We were told that “The early bird catches the worm.”
The internet evolves quickly, with new trends appearing and dying so quickly, it’s quite hard to keep track of them all.
These days, some companies manage to get in on the ground floor of what’s trending which can mean huge amounts of attention and instant publicity.
But then again, it’s not enough to just jump on a bandwagon to reap rewards. By the time a new trending discussion is making headlines, it’s generally far too late to make some traction or that needed impact.
This is where agile marketing comes in handy: with small bursts of easy to developed apps, you can try to catch the public mood at just the right time in order to capitalize more on it.

Try to Predict The Future

It’s not easy to create good, culturally relevant app or game, that is why it’s so important to be always ready for the latest big story to drop.
The best examples of agile marketing make it seem as if app marketers or ASO experts are actually psychic – why else would they know what’s going to be popular before it actually trends or happens?
There are, however, some clever tricks that ASO experts put to use to make sure their app is as topical as possible. Here’s a list of some of the best ways to get the most out of agile marketing in App Store Optimization

Plan Loosely

When putting together an app marketing plan, try not to make assumptions about the way things are going to go.
Life is unpredictable and has a habit of throwing curveballs, though, and it’s often the case that a good -looking marketing plan will end up looking dated after a few hour or weeks, or so.
For this very reason, it makes sense not to set out marketing plans in stone. Be flexible enough to respond to social trends – don’t allow your plans to control you.
Don’t get me wrong. You also need to have set goals in mind for your marketing campaign – while your route should be flexible, not setting a clear goal will lead to a lot of wasted effort.

 Start and Stay Small

ASO and app marketing can be tricky at the best of times. Sure, there are tools that can help you predict which will be popular, which will rank, but still there’s no 100%, guaranteed way of knowing what app or keywords will take off and what’ll end up being completely ignored.
The agile approach to consider in ASO is simple: instead of dedicating a lot of time and effort to a single App Store Optimization campaign, try to produce simple apps instead and provide updates in small, short cycles or ‘sprints’.
Producing multiple apps means more chances at hitting the jackpot, compared with an app that takes a long time to develop.
Check out this chart from Forbes:
As you can see, the agile marketing is shown as a jagged line. It represents a number of small sprints which add up to uneven, but healthy, growth.
The chart above lacks in numbers and stats simply because agile marketing campaigns are not about “entirely sticking to a set plan,” because goals can often be fairly hard to measure or quantify.
This is the reason why short marketing sprints are desirable with agile marketing: if an app falls flat, it won’t be long before another app is ready to go.

Keep Your Eyes Open

To establish what’s going to be a big talking point on the app store or social media is one of the big challenges of succeeding at agile marketing in ASO.
Do not just wait until a topic is already popular. ASO experts or marketers need to see which train is coming before it actually arrives in the station.
It requires a certain amount of planning, I know. But think of it like movie releases, or sports events, or political debates. All these tend to announce themselves in advance, so there’s a good chance that they will make waves.
Beyond this, rumors and gossips can also help point out a potential opportunity before it even arrives. A marketer or an ASO expert’s job ends up being similar to that of a journalist in this way, following up leads for a potential news or scoop.
The iPhone 6 bendgate issue is often held up as an example of an event that agile marketers made good use of, with lots of big brands quickly getting a joke out of the situation while the internet exploded with commentary.
These marketers were prepared and always ready – they knew the size of the audience that the iPhone 6 issue would attract and they were ready to take advantage of it.

Have An App or A Template Ready Ahead of Time

In this dog eat dog World, you must find ways to publish an app that’s unique or something that offers new to the table – otherwise, they’ll end up lost in a sea of commentary.
The Damn Daniel video released a couple of months ago is a great example because of the traction it makes on social media. Two days later, when the video was uploaded, we’ve seen tons of apps on the app store about Damn Daniel. This goes to show that these app developers are prepared in advance.
Knowing that the Damn Daniel video would make a great advertising opportunity, these developers who have a trivia or an aa game template produced ahead of time, took hours to slap together everything when the moment came.
This meant that their app was as relevant as possible.
As long as a marketer is always ready or prepared in advance with all the pieces they’ll need, throwing together some agile marketing strategy is a piece of cake.

Optimize Over Time

While agile marketing in ASO or app marketing can often be hit-and-miss, there’s no sense in reinventing the wheel every time an app takes off.
Savvy marketers will always see to it to take advantage of previous successes and will be keeping their eye on what works best and what does not.
Just as success in marketing comes from keeping an eye on trends to spot a potential big hit, making the most out of every opportunity means constantly re-evaluating goals, plans and ASO strategies to make sure that things are heading in the right direction.
This is why marketers recommend a ‘scrum’ approach to agile marketing – a regular quick and short meetings in which the success of a sprint can be reported and evaluated.
Watching your app’s growth over time is crucial to making sure that an agile marketing sprint is as effective as possible.

Be Quick, Be Smart

The trick to creating a great agile app is working to predict online trends, and then creating fast, fun app before a story trends or becomes too popular.
To do this, all aspects of your marketing campaign should be as free and loose as possible, whilst sticking to your goals to ensure that the project has a clear, focused direction.
Have you seen other great examples of agile marketing? What tips do you have for predicting trends or the next big thing? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.