According to App Annie, users spent 3.8 trillion hours using mobile apps in 2021. According to Statista, the Apple App Store had 4.37 million published apps as of August 2021. On iOS, there are 3.75 non-gaming apps for every gaming app.
Undoubtedly, one of the major reasons for today’s online businesses is their app services. The mobile apps are simple to use, easy to access, and can provide a greater reach for your business.
Nowadays, it’s very uncommon for companies to have their apps; in fact, 42% of millennial-owned companies use their apps to boost sales or provide customers another platform to use their products.
Businesses anticipate some sort of miracle to occur when building and developing the mobile app, prompting it to become as popular as TikTok, Uber, and Pokemon Go.
Tragically, not everyone experiences this moment.
Countless apps available give the same functionality because the mobile market has become so competitive. It would be irresponsible to wait for consumers to find your app on their own in this situation rather than making an effort to develop an app launch strategy.
We’ll discuss the proper technique to launch your application here to ensure you don’t make this error and waste the money you spent to create an app. So stay with us to get the comprehensive walkthrough of pre and post-launch strategies.
Step-by-Step Approach to Launching a Mobile App in 2022
After carefully researching the mobile app trends, design, and development dynamics, launching the mobile app is the next crucial aspect to be conscious of. So follow us if that’s what you’re contemplating.
The procedures for successfully launching an application to join the vast app ecosystem are listed here. These are the steps to take before downloading an app in the app stores.
1. Do a Thorough Market Research
We all know there are a ton of apps available on app stores, so it stands to reason that there will be tons of competition.
Deep market research will help you set your mobile app apart from the competition. First, you should be aware of the market-dominating apps in your niche. Then, look at the areas where they are falling short. Finally, use those perspectives to improve your mobile app.
What does this indicate for you, finally? There is already a shitload of competition for you. You must conduct in-depth market research to differentiate your app properly.
You must become familiar with the top applications in your specialized market, identify their shortcomings, and use this knowledge to improve your app even further than the competition.
You could wish to conduct primary user research depending on your budget. However, secondary research can still teach you a lot. See what genuine people have said about the competition by reading the App Store pages of competing apps and reviews on YouTube and blogs.
2. Identify Your Target and Value Proposition
Relatively simple kind of app marketing. Any go-to-market plan should start by securing a strong positioning statement:
- For whom is your software designed?
- What advantages would your app provide for your target audience?
- Why is your app more qualified than your rivals to provide this value?
Your responses to these three questions will guide your app marketing strategy. All of your marketing initiatives should communicate and support this one message to maintain a consistent brand image.
3. Define Success Metrics
You must specify what success looks like if you want your mobile app launch to be successful.
Set some attainable objectives for your launch. We advise basing your success metrics on your active install rate, which reveals your retention rate—the number of users who download your app but keep it installed—the number of reviews you receive, your average rating in the app store, and if you’re selling your app, the amount of money it brings in.
To provide some benchmarks, most free mobile apps have an active install rate higher during the first month, often about 50%, before leveling off at approximately 30%.
To sustain a good active install rate, you should aim considerably higher than the average app store rating of 3 to 4 (out of 5).
4. Create Your Online Presence
Your app needs a place online to flourish. Therefore, you must develop a website with all the necessary information before launching an application. By doing this, you will be able to draw in additional users and respond to the questions and issues of your current user base.
There’s a good possibility you can locate your current online communities in your niche among the message boards, subreddits, and blogs. Take some time to look up a few of these communities on Google, then participate in the discussion.
Being a part of these groups is a fantastic method to perform market research (What topics are people in your target market discussing? What are their needs? ), quietly promote your app in pertinent discussions, and look for possible affiliate and promotional agreements with that group. Just read the rules and conditions of the group and avoid any overt promotion, which will only hurt you and your app.
5. Manage Social Media Platform Popular With Your Segmented Audience
Users judge an app’s legitimacy partly based on how it appears on social media. Therefore, the social media networks the target audience utilizes most are important pieces of knowledge to gather when investigating the app’s target audience and coming up with ideas for what to do with an app idea.
The app has the advantage of having a digital presence on the social media platform the target market uses most. No of its specialization, this provides the app a sense of legitimacy and accessibility. Therefore, rather than abruptly announcing the introduction of an app on social media, there should be a good build-up and anticipation before the app is released.
6. Cross-Platform and Browser Version of the App
The days of sticking to one platform are long gone (typically Android or iOS). To increase your reach, it’s critical to be accessible across various platforms.
