Then → Now · 2026
Of the four bonus tools, Rapportive was already dead-in-waiting when the post went live, and Hotjar no longer exists as a brand.
What it said (2017) ↓
Build marketing into the product (share buttons) and test with Google Analytics and Hotjar.
Launch in one market first, cultivate media before launch, and time the press release away from big tech announcements.
What happened (2026) ↓
Rapportive was already folded into "Sales Navigator for Gmail" by November 2017, before this post, and LinkedIn shut that down on 2020-03-18. WinBuzzer, 2017-11-10 · TechCrunch, 2020-02-13
Contentsquare acquired Hotjar in September 2021, and the Hotjar brand was fully merged in 2024: "Hotjar is now Contentsquare". Contentsquare press · Contentsquare blog
Verdict · Held up: 6 / 10 · Full 2026 update
- App developers should launch in one market first, cultivate media before launch, and never buy email lists.Still valid evergreen
- Rapportive, Google Keep, Signals by HubSpot and LinkedIn were useful bonus tools for app marketing.Outdated one dead, one rebranded away, one renamed
- App developers should track whether recipients read their marketing email.Outdated after Apple MPP
- App developers should grow through app attribution and paid ads.Outdated overturned by ATT
Original post · 4 December 2017
App developers, pay attention - after developing a badass app, it’s time for some marketing to get as many users possible! Nikolina Zeljko, marketing & social media manager, tells you exactly what you need to do. She will go through marketing tips and tricks for all phases of your project - conceptual phase, launch, embedding marketing into the product itself, branding, and creating products ready for the global market.Testing the app among the very first users
Every app goes through a conceptual phase, and this is the perfect time to start thinking about marketing, even implementing some of it. When exactly do you reach this phase? When should you start testing the app among the first users? If you work on a web app, then you should at least develop a simple MVP (Minimum Viable Product), but if your project is a mobile app, it’s best to develop a full product. Either way, you should “install” marketing in the product itself. For example, create a sharing button and make it easy for people to use. More importantly, test it. See what users click on, for example with tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar. And while you build it, keep thinking about who your customer is and build a product accordingly. Use social networks to listen to the market and implement the functionalities your customers are asking for. Once you're ready to the market, it’s time for a great launch. You can test apps by launching just in one market. When enough people use your product on a monthly or weekly basis, you know that you are ready for the market and you can go globally.Establishing contacts
Before the D-Day (read: the Big Launch), try making as many connections with media as possible, especially in your target market and niche. For example, if it’s a mobile game, try reaching technology and game bloggers and media. Now is also the best time to start managing a blog and newsletter, where users can get first-hand insight into the app’s progress and subscribe to get a notification when the app is launched. How will people know you are blogging? Take a look at other well-known blogs and become a guest blogger. Depending on the topic, find outlets that are relevant and in this way readers will bump into your blog.Launching the app
When it’s time to launch your app, ask the media and influential people you now know to test it and to give you their feedback. This way, you will prepare them for the release of the story. Send a press release on a day when there are not many other newsworthy stories to be expected; avoid dates when major technology companies announce new products or when other events are in focus. Send your PR article to the list of people you've collected through blogs, ads and social networks. Be creative in how you approach them! The more creativity, the bigger the chance of going viral.Getting new users
The app is launched. What you need now is a bunch of new users. But how to reach them? Easy - using these four types of marketing:- Reviews. After the press release, the number of users usually grows rapidly, but over time it also falls again. By reading reviews, potential users find out about your product, but you have to find a way to keep them. According to research, 82% of U.S. adults sometimes or always read reviews before a purchase.
- Ads & SEO. If not done properly, these may harm your brand, but when done well, spending resources on ads and to improve your SEO can be very effective. What you say and the way you say is extremely important, so make sure you test different texts to see what resonates most with your audience.
- Email Marketing. Did you know that email marketing has the highest ROI of all digital marketing? Emails should be short and relevant, use A/B testing, make sure the title is catchy, and that the email brings the lead to a good landing page. Also good to know: text emails end up in the primary tab of people who use Gmail and have tabs included. And whatever you do, do not buy mailing lists!
