ISBN: 978-0-557-51427-4 Copyright © 2008 Carla Kay White and Happy Tapper™, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved. Please do not distribute this book in any way. Please do not sell it, or reprint any part of it without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. Always include a link to www. iphoneappsecrets.com. Please note that much of this publication is based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Although the author has made every reasonable attempt to achieve complete accuracy of the content in this guide, she assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Also, you should use this information as you see fit, and at your own risk. Your particular situation may not be exactly suited to the examples illustrated here; in fact, it’s likely that they won’t be the same, and you should adjust your use of the information and recommendations accordingly. Finally, use your own wisdom as guidance. Nothing in this guide is intended to replace common sense, legal, other professional advice, and is meant to inform and entertain the reader. So have fun with your iPhone and iPad app creation!
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Dedicated to my Dad
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Contents Welcome 6
An Introduction 6 What’s a tribe? 7 Tactics to tap into your tribe
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It’s all in the Name
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A few things to consider
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Pricing your app 10
Paid App Model 10 Free model - other ways to make money 11 iAd 12 By Using analytics 12 Free lite version 12 Price Cut 13 Free to paid model 13
Creating Hype
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Word-of-mouth 14 Give people a story to tell 15 The six buttons of buzz 15 Where to share your story 16 Monitoring buzz 18
Other Tricks 19
Email lists 19 Remotely update your app 19 Press release 20 Banner Ads 20
The Ultimate Golden Nugget 22 Get Apple to promote your app
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Resources 24
About HappyTapper 24 HappyTapper Apps 25 Other places you can find HappyTapper 25 “Do what you love to help people, and you will always love what you do.” 26
Welcome 5
Welcome An Introduction The biggest challenge with marketing an iPhone app is knowing which tactics work and which don’t. After months of having my apps on the App Store I still don’t know what is actually driving sales. A post about Gratitude Journal in Macrumors might have jumped my sales, or it could have been the storm of tweets, or maybe both. Sometimes sales just magically jump for a few days and I have no idea why. It’s pure voodoo. Apple flaunts some apps, but that’s really Apple promoting the App Store, not the app. They decide certain apps emphasize enticing aspects of the App Store, so those lucky apps get a free ride on Apple’s promotion. I love promoting my apps. It’s my chance to connect with my customers, have a conversation and grow a relationship. It’s fun and I never know whom I’m going to meet. So far I only spent $200 on marketing which is nothing. Still, my app managed to make its way to the top two position of the App Store’s Lifestyles category and has remained in the top ten off and on most of the time. If you want to keep your app ranking high, promoting can be a full time job. I’m always scouring websites, talking to other app developers, watching podcasts, trying to discover creative ways to reach a wider audience. I’ll share Everything I learned with you. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. And you never know unless you try. But first, let’s think about who we’re trying to reach.
Welcome 6
Finding Your Tribe What’s a tribe? We all belong to a variety of different tribes. Some we choose, some we don’t. I tend to gravitate towards tribes of designers, yogis, runners, readers and bakers. Glancing at the top selling apps on iTunes, I believe the largest tribe with iPhones are pubescent boys. I expected the “woman into yoga” tribe to be most drawn to Gratitude Journal. And for a good part, they are. But what I didn’t expect was the vast expanse of my tribe. I discovered that the tribe that loves my app is actually anyone who believes in the power of positive thought. This includes entrepreneurs, artists, coaches, parents and fitness instructors to name a few. Once I realized this, my marketing approach became far more powerful. Tribes are constantly looking for new leaders who can get them excited by a new product, service or message. So ask yourself who you believe your tribe will be. Are they young? Older? Successful? Playful? Male or female? Learn as much as you can about your tribe (or target audience) and you know what type of voice to use in your marketing, where to market and how to market.
