So you want to join the mobile app craze? We’ve all heard the iPhone app rags-to-riches stories. With over 200,000 Android devices being activated every day, targeting your app to the Android Market may be a wise choice. But with almost 100,000 apps in the Android Market and 250,000 in the Apple App Store, how are you going to get your app noticed? Doing nothing and hoping people will find you is not enough. Building a web site is not enough. You need strategies and techniques - and you need to build your app to align with your strategy.
The “freemium” model is becoming quite popular, but how do you apply it to your app? What can you do to get noticed? Can you build multiple app “properties” and use them to your marketing advantage? How can you use social media to your advantage? How can you tell if your efforts are paying off?
These slides are from a talk I gave on Marketing and Monetizing your mobile app and Measuring the results.
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Getting Your Share of the Mobile App Market
1. Getting
Your
Share
of the
Mobile
Dan Syrstad
SyriousGames.com
App
Presented at Twin Cities OTUG 2010-10-20 Market
Copyright 2010 Visual Systems Corp. All Rights Reserved.
4. What This Talk Is About...
● How to get your app noticed (Marketing)
● How to Get Paid (Monetization)
● How to determine if it's working
(Measuring)
5. What This Talk Isn't About
- How to write an app
- How to publish an app
- How I can do it for you
6. Who Am I?
Software Industry: 28 years
Founder of Visual Systems: 19 years
Independent Consultant (Day Job)
Android Developer (by night): 2 years
7. What I've Done
Custom Software
Commercial Software
Marketing
18. Now What Do You Do?
- It's hard to get noticed by chance
- How do you stand out in a crowd of
100,000?
19. Ready for the Fire Hose?
- Not just one thing – No Silver Bullet
- One thing is for sure:
You need a polished, engaging app
- Some things will work for your app,
some might not.
- Test, tweak, repeat...
20. Getting Your App Noticed
Leverage your launch momentum:
Figure out your strategy ahead of time
Create a buzz at launch
21. Get App Store/Market Visibility
This should be your ultimate goal
Visibility Here = Free Advertising
You get here by being highly rated
- OR -
On a new launch
- OR -
On an update (Just In - Android)
30. Cross Promotion
Different Flavors:
- House Ads
- More Games option
- Flurry AppCircle
- AdMob Download Exchange
- Social Gaming (coming...)
31. Lite Version
- Lite/Free version sells the Full version
- Low barrier to getting on the phone
- Make sure to have prominent
“Buy Full” option
- More in the Getting Paid section...
33. Social Gaming
Put social features in your game
to get a viral effect:
- Global Leaderboards is a simple one
- Challenges
- Multiplayer
34. Social Gaming
Some free third-party SDKs do this:
- OpenFeint (iPhone & Android)
- Scoreloop (challenges, can earn $)
- One profile for all games
- Friend strangers
- Leaderboards, challenges, achievements
- Tweet/FB post scores
- Shows friend's games (cross-promo)
- Which one??
37. Social Media
- Companion web site: Blog, screenshots,
leaderboards, etc. Update content often.
- Submit site to Google
- Facebook Page
- Twitter account for app/company
- YouTube Channel – app videos
- LinkedIn – join groups and announce
releases
38. Social Media
- Announce releases to blog, Twitter,
Facebook, etc.
- Think of things to tweet about: high
scores, new features, sales...
- “Like” plug-in for web site
- Keep talking about it!
39. Social Media
There are services which
help you manage social media:
- HootSuite.com (free & paid) – also has
analtyics and mention tracking
- Ping.fm (free)
40. Have a Sale!
…and promote it!
(another thing to talk about)
41. “Pay” to Share
Allow users to unlock features, get
achivements, etc. if they share
with another user
42. Advertise Your App ($)
- Google AdWords (+)
- AdMob, MobClix, etc.
- Facebook (don't bother)
44. E-Mail Signature
Every chance to talk with your users is a
chance to tell them something they might
not know.
45. E-Mail Newsletter
- Only if the user opts-in
- Might be good for some apps,
maybe not for games
46. QR Code
- 2D Barcode scanned by iPhone & Android
- URL to web site or market
- Takes user right to it
- Efficacy info in URL
- Dedicated app biz card, on web site...
47. E-mail Auto-Responder
- Corporate app?
- Links in outgoing emails
for support, etc.
- “Here are other apps...”
48. Getting Paid (Monetization)
- If you're in it for a hobby, don't bother
- If it's a business, your monetization
strategy should be part of your app design
49. What's the Right Price?
- Test, tweak, test
- Test the business model, not the product
- Start low, move higher – slowly [6]
With apps, easier to raise price than lower
- Price must be low enough, but no lower
50. What's the Right Price
- People must be willing to pay for it
- Your intuition is likely wrong,
you must test
- Remember: 10 sales @ $.99 = 5 @ $1.99
51. Freemium – Lite & Full Apps
- Lite version – free – restricted from Full
- Full version – $ – has everything
and NO ads!
- Just getting rid of ads is not compelling
reason to buy Full version
52. Freemium – Lite & Full Apps
- Users don't pay for features, they pay for
the value those features provide (USP)
- Lite/Free version can limit
Capacity (levels, play time) and/or
Features (global leaderboards)
- Observation: Users don't like time-
restricted apps (trials)
53. Freemium – Lite & Full Apps
User Roles in the Free version:
- Understand functionality
- Invite others
- Data participation (encourages others)
- Can be indirect revenue from Free
(cross-promo, socialization, ...)
