In our last post, we discussed how to monetize your app for free and paid apps. We even discussed how to generate recurring revenue from your app. Once you have figured out your monetization strategy, you will need to formulate a marketing strategy. A more refined marketing strategy can be created if you understand your user demographics.

I remember auditioning for record labels and having them tell me, ‘Well, the country-radio demographic is the thirty-five-year-old female housewife. Give us a song that relates to the thirty-five-year-old female, and we’ll talk.’ – Taylor Swift

How to Determine Your App’s User Demographic

If you have really deep pockets, you can conduct user demographic studies that can better pin-point what type of “typical user” might enjoy your app.  You can look at things like male / female, age, geographical location, and education level. But who has thousands of dollars to spend on these types of studies?  Not me!

There is an another approach. Using Alexa, you can put in your competitor’s website and it will spit out the demographic. After analyzing several of your competitors, you can hone in on your demographic.

Let’s take an example. Let’s imagine you are creating an app to compete with Angry Birds (good luck with that).  You can go to http://www.Alexa.com and enter their website address (http://www.AngryBirds.com) and here is what it will show:

User Demographics – AngryBirds.com

Based on the above, the demographic is mostly male with very little or no college education. They seem to use Angry Birds at school and home more than at work. As we can see below, it is very popular in India and the USA:

User Geographics – AngryBirds.com

You will want to do that with 4 to 5 of your competitors to hone in on the commonalities.

Related article: How to Build a Product Website for your App

Are Demographics Important?

In some cases demographics can be very important. For example, women tend to use meditation apps more than men so if I were designing a meditation app, I would want very soothing colors and would want to give my beta version to several women I trust to try it out and give me feedback on the design, look and feel and functionality.

The demographic can also play into how you market the app. In our fictional meditation app, I would scour the web for some female bloggers that are early adopters of technology, and are into meditation.  I would contact them to get them excited about writing a review for the meditation app.  Their popular blog could turn other women onto the app if they really enjoy your app, especially if they write enthusiastically about it.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to use Alexa, try determining your app’s demographic! My next blog will be out in a couple of weeks — I will discuss what marketing activities you might consider when planning the release of your app.

Shameless Plug

The app I am creating is slated for production in the App Store around July or August 2014. However, the web edition is already available at http://www.aMemoryJog.com. Once the app is done, it will seamlessly sync with the web version.

Download a free trial and check it out!

aMemoryJog – Web and iPhone editions

Also, if you like this blog, please share it with others to increase our following. Our twitter account is @2HourAppreneur and be sure to like my Facebook page at http://www.Facebook.com/2HourAppreneur.  Thanks for following the blog!