Tactics to tap into your tribe Share stories Give your tribe personal insight and it will create a bond and strengthen the relationship between you and your tribe. The day we released Gratitude Journal on
Welcome 7
the App Store I blogged about how I created it. I also shared the story about why I was inspired to start a gratitude journal and how it drastically changed my life1. My story was picked up by all sorts of people. It inspired them and they could relate. Celebrate accomplishment Reward your tribe when they reach a milestone or goals, as a group or an individual. Reach out to them and give them. I donate ten percent of my profits. When someone helps me with one of my projects, or accomplishes something great, I do a donation in their name. It’s easy and unique. Usually it’s the first time they have ever received a gift like that so they’re completely taken back. And some even start regular donations themselves. Create a goal Define something people want to rally around and support. If they love your app, they will want you to succeed, so share your goal. It can be something small and fun or some grand. Be an example Walk the walk and talk the talk. Be an example of how your app can improve other’s lives. For me, I share exactly how the power of gratitude and giving back affects my life. I let everyone know I practice these two things daily. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s step back and discuss what you’re going to call your little gem. You need to pick the perfect name for your app.
1 http://www.carlakaywhite.com/2008/10/how-i-changed-my-life-in-2-months/
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It’s all in the Name A few things to consider Knowing who your tribe will help you select a great name for your app. What words would your tribe use to search for your app? Are those words in your app’s name? There are around thirty voice recorder apps available on the App Store. The top selling one is simply titled “Recorder”. It describes the app precisely and includes the main keyword the target audience uses to search it. In addition, the name “Recorder” is simple and easy to remember. It took me weeks to name my app. I originally wanted Gratitude Journal but because the app name on the iPhone can only ten characters2, those two words wouldn’t fit under the application icon. So I came up with shorter names like “Soul Journal” and just “Journal”. I searched these keywords in Google and “gratitude journal” came back with 350,000 more results than the others. It is the most commonly used phrase by my tribe to describe this product. This told me that customers would instantly understand what the “Gratitude Journal” app is without having to read the description. It wasn’t until later that I discovered the name on the App Store can be different than what is displayed on the phone. On the App Store the name is “Gratitude Journal” and on the phone it says “Gratitude!”. Your app’s name not only helps with searches and instant product recognition, it also says that you understand their tribe. You speak their language and you are one of them. 2 Give or take, depending on which characters you use. For example, an “i” takes less space than a “w”.
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Pricing your app Paid App Model Competition on the app store has driven prices to the lowest they can be without actually giving it away. Although it can cost thousands to create an app, the price of the app won’t reflect the effort that went into it. At the time of writing, 99¢ remains to be the sweet spot for most buyers. At such a low price teamed with a oneclick buy a couple of taps away, it becomes an impulse purchase, sparked by instant gratification rather than traditional “need”. How many times have you contemplated purchasing an app thinking that it’s only a buck or two? It’s a gamble whether it’s any good or not, but for only a buck buyers remorse is quick lived. Classics first released at $2.99 and instantly soared to #12 due to an excellent launch campaign. This price was already far below the $9.99 price Tap Tap Tap had originally planned on, leaving them feeling their app was well below its value -- a common feeling amongst app owners. Classics held in the top 25 for two weeks but was pushed out by 99¢ apps so they dropped their price to 99¢ and were temporarily back in the game. As soon as they went back to $2.99 they were pushed back out again. But they held tight to their price for I hold tremendous respect. It’s a great app and in the end it paid off. By investing in a quality design, they were featured in an Apple advertisement which rocketed them back into the top 10 at the higher price.
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I originally planned $2.99 for Gratitude Journal. The App Store was only a couple months old and apps were still going for a higher price. I was told $2.99 was far too low but in the end, my price went even lower. By the time I went live, the average price was hitting 99¢ and I felt that’s where mine had to be to get noticed. I didn’t have the band width for a large marketing campaign, so my price needed to work for me. I’ll never know if Gratitude Journal would have been as successful at a higher price. Being in the top ten of a category has a huge advantage, and I’m confident my price helped me get there. That doesn’t mean that future apps will all be priced so low. In fact, once you establish a reputation for creating quality apps and have poured plenty of love into your customers, they will be loyal to you and your products despite the price.