Cross-platform development is the way to go if you want to expand your audience. It will also be more affordable in the long run, especially if you utilize top-notch IDE software to hasten the development of your apps. In addition, tost IDE software also enables you to create web browser versions of your mobile apps to provide users with more methods to use your app across all devices.
For instance, the budgeting tool Goodbudget is readily used on a web browser and is accessible on iOS and Android.
7. Create a Promo Video That Has the Message of Your App
It’s essential to put your advertising plan into a format that can be readily consumed and shared by the press and early customers equally once you’re satisfied with it based on the early landing page and social feedback. For a lot of publishers, this entails making a promotional video.
App promo videos elevate your marketing to the next level by bringing your messaging to life. Users may use them to increase conversion by up to 80% by being integrated into your social media posts, landing pages, and even app store product pages.
The perfect promotional video is between 30 and three minutes long, conveys your main value clearly, and either features your app in use or a prototype of your upcoming app.
8. Create a Feedback Loop for Your App
To improve your app when the time comes for launch, try to focus on promoting customer communication and make it as simple as possible for customers using your feedback tools. The more interaction and statistics you try to bring in with your targeted consumer feedback loop, the better your app will be.
We advise investing early in a tool that satisfies your and your customers’ demands since; as we’ll see later in this checklist, these products will continue to prove important long after release.
9. Choose the Most Appropriate App Store
You should initially limit the number of app stores where you distribute your mobile app. Due to this, you should benefit from the highest user and rating concentration possible.
Additionally, during the initial weeks following launch, you’ll be making many adjustments and enhancements to your app. By having your app available in only one store, you can speed up the release of these updates. Feel free to add other app shops after your app gains more traction.
The Android Market and the Apple App Store are the two most popular app stores, but there are many others (HubSpot has its own updated App Marketplace!). So, in the end, if you’re still not sure, run some audience testing to figure out which store is mostly used by your target audience.
10. Run a Paid Advertising Campaign
You can gain organic search traction while launching your mobile app due to the Google algorithm’s freshness upgrade. Then, during launch week, supplement that search presence with sponsored advertising.
Additionally, you can set up targeted, paid Facebook advertising to direct consumers to your fan page, where they will be met with a welcome screen urging them to download your mobile app.
Alternatively, you may lead users directly to your app downloads page so they can download it and use it immediately. Your app may determine which approach you choose.
11. Use App Store Optimization
While both are crucial, don’t confuse app store optimization (ASO) and search engine optimization (SEO). You need ASO to get your mobile app found specifically in the app stores of your choice.
Using relevant keywords in your app title is one of the best practices. Additionally, when you submit your app to these various app stores, make sure to include all the most pertinent categories. This will increase the likelihood that consumers looking through categories will find you.
Additionally, you should add crystal-clear screenshots of your app’s most popular use cases on the download page.
Todoist utilizes terms like project planner and to-do lists in the example below. Additionally, they have wonderfully created samples of their apps that explain how to use them properly.
12. Collaborate With Other Developers
Consider contacting other app creators whose work might complement yours, and users might be interested in using your app. You may create a co-marketing opportunity that benefits both parties and improves your install rates.
Just be sure to choose app developers with excellent reviews. You don’t want to link your app to a subpar item.
13. Look for Influencers to Buzz Your App
We can’t stress this step enough if you want to promote your app because influencer marketing will only boom in 2022.
Find various bloggers, content producers, and social media influencers who can help your app gain attention before it launches. Then, conduct tailored email outreach marketing to influencers you believe will benefit from utilizing your app to develop strong connections and win them over.
If you’re launching a mobile app for weight loss, reach out to various fitness celebrities who discuss exercise routines or macro-tracking — or whatever features your app offers.
14. Create a Press Kit for App Promotion
Make it as simple as you can for bloggers and journalists to write about your app to increase your chances of gaining press attention. By assembling all your materials into one online directory, you can ensure that anyone looking to cover your app won’t have to trawl the internet for information. Your press kit should include all or some of the following in this directory:
- The symbol, pictures, and promotional video for your app
- Your canned statement or the product page description on the app store
- Links to your social media profiles and public marketing website
- Links to recent news articles or press releases
- Contact Information
Your influencers will be able to rapidly review your materials once you have this press kit and decide whether or not they want to cover it. To make their job easier, everything is conveniently located in one spot if it is something they wish to write about.
15. Go for Beta Release Before the Actual Launch
Consider an invite-only test launch before releasing your mobile app to the general public. Websites like Spotify, