Apply viral hooks in your app that will encourage people to share the app with others.  Include links that make it easy to share the app on Facebook, Twitter, etc.  If the app is only useful when a friend installs the app too, the referral will create additional installations.  

Improve your app’s ratings by using in-app messaging.  The App Store is designed to give your app bad ratings by default because users are only asked to rate an app after uninstalling.  This creates a negative bias.  To improve ratings prompt users after they use the app awhile to provide feedback and your app’s ratings will improve.  Attached are two examples of apps that include a request for ratings while users are playing the game, Angry Birds by Rovio Mobile and Golf Putt Pro by Neon Play.

Don’t blindly introduce your app into the App Store.  Put a marketing plan together.  Take into consideration doing pay per install, press releases and pay per click to increase your ranking in the App Store. 

You can watch the full version of Aaron Kardell’s video by visiting Untether.tv.  By using these tips to generate awareness for your iPhone, Android and other mobile apps, your app will pull ahead of the competition.

Increasing app usage is essential to a thriving app business. Studies show that it costs five times more to attract new customers than it does to get repeat customers and less acquisition costs equate to higher profits. One reason is that current customers are easier to convert as they gain trust and experience the value of the app. To measure success, a game developer uses this rule of thumb: more than 50 percent of total revenue should be from repeat players, and second purchases should be 30 to 40 percent of sales, according to Lisa Marino, chief revenue officer at RockYou.

Here are some tips to increase app usage and safeguard an app business used by game developers:

1. Know the users/players: While planning an app, determine the target audience and what features will be sticky for that audience. Pretty basic, but it’s the key to building and marketing an engaging app.
2. Entertainment value: Again basic, but it’s much easier to increase application use with strong entertainment value. Incorporate human triggers: lust, mystique, prestige, alarm, power, vice, and trust. A narrative will increase interest in the app as well as rules, time pressure, ranks and levels, marketplace, different environments, and winning assets.
3. Tips about use (a start to advancing the user through the app): Reveal the rules as necessary, educate the user about app usage, reveal secrets or hints on improving the experience, or add features for additional interest (be sure to inform the user). Continued feedback accelerates mastery and increases application use.In Bookworm, basic rules are presented to the player prior to the start of app play.
4. Creating a community: Not only does it defray distribution costs, creating a social outlet for the audience increases buzz about the app. App promotion could include sending requests to friends or getting friends to work together to win a prize or achieve a goal.Apps like Resident Evil 5, Unreal Tournament III, Guitar Hero/Band Hero, and Mercenaries have features where the user gets a friend to join as they play through the normal game mode. This fosters community by encouraging play with others (regardless of their location or progress within the game). Facebook is a great place to start a community and then promote the app profile in the app to increase friends.

   Many games, like Bejeweled, have started Facebook pages for passionate app users.

5. Collecting: Most people love to collect; it is innate in our nature. Provide opportunities for players to collect something to gain bragging rights with their friends.Games like LittleBigPlanet encourage players to collect as many items as possible. Some of these items improve the user’s status by changing the way the character looks. Players who have obtained items difficult to acquire will generally flaunt their success by dressing their avatars with these items.
6. Exchanges: Two-player games or teams encourage engagement by adding a social element and increasing competition. Exchanges can include: taking turns, making allies, getting app usage advice, sharing weapons or accessories, etc. Is there a way to add a social element to the app?The best game to demonstrate this is Nintendo’s Pokémon games. Each player is allocated only a certain number of items (in this case, Pokémon). In order to collect them all, the user must trade with other players. Some Pokémon will change forms while being traded, while others are simply not available unless traded. This also fosters community by forcing trades between players.
7. Customization: The more a user can customize the app and the interface, the more invested the user is in the app. Tests show that creating a character for the opponent instead of just labeling the opponent as the “computer” will create more player involvement.Customization is a game marketer’s friend. The Sims is a good example; games have slowly integrated the ability to create a custom character or shape experience to preferences. Games like Guitar Hero allow players to create a custom star. Customization gets as detailed as settings for four points on the cheek and three points on the chin for each character. Playing with the customization, players have recreated their favorite heroes/villains as well as creating self portraits to immerse themselves further in gameplay.
8. Points: Can some scoring method be built into the app to challenge the user to increase app usage? Psychologically, redeemable points drive loyalty as users equate earning points (especially to earn something) to not wasting time.PlayStation and Xbox use a trophy/achievement system to encourage users to compete against friends to see who can score higher or complete more objectives.
9. Create competition among friends using visible metrics: People are social beings; the more interaction the user has with the app, the more engaged the user will be. Some additional features could include:
   • Friend walls
   • Customization
   • User vs. user engagements
   • Instant messaging interfaces