Free model - other ways to make money Some of the free apps have cleverly embedded advertising in the app. Putting ads in your app is another possibility for generating revenue while giving your app away for free. Admob (admob.com) is the biggest player in the app advertising market. Unfortunately this revenue model hasn’t been too successful. Here’s why. If you do the maths, the amount you make from selling your app for just 99¢ well out performs giving it away and hoping your customers click on the ad. Your app would have to bombard the user with adverts to make up the difference. The advertising model is best for apps that are sticky. These apps get used on a daily basis. My free Twitter app is a good example of a sticky app. I use it at least a half dozen times a day. You probably won’t know if your app is suitable for advertising until after you have launched it for free and can see how well it does in downloads. Another option is to install analytics in your app to see how often people use it. Now Apple is getting in on the ads game by offering their new iAd.
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iAd The latest release of the iPhone SDK now includes iAds. Apple promotes this as a way for developers to gain extra revenues. It might just be pretty amazing. You are paid when users see and interact with the advertisements displayed by your application. Or according to the eleven page agreement: “Developer shall receive sixty percent (60%) of the Net Advertising Revenue derived from the sale of advertising on the Developer’s Mobile Properties (“Developer Revenue Share”) net of any applicable taxes as provided in Section 6 of this Agreement. The Developer Revenue Share percentage may be adjusted from time to time at Apple’s sole discretion.” To get in on the action, first join the iAd Network through iTunes Connect. Then prepare your app to receive the advertisements. iAd supports two image sizes: 320 x 50 points for a portrait, and 480 x 32 points for a landscape advertisement. When customers use your app and click on an iAd, it will display full-screen video and interactive ad content without ever leaving your app, and users may return to your app anytime they choose. Pretty slick.
By Using analytics Pinch Media (pinchmedia.com) offer a free analytics solution that you can plug right into your app. It tells you real time downloads, how often people are using your app and for how long. As well as all sorts of other information. Of course, you’re letting Pinch Media know everything about your app as well. So you have to be comfortable with sharing all these details with them too.
Free lite version After the tremendous success of iShoot, app developers are scrambling to create lite versions of their apps as well. On January 13th, iShoot took the #1 spot in the top 100 paid apps, overtaking the infamous iFart Mobile. What’s surprising about their ascent to #1 is that iShoot was
Pricing your app 12
not even a new app and also cost a whopping $2.99. iShoot originally came out on October 19th at $4.99 and was received with mixed reviews. In December, they came out with version 1.1 and dropped the price to $2.99. Not much happened with their App Store ranking. Then on December 28th they released iShoot Lite. The Lite version shot up the Free charts over the next six days and was closely followed by their Paid app. Since then, other apps have followed their lead offering lite versions and enjoying similar results. Investing time and money into a second lite version of your app could prove to be an excellent marketing strategy.
Price Cut Apps priced higher than 99¢ can later offer customers a price cut to boost sales. The timing of a price cut is critical. The average price cut increased demand by 130%. The average price increase drops demand by 25%3. Don’t offer a price cut if sales are currently rising. Only when they’re declining. Price cuts will be most effective if the app hasn’t been broadly exposed. Once they have high exposure, price cuts have a decreasing effect.
Free to paid model Some developers released their apps for free for a day or two and then changed them to paid apps. This used to boost their sales statistic because everyone who downloaded for free got counted. Apple eventually caught onto this trick and now it doesn’t work. At least I haven’t seen it attempted in a long time, so I’m guessing it’s been killed. That doesn’t mean that going from free to paid doesn’t still help. By giving away your app for a limited period, you can generate some great buzz that could boost sales after you go to a paid model. If you plan to offer your app for free, I suggest teaming it with some well written email blast so you get the word out
3 Pinch Media
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Creating Hype Word-of-mouth Word-of-mouth is more important today than at any time in the past. Because of ad clutter everywhere, lack of trust in ads, and how much ads costs makes word-ofmouth far more superior than paid advertising. Thanks to great technology word-of-mouth moves faster than ever before. Emails, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums, and websites all contribute to its rocket fuel. There’s two rules to remember. The first one is don’t believe that once you submit your app to iTunes, you’re done. That’s just the beginning of another phase. I spend just as much time maintaining my existing apps as I do creating new ones. Expect it and plan for it. The second rule is to go for the quick wins. I break down the development process into short phases so I can get things done an move onto the next thing. This keeps momentum going and keeps my project from fizzling out into a slow death.
