{"id":10409,"date":"2014-12-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=10409"},"modified":"2020-03-30T23:20:45","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T03:20:45","slug":"market-sustain-successful-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app","title":{"rendered":"How to market and sustain a successful app"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a01 million apps<\/a>\u00a0in the App Store, vying for users\u2019 attention in nearly every category.<\/p>\n

Building a great product isn\u2019t enough to make your app the next Angry Birds, and Apple knows it. Just last month, it introduced a \u201cBest New Updates\u201d section to\u00a0improve the discoverability<\/a>\u00a0of apps long after their initial release. But to create a sustainable app, you need to build in solid marketing and distribution strategies to get your app into the hands of the people who need it most.<\/p>\n

Take Everpix, for example. When the photo storage company\u00a0closed its doors<\/a>, it came as a total surprise to users. It was an excellent product that sorted photos with ease and stored an unlimited number of images for a small yearly fee.<\/p>\n

Everpix had the potential to overturn companies like Dropbox and Flickr, but it made one major mistake: It put all of its budget into product development, leaving little money to sustain the company as it tried to grow its user base. While it seems unfair, the fact is a great product isn\u2019t enough to succeed in the app marketplace. It\u2019s important to strike a healthy balance between development and marketing to ensure sustainability.<\/p>\n

Grow Users\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0Keep the Lights On<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here are five strategies to capitalize on the marketing and distribution of your new app:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Release early and release often.<\/strong>\u00a0You may have heard this refrain before, but it\u2019s vital for growing your user base and attracting investors\u2019 attention. Release core features, then leverage communities such as Hacker News and Product Hunt to grab early adopters before building out the kitchen sink. Look at it this way: If you don\u2019t have a user base, how can you be sure you\u2019re building something people want?<\/li>\n
  2. Find your niche.\u00a0<\/strong>You can differentiate your app in a crowded market in two ways: Introduce features that no one else has, or target a specific niche. These strategies aren\u2019t mutually exclusive. Take\u00a0QUAD<\/a>, for instance \u2014 yet another entrant in the crowded mobile messaging market. QUAD focused on its unique ability to message more than 50 people and has heavily marketed its app to college groups like fraternities and sororities that have a real need for a bulk messaging system. By doing so, it\u2019s enabled itself to live alongside other messaging juggernauts like\u00a0WhatsApp<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0GroupMe<\/a>, rather than compete with them.<\/li>\n
  3. Be exclusive.<\/strong>\u00a0Nowadays, it seems like everyone uses Spotify, but it wasn\u2019t long ago that the company was just starting out in the U.S. and only available by invitation. While Spotify used invitations to make it easier to scale in a new country, it also had the added benefit of creating buzz around this exclusive new app. By capitalizing on word-of-mouth marketing, Spotify helped itself stand out in an arena that companies like Rdio and Rhapsody had been occupying for years.<\/li>\n
  4. Optimize for the App Store.<\/strong>\u00a0Much like the need to optimize your website for search engines, it\u2019s important to make sure your app has the right keywords in its title and description so users can find you. It sounds minor, but if your app doesn\u2019t come up when users type relevant keywords into the search bar, then it might as well not exist. That\u2019s why app design and development companies like\u00a0Fueled<\/a>\u00a0have started making App Store optimization an integral part of their development process.<\/li>\n
  5. Build in social calls to action.<\/strong>\u00a0Social word of mouth is one of the best ways to grow your user base. Build in social sharing so users can brag about what they\u2019ve just accomplished, whether that\u2019s leveling up in a game or logging miles in a running app.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It\u2019s easy to assume your app can become the next Snapchat as long as you build a solid product, but what makes that app successful isn\u2019t the fact that it exists \u2014 it\u2019s the efficiencies it creates. By focusing on marketing strategies alongside product development, you can create an app that not only makes life better for your users, but also makes a profit for your startup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a01 million apps\u00a0in the App Store, vying for users\u2019 attention in nearly every category. Building a great product isn\u2019t enough to make your app the next Angry Birds, and Apple knows it. Just last month, it introduced a \u201cBest New Updates\u201d section to\u00a0improve the discoverability\u00a0of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1370,"featured_media":10414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902,43908],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development","category-creativity-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to market and sustain a successful app<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to market and sustain a successful app\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-08T19:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-31T03:20:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gideon Kimbrell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gideon Kimbrell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gideon Kimbrell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/4e0c78ec09b35427bb265baf43625cd9\"},\"headline\":\"How to market and sustain a successful app\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-08T19:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-31T03:20:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app\"},\"wordCount\":706,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853\",\"articleSection\":[\"Professional Development\",\"Creativity and Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app\",\"name\":\"How to market and sustain a successful app\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-08T19:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-31T03:20:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":853},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Professional Development\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Creativity and Culture\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"How to market and sustain a successful app\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"name\":\"Ideas\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\",\"name\":\"WeWork\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"width\":55,\"height\":55,\"caption\":\"WeWork\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/4e0c78ec09b35427bb265baf43625cd9\",\"name\":\"Gideon Kimbrell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d54ac0e9648bd6c7d2c72a8af28dea927bd45a0f99a3f28a9d9e2fe0a578ff0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d54ac0e9648bd6c7d2c72a8af28dea927bd45a0f99a3f28a9d9e2fe0a578ff0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gideon Kimbrell\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author\/gideon-kimbrell\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to market and sustain a successful app","description":"Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to market and sustain a successful app","og_description":"Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app","og_site_name":"Ideas","article_published_time":"2014-12-08T19:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-31T03:20:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":853,"url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gideon Kimbrell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gideon Kimbrell","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app"},"author":{"name":"Gideon Kimbrell","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/4e0c78ec09b35427bb265baf43625cd9"},"headline":"How to market and sustain a successful app","datePublished":"2014-12-08T19:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-31T03:20:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app"},"wordCount":706,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853","articleSection":["Professional Development","Creativity and Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app","name":"How to market and sustain a successful app","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853","datePublished":"2014-12-08T19:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-31T03:20:45+00:00","description":"Your app is not alone. Right now, there are more than\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853","width":1280,"height":853},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/creativity-culture\/market-sustain-successful-app#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Professional Development","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Creativity and Culture","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"How to market and sustain a successful app"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","name":"Ideas","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization","name":"WeWork","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","width":55,"height":55,"caption":"WeWork"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/4e0c78ec09b35427bb265baf43625cd9","name":"Gideon Kimbrell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d54ac0e9648bd6c7d2c72a8af28dea927bd45a0f99a3f28a9d9e2fe0a578ff0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d54ac0e9648bd6c7d2c72a8af28dea927bd45a0f99a3f28a9d9e2fe0a578ff0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gideon Kimbrell"},"url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author\/gideon-kimbrell"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/12\/20140320-WeWork-Mobile-App-1-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C853","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43811,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10409\/revisions\/43811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}