13 Proven Strategies To Increase Software and App Downloads and Sales

Proven Strategies To Increase Software and App Downloads and Sales

So you made an app or software and tested it successfully on various devices. Everything works well. The user interface is great too. But the downloads don’t increase and you feel stuck as there are 5.23 million more apps and innumerable software available for download from various platforms.

Stop scratching your head and thinking, “How do I increase the number of downloads?” Your problems end today right here.

Once an app or software is made, the function it serves has to be put in front of the targeted audience in a way that makes the user download it.

Let’s get deeper into the topic and discuss tips to increase software download and app install numbers.

1. Do ASO (App Serch Optimization) Well

When you make an app, for the app to go public, you place it in the app stores. Android Play Store and iOS App Store are the two largest app stores worldwide. Play Store and App Store have 3.14 million and 2.09 million apps, respectively. Therefore, to compete with this large number of apps, you need to optimize your app listing.

Keywords: Use popular keywords in your app’s name and description to gain more downloads. App Store provides 100-character space for app description and Play Store provides 50-character space for the same. Use this space effectively.’

Images: Use high-quality images and screenshots of the app’s user interface for your listing to look polished while it serves the purpose of delivering a message about the app’s usability. Look at the photos put up by App Store’s #1 app ‘BeReal.’

The images explain how the users can post photos, how much time they have to post photos and the reactions the users can give to their friends’ photos.

URL: Do not forget to use a keyword in your app’s link, as it effectively determines where your app shows in the browser before the user lands on the installation screen.

2: Make them Feel with Your Branding & Designing

For most apps that you would see in the app store, you will realize that the apps that have an appealing design that gives a feel of what it would be like to use the app have more downloads to their name.

It is because a user first only sees the app listing. If the logo isn’t enticing, the pictures are not mesmerising, and the color scheme does not match the app’s purpose, the users are much less likely to download your app.

Look at this picture. Isn’t the logo exciting? Furthermore, see the picture below, where ClickUp explains the app’s features.

Get Those User Reviews

It is obvious why you need to do this. Other than you, the users only have other users to trust. What goes on in the review sections decides your app’s future to a great degree.

If you have made an excellent app, you will get positive feedback. But you need to remind the users to review your app on the app store. You can run push notifications and in-app pop up asking the users to review your application.

Listen to Your Users

As time passes, the need for improvement arises as new challenges are presented to us, or another company is trying to make a better app than yours.

Developing better features for the users is a continuous process. Instagram has regular updates on App Store and Play Store, where they fix the present bugs and add new features.

TikTok would have been more massive than it already is if Instagram had been reluctant to add a feature that allows users to make short videos and show how artistic they are.

5: Localize Your App

The Internet has spread into narrow parts of the world. As you read this, more and more users are accessing the internet.

Yet, every user doesn’t speak or use English as their first language. Japanese, Mandarin and Hindi are some of the most used languages by locales other than English.

Hence, when you introduce your app to these users around the world, it automatically makes the users like your app as you are now communicating with them in their language.

Netflix is a winner in this space. It has created so much value for its users by primarily putting the content of their locale and arranging it in other languages.

6: Give Free Trials, Incentives, and Discounts

Provide free trials so users can make up their minds about investing their money in your app. When you give incentives to users, it makes them feel valued since they get a feeling of getting something more than what they are spending.

Discounts on the app purchase, features and pro versions make the audience want to try your app. 68% of users shared that they would love to get offers and discounts on apps.

7: Reach More Audiences with Website or Blog

A website or a Blog is a good way to increase your audience. When you continuously use keywords and provide value-driven content, the website gets ranked and you can then attach deep links to your app for the viewers to land on your installation page.

8: Use the Media and App Review Sites

These are the top 10 app review YouTube channels. These channels address a large mass of people. Hence, when the channel reviews your app, which you have built while keeping excellence at its core, you automatically get the attention of the channel subscribers.

The same goes with these top 10 app reviewing websites. The audience that visits these websites to know more about the app they want to install would get an idea about your app from the website.

9: Utilize the Potential of Influencers & Ambassadors Programs

The influencer market has gone wild after the rise of TikTok. Influencers on Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Facebook and other major apps have increased. 6.12 million influencer posts were uploaded on Instagram in 2020. The Influencer Marketing industry is predicted to reach a valuation of around $16.4B by 2022.

Influencers and Ambassadors on the above-listed platforms can greatly boost your download and install numbers since they directly influence their followers into using your app.

What’s better is that they can run referral programs which will eventually return great ROI as they boost software downloads.

10: Leverage App Promoting Marketplaces

App Marketplaces are a great platform for owners to get their apps on a roll. These marketplaces help you advertise your app and some of them also help localize your apps too. Marketplaces like 9apps, Aptoide and ApkPure are some examples you may have heard of.

11: Touching Lives Digital Microblogging Sites

Microblogging sites offer a large advantage of directly getting in touch with the users or the targeted audience. The websites like Quora, Medium, Reddit, Digg and others are platforms from which the users get their daily dose of knowledge or go when they are curious about things.

If you have an app that provides a great solution in accountancy departments, answer the questions containing the problem(s) that your app or software can solve. This may be a blessing for you as an app owner and a software publisher.

12: Using Smart Installer

It wouldn’t look good if a user downloaded your software, and it would take their system years to install it. This can result in them discarding the installation. If that user comes on your review page and gives a review like that, other users who would have misunderstood the late installation with their system being slow would get influenced and give you low ratings too. For a software publisher, this can turn out as a nightmare.

13: Code Signing Certificates: Establish Trust

Code Signing Certification is necessary for an app or software as without the successful certification, when a user installs the software or an application, they would be flashed with a message saying that the software or app they are installing isn’t safe for installation.

So, after all your efforts, you would again be scratching your head and searching “Tactics to increase software or application download and sales.” Rather, contact us to get cheap code signing certificates and secure faith in the heart of users.

The below image shows what a user would see upon your software or application not having code signing certification.

Our Two Cents

Growing your software and application’s audience and user base can be hectic. We hope this article has covered the answers you were looking for and provided more probably.

In the long term, if executed correctly, the tasks discussed in the article today provide great results. Not that there’s a sure-shot guarantee but a continuous assessment and work on it would surely give positive results.

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions revolving around your mind. We would love to hear from you and help you find your answers. 

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