PROMOTE

We've learned some interesting things from our customers' experience so far, although we can't claim to have any new secrets to marketing apps. The tried and true principles of marketing still apply. There are hundreds of thousands of apps in the store. Waiting for Apple to pick your app for "What's Hot" or the home page of the App Store is not really a marketing strategy. It's happened to a few of our customers, and the results are impressive. But that sort of promotion is out of your control.

In our experience, application sales numbers are directly influenced by brand, cross-promotion, word of mouth, and referrals from influential web sites and blogs. The stronger the original brand, the stronger the sales of the mobile applications.

User reviews of a mobile application are also a key purchasing persuader. Good reviews are worth their weight in gold. Poor reviews that appear to be mean-spirited or unfair can be overcome. Poor reviews that are well written and balanced can be the death knell for a product. It is necessary to actively manage your user reviews by addressing poor reviews, especially early on.

Cross promotion leverages the value of one product to imply value of another product. A companion product like a guide book can promote the mobile application and vice-versa - "leave the book in the hotel room, and carry just the essential information in your phone," and "read the in-depth description in the book."

Referrals from influential blogs and mobile app reviews can have a strong influence on sales, and can promote the application to be a "hot" application that in turn generates more sales through native iTunes store sales. This can be helped by active PR outreach. If desired, Nomad Mobile Guides can offer a proposal for a full-service marketing campaign in both traditional and digital media.

Best Practices for Destination Marketing Organizations

Organizations that serve as the official marketing organization for a business have a unique advantage in marketing their mobile website and apps.

Here are some of the best practices DMOs are employing to effectively reach visitors using mobile devices:




Plan

Planning your app or website is easy. We provide example outlines and best-practice guides to make it a seamless experience. You may hear people say that a mobile app or website is just for people when they're "on the street" trying to find something to do or see what's nearby. Our usage data shows otherwise - depending on your destination, well over 50% of your app or website usage may be outside your area. People are using mobile to explore and plan.



Design

While all of the screens can be customized to your brand, one of the most important is the home screen. In this section you can see a wireframe schematic of some of the options available on the home screen. The information on the home screen can be laid out in a variety of ways, and can be styled to match your brand. We can include other text, image or video content on your home screen as needed.



Publish

This is where MetroTwins Media does the heavy lifting for you. You tell us what content is to be published on what date and we do the rest for you. We build the final application and submit it to the various application stores with your requested publication date. The application won't be published before that date but may be published after it if the store's review process is backlogged. We recommend submitting several weeks before the requested publication date.


Promote

Application sales numbers are directly influenced by brand, cross-promotion, word of mouth, and referrals from influential web sites and blogs. The stronger the original brand, the stronger the sales of the mobile applications. User reviews of a mobile application are also a key purchasing persuader. Good reviews are worth their weight in gold. Poor reviews that appear to be mean-spirited or unfair can be overcome. Poor reviews that are well written and balanced can be the death knell for a product. It is necessary to actively manage your user reviews by addressing poor reviews, especially early on.