Iphone developers responded to a survey by App Store HQ blog on the most effective marketing for their applications. Here are some of the results:

• Soliciting user reviews – 2.01 / 7 responses
• Making frequent updates to increase App Store visibility – 2.3 / 10 responses
• Paid PR – rating 3 / 2 responses
• Offering a Lite version – 2.58 / 12 responses
• Submitting to app review blogs – 2.4 / 10 responses

Developers gave 3/3 rating for Paid Public Relations. But more people tried offering a lite version and making frequent updates to the product to increase Apple Store visiblity.

Other quotes:

• “The single most effective one-time sales promotion for one of our apps was an in-house PR campaign… The app was innovative and the story was picked up at wired.com and subsequently at many other leading tech/music online outlets. I had been very careful to put links into the release copy, most of which were pasted into stories intact. This PR blast drove thousands of sales within a few days. But then sales fell off a cliff as the stories fell away from tech blog home pages. We have tried all the other tricks. We find that nothing succeeds like success. Get in the top 10 or top 20 and you’re likely to stay there indefinitely.
• “Our PR team got us placement on tech news sites, which led to articles on Wired.com and BoingBoing the first week of the app’s launch. After that, WOM has led to a remarkably consistent download rate, with small spikes during future press coverage.”

Two things come to mind immediately:

1. Developers (most other folks included) do things that they can control and in their comfort zone – making changes to the application and offering a lite version – they can control.

2. Those that used PR found it to be awesome. But too few people tried PR to get awareness for their applications.

Question for PR folks – If you know the value proposition of what you sell has a GREAT return on investment, how do you go about making sure your customer buys or “tries” your product before they buy?