   Console apps use messaging systems for players to keep in touch and send app invites. For example, while playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, the user can send a message to other friends requesting they join them in play. When friends are offline, messages can be sent through the app system similar to e-mail. In many cases, players on the friends’ list are more apt to check their gaming message box over their traditional e-mail box. For example, the app’s messaging box is used as a means to set up times to play apps with friends at a later point.

10. Messaging when inactive: It’s important to build rapport and maintain relationships. Be sure to build a messaging platform into the app. Make messages interesting: new features, promotions, cross-selling opportunities, etc. Don’t drop the connection with the user if at all possible, but beware not to message too much to cause irritation.
11. Fresh content: Continue to perfect the app and use messaging to tell users when there is something new. Many games now utilize downloadable content (aka DLC) to expand the experience for gamers with brand new content, like additional stories, side quests, characters, or costumes. Sony’s Heavy Rain released a brand new side story as downloadable content, allowing the gamer to broaden their experience with the game for a nominal fee.
12. Incentives for returning: Give the user a reason to return – bonuses, additional app usage tips, special privileges, etc. Nintendo’s Animal Crossing is a perfect example, always giving players reasons to return. Depending on the date that the user fires up the app, they experience different events, meet new characters, or find new collectibles, like bugs or fish.
13. Accessible: Build the app for multiple platforms to ensure continued use. With the introduction of smartphones and now the iPad, loyal players want to engage where and when they have free time.
14. Mashups: If possible, build ways that an app can be repurposed/embedded on other sites, blogs, or apps. Can you create a teaser app with content from the app?
15. Syndicated: For speed to market, a sure bet is leveraging the success of an established brand.Many apps are syndicated. If you grew up in the 1980s, you’ll recognize Mario and Sonic. Both mascots are still heroes to the current generation. Mario was a villain (Donkey Kong Jr.), a Plumber, a Doctor (Dr. Mario), a racer (Mario Kart), and more. While Sonic’s resume isn’t nearly as impressive, Sega managed to slap Sonic in more titles than most people realize. In the Dreamcast Title Shenmue, players collected Sonic the Hedgehog action figures. Keeping this brand recognition, both Sega and Nintendo have managed to chain games together around a character. When players hear the names Mario or Sonic, sales are guaranteed.

Now that you have a checklist and some examples, build features to increase app usage into the app design or add them as the app gets more traffic; and they become the foundation to a thriving app business. As revenue increases, you may want to buy traffic for your app.

In the end, all apps want to score it big in the iPhone app ranks.  Evan pointed out that there is an additional consideration when designing a universal app (a single application that can be run on the iPhone as well as the iPad), and the way it is counted in the ranking.  With a universal app, purchases on the iPhone count for iPhone rankings only, purchases on the iPad count for iPad rankings only, and purchases in the iTunes desktop application count for iPhone rankings only. Also, if the intended use for the app is iPad and purchased through iTunes, it is counted as an iPhone app.  Therefore, creating a universal app creates value for the user as they can use the app on both the iPhone and iPad, but as a developer, creates a possible disadvantage since it splits the count in the rankings.

Another situation that arises from this scenario is the inability to create different price points for the iPhone and iPad app to capitalize on the different price tolerances of the two markets.  

Creating a universal app is advantageous to the user, but as a developer attempting to optimize the revenue generated from the app, the developer must choose the most effective pricing and sales strategy possible.  It is a difficult balance for developers who want to provide the most utility for users while fully monetizing the investment in the application. 

Creating a universal app and how it affects your app ranking is another thing to consider when doing app development for iPhone and iPad apps.  Please comment if you have additional tips for app developers.

