Radar Promotion for Windows Phone 7

I constantly communicate with developers in terms of preparing information campaigns to promote their applications in the media and recently I notice an increasing interest in Windows Phone 7 and methods of promoting applications created for this platform. Therefore, today I will tell the story of the promotion of the program for WP7 Mango, how and where I promoted it and what came of it.

It all started in May. Let me remind you that this month Microsoft and Softkey entered into an agreement according to which a well-known software supermarket began to provide domestic developers with the opportunity to place their applications in the Windows Phone Marketplace in a simplified scheme (details here), and in September, sales of the first Windows Phone 7-based smartphones in Russia began. In October, developers began to contact me who wanted to talk about their product in the West and in Russia. One of the first was the Novosibirsk startup Sibity , which developed the Radar program for Windows Phone 7.

What is Radar?

Radar is a Windows Phone 7-based smartphone app that lets you quickly find your way back to any saved location. This feature is useful when you need to find your car in a large parking lot, return to a hotel in an unfamiliar city or leave the forest if you are lost. To find the way back, just set the coordinates of your current location using the built-in GPS-receiver and then you can go on a trip. When you need to go back, you need to open the application and proceed in the direction indicated on the radar screen. Additionally, you can find out the distance to the selected point and the time that the user was on the way.



Unlike similar solutions, Radar uses a compass to indicate the direction, and if the device does not have a hardware compass, the application uses GPS emulation. This feature allows users to find their way back even where there is no Internet connection and the Google Maps service is not available, for example, in the Siberian taiga.

Task

Radar developers have set me the task of telling the program to users of Windows Phone 7 smartphones in the USA, the UK, as well as announcing the program in Russia.

Preparation Method and Process

For the announcement of the application, I chose a reliable and proven method - sending out press releases to specialized media and blogs that write about Windows Phone 7. Before that, I had tried my hand more than once in promoting programs for Android and iPhone. So by the time I started preparing the info campaign for Radar, I already had experience and working relations with the editors.

First, I made a list of specialized portals and blogs to which I intended to send a press release. Below is the beginning of the list of English editions about Windows Phone 7:

WMPoweruser.com
WPCentral.com
1800pocketpc.com
Winrumors.com
Winsupersite.com
WindowsPhonePros.com
MSN.com
WindowsPhoneThoughts.com
WindowsPhoneGeek.com
Windows8beta.com
WindowsPhoneSecrets.com
and others.

As Internet research has shown, the number of portals and “review” sites for Windows Phone 7 is significantly lower than the number of specialized sites about iPhone and Android. Therefore, I decided to supplement the list with publications that write about phones on different platforms.

Pocketpicks.co.uk
Pocketnow.com
Pocket-lint.com
Gizmodo.com
Mobilesyrup.com
Mobilemag.com
Chipchick.com
Techradar.com
T3.com
Engadget.com
Electricpig.co.uk
et al.

After compiling the list of publications, I wrote a press release in English and a pitch letter for bloggers asking them to review the application (I already talked about such letters in this article ).

You can familiarize yourself with the text of the press release by downloading this PDF file (340 Kb).

Announcement in foreign media

The release was scheduled for 10 a.m. Washington DC on October 17, 2011 . First, I delivered a press release to specialized American publications about Windows Phone 7, and then to everyone else.

The first results appeared after 4-5 hours. I list the portals in the order in which publications appear (the link leads to the corresponding page of the portal where the news is published):

Technomodo - posted the news 4 hours after the newsletter. The news was published as is.

WindowsPhoneGeek - posted the news the next day. Published a press release without corrections.

Wmpoweruser.com- The largest specialized portal about Windows Phone published a press release the next day without any corrections. At first I was embarrassed that the editors published the news with screenshots of the Russian version, which they took from the Sibity website. However, then I thought that this is actually not bad, because catches the eye. They retreated the news 76 times - this was my first time.

WindowsPhoneThoughts - a news portal about Windows Phone 7 devices. The editor’s joke that the program is very suitable for women, and guys especially don’t need it

amused :) WPCentral.com - a profile portal about Windows Phone 7 published the news two days later. Moreover, the portal editor himself bought the application and prepared a video review. When I sent out the press release, there was a version on the market without a trial period. However, the editor became interested and bought.

ChipChick.com - A popular blog for female geeks published a Radar review 6 days after the release. Moreover, the news was entitled - “Application of the week for Windows Phone 7”.

Announcement in the Russian media

We also decided to talk about Radar and domestic users, for which I prepared a press release in Russian and delivered the news to the editors of portals and blogs about mobile gadgets. I take this opportunity to thank all the editors who responded to our news and kindly agreed to talk about Radar: w3bsit3-dns.com, iXBT, Nomobile, Hard'N'Soft, Handy, Personal Money and SoftMail.ru.

Some interesting observations and conclusions.

1. Press releases work. The graph below clearly shows the result of the distribution of news in the media, and it clearly shows the moment the info campaign began - October 17. The green line on the graph shows the number of downloads per day, and the red line shows the number of downloads in total.



The press release has been and remains an effective tool for disseminating information. Once in the media, interesting news can draw attention to your product to a significant audience.

2. Trial period.First, having a free evaluation period is important for preparing reviews. If your application has a trial period, then it will be easier for you to get reviews, because the editor does not need to spend his own money to buy the program. Unfortunately, the first version of Radar did not have an evaluation period. I believe that more reviews could be collected. Secondly, it turned out that at a price of 0.99 USD, the presence of a trial period does not affect the number of downloads. Some time after the announcement, an update was released in the media with a free evaluation period. After that, the new version was downloaded in the same way as before, while most users still bought the program immediately.

3. The Chinese factor.On the day the news was posted on WMPoweruser, the first Chinese download appeared. Immediately after that, xap Radar appeared in several Chinese resources, localized in Chinese, for example, here . Moreover, on this site there is a link to the Windows Phone Marketplace and a translated copy. On others there is only a copy. It seems that the Chinese are in the order of things. Everything was translated except the names of the authors. Only the name of the main developer was replaced with something like - "The one who posted the application on the forum." Radar developers downloaded the proposed xap and extracted the localization. Now in the Chinese market Radar is presented in their native language. However, the Chinese download is still one.

4. Rating and comments.Observations showed that foreign buyers have a habit of returning to the market and changing their ratings if the application rating has changed in one direction or another. They also write more detailed reviews. Russians almost never return to change their grades, and often go to extremes. For example, an application can have 20 ratings, of which half are 5 stars and the other half is 1 star. Our users can also leave a negative review like "Crap" only because they do not need the application or they do not understand what its benefits are.

5. Feedback from users.In the American market, customers often use the feedback form and report errors. They write about the case and understandably. Russian users do not write anything. For all the time, Radar developers received only one error message such as "stack trace".

In conclusion, I want to invite you to get acquainted with one of the results of the promotion - a video review of the Radar program, which was prepared by the WPCentral editors. In addition, if you want to familiarize yourself with the functionality of the application yourself, you can download Radar for Windows Phone 7 .



Good luck with your promotion!