Other Methods of Spreading the Word for Your Application

Ideally, you want your application to gain so much of a following that the minority sways the majority. Even with articles from blogs and printed journals, and with a social networking presence, there is really nothing you can do to guarantee that your application will go viral. But there are things that you can do to help it along.

SEO Tactics

In Chapter 2, I discussed how to properly name your application, and how to look for possible competition. When you were looking for competitors, you probably figured out that searching for an application like yours was all about finding the right words.

The science of improving the visibility of your product on search engines is known as search engine optimization (SEO). You want your product to show up first on a Google or Android Market search for it, and you can increase the likelihood that it will by making certain that a specific combination of words are used.

Let’s say you go through the process and you find the words that you will need. You should definitely go to your web site and incorporate these words as much as you can, but don’t over do it. I have seen a lot of interesting sites that have a repetition of certain combinations of words, and this is just so someone who is searching for those words will find the site. It makes the site rather humorous to read in some cases. Proper writing of your content will ensure that it sounds natural, but still have enough keywords thrown in to gain web and application market presence.

Public Relations

As a professional blogger for tech and gadget sites, I often get emails from public relations (PR) companies informing me that they have the latest gadget or application. I imagine that many bloggers get emails like these, and I am certain that the company that made the product hired a PR firm to get the word out about their device.

Hiring a PR firm could save you some time when it comes to getting the word out about your application, as their teams have prepared lists of people that they contact when representing a product. Now, you could develop an entire list of media contacts yourself, and perhaps save some money. That, or just budget out the money to hire the PR firm yourself.

Here are some PR companies that work with developers that want to market their applications:

• Appular (http://appular.com): This company states, “we share your vision of putting high-quality mobile products directly into the hands of users.” It has services for marketing, PR, media buying, consulting, and social media.
• Max Borges Agency (http://maxborgesagency.com/): As someone who has been reporting on tech and gadgets for a while, I can say that the PR people at Max Borges do quite a good job getting the word out about the latest technology to people of the press.
• Westwind Communications (www.iphoneapppublicity.com): I realize that the URL of this company says “iPhone,” but this company also promotes Android applications.