Using Instagram for Mobile App Marketing (from Vnturo.us)

In this guest post Manon Van Essen shares her experiences about using Instragram for Mobile App Marketing. If you have any additional questions please post in the comments below.

About Handwriter

Handwriter is world’s first handwritten font app.

Add your favorite handwritten text, quotes or saying on top of your photos and share your moments on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Social media was never that personal. Thanks to Handwriter, We love to write for you.

Seller: Print Personal B.V.
Price: Free
Language: English
Category: Photo & Video
Rating: 4+
Has In-Apps:No
GameCenter: No
Size: 49.0 MB
Updated: 8 September, 2013
Version: 1.0
Devices: Requires iOS 5.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Marketing Budget : 500 Euros
Marketing platforms tried: Instagram and Facebook
Success with: Instagram
Platforms didn’t help:Facebook

App Marketing Stratergy

Vnturous: How did you think about using instagrammers?
Manon: We don’t have a lot of marketing budget, so we tried to find the influencers in the market. Instagram is a mobile platform and we are a mobile app (we are also a website, where people can create their handwriting but that was not the case). Instagram is a platform where influencers are big at this point, so I started to follow a lot of people who used hashtags in the area we want to be in. I also bought a couple of followers in the beginning because people start to follow you when you have more followers, so buying followers really helped.

Vnturous: How did you use Instragram for HandWriter. Did you run any campaigns?
Manon: I bought instagram posts and I started to shoutout to people who used our app. If anyone wants a list of Instragram accounts, they can reach me.

I have an autolikestagram account, using which you can like 350 posts an hour with 40 hashtags and the funny thing is people will start to like / follow you back.

It is my first app and we are top 10 app now. My thought is if you share, people are generous. So don’t be afraid to tell them your tricks. Our total budget was 500 euro.

From Distimo,

Vnturous: Did you use other marketing channels as well?
Manon:Step 2 I joined a lot of app groups and asked for help, tips and tricks, I filed them all and selected the ones I thought would help me.

I e-mailed Forbes 50 most influential social media people and asked them for a favour. My story was that I am a young girl with a dream and want to become big and if you want to become that, sometimes the big people need to reach out for you to become bigger and asked them for a retweet and if I could do anything for them I will do it in return.

Vnturous: How did instragram fare compared to facebook and other PR sites?
Manon: I bought facebook ads, but that didn’t really work for me. Because we got too diverse in the likes, so we coudn’t really target.

Vnturous: Do you think only all kinds of apps or only certain genre of apps would benefit from using instragram ?
Manon: I think for the building awareness it could help all apps, but I think Gaming, Social media, Lifestyle are the best genres for instagram.