

Ask HN: Offline Marketing Strategy For Smart Phone Apps? - khetarpal

I'm building an app which helps golfers network with each other and pairs them up for Tee times. I'm having hard time coming up with suitable marketing approach. With my customer development hat on, I'm thinking about approaching golf courses, and having them push this to their club members. The challenge is for a given golf course say 500 members / month - with 30% of them using iOS and 10% (optimistic scenario) initial interest - I'm already down to 15 members / month. Ideally with infinite resources - I would support all smart phones, and cover multiple golf courses in a city. But with given resources and time, I need to focus on best way to take-off. I can't be the only one trying to use offline marketing for building customer base.<p>How did four-squre get their first 1000 users. Did they collaborate with the businesses from the get go?
What are your experiences for building a smart phone app which required offline marketing? How did you get your first 1000 users? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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ISeemToBeAVerb
First of all, have you validated this app with your market? Have you actually
approached executives and golfers to see if they would use this app? No amount
of strategy will overcome a lack of desire or need, so if you haven't done
that yet, I'd make that my first priority before sinking a bunch of time &
money into anything else.

Assuming the idea is valid, I'd concentrate my efforts on a single country
club. Not a public course, but a country club. Golfers that are serious about
using golf as a networking tool probably belong to a club (again, something to
validate). You'll obviously need to get the club to sign on regardless whether
you're pitching them directly or not.

Once you've got the club's permission, there are a number of things you could
do:

You could partner with the club and offer an exclusive (but limited) co-
branding opportunity. So the app would be a "service" that the club offers to
help members network. This would add credibility to the app and make members
more likely to take interest in trying the service.

You could negotiate a deal with the pro shop to give away discounts or free
memberships to the app with purchases.

Anyhow... you get the picture. My point is to start with a focus, don't spread
yourself too thin. If the app takes off, you can always expand.

Think about Facebook's strategy. They started out just focusing on one school
and then branched outward to other ivy league schools before finally branching
out to all colleges and then the public.

~~~
khetarpal
Thanks - very thoughtful response! I have been burnt before, so validation is
definitely #1 priority for me. I'm still in the wire-framing phase, because I
at-least want to take these screenshots with me when I talk to the golf
courses.

But my problem is that of segmentation - I don't have the bandwidth to support
both iOS and Android at the same time, which cuts off a big chunk of audience.

Since the core of the app is networking - supporting the major platforms is
quite important. But hey it is what it is. I've gotta start from somewhere!

~~~
ISeemToBeAVerb
What do you mean when you say you don't have the bandwidth to support both iOS
and Android?

If you're targeting businessmen, I think cross-platform is pretty important.
Most executives are likely using Blackberry and Android. iOS is still trailing
in the business sector last I checked.

If you use a cross-platform SDK you can cover your bases and not have to worry
about it. Something like Phonegap or Corona could dramatically increase your
likelihood of adoption.

~~~
khetarpal
I agree with you. By band-width I meant the time and resource I have to devote
to this idea. I have a full time job, and in evenings, I have been taking
programming classes. So, I didn't think I could support cross platform from
the get-go.

Your responses and suggestions are right on the money. What's your background
and interest areas?

------
svetha
Recommendation: Release it as a beta/working product and tell them they are
the privileged few to get it and that their usage and feedback will decide the
future of this product that might somebody make millions of dollars.

People like to feel important and people like to support that seem to have a
potential to rise.

Anyway, spread it selectively among golfers like this till you have around 200
users. By far the best people to try and approach for you might be either the
gold course managers or better still, get the caddy's who work there your app
and tell them that they can give it out to only 5 people etc. They will slowly
build up your user base with their excitement of the product (if they are
excited and it's relevant to them). These people, due to our age, experience
and optimism will take this as a privilege and will be able to to talk
passionately about it. That's exactly the behavior you want from your first
100 users. Also, watch what your users do very carefully and take the time out
to talk to them. No shortcuts.

~~~
khetarpal
Thanks Svetha for your input and encouragement! My dilemma is to build it on
iOS or Android? But eitherways - I've gotta start. For me next step is to
finalize the wireframes and approach the golf courses!

