

Show HN:  Appnu, a win-win marketing solution for iOS developers and users - ianterrell

http://www.appnu.com/<p>Appnu is an opt-in mailing list focused on new iOS apps, where the subscribers can win free apps just by being subscribed.<p>Once a week I'll mail out customized promotional emails containing apps in just the categories each subscriber selects.  The intention is for app developers to "buy into" the mailings by giving away their Apple-supplied promotional codes, which I will raffle off to the subscribers.  If a developer would like to reach additional users, more slots could be purchased.<p>What do you think of the model?
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mikeknoop
"And I'll tell all my friends" is unlikely to happen. If I were to signup, it
would benefit me for your service to remain obscure (and thus I have a higher
chance of "winning" apps).

~~~
ianterrell
I thought of that, and I tried to incentivize it by offering an extra entry
into the raffles for every friend you refer. So if you refer 10 friends, you
have 11 entries (1 for you, 10 for the referrals). While if it were only you
and your friends, you'd be worse off (52% chance instead of 100%), if there
are many other players (say 1000 entries), you're much better off (1% chance
instead of 0.1%).

Do you think that changes things? Can you think of a better way to incentivize
referrals?

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ianterrell
Clickable link: <http://www.appnu.com>

Also, I set up a Google docs survey, which I'd love for iOS developers to
take:
[https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&hl=en...](https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&hl=en&formkey=dDA0SjZaNjNGTlVXYTNNSTJ1X1AwRWc6MQ&ndplr=1#gid=0)

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alanfalcon
Do you simply mail out the promo codes, or allow users to opt in on an app by
app basis? I wouldn't want people receiving codes and letting them rot in
their mailbox.

~~~
ianterrell
That's a good point. I'm building up the mailing list before making it
available to developers for self-serve, but when I get to that point I'll have
an expiration date of 24 hours on each code and the user will need to claim it
before then -- if unclaimed after 24 hours, it will be re-raffled to another
user. A user can also "decline" immediately if uninterested.

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bmelton
I recently had something VERY similar.

I billed it as a 'Woot for Mobile Apps'. You give me your email address, I
send you a daily email with a highly discounted app or an app that is free.

It's probably not anything that couldn't have been overcome with a massive
marketing effort, or with a sizeable marketing budget, but after split-testing
a variety of slogans, taglines etc., our cost-per-acquisition proved to be too
high to be sustainable, so we shuttered the service.

My guess is that the acquisition cost goes down after you've reached a tipping
point, but we weren't able to identify when that might be, and the acquisition
rate was slow enough that we didn't deem it feasible enough to pursue.

Good luck though.

