subject: Developing Iphone Apps And Selling Upgrades To Your Free App [print this page] Once you get into Developing iPhone Apps for your business you will discover many ways to make money. First you can make money giving away useful and / or fun applications that are ad or sponsor supported, then you can offer an upgrade that offers an ad free version with a bit more functionality than the free version. You can even advertise your upgrade via the free application so that users are aware that they can get the newer, ad free app by upgrading. This a great way to tap into more revenue from existing customers.
In marketing this is referred to as: Mining your existing customers. Coined by Reverend Russell Conwell and is just as useful for you to know about today as it was in the past. Your best chance to sell more is via your current or past clients. If they've bought from you before you have a huge chance to have them buy from you again. Therefore offering an improved version of a previous iPhone app to people who already have the other version can increase your bottom line exponentially.
The other term that you should be aware of is: Cross selling and Up-selling. This means that you have a way to tell all your customers about what you offer outside of what they've already bought from you. Cross selling refers to the idea of selling additional products or services to those who have already bought from you. Up-selling refers to the practice of offering bigger ticket items or upgrades and add-ons to a product at the time of or immediately after purchase. Offering a short term sale to a client who just purchased from you is a classic method of up-selling.
Whether you call it mining, up-selling or cross selling it is imperative that you market to your current and past clients to get the most for your marketing dollar. By ignoring the people who have already bought from you, you're leaving too much money on the table. You can market to your current clients in a variety of ways such as via a newsletter where you offer specials to just your past and present clients. You can do this via customer appreciation days, special iPhone applications for only clients, and percents off coupons. However, you choose to do it, selling upgrades to your free iPhone apps will increase your bottom line exponentially.