Through increased understanding of what drives users to heavy mobile app consumption, a more effective marketing plan can be created and executed to increase Android, BlackBerry, and iOS app distribution. My company conducted mobile app distribution research with both B2B mobile app developers/marketers and B2C mobile app users in an effort to understand more about successful distribution tactics. The results are useful as you develop a kick-ass distribution plan.

This month’s column covers the results of our B2C mobile application research focused on Android, BlackBerry, and iOS applications. The results of the B2B mobile application research were covered in my last ClickZ column.

B2C Mobile Application Research Summary

Method

This data was derived from 448 valid and fully-completed responses to our mobile app survey. The survey was hosted online with links distributed through a third-party site. Recipients of the survey link were asked to participate in the survey and received $2 for completion.

Purpose

This survey seeks to quantify aspects of mobile app discovery, acceptable ad formats, app purchases, and Web search from the three leading U.S. smartphone players: Apple (including iPod touch), Google, and RIM.

Criteria

Due to the difficulties in obtaining Android respondents, the survey company focused more than half of their efforts on targeting Verizon customers. Valid users included only those that correctly answered trap questions and met minimum qualifications. User composition by primary device was: 130 iPhone, 103 BlackBerry, 100 iPod touch, and 115 Android. All were from the U.S. All have an app-capable device. All have at least one app installed on their primary phone.

Quantity of Apps on Smartphone

Tip: Make the iPhone your starting point. Currently, iPhone users are the largest, most passionate user group and install the most applications.

How many apps do you currently have installed on your primary phone?

• 1 to 5 (24 percent)
• 6 to 10 (21 percent)
• 11 to 15 (16 percent)
• 16 to 20 (15 percent)
• 21 to 30 (10 percent)
• 31+ (13 percent)

Twenty-three percent of all users have 21 or more apps installed (heavy app users). IPhone owners have the highest ratio of heavy app users (iPhone – 34 percent, Android – 30 percent, iPod touch – 21 percent, and BlackBerry – 7 percent). These figures are reasonably consistent with the secondary research reviewed.

How many apps do you download per month to your primary device?

• None (7.61 percent)
• 1 to 3 (51.23 percent)
• 4 to 10 (29.31 percent)
• 11 to 20 (6.94 percent)
• 21 to 30 (1.79 percent)
• 31 to 50 (1.57 percent)
• 51+ (1.57 percent)

Forty-one percent of all users install four-plus installs per month. IPhone owners rank the highest in achieving this minimum (iPhone – 48 percent, iPod touch – 43 percent, Android – 38 percent, BlackBerry – 29 percent).

Role of the Desktop Computer in Mobile App Discovery

Tip: Syncing is a routine behavior, so marketing via the Web is a viable distribution tactic with links back to the App Store. Don’t ignore the influence of desktop websites to mobile app discovery in your mobile distribution plan. Submit free copies of your app along with marketing information to the various mobile app review websites. Users prefer to search the App Store for your app, so make sure the keywords most commonly used for your app quickly bring up your app in search results.

Syncing their mobile device with desktop computer: Eighty percent of Apple mobile device users fully sync at least once per month. Sixty-two percent fully sync at least once per week. These figures are relatively the same between the iPod touch and the iPhone. It would appear that Apple mobile device users are familiar with syncing and for most it is a routine behavior.

Downloading apps using desktop software: Ninety-two percent of Apple mobile device owners understand that you can download apps using the iTunes desktop software (96 percent for iPhone, 86 percent for iPod touch). Seventy-two percent download at least one app per month using this method (76 percent for iPhone, 64 percent for iPod touch). Forty-six percent download at least one app per week using this method (48 percent for iPhone, 40 percent for iPod touch).

Preferred method for downloading an app discovered while using their desktop computer:

Apple mobile device owners:

• 56 percent prefer to search the App Store from their mobile device for the app
• 17 percent prefer to use the iTunes desktop software
• 13 percent prefer to have the download link sent via e-mail
• >7 percent prefer taking a picture of an app’s designated bar code, receiving a link via SMS
• >7 percent prefer receiving an alert via a mobile app

BlackBerry owners:

• 42 percent prefer to search the App Store from their mobile device for the app
• 40 percent prefer to have the download link sent via e-mail

Android owners:

• 72 percent prefer to search the app store from their mobile device for the app
• 11 percent prefer to have the download link sent via e-mail

Mobile App Purchases and Advertising Formats

Tip: Offering the mobile app for free increases distribution. IPhone app users are most willing to pay $0.99. Users are receptive of an ad-supported model. Users are also receptive to paying for additional features. IOS app marketers are successful with the freemium model.

