How to promote a new mobile app — the indie founder playbook

Most app launches die from one of three things: nobody knew about it, nobody who knew about it cared, or the people who cared churned in week one. The first two are marketing problems. The third is a product problem. This guide handles the first two.

We'll walk five phases. Each phase has 3-6 concrete actions and a done-when checklist. Use the AI Skills (linked throughout) to do the writing parts in minutes instead of hours.

Phase 1 — Pre-launch (week −4 to −1)

Your goal: when launch day arrives, you already have 100 people waiting. Cold-launching to zero followers is the single most common mistake.

• Write your ICP. Use the icp-writer skill. Output a 1-paragraph description of one specific person. "Indie iOS devs in the US, 25-40, ship side projects, hate marketing" beats "developers".
• Find 3 places that ICP hangs out.One subreddit, one Discord/Slack, one X/IG niche. Lurk for a week. Read the rules. Don't post.
• Build a landing pagein a day. One screen: 7-word headline, 1-sentence subtitle, 3-bullet feature list, one screenshot/mockup, email-capture form. Use Tally or Framer if you don't want to design.
• Start an audience. One Twitter/X thread per week about building. One TikTok showing a feature in 15 seconds. Aim for consistency over reach — algorithms reward weekly posters.
• Recruit 5 beta users from your network.Cold-DM 20 people you know who fit the ICP. 5 will say yes. They'll become your launch-day social proof.

Done when:you have a landing page, 50+ email signups, a recognizable handle in 1-2 communities, and 5 beta users who've tried the app and (ideally) said something nice about it.

Phase 2 — Launch day (the "Tuesday")

Pick a Tuesday or Wednesday for Product Hunt (their best traffic days). Coordinate everything to fire on that day. Tell the people on your email list one week ahead, three days ahead, and the morning of.

The launch-day checklist, in order:

1. 00:01 PST — Product Hunt post goes live (or scheduled to). Tagline + description from the ph-launch-kit skill. Pin a maker comment with the story behind the product.
2. 06:00 your time — Show HN post on Hacker News. Title format: Show HN: My App — one-sentence what it does. First comment: longer story, who it's for, why you built it. Don't spam refresh.
3. 07:00 — Indie Hackers Milestones post. Tone is celebratory + transparent (share the journey, not just the link).
4. 08:00 — X launch thread. Use launch-tweet-thread to draft 8 tweets: hook → problem → solution → 3 features → social proof from beta users → CTA. Tag people who helped.
5. 09:00— Personal network mobilization. DM 30 people who said they'd support. Don't ask for upvotes; ask for honest feedback and let them choose to share.
6. 10:00 — Email blast to your list. Subject: short. Body: why you built it, three sentences about what it does, big CTA button. Track opens.
7. 11:00 — Target subreddits. Onlyones where you've participated for weeks. Follow each sub's self-promo rules to the letter. Bonus: post a problem-solution story, not a launch announcement.
8. Every hour — reply to every Product Hunt comment within 10 minutes. PH ranking heavily weights maker engagement.

Done when:you're top 5 on PH for the day (aim for top 3), 50+ HN points, > 1,000 site visits, 20+ paying users or 200+ signups depending on your business model.

A "bad" PH day is still a great day. Even a #15 finish gets you 800 visitors, 50 trial users, and one thoughtful customer call worth more than the rest combined.

Phase 3 — First 30 days (the "listen phase")

Don't pour fuel on the fire yet. Your job in month one is to learn, not grow.

• Cold-DM 20 ideal users for 15-minute calls. Use the Mom Test approach (see Resources). Ask about their day, not your product. Notice the words they use to describe the problem — those words go into your next round of copy.
• Install analytics. PostHog (recommended) or Mixpanel free tier. Track: signup, first-action (your activation event), retention day 1 / 7 / 30, share / referral events.
• Define your North-Star Metric. Not DAU. Something tied to value delivered. Photo-edit app: photos exported per user per week. Habit app: streak length. Pick one number.
• Reply to every review.App Store + Play Store. Public replies signal that you care, even to people who haven't installed yet. Negative reviews? Reply calmly and improve the thing.
• Ship one improvement per weekbased on the calls and reviews. Tell your audience about each one — "build in public" is content marketing that costs nothing.

Phase 4 — First 100 → 1,000 users (the "turn it on")

You know who you're for, what they call the problem, and what activates them. Now scale the channels that worked in phase 2.

• ASO drill-down. See aso-basics. Optimize App Store title + subtitle + keywords + screenshots + preview video. ASO compounds — every improvement helps every future visitor.
• Content marketing routine.Pick TWO channels max. For most app founders, that's vertical short video (TikTok or Reels) + X. Post one Reel and one X thread per week minimum. Use the video-script-writer skill.
• Micro-influencer partnerships.Don't hire mega-influencers ($10K+ per post, ROI rarely works). Find creators with 5-50K followers in your niche. Offer free lifetime + $50-500. 1 in 5 will say yes.
• Paid ad tests.$5-20/day on Meta + TikTok Ads. Run 3 creative variations per platform. Goal at this stage isn't ROI, it's learning which message + visual pulls. Kill losers fast.
• Referral.If your app has any social or collaboration element, add a referral incentive. Even a simple "invite a friend, both get X" can compound.

Phase 5 — Beyond 1,000 (the "business" phase)

You've proven distribution. Now the leverage moves from acquisition to retention + monetization.

• Retention engineering. Push notifications, lifecycle emails, onboarding optimization. Reducing day-30 churn by 5% often produces more revenue than doubling top-of-funnel.
• Pricing experiments. If you have a paid tier, run an A/B test on price. Most early-stage apps charge too little.
• Community. Open a Discord, a subreddit, a forum, or a Circle/Mighty Networks space. The 5% of users who join become your support team, beta testers, and most loyal evangelists.
• Story-worthy moments. 10K users, $10K MRR, a notable customer — anything specific is press-worthy. Pitch a few relevant outlets. TechCrunch ignores most pitches; niche publications love good stories.

What this guide deliberately doesn't cover

• Brand identity / design.Important, but you're optimizing the wrong thing if you don't have 1,000 users yet.
• SEO blog posts. Takes 6+ months to compound. Worth doing in parallel but not the lead channel for a new app.
• Press / PR firms. $5K+/month for unpredictable results. Do it later.

When in doubt: ship more, post more, talk to more users. The founders who win are usually not the smartest ones — they're the ones who showed up every week for two years.