Software Marketing in 2024: 5 Tips for Getting the Word Out

Software marketing in 2024 isn’t the same as it was five or ten years ago. Gone are the days when you can create a quick-and-dirty app for quick-and-easy profits. In most cases, a single app needs to form part of an ongoing, long-term business and marketing plan.

With that in mind, it’s best to build a product that adds lasting value to customers, so they stay engaged for the long term. Loyal users make more money, aid your reputation, and fuel your business growth.

Here are five tips for developing a long-term, successful software marketing plan in 2024.

1. Target Your Advertising

Advertising is becoming a complex science. To be successful, you need to know who your audience is, where they spend their time, and how to target them.

Who – Most analytics, advertising networks, and marketing platforms offer sophisticated targeting. Depending on the advertising platform, you’ll be able to target gender, geographic locale, age groups, education level, interests, relationship status, and so forth. This information is extremely powerful and has a big impact on conversion rates. Use user testing and analytics to gather as much of this information as possible.

Where – Though you want to know where they are in the real world, you’ll also want to know where your users spend their time online. Knowing the “who” will help you find out if they spend more time on certain social networks, on certain websites, on certain apps, and on which devices and operating systems.

How – So now that you know all about your audience, how do you target them? Choose the right advertising platforms. If your audience spends time on Facebook, then Facebook is clearly a good option for advertising. If a niche audience spends a lot of time on a set of niche websites, make sure that your advertising networks or marketing platforms can advertise on those websites.

Targeting the right users is half the battle.

2. Automate the Right Parts of Your Marketing

Marketing automation is an essential asset for online marketers. When used correctly, automation can give you a competitive edge; when it is misused, it can sound artificial. Here a few things you should automate:

Data Gathering – Keep track of what’s going on in your industry through tools such as Google Alerts, RSS Feeds, Digg, and similar aggregators.

Auto-Responding and Auto-Posting – Automatic responses to inquiries, social media follows, blog comments, and emails are fine. Some automatic social media posting is fine, but too much can seem artificial. Some marketing firms have found that automatic social media posts lowers the number of followers, likes, and so on.

Custom Triggers – Easy-to-use tools like IFTTT (if this then that) allow you to set up triggers between online channels that automatically perform another action. For example, each time someone follows you on a social media channel, you can automatically send them a thank you message. Programmers will probably be able to create custom scripts that perform certain actions under certain circumstances.

In general, when automating your marketing, auto-responses are fine. But avoid automating your online socializing, such as commenting, Facebook posts, Tweets, and so forth. People can tell.

3. Use Marketing Platforms

Marketing platforms, such as Grow Mobile and CodeFuel’s monetization products give developers an array of marketing tools.

Grow Mobile, for example, gives you access to multiple ad networks in one handy interface. Instead of tracking and engaging multiple campaigns on multiple networks, you can follow all your campaigns under one roof. Tracking analytics, ROI, and customer value becomes much easier.

In a way, this could be considered a form of automation. Elsewhere on this blog, we discuss monetization platforms and marketing platforms in depth, and their future role in online marketing.

As with other marketing automation tools, these platforms are particularly useful – and practically necessary – for any developer who wishes to remain competitive.

4. Use a Pay-Per-Install Program and In-App Ads

Pay-per-install software works by presenting advertisements during the download process. You can tweak and customize the installation process the same as you can with any other conversion funnel. Split-testing and analytics allow you to boost conversion rates and your revenue.

Once your download is completed, you want to keep making money. That’s what in-app ads are for. Using the information you gather about your audience, choose an appropriate ad network that targets the right users.

Keep your ads streamlined, unobtrusive, and as relevant and integrated as possible. Some highly relevant ad formats, such as recommendation engines, actually work with a program to add value, which increases conversions that much more.

5. Get Listed

Get your app listed wherever you can as lists are amongst the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. Here are some others to consider:

Software Directories – Find a software directory that allows you to use a pay-per-install program, and use the directory to get in front of thousands upon thousands of users.

App Stores – App stores aren’t just for smartphones any more – Windows 8 and Mac have their own app stores. Store listings is a must for any developer.

