When it comes to mobile app development, there are numerous expenses to consider, and many of these expenses aren’t even related to app development. Nobody will know your app exists if you don’t allocate dollars to your marketing approach.

This article will teach you everything you need to know about mobile app marketing costs. We’ve got you covered whether you’re an app developer, white label reseller, launching an app as a business extension, or designing a brand new app from scratch.

How much does marketing an app cost?

This is the question most asked of our sales team, and the most difficult to answer. There are so many variables when it comes to app marketing that a one-size-fits all answer isn’t possible. The cost of marketing your app will largely depend on your budget, but also on factors like the type of app you have, who your target audience is, and what kind of marketing strategies you use.

With that said, we can give you a general idea of how much it costs to market an app. For a typical small to medium-sized business, expect to spend anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 per month on app marketing. Of course that’s just a rough estimate; your actual monthly spend may be more or less depending on the factors mentioned above.

One thing is certain though: more money doesn’t necessarily equal better results. You can actually get away with a low-cost mobile app marketing strategy, provided your techniques are effective.

At the end of the day, you need to concentrate on your cost per install (CPI). This important app marketing metric allows you to calculate how much each installation costs you. Here’s how it works:

CPI = Total ad spend/Total measured app installs

Tracking this KPI forces you to be smart with your marketing budget and allows you to determine whether specific campaigns are effective.

Why is it important to have a marketing budget?

You need to have a marketing budget for your app for many reasons. First and foremost, without a budget you have no way of calculating your CPI (as discussed above). Secondly, a marketing budget allows you to track your spending and ROI over time. By monitoring these metrics, you can make changes to your marketing strategy as needed and ensure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

It’s also important to have a marketing budget because it shows that you’re serious about promoting your app. Potential investors are more likely to take you seriously if they see that you’ve allocated funds towards marketing. Having a solid marketing budget also makes it more likely that you’ll be included in any lists or roundups of new apps, such as the App Store’s “New and Noteworthy” section.

Including your marketing budget in your overall app development budget is crucial. You shouldn’t treat marketing as an afterthought or an expense to be cut when things get tight. Marketing should be built into your budget from the very beginning.

Ways to market your mobile app

Now that we’ve discussed the importance of having a marketing budget, it’s time to learn how to create one. The first step is understanding what expenses you need to account for. Here are some common mobile app marketing costs:

App store optimization (ASO): ASO is the process of optimizing your app store listing to improve your app’s visibility and ranking. This can be done through keyword research, title optimization, and creating engaging app store screenshots and videos. ASO is a long-term marketing strategy, so it’s important to factor it into your budget from the beginning.

Read our blog about ASO

Paid user acquisition: Paid user acquisition is a form of advertising that lets you pay to have your app installed on users’ devices. This can be done through various channels, such as social media, search engines, or even directly through app stores. Paid user acquisition is one of the quickest ways to get your app in front of potential users, but it can also be one of the most expensive.

Public relations: Public relations (PR) is a great way to generate buzz for your app. But it can also be costly, especially if you hire a PR firm to handle your media relations. You can also do PR yourself, but it can be time-consuming and may not be as effective as working with a professional.

Content marketing: Content marketing is a great way to drive organic traffic to your app’s landing page. This involves creating blog posts, infographics, videos, or other types of content that will interest potential users and encourage them to check out your app. While content marketing takes time and effort, it is relatively inexpensive compared to other marketing strategies.

Discover 10 ways to grow your app with content marketing

Viral marketing: The concept of “going viral” can be a cost-effective way to draw attention to your app, but it can be very hard to predict and control. If you want to try viral marketing, make sure you have a solid plan in place and allocate a good portion of your budget to it.

Social media marketing: Social media is a powerful tool for mobile app marketing and allows you to target specific audiences. However, it can be time-consuming and requires a really solid social media strategy. If you choose to use paid social media advertising, it can also become costly.

Email marketing: Email marketing can be a great way to reach potential users who may not be active on social media. It can also be relatively inexpensive, especially if you have a large email list.

In-app advertising: In-app advertising allows you to place ads for your product in other apps and games. This can be a great way to reach potential users who are already using apps that target your key audience. In-app advertising is usually less expensive than other forms of paid user acquisition, but it can still add up.

As you can see, there are many different types of costs involved in mobile app marketing, and this is just a small sampling. When creating your budget, make sure to account for all potential expenses.