54. Freemium – Lite & Full Apps
- Not everyone will buy – That's ok.
- Conversion rate: 3-5% depending on $ [6]
- My observation: 6.5% ($2.99) – 8% ($.99)
- It's a numbers game:
Your goal is to push the free version, not the
paid version
55. Freemium – Lite & Full Apps
- Conversion from Lite to Full is
Hard for user
- Download lite, decide, purchase full,
download full, delete lite
- Would be better to have one unlockable
version with in-app purchase
56. Freemium – Lite & Full Apps
- Lite app needs prominent
“Buy Full” option
- It's ok to ask at various points in the flow
- Make sure to explain the value,
then ask to buy
- Unique Lite & Full icons and titles
57. Freemium
- There's a acquisition cost for both
Free and Paid users
- You should know both
- You should capitalize on an acquired user
- Don't just sell to the user once
- Don't make the user think hard
58. Freemium – Other Options
- Free-only app with in-app
purchases (buy features)
- Possible & Easier on iOS
- Possible on Android (PayPal has SDK)
Might violate dev agreement
59. Freemium – Ads
- Free-only, or Lite with Ads & Full
- Google AFMA, AdMob, MobClix, iAds …
- Try AdWhirl (AdMob, open-source)
- Test, tweak, test
61. Freemium – Ads
- Ads worked great 4Q 2009 and 1Q 2010
- Have since been underwhelming
- Easy to add, but don't make it your only
monetizing strategy
62. Freemium – Player Challenges
- Social Gaming like Scoreloop
allow paid challenges
- Sketchy
63. Freemium – Loss-Leader
- Make a full-featured, useful, free-only app
- Maybe even no ads
- Promote your other apps in it – low-key
- If your company sells other things,
Free app can drive those sales
64. Is it Working? - Measuring
- Analytics is a MUST
- You must know more than who
- How often
- User retention
- Session length (engagement)
- Every second of use is a second for
user to refer to someone else
65. Analytics
- Also track feature usage
- Button clicks
- Time in game, section
- My games: “Is it too difficult?” Score
trends, levels reached, ...
66. Analytics
Analytics SDKs for iOS and Android:
- Flurry
- Google Analytics
- Both are very similar
- Tried both and now back to Flurry
- Google Analytics' Android SDK has issues
69. Measuring – Download Stats
- Android Market Developer Console
- Currently limited – have to manually track
- Google Checkout – track detailed sales
for Paid only
- iOS? iTunes download counts
70. Monitoring
- Google Alerts – setup canned searches.
RSS or e-mail feed
- Twitter mentions (HootSuite can help)
- Watch Twitter #Andriod #iOS #iPhone
#app #game
71. Measuring – Get Feedback
- In-app feedback (email) feature
- App Store/Market Review Comments
- Get a thick skin
- Your app won't be right for everyone
- Most important: Listen and evaluate
72. That's all there is to it!
Contact Me:
Get: http://SyriousGames.com
Talk: dan@SyriousGames.com
Follow: @SyriousGames
Like: facebook.com/SyriousGames
Watch: youtube.com/SyriousGames
75. Interesting Links - 2
http://www.slideshare.net/misteroo/appsfire-app-store-market-real-data-insights (stats - older)
Monitor with Google Alerts
http://www.slideshare.net/misteroo/how-to-market-your-app
Returning to the Purpose of the Original Game
http://community.developer.motorola.com/t5/MOTODEV-Blog/Highlights-from-the-Social-Gaming-Summit-2009/ba-p/1470 -
http://www.androlib.com/appstats.aspx - Look at free/paid downloads. esp <50.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217302 - Gaming Upstarts article: “freemium" goods -- free products that upcharge for optional
upgrades on the back-end -- is designing every user action with monetization in mind from the beginning.; “understandable at a glance”;
“it's essential for small companies to produce multiple products, seize opportunities for exposure and build ways to connect directly with
customers. For Appy, it's all about building a running dialogue with fans,”; “Pangea's most effective publicity tactic has simply been text
announcements within its current games “
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/15/how-to-build-a-better-smart-phone-app.html “Most settle at $1.99, but WordWise, a game he
invented, draws about 40% more downloads a day at 99 cents than at $1.99.” -- From a revenue standpoint, this is a strange statement -
$.99 * 1.4 < $1.99 - he’s losing 30% revenue. However, he is building download count, which helps in positioning. But don’t target
positioning by dropping price - you’ll get there by other means.
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/10/gdc-2010-ngmoco-justifies-the-freemium-model/ “We're just finding that, with paid, you can't make any
money. There's only a handful of companies that are able to charge more than three dollars for a game. Gameloft, EA, Square Enix.”
http://www.zdnet.com/videos/events/tech-execs-talk-up-iphone-freemium-models/408811 :
Freemium Talk: “...charging money once, largely once, for that single transaction in the paid space just wasn't gonna get us to the level of
scale”
From Google I/O Freemium panel (http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/sessions/freemium-vc-panel-enterprise.html)