I was thinking today about best practices around marketing your business with an iPhone app. Some of the things I came up with are obvious and a few may not be, but I think all are useful to consider while you’re getting up and going with an app.

First thing is first: getting customers to download your app. In order to make your app a useful marketing channel you first have to get your customers to download it. It won’t magically appear on their iPhones – you have to let them know about it! Following are some ideas to drive downloads of your app.

• Promote your app in your place of business: place flyers, stickers, table tents, etc. around your place of business that say: “Download Our iPhone App at the App Store”.
• Promote your app in the same places you promote your website and Facebook pages right now – on your menus, at the bottom of your receipts, in-store signage, etc.
• In fact, promote your app ON your website and Facebook page. You can also place a direct link to your app in these places to make it very easy for people to find. To get that link, simply right click on the app icon on your app’s homepage in iTunes and select copy.
• Promote your app on your email distribution list and your blog if you you’ve got them. Place a direct link to your app in those places too.
• Give your customers incentive to download your app. Offer some sort of special, coupon or other deal that only people with the app can get.
• Come up with creative deals like: Get three friends to download our app, bring them in and get this deal.

Now to some best practices about using your app to reach those customers who have downloaded it:

• Keep the info in your app up to date: If your info is out of date, customers will not view your app as a live channel.
• Don’t send push offers out too often or else customers will tune them out and maybe view your messages as spam.
• When sending push offers, make sure they are of significant value to your customers. If an offer or message isn’t perceived to be valuable, customers may tune our your next push.
• Create offers specific to app users and incent them to share these deals with friends.

So, those are the thoughts I came up with today – I hope they are helpful to you. Check back often because this is a topic we’ll continue to develop and explore.