Top Ten Lists – Bloggers love top ten lists, so find your nearest niche blogger and let them know about your app. If the app is good enough, it may be included in their next top ten list.

Affiliate Networks – If you charge for your product, get listed on an affiliate network. With the right commission, your software will get picked up by affiliates, who will end up marketing your software for you.

Pay-Per-Download Networks – Another way to earn money and get the attention of marketers is on pay-per-download networks, which often have affiliate programs of their own.

These are just a few tips to help you improve your software marketing. For more, check out our blog.

What Is Software Marketing? – A Guide to Market Your Software Effectively

So, you’ve come up with an amazing piece of software – a stellar app, an app that has unique features, amazing potential, and maybe (just maybe) the power to change the world. It’s bug-free, easy-to-install, and user-friendly. It’s like eye-candy for the coded soul. But now you’ve run into a problem. Your app is great, but no one knows about it! A few of your friends downloaded it, and your Aunt Alice in Southwest Australia, but that’s it. No one else. Not a soul.

What you need to do next is market your app. But you’re a developer, right? You know how to develop. What in the world do you know about marketing?

You might know nothing now, but that’s going to have to change if you want people to discover your software. Because marketing is the secret to getting your software out there. And just because it’s a nine-letter word, doesn’t mean you should be intimidated by it.

Back in the Day

In the olden days, marketing was pretty simple. You placed an ad in a newspaper or magazine. You sponsored a local race. You put up billboards and handed out flyers. If you had the means, you bought a sports stadium and named it after your company.

But in today’s saturated world of software development (there are more than 1 million apps on the Chrome Web Store), waiting for people to find your app and start using it could take a very long time. In fact, it might actually never happen.

If you want your app to get noticed, you’re going to have to do a bit more than list it on the Chrome Web Store. So roll up your cargo pants, take off your flip flops, and get ready to dip your toes in the sea of software marketing.

The Scoop on Software Marketing

There are many methods of software marketing today, and they can generally be grouped into two categories: inbound marketing and outbound marketing. If you’ve never heard of these terms before, don’t sweat it. Just because you’re not familiar with the terms doesn’t mean you’re not familiar with the techniques. You’ve definitely been exposed to forms of both inbound and outbound marketing, even if you didn’t know. (Hint, hint – you’re being exposed to one right now!)

Inbound Marketing – The IN Way to Market

Let’s start with inbound marketing, the trendier form of online marketing today. The term inbound marketing was coined by Brian Halligan of HubSpot less than a decade ago. Since then, it has turned the world of software marketing (and marketing in general) on its head.

Inbound marketing is marketing that aims at drawing customers to a product in a natural way by appealing to their genuine interests. Inbound marketing efforts are meant to be interesting and value-rich. They should offer something of real benefit, knowledge, or insight, so that people become fans, admirers, and eventually, paying customers.

Primary forms of inbound marketing include podcasts, tutorials, eBooks, newsletters, social media posts, and blogs (yes, even this one!). The goal? To bring in customers that are attracted by useful information.

Outbound Marketing – I shot an arrow in the air…

Outbound marketing is the term used to describe marketing activities that are not inbound marketing. These activities are the older, more traditional elements of the marketing equation.

Outbound marketing, albeit without the fancy name, has been around since the first vacuum ad appeared in a newspaper, the first Lost Cat poster appeared on a tree, the first pizza flyer was delivered to an empty apartment. It’s a promotional arrow shot into the air. Where it falls, the marketer knows not where.
In the world of software marketing, outbound marketing efforts include mass emails, online banners, text ads, and more.

They are marketing efforts delivered to potential customers who have not asked for them, and may not have any interest in them. From a marketer’s perspective, these potential clients have hopefully been targeted in some manner. Perhaps they signed up for a mailing list because they were really interested in taking a course on deep-sea diving. Maybe they are seeing ads for a trombone case because they actually have a trombone. Hopefully, but not necessarily.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Market!

Most software marketing campaigns include both inbound and outbound marketing techniques. The combination of techniques that works best for you is something you’ll have to figure out, probably through trial and error. As for how you can get started, Mike Taber and Rob Walling from Startups for the Rest of Us suggest starting every software marketing campaign with a list. Write down your ideas. Check them twice. Then choose a few and get started.