisted on the app store, such tactics will never get you a constant stream of genuine customers. It’s one huge mess of a sham.

That leaves you with one option- going the white hat way and establishing a strategy that capitalizes on the wide range of services offered.

Services offered By Mobile Marketing Agencies

The top mobile marketing agencies offer the following services:

App Store Optimization

App store optimization is the core of app marketing. Firms employ simple and advanced tactics to improve app ranking within the respective app stores.

A whopping 50% of daily active users mine the app stores for new apps at least once a week. So if done well, this should get you a solid number of downloads on a regular basis.

Social Media Marketing

With over 2.4 billion social media users, this is by far, the second biggest marketing platform after search engines. And since the bulk of users use their smartphones to access social media, paid and organic SMM has proven to be increasingly effective in reaching out to various levels of prospects.

Search Engine Marketing

App marketing firms engage in organic and paid search engine optimization to drive traffic not only to your app store page, but also website and other related revenue streams.

App Launching

If you want to make a big impression, you’ve got to start at the beginning. The leading marketing agencies support advanced app testing and engage in aggressive prelaunch app marketing not just before and but also during the launch.

Viral Video Marketing

If there’s something that made a huge impact on social media trends in 2017, it has got to be the fidget spinner. It’s not the best toy out there, but it still went viral. And not for days or weeks- it maintained an impressive tempo for months. It was a craze, and Forbes even named it as “must have office toy for 2017”. That’s not all- it even took every spot on top 20 best seller toy list on Amazon, in April.

That’s the power of strategic viral video marketing. Its marketers not only created videos about it, but they knew right where to place it- in the context of funny videos by popular social media creatives.

Well, it’s not an app- but it shows just how strategic viral video marketing, combined with app demo videos, can exponentially boost your product’s popularity.

To effectively leverage these services, you’ve got to choose a top marketing agency that understands what to do, when to do it, and how to perfectly do it.

Critical Factors To Consider When Choosing a Mobile Marketing Agency

Mobile Savvy

This might seem obvious, but what some firms don’t seem to understand is the importance of grasping the whole mobile environment. In other words, how do various elements of the mobile environment correlate? What are the current trends in mobile usage?

Before hiring a marketing firm, find out from its team how they plan to combine different mobile variables to promote your application. You want to hear things like “we reviewed how Instagram users respond to sponsored videos and found out that…….” Not “hold on, let’s find out about that, we’ll get back to you.”

Versatility

Even in dating, sticking to a certain “type” is not advisable. The excitement gradually wears down, and it gets boring. Similarly, in app marketing, only a couple of things would be less interesting than a “constant type” over and over again, even if the firm has proven to be an expert at it.

Flexibility is the mother of experimentation, and that has proven to be the foundation for progress and significant breakthroughs. So you might not want to work with an agency that is consistently employing the same ideas over and over again.

To beat the competition, find a firm that is not shy about its app marketing services. It should be willing to extend its reach, and occasionally even devour the unknown.

Commitment

Trusting your business with an agency that doesn’t seem to have any long-term clients would be a mistake that you’d eventually come to regret. Of course some client-firm relationships may have their issues, but it’s impossible to lose all long term clients- unless the agency is the issue.

Reputable app marketing companies know exactly how to work around client needs and concerns. To them, both large and small scale clients are important, and should all be treated as valuable entities. Additionally, they have no problem committing their resources to see their clients’ apps rise to the top of the food chain.

Reputation

Don’t just fall for “testimonials” on agency websites. Search through online marketing forums and review sites, looking for clients who’ve had positive experiences. Even dictators, back in the day, had a couple of loyalists in the crowd who’d be quick to genuinely praise them. So if you keep bumping into negative reviews, or you can’t seem to find even a single positive one, run and don’t look back.

A top mobile marketing agency should have the reputation of Captain America. The number of positive reviews should substantially exceed negative ones- and that’s only if there are any displeased clients.

Communication

Imagine working with a firm that doesn’t keep you in the loop. It’s almost like wearing a blindfold and following someone through the Grand Canyon cliffs, hoping that maybe, just maybe you’ll not miss even a single step.

Marketing is not a blind game of probabilities like the Russian roulette. You need to know how exactly the entire process is being handled, and where your business is being steered to. To establish an ideal marketing strategy, the best app marketing firms always seek to understand all their clients’ goals, objectives and precise needs at every stage. And that, of course, can only be achieved through persistent communication.

Transparency

One of the best things about digital marketing is the ability to track the whole process, implement KPIs and assess results according to consequent metrics. But strangely, they are a couple of marketers out there who are still yet to catch up. They’ll give you statements like, “well, marketing has worked, hasn’t it? Or is the app downloading itself?”

