The web is the new App Store – app marketing 2.0

When it came to marketing apps, there was practically no way around the well-known app stores such as Google Play or Apple’s App Store. Being listed there was more or less a must for anyone who took themselves seriously.

But everything has its time, and as we all know, the world keeps turning. In the meantime many technologies, markets and, of course, people’s habits have moved on.

When typical smartphone users search for and download apps today, they give the app stores a wide berth and instinctively turn to the usual search engines such as Google and co.

Downloading apps is too complicated

As a result, users as a rule no longer download apps directly from the stores. One of the reasons is that the steps and the waiting involved are simply too much hassle in everyday life.

Apart from search engines, people use only a few apps, such as those of social networks and other messaging services. That shows all the more that being visible in the stores is no longer necessary.

Unless you want to offer highly complex apps or games with built-in native payment options, there is now a much better way to reach your users.

Why not try a new – or rather a familiar – way of marketing your apps!

The internet as you know it is perfect for this. Even if it seems strange to use an app through the World Wide Web, current studies say that this is how we will use apps in the future.

How the World Wide Web becomes your App Store

Building on everything we know from the internet, the buzzword progressive web apps was coined, and these apps are paving the way.

The technology behind them is now available in all common browsers and systems, whether smartphone, tablet, desktop PC or Mac, and it works reliably.

Everything you used to know from typical apps, such as the icon on the screen, the quick start, fast notifications such as push and the ability to work offline, you can now have directly on every other system too.

Being listed in an app store, which this used to require, is no longer necessary. Not to mention the lengthy review processes, the frequent rejections, the extra costs and the bureaucratic hurdles set by the store operators.

How to get started with marketing your app

Today, all you need to do is share your PWA (short for progressive web app) through all the usual channels, simply with your existing app address.

On the one hand, this can be done purely digitally, by sending it by email or posting it on social networks. Because your PWA can be searched, it is also listed on Google automatically and in the right places, so your users can find you there as well.

Purely analogue, in the real world, it is just as easy as, say, the phone number put up in the hallway. Put up the easy-to-scan QR codes wherever your users are. Better than a phone number or an email address, they give you a direct back channel: users get information straight away without having to call, and they can stay in touch.

You can also add paid advertising online and offline to both, for example Google search ads, flyers, posters and so on. That takes you exactly where your target group can be found.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. Go for it, it is easier than you think.

There is one route you should not take, though: the one into the store. The effort will simply never pay off. You can take our word for it.