It will work. I’m a marketing genius. – Paris Hilton
Wanted to do a quick post on iPhone app publishing in order to let everyone know that this option is out there. There are hundreds of people putting apps in the store every day and hundreds of people not making any money on their apps. Everyone sees the apps that are seemingly so simple that are making thousands of dollars every week and ask themselves “What are these guys doing that I’m not?” The answer is: great apps and great marketing.
What is iPhone App Publishing?
In a nutshell, app publishing is taking the development team’s Xcode build and binary app and turning it into a dynamic 
marketing tool. App publishers tend to have a marketing focus, even if it’s a development firm, and capitalize on everything that happens to the app once it’s in the store. Here are a few different ways app publisher business models are setup:
- Everything is in-house. The developers, marketers, PR team, and everything else is all under the same roof. They are completely self-sufficient and work to build their own assets which they then market themselves. This is what you see with Chillingo and others and is typically an evolution of a development shop that has a few successful apps.
- Marketers partner with developers. This is when a marketing firm joins forces with a separate development shop and drives all the revenue for the app. This is often done through a revenue share.
- Project Management. One firm (typically PR) will connect all the dots for a development shop and a marketing shop to coordinate the project. This is different because it’s usually done on a fee basis instead of revenue split. You won’t see many of these since it’s hard to justify a third party – this can, however, come through when dealing with a large corporate client.
iPhone app publishers should have the goal to get your app as much downloads as possible.
What do app publishers do?
If you have uploaded your own app and gone through the entire process, you’ll know how easy it is to be burnt out after the development phase. It’s not that you don’t want the app to blow up or that you aren’t excited about the marketing, it’s just tough to stay excited about something for so long. Publishers will do help in a few different ways.
- Icon and screen shot design. This is not always the case, but having a really powerful design for the store front can make a big difference.
- Write your marketing language. In the app store, there’s a good way to write your description and a not so good way. Make sure you do it right.
- Build your app a custom website. It is vitally important to have a slick website supporting your app for people to learn more and ask questions. Publishers should be able to get you setup with a nice presence.
- Get You External Reviews. Both paid and free reviews from some of the major review websites are worth their weight in gold for app credibility. App publishers can make all these happen so that your app has exposure and credibility right off the bat.
- Set up promotion strategy. This is easily the most lucrative part of app publishing. They can take care of getting your app into one of the hundreds of promotions out there that can spike over 50K downloads a day.
- Create marketing partnerships. Reaching out to bloggers and others in the community that your app is focused can be huge for long term success.
- Manage pricing strategy. Do you know what your perfect price is? Publishers can have a targeted pricing strategy that will give your app the best ROI.
How much does app publishing cost?
Most of the time app publishers are going to be very open to revenue splits. A rule of thumb will be that the better the app, the more likely the company will be to provide a revenue share. This is why you may want to be wary of the firms that have the tiered packages for app publishing – you’re going to just get a flat deliverable and the very least that is described in the statement of work. I would definitely recommend finding someone who wants to go in on this as a revenue split.
If you do the tiered approach, here are some numbers I’ve seen:
- Basic setup – $500. Press release, 10 iTunes reviews, submission to 50 review sites.
- Tier 1 – $2,500. Branded Press Release, guaranteed submissions to 10 review sites, 50 guaranteed sales or downloads, app leaderboard publicity (on external sites).
- Tier 2 – $5,000. Guaranteed in top 100 categories for Apple (whatever it takes to get there).
- Tier 3 – $11,000. Custom program designed for your goals. Deliverables determined on a case by case basis.
Honestly, mobile app marketing is the one area where I’m much more into a revenue share/partnership model. The reason I say this is because it requires being EXTREMELY creative to have the positive results you want. These templated models really don’t do anything that everyone else isn’t doing and as soon as they achieve what they said they would, they’re gone. And also know that the top 100 of a category other than all games is nothing to write home about.
App publishing is partnership marketing
The bottom line here is that partnering with a publisher is for people who have a good or great app and don’t have the resources to take it to the next level. It’s similar to hiring a real estate agent or a broker, but with a much more dialed partnership. I can tell you right now that having a power marketer running your strategy is going to make you a LOT more money than doing it on your own, unless you are spending your time not doing updates and trying to write marketing copy and figure out which promotions to go after.
If anyone is interested in learning more about this type of marketing, please let me know. I am currently accepting partnerships (no fee) from developers or others with an app that they want to turn into a money machine.
Carter
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I have an educational app for children
Is there a general rule of thumb (split of revenue specifically) that the large publishing companies adhere to? I read an article that said the developers of cut the rope made a very small percentage of the revenues their app generated, once itunes and chillingo received their cuts. Thoughts?
Also, what advantage is there in “partnering” with you vs. pursuing a relationship with one of the big publishing firms?
Hey Greg,
I’ve had mixed experiences with publishing and developing on both sides of the coin. If there is a clear upside (distribution network, PR, iron strategy) then often the split will be 50/50 net revenue (so 35% of the gross). If someone or a team of people develop an app, then want to hire a publisher/marketer, I’d say it goes down to 30% of the net for the publisher and 70% for the developer.
Where it gets complicated is proving the value add. How do you know if the publisher is doing anything for you? It’s really hard to tell. Usually it’s better to ink this sort of the deal at the beginning so that there is no ambiguity.
RE: small vs large business – it depends on the app’s projected success. Smaller businesses are a better long term play usually because they’re going to be more invested in the growth of an app, assuming they’re not trying to grow themselves. Large companies, however, can often walk in and deliver a massive launch which will change the trajectory of the app. They won’t do a whole lot down the road, but you’re paying for their connections.
Hope that helps.
Carter
I have an idea for an application that could be lucritive for both of us, please contact my email for more details.
regarding getting external reviews – you don’t necessarily need an app publisher to help you achieve that. you can form relationships with the press by yourself… I know – easier said than done! But there are tools out there to make your life easier. You could contact an app marketing agency, or you can use a tool like:
http://pitchpigeon.com
It’s is a competitively-priced service that submits your app to over 200 different tech blogs for review.
Don’t try to fake your download numbers – that’s not a long term solution. If you have a good app, you’ll get a huge boost simply by being discovered by journalists and bloggers; that’s what Pitchpigeon can help you with! Hands down the best way to promote your app is to be written about.
Now, you can’t engineer this nor fake it, but you can certainly give yourself a better chance of being reviewed by working with review brokers and PR companies with publisher connections.
Pitchpigeon http://pitchpigeon.com