On June 25, 2015, the Application Developers Alliance welcomed more than 50 attendees to the first edition of our new London meetup to discuss different methods app entrepreneurs can implement to get their first 10,000 users.
Leading the discussion was George Osborn of Mobile Mavericks. He was joined by Rich Pleeth, Co-Founder of Sup App and former CMO of GetTaxi, and Giacomo Summa, CEO and Co-Founder of Stylect.
Here are the three top tips and tweets from the event:
Pleeth and Summa share their insights from their experiences growing a user base.
1.) Utilize social media and the press
With the rise of Youtube celebrities and social media influencers, it’s increasingly possible to leverage their followers through endorsements and product placement. Summa pointed out that properly tracking such activities is vital, as at Stylect they found that while it helped enormously with brand recognition, there was not the expected correlation in increased downloads.
Pleeth emphasised the power of traditional media and press releases, using the example of GetTaxi’s approach of experimenting with different promotions and stunts that attracted the attention of national newspapers. When used well, it can serve as an incredibly cost effective way of reaching millions of consumers.
@CitizenSumma @stylectapp and @Richpleeth #Sup talked about successful app #growth @AppsAlliance @WeWork #London pic.twitter.com/KXB15wEUPn
— Joan Lockwood (@joanikin) June 25, 2015
2.) ASO, and the value of free discoverability
Both speakers agreed ASO is a prime opportunity to boost early downloads. The right keywords, great metadata, and clear screenshots are a good baseline. Pleeth referenced a Games of War advertisement that showed consumers what to search in the App Store to find the game. While early app developers are unlikely to have TV adverts, the concept of guiding users through the discovery process can be used in a number of different settings.
Fine tuning my growth hacking with @AppsAlliance
— Martin Uhomoibhi (@MartinUho) June 25, 2015
Full house for the first London meetup.
3.) Getting featured
Getting featured on any app store is one of the most cost-effective routes to growing your early users. The speakers suggested that key ways to do this include befriending Google and Apple employees, as apps that get talked about in their offices are more likely to find their way into the featured position. This is particularly important now that Apple is increasingly hiring editors to curate the app store in order to reduce reliance on algorithms.
Another suggestion was to launch your app in a native language outside of the English-speaking app stores. Stylect’s first app store feature took place in the Italian App Store, where the competition is less fierce. And with that final piece of advice, the event came to a close.
Thanks @AppsAlliance and @BEVEVE for inviting me to moderate their first London Meet up – it was great fun!
— George Osborn (@GeorgeOsborn) June 25, 2015
Join Us For The Next Edition
We look forward to our next London meetup event! To make sure you’re the first to hear about it, please join our meetup group.