- Relationship Marketing. It's long-lasting and costly, but investing in the relationships with your clients is incredibly important. Get to know your audience. Listen to them, understand their needs, wishes and frustrations and adapt to that. You're not building the app for you, you're building it for your customers, so when they need something, that's what you give them. But also understand their behavior; do they use your app during workdays or weekends? Specific times of the day? This is knowledge you can use to your benefit.
Returning users
Once they finally use the product, how do you "make" users return to the app on a regular basis? Everyone has a trigger - it may be a reward, status, achievement, self-expression, competition, altruism. It depends on the type of person, the culture and the nature of the app. Stay in touch with your customers. Contact them with push notifications, but watch out for time zones and don’t overdo it. Watch the market. Test and listen to your audience.What's their trigger? Pro advice: keep things simple.Short bonus tips:
- Use Rapportive for Gmail to know more about the person who sends you an email.
- Use Google Keep for reminders.
- Use Signals by HubSpot to see if someone got and read your email.
- Use LinkedIn to connect with influential people.
2026 update
What happened after this was written
Claims then:
- Build marketing into the product (share buttons) and test with Google Analytics and Hotjar.
- Launch in one market first, cultivate media before launch, and time the press release away from big tech announcements.
- "82% of U.S. adults sometimes or always read reviews" (Pew 2016); email "has the highest ROI"; do not buy lists; text emails land in Gmail's Primary tab.
- Push notifications with care for time zones.
- Bonus tools: Rapportive for Gmail, Google Keep, Signals by HubSpot, LinkedIn.
What happened since:
- Rapportive was already folded into "Sales Navigator for Gmail" by November 2017, before this post, and LinkedIn shut that down on 2020-03-18. WinBuzzer, 2017-11-10 · TechCrunch, 2020-02-13
- Contentsquare acquired Hotjar in September 2021, and the Hotjar brand was fully merged in 2024: "Hotjar is now Contentsquare". Contentsquare press · Contentsquare blog
- HubSpot's Signals app lives on as email tracking in the HubSpot Sales extension, free on all plans. HubSpot · HubSpot KB
- Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (September 2021) made open-tracking unreliable. It preloads mail, so opens are reported whether or not anyone reads, and Apple Mail was about 49% of opens in January 2025. Twilio · emailtooltester
- App Tracking Transparency (iOS 14.5, 2021) broke cross-app attribution. Opt-in is now about 38% (Q1 2026, per SignalSeal citing Adjust); the often-quoted early range of 15–25% could not be confirmed from that source. This changed paid acquisition for apps. Business of Apps · SignalSeal
- The Pew 82% figure is quoted correctly: a 2015 survey published in 2016, with 40% "always or almost always". Pew, 2016-12-19
Named tools/orgs status:
| Name | Then | Now | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rapportive | Recommended | Dead (renamed 2017, shut 2020-03-18) | TechCrunch |
| Hotjar | Recommended | Acquired 2021; brand merged into Contentsquare 2024 | Contentsquare |
| Signals by HubSpot | Recommended | Now HubSpot Sales email tracking (free) | HubSpot |
| Google Analytics | Recommended | Active; Universal Analytics replaced by GA4 (not re-checked this pass) | — |
| Google Keep | Recommended | Active (not re-checked) | — |
| Recommended | Active | — | |
| Pew Research | 82% stat | Stat accurate | Pew |
Verdict: Launch strategy, relationship marketing and "don't buy lists": Still valid (evergreen). Tool list: Outdated (one dead, one rebranded away, one renamed). "Track whether they read your email": Outdated after Apple MPP. App attribution and paid ads: overturned by ATT.
Headline finding: Of the four bonus tools, Rapportive was already dead-in-waiting when the post went live, and Hotjar no longer exists as a brand.
Re-verified 3 November 2026: 6 claims confirmed, 0 corrected, 1 hedged, 0 removed.
Researched 30 September 2026 and re-verified against the sources on 3 November 2026. Sources are linked in each point. Items marked "unverified" could not be established and are not guessed.