Working with media: a fragment from the book "Download money!"

The team of the AppInTop group of companies has published a book “Pump money!” dedicated to the marketing of mobile games and applications. We bring to your attention one of the chapters of the book – “Working with the media” (on the day of the PR specialist, it seemed very relevant to us).

There are two ways of marketing interaction with sites that provide information about applications: free of charge and on a paid basis. Let’s consider the first one first. Just keep in mind: in both cases, you need to be able to present the product so that you can tell a story about it.

You can’t lie to either journalists or the reading public. So if you have a gray application without outstanding properties, the author of the review remains to use streamlined formulations and carefully laudatory epithets. And no one likes mediocrity and rottenness.

Make a register of publications and blogs that it would be useful to be featured in. Rank them according to the potential return on publication. Don’t get hung up on the obvious. “Getting into TechCrunch” is not necessarily a winning lottery ticket. Perhaps, if you are making an application for cooks, it would be more correct to target recipe portals and gastronomic blogs. In the pool of publications, a balance is needed between media writing and broadcasting about mobile applications and technologies, and thematic platforms.

Look for exits to specific authors. Study their thematic preferences, their style, evaluate how readable their materials are, how wide a resonance they cause. Think about how to hook everyone.

To understand how to submit information about the application to the publication in the form of a story, think about the leading questions. Have you faced any impressive challenges (well, let’s say, to make an algorithm for recommending books based on the analysis of Facebook posts)? Have you resorted to some elegant technological solution, for example, the non-banal use of an accelerometer? Does the app change the nature of interaction between people, like the same Snapchat? Does it help them in something unusual?

Put yourself in the author’s place and imagine how you would have led the narrative yourself, from which edge you started to spin it, so that the reader would not get bored and shared the article in social networks after reading it. Do not spread your thoughts along the tree and do not fawn. Journalists, especially those working on technology websites, receive dozens and hundreds of press releases every day and have learned to ignore marketing eulogies, as well as flattery in their address. Introduce yourself clearly, write when you are going to release the app, what it is, and without insistence offer to test it before release.

Attach a press kit to the letter and express your willingness to assist the author with additional materials. One publication may want to elicit nuances from your developers, while another may want to find out more about the monetization models you have adopted.

A press kit that is easy to read and pleasant to look at. This one is less likely to end up in the “Basket”
The approximate structure of the press kit is as follows:

• a concise description of the purpose of the app and its main functionality;
• high-resolution screenshots showing the app in operation;
• logo (icon), possibly also art;
• working links to related materials (video trailers, mini-site,
• groups in social networks, etc.);
• detailed contact information.

It’s funny, but sometimes the authors forget to mention in the letter what their application is called. Don’t make such a mistake! And put the link to download the press kit in one archive on the landing page or demo site.

To allow a journalist to test the application before the release, you need to provide him with a promo code (App Store) or send a so-called build (Google Play). Entering the media field with an open visor, you risk leaking information about the product, but in the case of professional publications and reputable bloggers, these fears are rarely justified: no one wants to be left with a tarnished reputation.

When working in the Apple store, you have the opportunity to request up to one hundred promo codes for each version of your app. They are valid for four weeks after the app is approved by the App Store moderators (promo codes interrupt the release of a new version). Do not take everything at once if you do not know for sure who you are going to give them to. Please note: those who installed the app using a promo code are prohibited from rating it in marketing and leaving feedback about it. (Guess why!)

In other cases, the AppStore allows you to send out up to a thousand invitations to beta testers.

You are free to allow anyone you want to be tested before the release. For example, not only your focus group, not only professional media people, but also two or three Twitter mobile stars who are not indifferent to business with huge armies of followers. And perhaps also a certain number of the most active members of your groups in social networks.

In Google Play, interaction with beta testers is a little easier. You can simply send the APK file of your application to everyone who needs it, bypassing the market. Or use a specialized service like Crashlytics.

It is reasonable to negotiate with sites that publish paid reviews in almost the same order as with others, since an article about your application will be truly effective only if it is somehow attractive to a part of the audience. Often, such sites do not have an approved price list, and their editors in each case estimate what price the developer will find lifting. They can charge less from an indie studio or a lone wolf than from a publisher who has put the business on a firm footing, but it’s not a fact that, by pribing, you will get a soul-warming discount. Start “hoeing” the press and the public ahead of time — certainly no later than three or four weeks before the application is released. And it is reasonable to negotiate with individual sites in three or four months. At least so that neither side would fall into hysterics because of the inability to have time with the review by the X hour. By the way, keep in mind: thanks to the favorable reviews in reputable publications, you can be awarded the “Editors’ Choice” of the market. You should not count on it, but you will increase your chances of success.

The full version of the book can be downloaded at this address.