Creating a marketing budget for your mobile app

Now that you know what expenses to account for, you can start creating your mobile app marketing budget. Begin by estimating how much you want to spend on each of the above strategies. Then, consider your overall app development budget and make sure that your marketing budget is a reasonable percentage of that.

Our recommendation is to plan on spending 50% of development expenses on your initial launch marketing. So, if you spend $100k on development, plan for $50k in the first 12 months on marketing. This could make a huge difference in your probability of success. Too many entrepreneurs spend tens of thousands of dollars on their app but don’t budget anything for marketing, which becomes a huge barrier to getting further faster.

Once you have a rough idea of how much you want to spend, it’s time to start allocating funds to specific campaigns and activities. Begin by creating a list of all the tasks that need to be completed to execute each marketing strategy. For example, if you’re planning to do ASO, your list might include keyword research, title optimization, and creating app store assets. Make sure to include both one-time costs (such as design fees) and ongoing costs (such as monthly subscription fees).

Next, start assigning budget items to each task. Once again remember to include both fixed costs (such as design fees) and variable costs (such as pay-per-click advertising). This will give you a clear picture of how much each marketing activity will cost and help you stay within your budget.

Tying it all together

Now that you know how to create a mobile app marketing budget, it’s time to put your plan into action. Begin by allocating funds to the most important marketing activities and campaigns. Then, track your progress and adjust your budget accordingly. And finally, don’t forget to reevaluate your budget on a regular basis to make sure that your marketing efforts are still aligned with your overall business goals.

If you need help creating a mobile app marketing budget or executing your marketing plan, contact us today. Our team of experts can help you create a customized marketing strategy that fits your needs and budget.

Don’t waste the most critical time of your app business journey

You can’t do everything on your own. Nobody can. The current age demands speed and specialization, so we focus on the things we’re good at, have time for, and outsource the things we don’t.

You are a business person, and you know that designing and developing an app is best left to the experts, so you’ve hired an agency to develop your app. Should you sit around and wait until you’re done?

No. But unfortunately, most founders and executives make this costly mistake. Building your app secretly is the worst business decision you could take. 

There are many things you can (MUST) do while you are waiting for your app to be built. Here are the top 4 we recommend. 

 The first and most important?

1. Set up a Landing Page

You should be finding ways to attract and communicate to your potential audience and the first thing to create is a landing page.

A landing page is a home base — an entry point to the product you are creating. Your landing page is their first impression of your app. The most common mistake is to wait till the app is built to create a landing page. A landing page can be an invaluable asset to inform you about what to do when your app is ready and allows you to have a head start with your user acquisition when your app is launched.

What Your Landing Page Should Contain

It could contain any number of things, but while your app is being built, your landing page can help you with 2 primary objectives :

1. Collecting Email addresses from people who are interested in your app/business
2. Testing what marketing language works best for your target audience

Hence, at the very least, your landing page should contain a headline, a subtitle/tagline, and an email collection box.

We recommend the following:

The headline and tagline are key elements that you can A/B test. Conversion analytics are important to understand what message resonates with your audience. To a lesser extent, you can also test the List of Benefits, if each benefit has a button with a Call to Action beneath it.

The hero shot or video is a visual to catch attention. If you’re using a video, you could make it address your core issue (like https://www.toastmasters.org/) or advertise the app (like https://anchor.fm/). Good length for your video would be 2 to 3 minutes. Talk about your Unique Selling Proposition and why people should use your app.

Check out one of our landing pages on Appomate’s website that lets you download a free e-book, Create Your App and Grow Rich.

In the mobile version, you absolutely must use the need for scrolling to your advantage. The first view of your landing page could contain just the headline, tagline, and the hero shot or video, and a Get Started/Call-To-Action button. 

You can see below how Google created a pre-launch landing page for the Call Joy product to get users to sign up for early access.

Calljoy.com 

Below is the online proposals and documents signing platform Pandadoc collecting email addresses using a pre-launch landing page.

Here’s another sample of a landing page for a business that has already developed an app. Instead of ‘Get Started’ you might have ‘Get Early Access’ or ‘Get an invite when our app is launched’ as your Call-To-Action. But you can see how this landing page is simple and well designed.

In the above example, Anchor.fm does a lot of things right with their landing page. They keep it simple, but make information super accessible. They advertise their free service first, and their money-making service second.

Can you see all of it? Let’s take a closer look.