“Capturing attention of consumers and the media to the point where talking about your brand becomes entertaining, fascinating, and newsworthy. A conversation starter.” - Buzzmarketing, by Mark Hughes
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Tackling the process in a long-term plan kills the excitement that comes from inspiration of new ideas. Excitement comes from doing something and moving onto the next task. Seeing results and letting you celebrate the small victories. If you see a great movie -- bam, you’re messaging dozens of your contacts letting them know. When someone tells you a movie was great, you believe them. It holds far more credibility than an ad does.
Give people a story to tell This is the entire crux of word-of-mouth advertising -- give people something to talk about. This is what it’s all about. People want to tell each other stories, so give them one. iFart Mobile pushed out stories about Apple rejecting the app. They followed it up with stories about lawsuits with other fart apps. Negative stories aren’t for me, but they certainly proved to work for iFart. Tap Tap Tap on the other hand were the first to publish their sales figures on their blog4. This blog post spread like wildfire and resulted in increased sales. What gives these stories life? They’re interesting. But more so, stories make the person telling them interesting. You want to give people something to talk about because it makes them compelling and gives them an edge.
The six buttons of buzz According to Mark Hughes, author of Buzzmarketing, there are six things that push people’s buttons and get them talking. I couldn’t agree with him more. Are you pushing buttons? #1 The taboo Got a boring product? Introduce taboo. Team it with sex, lies, or bathroom humor and it suddenly becomes far more interesting. #2 The unusual 4 http://taptaptap.com/blog/final-numbers-for-july/
Creating Hype 15
Not to be confused with taboo, unusual is more along the lines of stupid pet tricks. #3 The outrageous Lady GaGa seems the have the outrageous thing down pretty well. Go for the wild, eccentric, unpredictable. Outrageous always creates buzz. #4 The hilarious This one isn’t easy, but when it works, it works well. “I’m a Mac” commercials seem to do this quite well. #5 The remarkable Throw something out there that grabs people’s curiosity and provokes them to ask about it, creating a conversation. #6 Secrets (both kept and revealed) Limited supplies, inside stories, revealing sales numbers. We all love a juicy secret. What’s something people would love to know that you can share? Generating buzz isn’t easy, but if you can give people that great water-cooler story, they’ll tell everyone they know about it. And that is some of the best advertisement you can get.
Where to share your story Your blog You don’t have to be a prolific writer to have a blog. And you don’t have to write every day. Just write about what interests you most and your experiences with your iPhone app. Your tribe will eventually gravitate towards your blog giving you an audience to share your story. You can create a blog for free. Blogger (blogger.com) and Wordpress (wordpress. com) are a couple of great blogging sites. They’re easy to use and quick to set up.
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Once your app is on the market, link to your blog in your product description so your customers can find you as well. Twitter When I started using Twitter (twitter.com) in early 2007, it took me awhile to figure out what it was all about. Now even my sister twitters as well as half my friends. My happytapper.com website has a link to my Twitter page (twitter.com/carlawhite) so customers can follow me, and in return I follow them. This has been the best way for me to have a direct conversation with my customers. If I’m unsure of a design feature, I twitter it and I get great feedback. When I needed a developer, I put it out on Twitter and found one the same day. It’s such an amazing way to connect with others. YouTube & Vimeo Create a basic thirty second video of your app and let that be your story. It’s a great way to show your app in action and share it’s unique features. Tapbot generated a lot of buzz for their app Weightbot using a very simple, unedited video. The unpolished look made it feel more personal too. Create a killer website My website needed to really stand out and be different, so I spent weeks going through reworks of the design. I even coded up two designs, put them on the Internet and asked my friends which one they liked more. All this effort paid off. My site was featured on dozens of websites that promote excellent designs. This generated a lot of buzz and tons of traffic. It also helps with the credibility of the app. The quality of the app should be reflected by the quality of the site. Flickr Share images of your app on Flickr (flickr.com) and give people a glimpse of what your app will look like before it’s available for sale on the App Store. You’re sharing a
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secret which generates excitement and anticipation for the app. You can also post them to your website or blog before you go live.
