Designing and developing an excellent app is just the beginning. Then you need to launch it and take care of its growth. Putting your app on the app stores, whether it’s Google Play or Apple App Store etc., is the most popular way of distributing mobile apps. But there’s almost two million apps on the Apple App Store and in order to have a successful launch you need to have an airtight plan. Here’s how to do it:
Be Smart About Building Your App
Before there’s even an app to launch, there’s several things you need to consider. The competition is fierce so you’ll need to put User Experience first in order to stand out from the crowd. Invest in market research to get an overview of what your competition lacks and then fill in those needs with your product. Besides doing research, you should also really think through your tech stack and the platforms you want to operate on. It’s much easier to launch and maintain a web app than it is a native mobile app. A good compromise might be developing your app in Flutter or React Native. Consider the functionalities of your product, how it interacts with the device (does it need access to native features?) and your target users’ expectations and habits.
Generate Interest Before The Launch
Launching an app into the world without any marketing is not the best choice. There are several channels and techniques you can leverage in order to generate buzz before your actual launch. Let’s go over a few of the most important ones.
1. Be Active On Social Media
One of the best ways to gain people’s attention is posting regularly on social media. There’s a lot of different platforms you can use depending on your target audience and you can also boost your presence with paid advertising. Show off the app before the launch across your social media accounts, ask for feedback and users’ ideas. Create engagement and interest to support your launch.
2. Focus On Content
To support your efforts, focus on creating content that explains how to use your app, what are its features and what benefits it offers. You can also publish content that relates to your target audience – their values, goals and lifestyles.
3. Launch A Landing Page
Before you launch your app on any app stores, it’s great to set up a landing page where people can sign up for updates about your app. You can either set up a separate one or make it a part of your already existing website. On the landing page you should showcase the key features of the app as well as preview a few screens or a screen recording to generate interest.
4. Launch A Beta Or A Demo
If you’re able to do so, launching an invite-only beta version of your app or a demo is great for fine-tuning the app itself and boosting the interest in your app. You can use your landing page to give out access to the beta or demo and gather feedback.
5. Leverage Influencers, Affiliates And Blogs
In many industries, companies are able to partner up with popular blogs, influencers and industry leaders to review and promote their app. Send out emails to any influential figures who’s following is your target audience. Offer to write blog posts featuring your app for other sites. Generate as much buzz as possible!
Choosing The Right App Store & App Store Optimization
There’s a lot of app stores to choose from. Besides the most popular ones, Google Play and Apple App Store, there’s the LG SmartWorld, Huawei App Store, Sony Apps, even Amazon has their very own app store. With this in mind, it’s crucial to consider which app stores are you interested in and which are of interest to your users. The previously done market research will be a great help when choosing specific app stores to launch your app on. Always keep in mind what your users want and need, which app stores they use the most often. This will help you make the best decision for your launch. Besides choosing the right app stores for your specific app, there’s also a few other things you can do to increase your visibility within those app stores. It’s called App Store Optimization (ASO) and combines the best practices to boost your app. Some of the things you can do are: use relevant keywords, assign correct categories to your app, include screenshots of the app, provide a detailed description. Depending on the app stores of your choice, the optimization techniques may vary, so it’s best to research that according to your choices.
Define Success
Before you launch the app officially, it’s important to manage your expectations and set up analytics that can measure your app’s performance. Otherwise, you won’t get an idea of whether your app’s launch was successful or not. One of the best things to measure are the active install rate (the number of people who downloaded the app and didn’t uninstall it), the number of ratings, the average rating and the actual revenue generated from the app.
What To Do After The Launch?
Congratulations! Your app is now live. But the journey doesn’t end here. To ensure people don’t uninstall the app and never come back, give you positive ratings and that the app generates profit, you need to constantly improve and optimize.
- Monitor Feedback
As soon as your app hits the app stores, make sure you’re getting the most out of what your users are saying. Encourage them to post reviews and communicate with you. It’s not only a great way to be more visible in the app stores, but it will also help you to spot issues sooner.
- Keep An Update Log
Keep your users updated when it comes to any improvements or new features. Transparency and open communication are becoming more and more important as customers keep businesses to higher standards and demand to be involved. With each update remember to inform the users what’s been changed, improved or added.
- Publish A Product Roadmap
To build the best possible relationship with your users, you can use a NoSQL database for the product roadmap where you’ll include features ideas and wishes from the users, features being built and other updates. Provide the users with an opportunity to submit feedback and share feature ideas with you directly from the app.
If you’re looking for a mobile development team to help you do market research, design your app as well as support you during and after the launch, contact us and let’s do this together!