1. The Headline — A simple statement, stated like it is fact, is universally likeable.
2. The subtitle — They describe the key features of their free service. Unlimited space, automatic distribution, the ability to monetize, centralized, for free.
3. A sign-up button — Many users don’t like to read a lot. For those users, the start button is front and centre.
4. Links to their apps
5. A button to easily switch from a competitor
6. A secondary service to advertise on Anchor — off centre, to the side.
7. A descriptive page for more involved users, tucked away in the corner.
8. A video describing their service. Videos are more engaging than text, and are therefore more universal.

A great landing page does most of your work in converting your audience into customers. Spend time fine-tuning your landing page so that your audience takes the first step that you want them to take. When your app is ready, you want to have people ready to download your app.

2. Get regular user feedback

Development cycles are iterative. Like any creative field, the first idea does and SHOULD change and evolve into something better. As the founder, you have the ability to inform that development cycle by getting customer feedback even before the app is finished and released. 

Likely, you have tested your business idea on your first customers — friends and family, or maybe even someone from the edge of your personal network. You asked them what do you think about this idea and they went “Ya, it’s a great idea. Go for it”. You should get them involved in your app development process by asking them to beta-test your app. Ask them “Do you mind being part of the app creation process and give me feedback?”. You will be surprised to hear how many people want to help. 

Ask your development team to include your beta testers in the test build distribution process. You don’t want too many people in your beta testing group. 5 to 10 people who fit your actual customer persona is a good number. 

Is the app intuitive to use? Are you able to do what you want to do? Is there anything confusing you? What action do you want to take on this page ? What is your first impression of the app? What general feedback do you have for me?— these are some questions your beta-testers can answer, and you will empower your development team to better realize your vision for the app.

3. Send people to your landing page

Your landing page is ready to collect email addresses, so you’re halfway there. But woah, you might still be livin’ on a prayer. You still have to get your potential customers to visit your landing page.

Ask your friends and family, “Hey do you know someone who would really benefit from this?”

Leverage your network. Word-of-mouth will ALWAYS be the best way of marketing, no matter how technology changes.

Once you gather details of these people, don’t sell them the app too soon. Just send them to the landing page and then give them a call. Ask them what they thought. See if they understood your product by looking at your landing page. 

4. Build Your Social Media Network

YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Medium, Pinterest, Snapchat, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox — all of these are important, but it’s hard to manage all of them, especially without a team dedicated to handling so many channels.

Here are our three best tips on managing your online reach:

Pick Your Primary Channel

Sample everything, but pick your key targets.

Will your app primarily serve businesses instead of single users? If yes, then Linkedin is your main target.

Is your business visual (photography/ videography/ fashion/ travel/ experiences and more)? If so, then Instagram is your best bet.

Concentrate 80% of your effort on your primary social channel, and 20% on the rest. It’s important to touch everything, but people will primarily know you for one.

Now, on how to touch everything…

Share Valuable Content

Know what your target customers are interested in. Slowly build your community around your target users. You don’t need an app or a product to do this. As long as you share interesting, valuable content, you can build your following. 

Unless you’re a media juggernaut, you cannot keep creating unique content for each channel.Content is either written, audio, or video. Luckily, most platforms accept some version of all three. Your Instagram photos can go on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Your YouTube videos can be cut into clips for Facebook and Linkedin, and embedded in an accompanying Medium article. Reuse, reuse, reuse.  

Send them to the landing page

Ending every piece of content with a CTA (Call To Action) to check out your landing page is a recipe for getting ignored. A good starting point for adding CTAs is 1 in every 10 posts. Once every 10 posts, you can make an “ask” from your audience — go to our landing page to find out more about what we are building.

Ultimately, there are a hundred different things you can do while your app is being built. The key is to understand that your business is not just your app. It is your brand, your community, your relationship with your potential customers. Work on all of that.

By having your app be built by professionals, you allow yourself space and time for other things. Do not let that time and space go to waste.

You had a fantastic idea for an app.

Unlike thousands of others, you made it happen: you raised money, did market research, put your tech skills to work, possibly even started a business, and created your app. It works—it works great! Those are all major achievements… but they mean nothing unless people download your app and use them (hopefully generating some income for you in the process!). Now it’s time to swing into post-production promotion – to maximize your app downloads.

How do users discover the apps they use? Tech Crunch reported, “On iOS, 47% said they found the app through the App Store’s search engine, while 53% of Android users did the same on Google Play.”