Monitoring buzz Unless you possess telekinetic powers and instinctively know what’s being said about you, let me suggest a couple of tools that work for me. Google Alerts5 Google Alerts is a way to get notified whenever certain keywords appear in blogs and news posts. You specify the keywords you would like to be notified about. Anytime they appear on the net, you receive an email. Or you can have your alerts sent directly to your reader. I created alerts for my name, my app names and my website names. Anytime these appear on a website, a link to that page is sent directly to my feeder. I know instantly if someone mentioned my app on their site. This is also a great way to follow blogs about a subject matter, like gratitude journals. When someone writes about the benefits of keeping a gratitude journal, I can post a comment to their blog telling them about my product or my experience. Twitter Search6 Even if you decide not to use Twitter, you still want to know what is being said about you and your product on there. It’s a lightning fast buzz machine. A bit like Google alerts, you search your keywords and can request that anytime they appear in a tweet, you receive an email or news feed. This is a great way to finding out who purchased your app because quite often people will twitter it. Then you can send them a direct message in return thanking them. It costs you nothing and creates a lot of great customer karma.
5 Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts 6 Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com
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Other Tricks Email lists While you’re still in the development phase, create a simple one page website describing your app with a couple screen shots of the design. Include a place for visitors to submit their email address so they can be notified when your app is ready. There are some excellent place holder website themes out there for a steal, like the LauchIt theme available from Themeforest7 for just $8. Bargain! Campaign Monitor (campaignmonitor.com) and Mail Chimp (mailchimp.com) provide everything you need to achieve this. You don’t have to write any complicated code or store the addresses yourself. They even offer great templates to use when you’re ready to send out a letter to your subscribers. You can also purchase email lists that have been categorized by demographics or themes. I’m not a big fan of people profiting from selling email addresses, so I have never tried this. But I know others who have and claim it can be effective.
Remotely update your app Imagine someone opening your app, seeing the welcome screen and each time they view it, they also see a new message from you created just that day. You can do this by putting an XML file in your app that allows you to remotely update your app. It’s a great way to talk to your customers. You can thank them for buying the app, ask 7 http://themeforest.net/item/launchit/full_screen_preview/80079
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them a question and promote your other products.Ask your developer for details.
Press release After much debate, I decided not to do a press release for Gratitude Journal. I elected to email a select group of people directly to tell them my story instead. This seemed more personal and appropriate. Some replied and wrote about my app, some didn’t. Some I wrote to a few times. Releasing this ebook is another story. I decided to hire someone to write a release and it was a waste of money. Press releases are basically spam8. If you’re a firm believer in press releases (as I know a lot of you are), here’s a list of places where you can submit it for free. 10 Free Press Release Submission Websites This is Advantage’s Top 10 press release submission list -- the most trusted sites where you can publish a press release, all of them free of charge, ordered by Google PageRank. 1. http://www.betanews.com 2. http://www.directionsmag.com 3. http://www.prleap.com/ 4. http://news.thomasnet.com/ 5. http://www.nanotech-now.com 6. http://www.npr.org/ 7. http://www.prlog.org/ 8. http://www.bizeurope.com/ 9. http://www.free-press-release.com/ 10. http://www.clickpress.com/
Banner Ads A banner ad was my big marketing splurge. I spent $200 for a 125 by 125 ad on Zenhabits.net. It went up the day we went live on the App Store and stayed there for a couple months. When I decided to discontinue, it had no effect on sales. 8 For more details, see Inside Secrets chapter “Learn from my mistakes”.