An ideal app marketer will establish critical metrics according to your goals, and subsequently track the whole campaign. And since they are always confident about their strategies, they will grant you a front seat to the whole result tracking process. That way you’ll understand what exactly your target audience best responds to, and corresponding strategies that don’t particularly resonate well with them.

Engaging A Mobile Marketing Agency

You’ve reviewed your options according to these factors, and settled on an established mobile marketing agency like PreApps, which has worked on over 3,250 mobile apps, totaling to over half a billion consequent downloads.  So, what next? What should you expect in the engagement process?

The engagement process should be as systematic as follows:

First Consultation

The first contact is an open, informal session where you can pick the marketer’s brain on various variables of mobile app marketing, their overall experience, and work ethics. The agency will in turn seek to define your needs, and determine whether they have the resources to handle a full-scale marketing campaign.

Goal Making

As we’ve previously discussed, key performance indicators are critical elements of marketing, and often used to methodically govern the entire process. Using KPIs that you consider most crucial to your business objectives, the agency should be able to establish the marketing framework, goals and subsequent metrics for success.

Proposal Development

Using the goals as guidelines, the marketing agency should establish a methodological and systematic marketing process, complete with the accompanying execution plan. They are then passed on to the client, along with corresponding recommendations for comprehensive review and assessment. You can raise questions to seek further clarifications on specific areas that you may be concerned about.

Development of Ideas and Brainstorming

This stage requires extensive experience and some level of creativity. The marketing firm will assess target markets, goals, and input given by the client to develop promotion ideas that would resonate well with prospects. Some of the essential factors that are considered include; keywords, past marketing strategies and their respective results, changing trends, plus relevant competitors.

Strategy Development

The actual marketing should be supported by a solid strategy. So, to further refine the ideas and focus only on the most strategic suggestions, the agency should conduct thorough research, set up creatives, and develop calculated campaigns. To make projections on expected results, the mobile app marketing agency could also coordinate bucket testing of various strategies.

Strategy Execution

This is, by far, one of the most exciting stages for any experienced app marketer. If all is well, the client gives a go ahead and marketing goes live. All metrics are implemented and strategies are rolled out as spelled out in the marketing plan. Everything is comprehensively monitored, and early adjustments are made on anything that doesn’t follow the script.

Results Analysis and Reporting

As the client, you deserve to know how the target market is responding to respective app promotion tactics. So to keep you in the loop, the app marketing firm should be transparent enough to share real-time metrics, with key performance indicators as the central focus. All changes made to the overall marketing campaign, plus market reactions should be visible to the client.

Continuous Optimization

This is the largest, and arguably the most critical part of mobile app marketing. The marketing company should engage on a continuous system of optimizing the whole marketing process through regular reviews, analysis, research, build-out and execution. Any action taken, of course, should be informed by the client’s key performance indicators.

Conclusion

In short:

• To competitively position an app against 2.2 million other apps on Apple’s App Store, and 2.8 million on Google’s Play Store, your best bet is hiring a top mobile marketing agency.
• Black hat mobile app marketing agencies appear to generate incredible results by employing shady strategies like paid reviews and bot installs.
• Agencies essentially handle part or all of your marketing, while you worry about support and development. While some focus only on single channels, the top mobile marketing agencies operate holistically, covering multiple channels, to comprehensively address the entire marketing stack.
• Firms employ simple and advanced tactics to improve app ranking within the respective app stores.
• With over 2.4 billion social media users, this is by far, the second biggest marketing platform after search engines.
• App marketing firms engage in organic and paid search engine optimization to drive traffic not only to your app store page, but also website and other related revenue streams.
• The leading marketing agencies support advanced app testing, and engage in aggressive prelaunch app marketing not just before and but also during the launch.
• Strategic viral video marketing, combined with app demo videos, can exponentially boost your product’s popularity.
• Before hiring a marketing firm, find out from its team how they plan to combine different mobile variables to promote your application.
• To beat the competition, find a firm that is not shy about its app marketing services. It should be willing to extend its reach, and occasionally even devour the unknown.
• Reputable app marketing companies have no problem committing their resources to see their clients’ apps rise to the top of the food chain.
• The number of positive reviews, for a leading app marketing agency, should substantially exceed negative ones.
• To establish an ideal marketing strategy, the best app marketing firms always seek to understand all their clients’ goals, objectives and precise needs at every stage.
• An ideal app marketer will establish critical metrics according to your goals, and subsequently track the whole campaign.

With these pointers, you should be confident trusting PreApps, which is not only affordable but also considered the leading mobile marketing and discovery platform. It has successfully helped clients from all over the world increase downloads tenfold, through strategic and calculated mobile app marketing tactics.

Don’t be shy. Let us know how we can help you achieve your goals…