Installing free apps as a substitute for paying: Most users would prefer to install three free apps (52 percent) over paying $0.99 for an app or premium feature (42 percent). IPod touch, Android, and BlackBerry users all shared this preference (58 percent, 53 percent, 55 percent, respectively), whereas iPhone users preferred to pay the $0.99 (54 percent compared to 43 percent to install three free apps).

The remaining users (6 percent) selected the other option, which asked them to submit their own custom answer. The general response was that these users would simply avoid apps that require some form of payment.

Ad formats for free apps: Users showed a strong interest in new advertising formats when asked to select their top three options in supporting free apps.

New advertising formats:

• Submit a rating and a review for an app I like every five uses (25 percent)
• Complete a short survey every five uses (24 percent)
• Select and install a free app from a recommended list after every five uses (21 percent)

Existing advertising formats:

• See a 20 second ad once during each use (33 percent)
• See persistent small ads during use (24 percent)
• Select and install a free app from a recommended list in exchange for a virtual good (16 percent)

Influences to purchasing a paid app or extra feature: Forty-two percent of all users have purchased an app or extra feature, after first trying the free version of an app. Apple mobile devices show a much higher composition of users that made such purchases (iPhone – 55 percent, iPod touch – 49 percent, Android – 27 percent, BlackBerry – 34 percent).

Users ranked what motivates them to purchase a full version app or an extra feature (selecting all that apply):

• Expanded features and capabilities (77 percent)
• Remove ads (44 percent)
• Trial expired (35 percent)
• To support the developer (22 percent)
• Curiosity (16 percent)

Mobile App Discovery

Tip: Appearing in the top 25 and category lists is essential for effective mobile app distribution. Users prefer to find apps using the top 25 and category lists in the app stores. Popularity (past 24 hour downloads) and total following (overall active users) are the two preferred options for sorting apps from a list. It’s no surprise that in our B2B survey, incented app distribution was the most effective type of advertising for mobile app marketers. This is generally the low-cost, predictable, high-volume source of distribution. Since search is also important, paying close attention to keyword and description SEO tactics is important in your app marketing campaign.

Methods tried by users for finding new apps (select all that apply):

• Categories (57 percent)
• Search (57 percent)
• Featured – new (52 percent)
• Top 25 overall (52 percent)
• Features – what’s hot (48 percent)
• Featured – personalized recommendations (e.g., Apple’s Genius) (18 percent)
• Ads in other apps (12 percent)

Apple mobile devices have the top two selections being categories and top 25 overall (iPhone Top 25 – 65 percent, iPod touch Top 25 – 63 percent, iPhone Categories – 61 percent, iPod touch Categories – 64 percent). IPhone users are far more likely to try a personalized recommendation solution than other device owners (iPhone – 27 percent, iPod touch – 17 percent, Android – 12 percent, BlackBerry – 15 percent).

Methods preferred by users for finding new apps (rank order):

• Most popular topics (7.3)
• Ads in other apps (7.0)
• Featured – personalized recommendations (5.2)
• Search (4.5)
• Featured – what’s hot (3.9)
• Featured – new (3.3)
• Top 25 overall (2.3)
• Categories (2.6)

There was no significant variance between devices.

User preference toward different sorting options in their app store (rank order):

• Buzz – media mentions and links (7.2)
• Recommendation – based on other apps you have installed (7.1)
• Discount (6.8)
• Newest (4.9)
• Expert’s rating (4.9)
• Friend’s rating (4.8)
• Everyone’s rating (3.8)
• Total following – active users (3.4)
• Popularity – past 24 hour downloads (2.1)

The order is consistent between devices, but on Android, the Everyone’s Rating option is noticeably closer to the Total Following option (Everyone’s Rating – 3.6, Totally Following – 3.5, Popularity 2.0). It’s noticeable that several very popular sorts are not yet available in Apple’s App Store (Total Following, Friend’s Rating, and Expert’s Rating).