This makes sense. Each store offers about 1.5 million apps, so browsing isn’t realistic. Users search for what they want and explore from the top entries of their search results.

How can you leverage this knowledge to maximize your app downloads?

The answer is App Store Optimization: the process that gets your app to the top of the search results, increasing the number of visits to your app page and thus, the number of downloads. You have seven big chances to position your app for success through app store optimization.

STEPS TO APP STORE OPTIMISATION

Title

The title, or name, of your App, is very important. Along with your brand name, include relevant keywords in your title, so your app comes up on search results for those keywords.

Example: Shoebox is a photo back-up app. Its full name is Shoebox – photo backup cloud. When you search for ‘photo backup app’, Shoebox comes up as the second result—even before the Google photos app—because it has the words ‘photo backup’ in its title.

 The Shoebox App provides free unlimited photo storage, so you can rediscover your photos anywhere.

Keywords

When you submit your app to the app store, you can list keywords for it. Think about specific words your audience will use in searching for this type of app, and then separate each word with commas. Keywords are limited to 100 characters total, so avoid repetition and plurals.

Potential users of ‘Shoebox photo backup’ may use search terms like “photo backup app”, “photo cloud storage app”, or “free photos backup apps” to search for an app when they are looking to back up their photos. So you would use the following keywords if you were submitting this app: photo, cloud, backup, storage, free.  

Description

Describe your app in a concise and engaging manner that grabs the attention of your audience. Explain the features and functions and what makes the app unique and different from other apps. The first few sentences are most important because a limited number of words show up before the user must click ‘more’. This number of words is shorter for phones compared to the display on tablets and computers. Use some of your important keywords in the description, but avoid overusing them.

Categories

The primary category you select will be the category in which the app appears for search results and in the ‘Explore’ section of the app store. Be sure to select the category that best describes the main function of your app.

The Shoebox app best fits in the photos and videos category. This category, as defined by Apple, includes “Apps that assist in capturing, editing, managing, storing, or sharing photos and videos.” Read the description of the category provided by Apple to be sure your app fits the category.

Screenshots and app preview

Images speak more loudly than words. Use screenshots that really communicate the benefits of your app. The App Store also allows you to submit a short video (15 to 30 seconds) of your app to demonstrate the features and functions. This can really differentiate your app from other search results.  

App icon

Your app’s icon may be the first thing users notice when they see the app in a search result. It creates the first impression of your app. If the app icon, screenshots, and video are not of really high quality and good resolution, users subconsciously make judgements about the quality of your app.  

User ratings and reviews

The App stores give preference to apps with higher ratings and number of reviews. Encourage your users to rate and review your app. You can use tools like Apptentive to enable in-app ratings and review.

There are plenty of sources online regarding app store optimization. Go straight to the source to get the correct details.  

• Making the most of your App store product page 
• Making the best use of App store connect to maximize App downloads
• Google Play Store optimization is pretty similar to Apple’s app store optimization.

Now that your app is finished, your work switches from production to promotion. Following the steps outlined here and in our other marketing posts will increase your chances of success: users finding, downloading, and positively reviewing your app. Read our posts about advertising, strategic partnerships, leveraging word of mouth recommendation, and celebrity endorsement.

Don’t forget to share and follow our blog for more updates.

With the extensive usage of Social media apps – influencer marketing has become the go-to marketing strategy for promoting your mobile app businesses.

If you are reading this blog, we assume that you have already developed an app for your startup and shifting your focus from production to promotion mode. Your app may be brilliant and work like a Swiss clock, but without pursuing several methods of marketing, it can languish in the app stores, and your business will languish with it.

We’ve addressed several ways to market a new app in other posts:  app store optimization, word of mouth, advertising, and strategic partnerships. Another way to make a big splash is to have celebrities and social media influencers to help bring awareness to your product and brand.

Why influencers are valuable for your app promotion?

Celebrities and other influencers have the power to promote your app based on their exposure, popularity, mission, and values. Whether or not people like them, they get attention, and so your app will, too. They often have a variety of avenues to get their message out, from TV interviews to blogs and Twitter feeds. For better or worse, many people trust celebrities, and the products they promote benefit from the generalized trust.

Keep in mind that these people do not necessarily have to be globally known or have millions of followers and fans on Instagram or Twitter. Someone with thousands of followers can still add great value to your app promotion.

How to identify influencers?

