How to market an app when you're its only user

Ladies and gentlemen, I've got it all figured out! And within the next paragraphs I will reveal the 5 things you need to do in order to become a millionaire by building mobile apps.

Now that I've caught your attention using the dumbest trick in the book we can actually talk about something closer to reality. How to market and promote a mobile app?

By the way, how many more times are you going to fall for click bait titles?

David vs. Goliath

Before we continue with the actual marketing strategies let me remind you what Levely is. It's a mobile app made for people who are tired of leveling characters in video games and would rather spend that time leveling themselves via focused practice. This is where I'm standing with it:

• The market is completely overcrowded with focus timers and gamification apps. I swear I see every day on Reddit someone releasing a new app.

• Apparently there already is a Levely app on the App Store. It's a parenting app weirdly enough.

• My competition is already well established, has more resources than me and already has a large share of the market.

• I'm building alone, part-time, during the night.

• My marketing budget is not really zero, but it's close.

• My audience is...I'd like to say inexistent, but lately things have been picking up due to this article series which has been featured on HackerNoon. Thanks guys! I'm still wondering who is the editor that has such horrible taste.

• Oh, and I still don't know Swift. I have to rely completely on my previous experience as a software developer and hope that Claude ain't secretly trying to backstab me.

Ok, I've got quite a few challenges to overcome, but it's all good. It makes for a way better story than 'I have all the resources at my disposal. I'm a genius programmer and a marketing god. This shit is way too easy for me'.

I feel like David about to face Goliath.

Wait a second! That got me thinking. If I truly am an underdog, a modern David, why not lean into it? Why not just go all guerrilla warfare at it?

I can choose my own battlefield. One where I actually have a shot at winning. That means that I can carve out my own market segment and target the exact users that Levely is ideal for.

Who the hell is my customer?

Alright, awesome! So where do we start? Let's first imagine who the ideal user of the app might be. Hmmm, his name is Michael Scott and he's a middle manager from Scranton in his mid thirties. He loves playing RPGs and guitar, has some trouble focusing, spends a bit too much time on his phone .... Ahh, for fuck's sake, this is stupid. I can't box my users under one persona.

Levely is being built to solve my problem. To have a fun way to improve my real life skills by treating myself like an RPG character.

Oh shit! I'm the ideal user!

Though I can't be the only one, can I? There must be other people out there who:

1. Want to study Japanese while practicing fencing and preparing to get their motorcycle license;

2. Don't have time to play video games but still want to get that sense of character progression;

3. Hate habit trackers and streaks;

4. Want to have visual proof of their dedication towards getting better.

Where are you all hiding?

My first instinct is to look within the deep reaches of Reddit. I will find you wherever you are, on r/getstudying, on r/learnjapanese, on r/morrowind. There will be no escaping me. And when I do find you, asking for study tips or how to ace that physics exam when you secretly just want to play Skyrim, I will offer my invaluable advice.

I will position myself as a self-titled expert in getting shit done via LARPing as a studious mage.

I've seen too many people trying to advertise their latest app/product/whatever unrequested and I will not go down that route. I've got a much better shot at gaining users if I will genuinely be of help and build trust. And if someone decides to visit my bio and check out Levely I know that they will have done so on their own terms.

I'm aware that this part of the strategy will be slow and requires a long time frame to be successful, but its the best way I can think off to actually attract people that will enjoy my app.

There are possibly faster options, such as influencer marketing, TikTok reels, UGC, ASO and other abbreviations that I can't spell. I haven't had the time to investigate those, and I'm a bit wary of using them but I'm not completely ruling them out yet. If I manage to pique the interest of some of the gaming YouTubers that I enjoy watching I'd love to set up a collaboration. I will attempt to message a few but I think the response rate will be low.

Writing my way to an audience

Ok, so Reddit is one avenue, what are the others? This article is one of them actually. Yes, I'm not writing this just to describe the process of building an app. I'm also using my articles to create an audience for the actual app. HackerNoon has been quite invaluable in this. Publishing my articles there has given me access to a much greater audience than I would of otherwise had. I'm not sure it's the right audience, but it's an audience none the less.

I'm also trying to focus a lot on my people, the RPG gamers. I don't have all the evidence, but I think they are the type of people that would most enjoy my app. They are already used to leveling systems and I find it easier to pitch the app to someone that's already used to building up a character in a video game. After all, my app is inspired by such video games.

My brilliant idea is to create an article series on learning and mastering new skills using concepts learned from popular RPGs. It's almost too natural. I will be writing about the very thing that inspired me, to an audience that I am actually a part of.

If you're thinking that this sounds very time consuming and slow, you are right. It is, but it is deliberate. Earlier in the article I've said that I will be doing a guerrilla campaign. Well, this is how one looks. It's slow and it's time consuming, but I'm confident that it is the right choice.

So, how do you get rich?

I know I'm making an app for a hackathon and I'm supposed to gain user traction by the end of September, but that's not my end goal. My objective is to build Levely into an app that will actually help people. That's the whole thing I'm aiming at. I truly believe that there is something useful here and I'm drawing my entire strategy around sharing that.

I don't know how to make a million dollar app. I lied. But I do know that I can make the app that gets people to actually level up in real life.

P.S. There will be a second part to this article where I present the results of my strategies. You will be able to judge for yourself if I truly am an emerging marketing god or a boastful failure. Until then, let's see if I've convinced you to check out Levely.