By understanding user preferences, you can put a more effective mobile app distribution plan together for your Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone app marketing campaign. Hopefully this application research gives you some ideas on elements that are important in your marketing and design tactics. Be sure to read last month’s column on B2B mobile application research and its implications. If you have any thoughts on how to get top iPhone apps, please leave your comments below.

I read Twitter Means Business by Julio Ojeda-Zapata on vacation in Mexico. Julio is a nationally recognized tech journalist (for example, see his post about his recent appearance on TWiT) who covers tech news for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

A quick tangent on my Mexico trip before I continue…

I knew Nokia was #1 in global market share for mobile phones, but I haven’t traveled outside of the U.S. much over the past year so this hadn’t really sunk in. I was amazed at how many low-end Nokia feature phones there were in Mexico. For example, I sat on a ferry ride next to a young guy who worked for mobile game company Gtech.  In my extremely choppy Spanish and his choppy English, we discussed the difference in iOS versus Android, and games built for feature phones.  Pretty funny discussion on who’s the target market for various phones.

I was late to adopt Twitter… Why?

I was down on social media after watching Facebook transition from its initial early adopters to its current position of mass consumer penetration. Through the transition to the mainstream, Facebook ended up becoming a pretty worthless professional tool for me. I’ve always been a LinkedIn fan, but I find LinkedIn tends to be where relations go to die versus to develop.

What caused me to finally pay attention to Twitter?

I was urged by friend and fellow Minnesota tech entrepreneur, Philip Hotchkiss, to adopt Twitter for professional purposes about a year ago.

How did I get started?

I started following individuals I came across during my general professional life.

Eventually, the number of relationships I followed became hard to manage so I started building Twitter lists on key conversations I like to participate in, such as app marketers, app developers, tech media, and Minnesota tech.

What did I miss during the Twitter early days?

By being a late adopter to Twitter, I missed out on some of the early business success stories. Julio’s book did a great job of retelling these early stories.  Here are a few excerpts that specifically apply to app developers:

Evernote’s stellar customer service, for Windows apps and other OS apps, fix problems before most users even notice them. “Twitter has proven invaluable for identifying problems with its software, if a bug crops up, Evernote will hear about it, almost instantly,” comments Andrew Sinkov, Evernote Marketing Director (page 58). Evernote built a strong following due to its popularity with the web-tech set.  Tweets help identify bugs, as well as capture usage ideas, as a vehicle for new product/feature communication, and a polling medium to get user feedback. 

Promoting the MyLite iPhone App- Graeme Thickens and DoApp: “He (Graeme Thickens) used his @DoApp identity as a sort of news feed to keep followers apprised of developments in iPhone application development, which was a superhot subject in the consumer-technology universe” (page 57).  Thickins searched for mentions of DoApp on Twitter and asked for permission to post some of the more creative tweets.  Users were finding all kinds of interesting uses for the myLite program, which is a combination strobe, emergency flasher, and rock-concert lighter.  Nearly two dozen uses were identified including: a radiologist setting it to red for use in the x-ray room; and a WVA medic using the emergency flasher at night festival “so other members of rescue and fire could find me in a dark sea of people.”

Amy Worley, Director of Digital Marketing, H&R Block, used Twitter to increase awareness of their desktop software (page 41). Worley was on a crusade to publicize the company’s digital offerings, including its TaxCut options, for doing taxes online. She used Twitter to broadcast tax tips like tax deductions commonly missed or W-4 tips.  She also used Twitter to answer tax questions, creating a two-way conversation with users.   Twitter evolved to become an integral part of their marketing efforts showing that H&R Block is a true advocate for the taxpayer.  

My own personal Twitter business success story

While on vacation in Mexico, I joined my fellow colleagues at W3i in launching Apperang, a service which pays consumers to try iPhone and iPad apps. 

A couple of weeks prior to the launch, I used Twitter to reach two app developers, which resulted in their participation in the public launch of our iOS app promotion service before we were even live. I found that many app developers are hard to reach, and Twitter is a very useful tool for engaging in conversations with them.

