Marketing anything these days is a very difficult road to take. So much clutter and competition in the way you better have a good grasp on what it is that you are trying to convey to your audience. ROI is getting easier to understand but still a sticky road when it comes to search engine marketing especially in the social media space. Let’s not even mention the complexity of the Google algorithm which continues to get even more complex each and every day.

This is a story about how one little (now big) mobile app took the traditional channels for marketing their application which triggered less than desirable outcomes. When I read the TechCrunch story the other day I really wasn’t that shocked. Mobile apps are becoming like websites and they are all over the place now. Do you really still think that just launching yours is going to bring you success? Most apps these days have to really think outside the box a bit to drive visibility. Mobile app marketing is a process that is changing very rapidly and those that win typically have something either really interesting boat loads of personality.

“The day my app (AutoCAD WS) crossed one million downloads on the App Store, the first question that crossed my mind was how did I ever end up doing marketing? I was a techy product manager and never imagined myself in marketing, until my app was in a life or death situation.”

Most app owners will never really know how this feeling actually feels but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be trying to reach a 1 million download mark. Iris Shoor created a mobile that was later acquired by a much larger organization and she gives some extremely valuable information on how she went about marketing a mobile app. Her experiences are amazing to read about especially if you have a mobile application you are trying to market.

First, let’s watch a little YouTube video regarding the mobile app we are discussing.

AutoCAD WS Video

Now let’s talk about what worked and what didn’t for just a moment.

What didn’t work?

• Traditional PR agency efforts
• Blogger outreach
• Lots of writing
• Website tweaking

What did work?

• Creating interesting content
• Focus was humor
• Brand connection
• Viral marketing
• Relationships with current users
• Collecting lots of feedback
• Language translation for international users

Here is a screenshot of the current website.

To read the entire article click here and channel over to TechCrunch, you will be happy you did.