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This is not to say that my ad didn’t help. Although I don’t know for sure, it could have contributed to springing my app ahead with those first sales, landing it nicely in the Lifestyle’s top ten. I also put banner ad code on my website so my tribe could easily include my app ad on their website. I was amazed at all the places those ads showed up. Remember, your customers wants to brand themselves as part of your tribe. So give them the chance.
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The Ultimate Golden Nugget Get Apple to promote your app One day last February I received an email from Apple requesting the rights to use Gratitude Journal in their advertising. If this happens to you, make sure you’re not at an eco resort without your laptop. I was taking a long overdue holiday in Mexico. Our first time away in years, my husband and I promised ourselves no computers. The resort only had dial-up speed access anyway. That email from Apple barely loaded on my iPod Touch. Apple requested a special build of my app by close of business that day. Without my computer, I had no idea how I would pull it off. My husband suggested I ask my developer back in the States. I managed to squeak out two emails on that weak connection. One to Apple letting them know we’re working on it. And another to my developer back home asking if he could pull this off for me. Somehow it all came together in the end and now I am waiting to see what it will result into. I contacted other app owners featured in Apple’s adverts. Everyone’s experience is somewhat the same, but a little different. Some have ended up in commercials, some pre-loaded on the Apple store display phones. Either way, they all agree it’s the best advertising you can get.
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If Gratitude Journal ends up on one of Apple’s ads, you know I’ll be running around flapping my arms like Kermit the Frog singing Madonna’s “Lucky Star.” I truly hope that someday you will be doing that too.
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Index
Resources About HappyTapper HappyTapper Apps on iTunes http://itunes.com/apps/happytapper Download our iPhone apps HappyTapper www.happytapper.com About HappyTapper and our apps Inside Secrets to an iPhone App www.iphoneappsecrets.om The official book site Health, Wealth & Happiness www.carlakaywhite.com Carla’s personal blog about finding peace and prosperity. 1-on-1 Jam Sessions www.happytapper.com/services Personal phone session to jump start your project Press Kit www.happytapper.com/PressKit/HappyTapperPressKit.zip Images of logos and products Email carla@happytapper.com
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Index
HappyTapper Apps Gratitude Journal www.happytapper.com/gratitude-journal Change your thoughts, change your life. Vision Board www.happytapper.com/vision-board Visualize your dreams into action! Little Buddha www.happytapper.com/little-buddha Over 39,000 inspirational quotes
Other places you can find HappyTapper Twitter @carlawhite Facebook HappyTapper Fan Page Vimeo www.vimeo.com/happytapper YouTube www.youtube.com/user/carlakaywhite Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/happytapper/
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“Do what you love to help people, and you will always love what you do.”
Carla Kay White Author & Founder of HappyTapper
About Carla White and HappyTapper.com Carla created her first iPhone app, Gratitude Journal (iTunes link) during the hours of 5 - 7am before going into her day job. Gratitude Journal is a diary for noting five things we’re thankful for each day. By focusing on gratitude, we become aware of those things and thus create a shift in our thinking to the positive. Carla did all the designs, managed the development, started Happytapper.com and did all the promotion herself. She is a one person show. Carla outsourced the development for $500 and the entire project cost her just $700. Gratitude Journal was released in December 2008 and shot up to #2 in the Lifestyles category of the App Store within its first week. It remains around that position at the time of writing (June 2010). More importantly, it has received nearly all five star reviews. Carla’s apps received great reviews from Macworld, LifeHacker and was featured in USA Today. Apple also requested the rights to feature it in their advertising. Combining her iPhone development experience with her design and project management knowledge, Carla formulated a successful process that brings ideas to market faster. Using this process, she continues to create more iPhone apps while sharing everything she learns along the way. Carla is on a mission to create a life of financial independence while bringing meaning and purpose to other people’s lives. She created a formula that allows her to work on projects she loves while raising money for charity.
© Copyright 2010