Perhaps even more telling of the business value in using Twitter, as a part of our launch, was how an unsolicited tweet was able to connect me to a writer at TechCrunch named, Gagan Biyani, which ultimately landed us a story in Mobile Crunch. This was no small feat for a company headquartered in central Minnesota, far from Sillicon Valley. Later on, several other tech blogs followed on the TechCrunch coverage and they wrote their own stories. The post Biyani wrote ended up being among the most popular in Mobile Crunch for the entire week – during a week that was competing for coverage against the iPhone 4 launch. Not only was it good industry buzz that resulted in several leads from additional new app developers who wanted to participate in our app promotion service; but it helped provide a big organic boost in early adopters on the consumer side of our service as well, which has provided great feedback while we are in our public beta phase.

I would highly recommend Julio’s book for anyone involved with using Twitter for business purposes.  I am also looking forward to reading Julio’s new book when it is published on how businesses are using the iPad.

If you are an app developer interested in tips around the business of apps, I would recommend following @W3i, or if you are interested in following me personally, @robertjweber.  Please comment if you have any interesting stories on how you used Twitter to grow your app business.

With the proliferation of mobile applications, the age-old marketing problem of discovery is now paramount. What can you learm from mobile app marketers across various operating systems like iPhone (iOS), Android, and Blackberry?

My company conducted mobile application research with both B2B (define) mobile app developers/marketers and B2C (define) mobile app users in an effort to understand the successes and challenges developers face when vying for the top spot in various app stores. The results are useful as you develop your plan to market mobile apps.

This month’s column will cover the results of my company’s B2B mobile application research. The results of the B2C mobile application research will be covered in my next column.

B2B Mobile Application Research Summary

Method

This data was derived from 33 survey responses to our Mobile App Monetization and Business Model research. The survey was hosted online with links distributed through third-party sites and personal e-mails. Recipients of the survey link were asked to participate in the survey and received a white paper as an incentive.

Purpose

The purpose of the application research was to uncover app marketing techniques employed to drive mobile app discovery and downloads of native apps developed for the top mobile platforms in the U.S.

Criteria

A respondent was required to be a developer of native mobile apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, and BlackBerry devices. Each of these platforms offer a proprietary “app store” to developers for managing the discovery, download, and monetization of apps developed on their respective platforms. Most respondents to our survey were iPhone app developers (53 percent) that develop native iPhone apps as their primary business (47 percent).

App Store Rankings

Tip: Learn how rankings in each app store work and how they affect the number of installs an app receives. Many of the top apps are using mobile app advertising campaigns to get them to the top of the ranking. Try flighting – run promotion to get to the top and then stop promotion and let it ride until the app drops below the top rankings, then run promotion again. Other app stores to consider are: Handmark, Handango, GetJar, and carrier app stores (long approval time).

Each of the three app stores addressed in this application research (i.e., Apple iTunes App Store, Android Market, BlackBerry App World) have specific methods for ranking mobile apps. Only half of the respondents to this survey had a clear understanding of how rankings impact the number of installs they receive. Most BlackBerry and Android developers don’t know their peak popularity ranking in their respective app stores. IPhone developers have a better understanding of where they fall within the various rankings.

iPhone: Fifty percent of iPhone developers have achieved peak popularity in the App Store for a free iPhone app. Twenty-eight percent have made the top 100 list for a paid app.

Android: Thirty-six percent of Android survey respondents have achieved peak popularity in the top 100 rankings for a free Android app. Most Android developers (90 percent) don’t know their peak popularity ranking for a paid app and 63 percent don’t know their peak for a free app.

BlackBerry: Two out of nine BlackBerry respondents have achieved peak popularity rankings in the top 100 for both free and paid apps. Seventy-eight percent don’t know what peak popularity ranking they’ve achieved.

Business Model

Tip: Understand how pricing will affect your demand. Offering a mobile app for free can rapidly grow your user base; however, to sustain your business you must have a source of revenue. Charging for your app is one option, other options include: ad supported, selling virtual goods for micro payments, and sponsorship. Run tests to optimize pricing.

Revenue from paid apps is the primary business model of most of our respondents (43 percent), followed by ad-supported free apps (22 percent). The three most important factors in determining the business model of their apps were: user acceptance/experience (81 percent), revenue-per-install (71 percent), and quality reporting (33 percent).

