Unwanted Meat of Any Type is Spam
I received this great email unsolicited recently.
FROM: edwardturner.apps@gmail.com
Mr. Kurt Nelson,
I was just checking out your iPhone app in the App Store. Congrats, looks pretty good.
Happy with your sales so far?
I’ve been working with some app developers the last few months, and I’ve learned that there’s two aspects that you need to focus on to be really successful selling apps in iTunes. I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned if you’re interested. Just let me know and I’ll send you a quick overview.
Best of luck,
Ed Turner
This is just the app store version of the billion SEO offers I get for my website. So I respond to see if the person on the other end has some intelligence.
Mr. Ed Turner,
I was just checking to see how much you want to charge for your advice. Congrats on starting a scummy company to do this.
Happy with your results so far?
I’ve been working with some app developers the last few months, and I’ve learned that there’s two aspects that you need to focus on to be really successful selling products to them. I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned if you’re interested. Just let me know and I’ll send you a quick overview after charging you $397.
Kurt Nelson
Mr. Kurt Nelson,
If you simply replied, “Sure, send me what you have”…you would have received a follow-up email with the summary I promised. For FREE. Sure, if you wanted me to implement the suggestions for you, I would have to charge for that. But my initial advice was free. I never said you’d have to pay me to get it.
Is your Company “scummy” because you charge for you App? Please think before writing such a vicious reply from now on. There are people out there willing to provide a little guidance for nothing in return.
Ed
P.S. Here’s the email you would have received:
Kurt,
First, I do offer a marketing service that helps iPhone App Developers. However, the information I provide below and on the site I link to…that alone can give you a good base on how to improve your iPhone sales on your own. If you think I can help you, great. There’s obviously no obligation on your part for me sharing this knowledge.
Ok, the two aspects that you must focus on for marketing your iphone app are traffic and conversion. By traffic, I mean getting people to learn about your app and sending them to your app page on iTunes. Conversion is what happens when they arrive at your page in iTunes… they either buy, or they don’t.
What you need to do first is work on the conversion aspect. You do this by optimizing everything that is on your app’s iTunes product page. Mostly, we’re talking about the description. In marketing speak, this is called “copy”. You need highly persuasive copy that convinces the visitor to click the buy button (as opposed to clicking the back button and leaving).
Your app’s copy must be more than a standard “description” in order to be successful. Rather than focus on specific features of the app, you should try to describe how the app will benefit the user. Most non-games can use “benefits” rather than features and receive a strong boost in conversion. However, there’s another trick I like to use when writing copy for an iphone app…
Write the copy so that the user can actually “experience” themselves using the app. Put them in a mental state of mind where they can visualize themselves using the app. I know, easier said than done… but it is highly effective! This technique is awesome for game apps too!
The second aspect is traffic. How do you allow people to learn about your app and get them to your app’s iTunes product page? There are many methods, but the best method is a well crafted press release that is sent to a list of websites and blogs that often review iphone apps. I’ve been compiling a list of my own (117 quality sites so far).
It’s important that you don’t try to send a boiler-plate press release and expect results. You need to use some of the same techniques I talked about in regards to persuasive copy to get these site owners and bloggers to want to write about your app.
If you want a big boost in sales, this is what you need to do.
Not everyone is skilled at writing persuasive marketing copy. I offer a fairly affordable service, and I can do it all for you. Check out the complete details here:
http://www.mobile-app-marketing-makeover.com
All the best,
Ed
I sell products too you know, but I don’t send out emails to everyone in the app store offering to sell my products to them under the guise of advice. So, Mr. Turner, you are still a spammer, just instead of selling me Viagra you are selling a slightly more useful product.
His twitter account is http://twitter.com/edwardturner and his facebook profile is http://www.facebook.com/edward.turner so you can go investigate yourself.