Google Alerts is a great tool. You can set up alerts on topics relevant to your product, and see who’s talking about them, and where.

To find authorities and influencers in your industry, AuthoritySpy is a great tool. To find people who are popular in social media in your industry, try Klout. Klout even ranks them based on their social influence.

There are many other online tools to help you identify influencers. Use the mother of all online tools, Google, and search “tools to find influencers”. ☺

Why would a celebrity help me?

You may wonder why a celebrity might want to endorse your app/product. It might simply be because they get paid, or get a commission from the sale of the products they talk about. But often, it’s because they want to share useful and cool stuff with their fans and followers.

How to secure an Influencer endorsement?

If your app startup is well funded, you may have the budget to hire a professional celebrity broker company to make a deal happen for you. But for self-funded bootstrap app startups, there are more creative ways. It does not have to be a formal, proper endorsement of your app; a quick mention of your app in their blog or social media can get you incredible exposure.

Work out a deal.

Offer an upfront payment or small equity in your app business in exchange for endorsing your app, or some commission or royalty in your product sales. Stamped, an app for reviewing businesses and restaurants has investors like Ellen DeGeneres, Ryan Seacrest, and Justin Bieber.  

Justin Bieber also took an equity stake in Shots, a selfie-sharing app for which he led a $1,100,000 seed round. Shots’ popularity spiked when Bieber started using it to post personal photos. 

There are also influencer marketplaces like Tribe where you can find and pay influencers to promote your brand.

Find a common cause

Many celebrities are passionate about some social causes close to their heart—or just like to burnish their reputation. Even if your app doesn’t directly contribute to a social cause, you can associate yourself with a charity or non-profit.  For example, you may decide to contribute a certain percentage of your profits to educating kids in underdeveloped countries. Then you can identify and approach celebrities who are already involved in some charities that improve the conditions of kids in underdeveloped countries.

Ask them.

Simply ask your targeted celebrities and influencers to use your product and spread the word if they like it. Educate them on how it would help their fans and followers. It is usually difficult to approach celebrities directly; focus on building relationships with their close associations, like personal assistants, PR managers, hairdressers, and personal trainers. Get those people to use your product and introduce it to the celebrity. Give them free access before the product is even publically launched.

For example, Instagram had Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, using the app before it launched. When the app launched, he tweeted about the app to his million-plus followers.

Don’t procrastinate. Be bold.

Before you approach celebrities, you have to believe in yourself and your product. Many people self-sabotage by procrastinating. They find excuses, like ‘My app is not looking good enough yet; it’s not 100% free of bugs yet; if I lose them, I lose them forever;’ etc.  Don’t be one of them. Ask for help. There are thousands of people you can approach.

Many celebrities, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay Z, Aston Kutcher, Tom Hanks, and Jessica Alba, have all invested into tech startups. It’s certainly becoming a trend for celebrities to get involved in the tech space, and many are inspired and looking for good opportunities.

App Virality – Every marketer dreams that his marketing campaign goes viral. The most successful apps are the ones that spread like a virus. They leveraged their existing users to advertise the app to new users.

The concept of ‘Viral marketing’ was first popularised by Hotmail in 1995 when they put “‘PS: I love you. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail” in the footer of every user’s email.   This allowed them to reach a stage where the service was adding 270,000 new users every single day. In Dec 1997, Sabeer Bhatia sold the service to Microsoft for $400 million.

The key distinction of viral marketing is this. Traditional marketing follows the shape of a funnel, channeling from more users to fewer users.  Example 1000 users see your ad, 100 click the ad, 1 download the app. But viral marketing follows the shape of an inverted funnel, working from few to many users. 1 user download the app, that user invites 10 users, the 10 users invite 10 users each and the funnel gets wider and wider.

Viral marketing is the phenomena when people actively spread a product or service to others either voluntarily or involuntarily. In the Hotmail example, it was involuntary. Users spread the service just by using the service.  App virality is a becoming the trend, one such example is a video-sharing app, TikTok which hit 1 billion downloads in the App store within a few months of launch.

Viral marketing can also be created artificially by creating a clear need or incentive for a user to invite other users.

Create viral loops – App Virality

Some of the world’s greatest apps have been built with incentives for their users to invite more users. For example, Dropbox offers free storage when a user invites a friend to create a Dropbox account. Uber gives you taxi credit when you share your experience with your friends and invite them to use the service. AirBnB offers hosts money for introducing new hosts to AirBnB.

