[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNsdPV1tJGA&w=560&h=349]

Android app developers all have the same concern: How do I get my app discovered and distributed? If your app is not one of the top 50 apps in the Android Marketplace, no one knows it exists. At the Android Developers Conference, or AnDevCon, in Burlingame, California, Tom Emrich and his colleague Gary Yentin of App-Promo, a PR and marketing firm for apps, offered up some advice. The pair gave a great presentation on how to increase discovery and distribution of your mobile app. They hammered through tons of tips, but the ones I thought were the most important were Emrich’s advice on focusing on your product page in the Android Marketplace. Because no matter where consumers discover your app, everyone is going to always end up on your product page, said Emrich. That is the very last step before install. Depending on how you organize it, it will or won’t sell your app. Here’s a summary of some of Emrich’s advice on how to make the most of your product page in the Android Marketplace: Focus on your icon and name: These are critical to branding. Look at your competitors. Differentiate your look and name, but you want a name that makes sense to what your app is. Put your most important marketing text in the very beginning: The first 170 characters is what shows up in search results and the first 400 characters is what appears above the fold (before users have to scroll to see more). Include in that opening what your app is about and what the benefit is to the user. This is your app’s elevator pitch. Max out your product description: While the first 400 characters are the most critical, you have up to 4,000 characters for more description. Max it out with great explanation and lots and lots of keywords to increase discovery. Focus on reviews and ratings: Elicit reviews and ratings from users either through ads, social networks, or requests through the app. These are critical to selling your app. Reiterate the price: Don’t lead your users on with a free app that’s crippled until you pay up. Such hidden “gotcha” sales tactics will result in very low reviews and low star ratings, which will hurt your app overall. If it’s a freemium app, explain at what point they’ll be paying. If it’s truly free, explain that. If there’s a price change, indicate that. Make announcements: Use your product page to announce feature changes and updates. As you learn more about keywords, modify the description with those new keywords. Republish testimonials: If your best testimonials are getting buried, republish them in your product description. Revisit your page: This is not a set-it-and-forget-it piece of marketing collateral. You need to revisit it often and make sure it always looks fresh. Include video: You can add a link to a YouTube demo video on your product page. No better way to demonstrate your app than with a great sample video.