For the majority of respondents (81 percent), user experience and not revenue-per-install, was the more important factor in determining the business model of their app.

Advertising Techniques

Tip: Paid search is only one option. Because mobile advertising is experiencing slow adoption from major brands, much of the mobile ad inventory is affordable (think remnant). Also, once you have an application with a large user base, use cross promotion to introduce a new application. Cost effective tactics are PR, blogger outreach, social media, and the elusive viral marketing.

Most survey respondents have tried at least some form of advertising. The three most common practices were: offering ads within another mobile app (35 percent), mobile keyword search (26 percent), and ads on a desktop website (22 percent).

A significant number (30 percent) of respondents aren’t using any of the common advertising techniques to drive demand for their mobile apps. This could mean that they either aren’t advertising at all or are experimenting with entirely new and different techniques altogether. However, if we take into account that 42 percent indicated that they don’t spend any money on advertising, we can safely conclude that this 30 percent simply doesn’t advertise.

Although survey respondents have tried most of the common app advertising techniques, most (52 percent of ad techniques) yield average results.

User Engagement

Tip: Don’t forget, retaining the user is as important as acquiring the user – depth of content and fresh content are both important to engage users. It’s easier to plan engagement features into the development of the app than to try to retrofit. And you can’t improve what you don’t measure. How to measure: segment subscribers by multiple variables, prioritize segments, determine variables to measure, run A/B tests, roll out across segment, and continue to optimize. Reports can include: device reports by vendor and model, traffic reports on how content is being consumed, destination reports to identify potential partners, or places to run ads.

Most respondents are satisfied (52 percent) with how their apps were rated in the app store. However, 48 percent see that their ratings either need improvement or are not important.

When we asked app developers what they valued most, increased usage ranked highest (48 percent). Given the option of increasing usage of an app by 10 percent or increasing the number of installs by 10 percent, developers would rather increase usage. This is consistent with earlier responses, which indicated that 81 percent of developers value user experience and user acceptance over revenue-per-install.

Marketers are just beginning to get an understanding of how to get top iPhone apps. Hopefully this application research will give you some clues on elements that are important in your marketing and design tactics. Stay tuned for next month’s column on the results of the B2C application research of 448 U.S. smartphone users. If you have any thoughts on how to get top iPhone apps, please leave your comments below.

After I played with each device for a couple of days, I started to form some entrepreneurial opinions in terms of how I might think about the iOS versus Android as an app developer and app marketer.

1)      Both Android and the iPad need more apps! After scanning through the games which were available in the Android Market, and I was pretty disappointed. Most of the titles and genres I was familiar with using my iTouch for the past couple years had no viable alternative in the Android Market. As for the iPad, there were very few apps available in the utility categories I count on. For example, I was only able to quickly locate one free Twitter app specifically built for the iPad versus on the iPhone/iTouch, where there are many free Twitter apps.

2)      Android makes me think about the user interface to navigate, the iOS makes me feel stupid. In Android, I have encountered several different user interface challenges which would cause me to not want to hand the device over to my four year old daughter to play with. With the iPad, as with other iOS devices, my four year old has no trouble. The result? The iOS makes me feel stupid after awhile. I like a technology that is a little rough around the edges and makes me think.At times, the iOS is too simple for me. With that said, the iOS is the best mobile operating system for the mass market right now. This week on MediaPost, Jeff Litvack, GM of global product development at The Associated Press, said he’s not seeing the same level of engagement on Android devices as he is on Apple devices. I think this is directly related to the UI not being completely dummy proof, and the lack of apps on Android.

3)      The Android OS is lacking a robust ecosystem of tool providers for app developers when compared against the iOS- Whether it is leader board functionality, in-app cross promotion networks like W3i, etc, Android fundamentally does not seem to have as many robust tool providers bringing functionality to the app developers. This is very apparent when you engage with apps in Android. This will likely change as Android’s market share grows, as I know many top tool providers on the iOS are planning to enter the Android market soon. Apple’s unpredictable policies are causing a lot of tool providers to look for other viable options. Microsoft and RIM should take note.

TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters summarized that on the Apple App Store, paid apps stay in the top 100 rankings much longer on average than free apps, which was a key finding by Distimo as well.

In looking at the report, I found something else that was not cited by Distimo in their key findings or by TechCrunch, and that was that Facebook’s free app was the only app to rank in the top ten for paid or free apps in both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market. I’m a little surprised given the iPhone and Android support I see from top mobile app developers like Pandora, The Weather Channel, etc.

So, you know you need to have a mobile app for your next campaign, but you don’t know where you should start. I asked Aleksey Cherfas, our top mobile app developer, to tell me what he thinks digital marketers need to know about app development, and he distilled his guidance around how to choose a platform, how to choose what type of technology to use, how do you determine what features to include in your mobile app, and how to drive continuous engagement.

One of the most important decisions in preparation for mobile app development is to decide which platforms you will target. Do you go for the iPhone OS, because everybody seems to be so hyped about the iPhone and iPad; Android, because you heard it is a promising open source platform; or the BlackBerry, just because this is what your boss uses? Regardless of whether you decide to cover multiple platforms right away or focus on just one from the beginning, you should start with analyzing your prospective users and the marketplace. Determine if you plan your app to have a global reach or focus on local markets and seek out device usage in those markets before committing to any particular device. A safe bet would be to single out one device to start with and then gradually expand to others, focusing on those that are more relevant to your domain.

Once you decide on the platform, you have at least three choices in terms of the type of applications you can develop. You can go for developing a native app, which takes advantage of platform specific functionality and design, arguably making it easier to operate for your users, though condemning your development effort to be very complex and technologically involved.

On the other end of the difficulty spectrum in the world of mobile app development are Web apps. These applications are Web pages that are rendered inside a mobile browser and capitalize on the browser’s multitouch technology for navigational interaction. Some basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is usually sufficient to build a simple and effective application. There are even frameworks that allow you to harness the power of JavaScript in mobile browsers without much effort. JQTouch, a jQuery plug-in for mobile app development, is one such framework.

Your third option is a combination; kind of a half-native, half-Web app where you would create a native app that uses a browser engine for rendering your content as Web pages but requires you to develop your own navigation instead of using built-in mobile browser navigation controls. This option is a little more technologically involved than a simple Web app. Because you are using a browser engine for displaying your content, the effort is not quite as involved as with the native app.

At this point, it should be mentioned that there are several services that try to solve the multiplatform conundrum and complexity of native development, making your entrance to mobile app development a lot easier. These services will allow you to write your code once, in many cases using JavaScript and HTML, and they will take care of compiling applications into the native code for different devices. Some of the more prominent of them are Rhomobile, PhoneGap, and Titanium. If you plan to develop an app by yourself, do give high consideration to these services.

As you think about the design of your mobile apps, consider these options. You can either make your design very specific to the standards and conventions of each platform, or use your design from other domains (website, desktop software) and transplant it onto the mobile app. Even with the array of platforms out there, it’s possible to use blueprints that will nicely fit into different platforms without violating too many conventions for each platform. There’s no right answer when it comes to design. If you deviate from the standards, you should still stay within familiar metaphors so that the users don’t have to work too hard to learn how to use your mobile app.

The main difference of mobile apps from your other domains is limited display area, so keep it very simple and to the point. Don’t try to incorporate every single feature into the first version of your app. Start with a simple feature of essential functionality and let the user feedback drive your future functionality and application design. One way to keep functionality to the minimum is a product requirements document (PRD). In its simplest form, PRD is a list of application requirements (features) with a brief explanation and some weights attached to each feature. The commonly used weights are “must have,” “good to have,” and “may have.” Keeping these weights in mind makes it easier to set development priorities and move unessential application features into the next releases. Again, keep it simple – think in terms of “must have” requirements for the first release.

Even after users install your app, you are still only one of many that occupy their home screen and will constantly need to compete for their attention. Updating your app often is one approach to keep users engaged and interested. Many successful apps release updates at least once a month. With each update they address bugs and performance issues, but most importantly they try to come up with a small new feature that will keep users interested and prompt them to re-download and open your app.

With so many options to choose from when developing for mobile platforms, your decision should be based on your requirements and resources. If you are to remember one takeaway from above, it’s: keep it simple.