Name: Buzzdoes
Quick Pitch: Buzzdoes rewards app users who recommend apps to friends.
Genius Idea: A word-of-mouth marketing tool for apps.
With thousands of mobile apps being released each month, it’s difficult for a new app to get noticed. That’s why Buzzdoes aims to turn app users into app distributors.
The add-on and marketing tool for apps encourages users to recommend their favorite mobile apps to friends. For each successful recommendation, Buzzdoes rewards the user with cash, free apps, vouchers, and other prizes.
“App users can become your best marketing tool to increase downloads and quality users, while helping friends discover new apps,” Assaf Kolirin, CEO of Buzzdoes, told Mashable.
When developers add Buzzdoes to their apps, it shows users a list of their Facebook friends, email addresses and the number of Buzzdoes credits they can receive for each friend who downloads the app.
With one click, Buzzdoes automatically sends a download link for the app in an email or Facebook message to friends the user chooses. Users only receive Buzzdoes credit if a friend downloads the app directly from the link.
To make sure recommendations are real and to prevent spam, Buzzdoes sometimes limits the number of friends to which a user can recommend an app.
“Buzzdoes is not about spreading apps to thousands of friends,” says Kolirin. “It’s about choosing the right friends and making real recommendations.”
Depending on the add-on package, developers have to pay a one-time setup fee to incorporate Buzzdoes in their apps.
The cost-effective tool charges the developer a minimum fee of 25 cents for each successful recommendation or app download. Half of the amount goes to Buzzdoes, and the other half is used to reward the app users.
If recipients don’t use their rewards, they can choose to donate them to charitable causes.
Launched in January, Buzzdoes has raised $750,000 in funding and is incorporated into 300 apps. The company will soon allow users to recommend apps to their friends on Twitter.
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, akinbostanci
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