Free iPhone App Marketing

by Brook Lenox on May 24, 2009

Some people are into bargains. They call themselves bargain hunters. But FREE?!? Isn’t everyone a “free hunter”?

In my last article, I wrote about the 7 things to consider when marketing an iPhone app. Now I want to dig deeper into iPhone app marketing that you can do for FREE.

Here are 3 places to market your apps for free:

App Review Websites
iPhone/iPod Touch Bloggers
YouTube App Reviewers

These folks have LOTS of people approaching them, so you’ve got to be smart about how to contact them. Send them a personal email (or call them if possible) with good reasons why they should review your app.

Make sure to include:

What is unique/special about your app
How your app is better/different from others like it
Promo codes or something they can give away
A fact sheet on your product if you have one
A plate of warm cookies and/or a wad of cash

App Review Websites

Here are 20 App Review Websites to have on your list. I’ve placed them in order by their April traffic according to Compete.

app-sites-traffic2

Here are the links from highest traffic to lowest:

iPhone/iPod Touch Bloggers

Here are 5 iPhone/iPod Touch Bloggers to have on your list:

iphone-app-blogs

YouTube App Reviewers

Here are 5 YouTubers that review apps and have large followings.

Based on your apps category, these may or may not be a fit. Look for your own. There are plenty more.

Summary

Good luck in marketing your iPhone app, getting to that top 100 ranking, and making some money for all your hard work!

Questions? Comments?

QUESTION – What topics would you want in an iPhone app Marketing eBook?

Update

1/15 - thought you might find this post on Emanuele Vulcano’s success in marketing his iPhone app with no marketing budget.
2/19 – I stand corrected on App Scout. They are really more of a blog, than a review site. Thanks john888!

Photo credit: laffy4k

Tagged as: free iphone app marketing, iphone review blogs, iphone review sites

{ 6 trackbacks }

FREE Marketing for iPhone Apps « Online Marketing Rant: 05.24.09 at 4:21 pm
iPhoneKicks.com: 05.24.09 at 4:31 pm
Brook Lenox - Online & Mobile Marketing » Blog Archive » Free iPhone App Marketing: 05.29.09 at 11:52 am
links for 2009-08-22 | manicwave.com: 08.22.09 at 5:02 am
How to Market iPhone Apps | Online and iPhone Marketing: 09.04.09 at 1:56 pm
The Tortoise, The Hare or the Eagle? | Online and iPhone Marketing: 01.17.10 at 7:16 am

{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

Peter Abbo 07.18.09 at 5:16 pm: Hi we are the makers of –I Water Clock– the new iPhone app that just came out last sunday, thank you for the advice on how to market the app, please email me if you have any qwestions, thanks, Abbo Design Concepts…!!
Brook Lenox 07.24.09 at 8:41 am: Peter,

Congrats. Can you share anything interesting you are doing to promote I Water Clock?

Brook
Free iPhone Apps 07.26.09 at 6:43 pm: Very very interesting article, thank you…
Brook Lenox 07.31.09 at 3:31 pm: Your welcome for the article and the link .
Digital Marketers 09.03.09 at 11:39 pm: i agree people do bargaining… but never seen people asking it for free.. even if you give it free they wont accept all services, it depends on service..
joe 09.20.09 at 2:39 am: Hi Brook, No web site yet, sorry! Great work your doing!! Hey, I was just wondering, could you please tell me who to contact. someone that is trusting enough and wont steel my idea when I tell them about my app idea, I really need someone to help me build an app for I-Phone? Also, are there any app builders out there who will work on a % split, like a partner for example? Please advise.

Thanks, Joseph
Brook Lenox 09.22.09 at 1:59 pm: Hi Joe,

Sorry I don’t know of anyone directly. I’d suggest you join the Google iPhone developers forum and/or some of the iPhone developer LinkedIn groups.

http://groups.google.com/group/iphonesb?hl=en
Go to LinkedIn and typed in “iPhone Developers”.

Cheers,
Brook
WafflePrince@free iphone 3gs 12.27.09 at 5:38 am: thank you! very useful article
Brook Lenox 01.04.10 at 3:11 pm: WafflePrince,

You bet. Nice name by the way .

Best,
Brook
Christa Taylor 01.06.10 at 4:51 pm: Hello Brook,

Thanks for the great info. FYI: two of your links on the App Review Websites are not pointing correctly – #4 and #18.

Regards,

Christa
Brook Lenox 01.07.10 at 4:09 pm: Christa,

Thanks so much for the heads up! Links are fixed.

Best,
Brook
Diethard Seiferth 01.23.10 at 12:06 am: Hi iPhone friends,

my new “4. Generation Time Management” App is now in the “waiting for review state” at Apple.
Brook Lenox 01.25.10 at 10:02 am: Hi there Diethard,

Hope your app gets approved quickly and that some of these tactics help.

Good luck,
Brook
Diethard Seiferth 02.06.10 at 5:06 am: Hi Brook,

thank you very much! I also created a free lite version, which is now in the AppStore: http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/firstthings-lite/id353155453?mt=8

.. and started with some twitter entries: http://twitter.com/ipapps

Diethard
john 02.16.10 at 1:17 pm: I checked appscout and don’t think Appscout is an iphone app review website. it doesn’t have an iphone app catalog at all. did I miss something?
Sarah 02.17.10 at 7:28 pm: Thanks, great ideas.

I love the review sites, like World’s Best iPhone Apps

I know they’re also happy to review, and work with good companies, and good apps

Sarah
x
Brook Lenox 02.20.10 at 12:09 pm: @Sarah

Thanks for the recommendation.
Brook Lenox 02.20.10 at 12:16 pm: @john888 – hmmm…looks like app scout has gone in a different direction. I’ll add that to an update to the post.
Mark Williams 03.04.10 at 11:22 pm: I must say this is very informative. I will check out those sites one by one.

Thanks again for your effort in giving such a good list.
Brook Lenox 03.11.10 at 4:46 pm: @Mark – you’re very welcome!