https://sensortower.com/iphone-app-marketing
Icon and Icon and Screenshots
Visuals that show off your App are vital for success
Design a good meaningful icon
Great Icons dive up conversion
Having a great icon that explain the app’s functionality can greatly increase App downloads. Icons that are too abstract or company logos do not perform as well. Here are some good best practices when designing icons.
Test App icon for conversion
A Well converting icon greatly increase downloads.
Having an interesting and pretty icon is great,but one that converts really well is even better. Try running some A/B Tests on your icon via banners or within other apps to measure conversion.
Select good first screenshot
Most users decide based on the first screenshot.
The first thing every user sees when looking at your app is the icon and the screenshot. The initial screenshot is essential to convince users that your app delivers on the functinality they are looking for. Learn how to design a great first screenshot for your app.
separate screenshots for different devices.
Optimizing for multiple device is essencial.
While there are more iPhones then iPads, supporting all the different devices is still important. Having an iPad specific version can do wonders for app exposure. iOS8 is also right around the corner. Learn about supporting iOS8 and universal apps.
Use all five screenshot slot
Show the user the depth of the App
You get five screenshots to show off your app — use all of them! Make sure your screenshots convery your app’s strengths and are enticing for the users.There are great articles about apps with great screenshots, or you can learn from top ranking apps that do this well.
Conversion
Your need to be able to convince users to install the app.
Write a good description
Descriptions convince users to install.
Users that aren’t convinced to install right away will read your description to make up their mind. Focus on the first few lines that are visible on the phone and don’t be afraid to test similar to how book authors use Google Adwords. A well converting description make your other effort easier.
Create an app Website
You need one to support users, so might as well promote your app there.
Your will need an App Website to support your users — you might as well promote your app there too! A good app loading page can drive traffic to your app.
Give your app a boost with paid Ads
Ads are expensive,but they work.
If you have a budget to spend money on app Ads,there are a lot of options. Mobile App Tracking is an all-in-one SDK that’s popular with games, and Facebook Ads have recently taken off.
Cross promote within your other apps
Your other apps can drive installs to your new app
Many successful publishers like Rovio,Halfbrick and SuperCell use app cross promotion, and their efforts can put an app to the top of the chars.While not every app might have the same kind of reach,any sort of boose your app can get is helpful.
Record an App trailer and video
Video engages your user more.
A great video showcasing your app can entice users to try it out. You can place it on your app’s landing page to give a quick overview of your app’s functionality. Take a look at some trailer resouces or get a service to make one for you.
Search Visibility
Apps that show up often in the App Store get many more download.
Optimize keywords for Search Visibility
App Store Visibility can be difference between success and an app withering out of sight.
You can’t rely on ads or Apple featureing your app as your distribution strategy. Being visibile in App Store Search is a critical step most app developers forget — avoid these common iTunes Connect keyword mistakes and you will stand above most app.
Write a good App Title tagline
Your app’s title helps with search visibility and conversion.
While short app titles are good lokking, for titles other than games having a tagline after the app name(ie.Notablity – Take Notes & Annotate PDFs) both help with app store visibility and with explaing to your users what your app is about.
Research competing Apps
Let your competitors do your research for you.
Knowing what your competitors do well and where they lack is often important for the way you position your own app. Research your competitor’s apps and don’t make the mistakes they do.
Internationalize the App’s metadata
There are a lot of users outside the US.
While the US market is the biggest,ignoring other markets is often a mistake. Most of the top charting apps are very international and over 75% of their users come outside the US. Plus there is less competition between international apps, so localize your meta-data.
Make your App Free!
Free apps make more profit.
The majority of top overall grossing apps are all free with in-app-purchases.Making your app free can drive exposure to your app, and typically free apps have more than one monetization stratedy.
Socail Outreach
Engagind with users and social infuencers helps you maintain momentum.
Get friends & family to rate the app five stars
Fake it until you make it.
Initial reviews are really important and users are more likely to download an app with a five star rating and stellar reviews. This is especially essential whe you are just releasing a new version update — get it rated highly as quick as possible.
Create and maintain Facebook & Twitter page
Social Pages let your users interact with eachother.
While large apps need bulletin boards so users can engage with eachother, most apps can get away with just a Facebook and Twitter page.
Participate in social media
Social meida crates buzz.
Social influencers can be great, and engaging with them via something like Hootsuite or getting them to cover you can give your app a strong presence online. Having an active twitter and facebook page where you converse with fans and reach out to influencers can drive engagement.
Get in touch with social influencers,blogs and journalists
Get influencial people to promote your app.
Bloggers and social influencers can bring a greate amount of traffic to your app. You can reach out to App Review sites or Tech Blogs to get influencial writers to cover you(just make sure to have an interesting story about your app!)
Post on forums, mailing lists,meetup groups
Utilizing social groups like forums and groups can bring your users.
About half of your time as an app developer should be spent marketing your app,and reaching out to already existing groups like nice forums,mailing lists or Meetup groups that have the established customer bases to help you reach more users.
Viral Growth
If each of your users brings a friend your App grows virally.
implement share-friendly SDKs
Sharing is caring.
SDK like Kamcord let users record videos and engage with other users. Multipalyer turn based SDKs like MGWU let you develop games easier, and platforms like Gamecenter or Openfeint let you have easy scoreboards.
prompt users to share via Facebook,Twitter & email
Virality is best achieved by leveraging social networks.
Most users are using Facebook or Twitter, so having an easy way for them to tell their friends about a great app lowers the barrier for sharing. If you get each one of your users to bring an extra friend,your audience will grow. Giving your users a reason to share within the app works best.
Ask engaged and happy users to review
Reviews give your app social proof.
Implement an SDK like [https://github.com/arashpayan/appirater] and ask your engaged and happy users to leave a review. The common way to do this is prompt users after x hours or y opens to answer if they like the app, and send the ones who don’t to yours support email while prompting happy users to leave a review.
Figure out monetization
Free is best!
The top grossing apps are free apps with in-app-purchases. The barrier to download is almost non-exist when the app is free. If you must take your app paid, you’d better have a good reason(like ethically avoding ads) and feel free to test different price points.
Prepare an App update
You can only change some things with an app update.
Some things, like adding new keywords, screenshots or changing the title can only be done with an app update.Unless your app includes many change files,Apple is good about keeping the file download size down.Users perfer to download recently updated apps.
App Analytics
Metrics and insight into how users use your App create success.
Track Downloads
Apple’s tools don’t quite cut it.
Keeping track of downloads on a per app basis day to day and being able to sparate them by country or region is essencial. Sensor Tower and many others like App Annie,Distimo,etc provide tools to track downloads.
Control incoming web-links
It’s like Bit.ly
At the very least every incoming link should be going through a url shortener so you can track how many people clicked trought each source. Give your blog mentions and other web-links a specific url, or implement your own and direct users to a correct App Store.
Implement in-App Analytics
Know what your users do within the app.
Things like Cohort Analysis help you understand how your users behave.Use SDKs like Mixpanel or Amplitude to keep track of usage patterns so you can have a data-driven approach to improving your app.
Crash Reporting
Catch crashed before they turn into bad reviews.
Crash reporting and performance analytics can help you catch and prevent dreadfully negative reviews. SDKs like Crittercism can help you track crashes and performance problems.
Keep track of Search Visibility
How do users download your apps?
Tracking search visility within the App Store is something every developer should do — whether you do it via manual entry into a spreadsheet or using tools like [Sensor Tower] you’ll always be better off is you know and improve how users can find your app within the App Store.