Are you using special events and dates, such as holidays, to promote your app in a certain way? If not, you should probably start doing so. This article by FierceMobile refers to statistics that claim that compared to last year the traffic to the Apple US-App Store increased by 57 percent during Thanksgiving week. For the week compared to the first three of November, traffic growth was at 43 percent. Also interesting: app usage during Black Friday was up by 59 percent. Why does this happen?

Well, there could be many reasons, but the most logical explanation is probably people (iPhone owners) simply having more time for using the device and browsing through the App Store. Another one could be special offers and topic-related apps. The term “special offer” mostly refers to an app purchase price drop for a certain period of time. To us this makes a lot of sense in order to push sales in the short run without generally confusing the user with an unusual pricing move.

Another way of promoting apps during certain times appears to be the combination of a special offer and a special website, set-up to offer (link to) different apps. Of course, developers have to “join forces” to make this interesting for the user. A German example of this is the website www.appsforsale.de, which offered different apps around the Easter time and is now up with a new design and a Christmas app-calendar. Another (more international) example of this is appventcalendar.com. We know, for example, that the Easter-sale on appsforsale did have an effect on app sales for the participating developers. We are not sure, if this effect actually made up for the price drop that every developer had to show in order to take part. But, as a bottom line, you definitely shouldn’t miss trying things like this out.

If you know more of these kinds of sales-initiatives, let us know. Also, it would be interesting to hear what you experience has been so far. Let us know in the comments or contact us directly.