So, you are a developer of mobile applications, a designer of an extremely useful and particularly exciting program product. It is high time to market and share your creation with the masses! There’s definitely some probability that your product won’t get lost in hundreds of thousands of similar contents and users will do justice to it, then you can happily count your profits. But since you are reading this article you are taking a realistic approach and realize everything is not that simple.

Notwithstanding the rising number of smartphone users in Russia and all over the world, more and more developers are attempting to take advantages from the growing mobile apps market. Today, AppStore proposes a range of over 600,000 apps, while Google Play products pool exceeds 500,000 units, and these numbers are growing day by day. What are the chances of your product to be noticed and promoted without any efforts from your part? The chances are similar to winning a lottery. No matter how useful or interesting your proposal is it can be lost among other products. What is to be done?

Firstly, the product name and its description shall be optimized to fit App Store, Google Play and other mobile apps stores. Each of them has its peculiarities for SEO-optimization and its own set of requirements - please do bother to find them out. Otherwise, your app won't be included in the search results.

Secondly, it is desirable to maximize the users’ awareness of your app. Reviews made by popular bloggers and placed on most visited web-sites is one the most efficient promotion tools. One can also engage PR-agencies to write and post press-releases. Practice shows that a professionally written press-release is favored by editors. Thus, an article covering your app will appear in many magazines and on-line editions devoted to mobile apps, with an overall result of increased number of downloads.

Thirdly, it is a must to engage your audience through social means. Maintain the Twitter of your app, add commentary notes on the product on topical forums, and create grounds for your product discussions on social networking sites! For example, adding “Like” and “Share” to your app on Facebook or other sites will enable everyone to tell his friends about it. Taking into account that the friends number of many users reaches some hundreds this is a very effective promotion tool similar to “word-of-mouth” advertizing. Moreover, be aware of maintaining the feedback: it is very likely you would receive a useful hint.

Fourthly, be aware that the lion's share of all mobile apps downloads is free. Thus, even if your are focused on selling your app make sure you have a free version with a limited functionality that will from time to time offer going to a pay version without any limitations. A user is prone to pay for additional functions to an app they like rather than to pay for something unknown.

Fifthly, do not forget about updates! This allows you to regularly enter the list of newly designed products and in the long run to increase the number of downloads. New levels of games, new functions, errors correction – all this can be the ground for making a new version. The only “but” – is be careful with “empty” updates since they can simply irritate users.

Overall, none of the listed tools taken separately cannot guarantee a success. Therefore, be ready for a long fight promoting your product and use all available possibilities. Good luck!