How to Market and Promote your Games and Apps, Part 2/4

3) Writing a Press Release

A press release is a short article intended for distribution to a wide range of media outlets. As an example, I searched for a recent app release and found this one for Suicide Kings 2 for iOS.

Writing a press release is a low-effort but potentially decent payout marketing technique, and over half of the survey respondents are taking advantage of it:

“Yes. It gets your name out there, but most importantly it drives links to your website/landing page, which helps for placement on search. Not everyone finds you via the AppStore.” – Justine Pratt

The reason why writing a press release is helpful is because a lot of the news and media sites don’t have the time to write long articles about your product (unless it’s the next Angry Birds). Having a press release will allow them to write a short intro, paste your press release, and wrap up the article.

Rather than sending out the press release manually, you can use websites like prMac to send out your press release to a wide variety of media outlets for you. Many news outlets automatically post press releases sent by prMac to their websites, and many survey respondents found this very useful in generating more downloads and visits to their websites.

Again, this single thing will not make your app be known to everybody out there but it adds up with everything else we’ve been doing.

Don’t forget to post the press release on your website. People might visit and find out about your new product there instead of the App Store. Personally, on the App Store the only way I’d find out about your app is if it was featured or in the top app lists. However, if your app is mentioned on some of the websites I read I might find about it that way as well.

So, how do you write a press release? Some respondents suggest writing something brief and informal highlighting your app or game’s unique features.

Others have taken press releases of popular products and adapted them to their own product. Don’t be afraid to do this, copying is the best form of flattery and, as it’s been said countless times, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”.

Finally, you can write your own press release as you see fit. There are certain writing styles that are more suited for this purpose but there is no single way to do it.

Handy Link: I’d like to share a link that was provided to us by one of our survey respondents. It’s from a talk by Chris Phin at iOSDevUK on how to handle the press: iOS Dev UK

4) Making A Successful iTunes Store App Page

No matter what you may think, making sure your iTunes Store App Page is attractive is one of the most important things you can do in order to achieve more downloads.

“Keep it short and simple. Try to evoke emotions to the reader – show them what benefits they will get from purchasing your app.” – Ray Wenderlich

Potential customers have found your app on iTunes and opened its page for more info. This is hard enough by itself with the current search and sorting methods on iTunes (here’s hoping Apple revamps it in 2012).

Now they see the price, screenshots and read the description to see if it’s worth their hard earned money. How can you write a good app description that’s entrancing and will make customers want to buy your app?

“Put user experience first and tell customers how the app will make their lives easier or more fun.” – Deiderik Meijer

First, never forget about your target audience, the worst type of response to this is “my app/game is for everyone”…It isn’t!

Remember their age, tastes, preferences, hobbies, etc. Appeal to THEM and make sure to awaken emotions within. Make them feel excited, interested and eager to download your app right away.

Here are some tips:

• Remember your target audience. As we discussed in above and in part 1!
• Keep it short. Younger generations have attention spans of milliseconds and will not bother to read your long and lovingly crafted description. Plus iTunes by default only shows the first sentence or two of your description, so the beginning sentence or two is the most critical part (and often the only part read!)
• Have a good looking icon. Your icon is more important than you think, dedicate some time (and $$$ if necessary) towards it. Vicki has some game icon tips on her site, and Jeybee has some excellent advice as well.
• Make decorative screenshots. The screenshots you put in iTunes connect don’t necessarily have to be just direct screenshots from our iPad. You can decorate them with borders, text, and other information. Jeybee also has an excellent article on the matter.
• Prioritize the first screenshot. Make the first screenshot look particularly good and make the central idea of your app clear, it might be the only screenshot most people see!
• Localize. Localizing your app description (and app itself) into as many languages as possible is an easy and important way to increase sales. Many people won’t bother to download an app if it isn’t localized to their language.
• List the features. If someone is on the fence between two apps, they might want to see what one app has versus another. So be sure to list out all the features you think people will care about (but remember the keep it short rule).

“Take note of how much text is displayed in the iTunes app before a user explicitly asks to read more. They probably won’t hit the button, they’ll look at screenshots.” – Carter Allen

Your icon should stand out the minute someone is browsing the App Store. This in itself can make someone open your app page, putting them one step closer to purchasing your product.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve skipped seeing an app because the icon looks like it was made in a hurry or without any care whatsoever.

You could be trying to sell the fastest, most technical car in the world, but if it’s uglier than a brick and isn’t good looking like a Ferrari, no one will even notice it.

“Make your logo distinctive, obvious but key. I suggested to Mike, the designer, that he take a screen shot of the top apps in a grid from iTunes and overlay our icon in PhotoShop. if it didn’t jump out it wasn’t right.” – Chris Wilson

Screenshots, screenshots, screenshots. Use up all 5 of your screenshots, and decorate them with extra info to make them stand out. Don’t waste screenshots on menus, the about page or a Tweet Sheet (I’m guilty of the latter).

I know that sometimes, especially as a single developer, when you finish an app after spending months and months on it, you just want to get it submitted and be done within 10 minutes.

Take some time, even a day or two if necessary, to give that final bit of polish to your icon, screenshots, and descriptions. The App Store page can either make or break your product!