What feature can you build into your app to create this viral loop?

This is a very hot topic in-app marketing, and you can find plenty of books, articles, and websites on this topic if you google “viral loops”.

Build a network effect:

The network effect is a phenomenon where a product becomes more valuable and useful when more people use it. Facebook is a great example: you love it, even more, when all your friends are there participating with you. Whatsapp is more useful when all your friends and family, local and international, are using it, as it makes communication quicker and easier.

Network effect motivates users to invite their contacts to use an app because it will make the app even more valuable for them… and because it’s fun to share.

Does your app make use of network effect?

Does it have a feature that makes the app more valuable to a user when they have friends, family, a colleague using the app?

Keep in mind that all of this work only when your product is great. Creating viral loops and network effect are just two more possibilities for successful marketing that will add to your success and position you to produce that next great app idea that’s rattling around in your brain.

For other promotional techniques, see our posts on advertising, celebrity endorsement, and forming strategic partnerships.

Partnering with big companies is proving to be a very effective, efficient method for startups to acquire users. It’s not David versus Goliath; it’s David befriending Goliath. Building a strategic partnership allows you to leverage millions of dollars and years of work a corporation has put into their own marketing to help you promote your product. It creates a mutually beneficial business relationship.

Choosing a Strategic Partner

There are four basic elements to look for when considering a strategic partner.

Similar target market:

Look for companies that serve the same market as yours. For example, let’s say your app targets, young parents. Think about partnering with toy companies or local child care centers.

Shared values:

You can start a partnership with any company if you hustle. But for the partnership to be successful in the long term, you need to partner with a company that has similar values.  For example, if you value people over profits and your partner values profit over people, it’s not going to be too long before the partnership face challenges.

Common mission:

If you partner with someone who has a similar mission, it will be much easier to get things going in the right direction. For example, Alibaba’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, said ‘company mission’ is the first thing he looks when partnering with other companies. He only partners with companies which also strive to make it easier to do business.

Value for your partner:

Think about which company can leverage the most value from your startup. Value can come from any number of factors, but assuming you are a tech startup, often your product can offer unique technology. Target companies who can offer additional value to their customers using your technology.

Examples of Strategic Partnership between App Startups and Big Brands

• One great example of a strategic partnership is an online music app Spotify. It partnered with Adidas to create the Adidas Go app, which uses Spotify’s extensive library to play music according to the pace and intensity of the user’s workout. The partnership provided unique technology for Adidas, and access to hundreds of thousands of Adidas customers for Spotify.
• Uber is the king of partnership. In its early days, Uber partnered with different event companies running big conferences and expos in major cities. Uber would offer conference participants a discount code to use Uber, and get the event companies to send email to thousands of their visitors about the offer. Uber worked with Google to put Uber on Google Maps when users search for their destination. This partnership put Uber in front of millions of new users. Launched November 30, 2012, in Australia, Uber exceeded the one-million-user mark in 2016.  
• Buzzfeed, an app that provides personalized news to users, partnered with GroupM, one of the world’s largest distributor of online ads. GroupM provided significant advertising for Buzzfeed in exchange for access to Buzzfeed’s unique Pound technology, which provides user analytic data of how stories spread on the social web.
• Hipstamatic, a photography startup, partnered with Instagram.  Users take and edit photos in Hipstamatic and push them to Instagram. These photos have a ‘Taken with Hipstamatic’ tag that links to the Hipstamatic website.  Hipstamatic gained exposure to millions of Instagram users. Instagram CEO and co-founder Kevin Systrom said, “Really, it all comes down to this: people post Hipstamatic photos on Instagram all the time, and we just want to make that experience easier.”
• Unidesk provides software to deploy Windows apps. It partnered with Dell, and Dell included the software as part of its solution offering in Desktop Virtualisation Solutions. Unidesk’s unique technology added value to Dell’s existing customers; Unidesk gained access to Dell’s millions of customers.

So, who are your potential targets for a strategic partnership? What do you have to offer? How do you benefit?

Once you make a hit list of companies, identify people in those companies. Linkedin is probably the best tool to research, identify and contact senior people in big companies. With the Linkedin premium plan, you can send inmail to people outside your network. Be a great networker. Go to events and conferences where people from your hit list of companies might attend. Introduce yourself and offer to buy a coffee. Once you meet them, ask who the right person to talk about the partnership is. Work your way in.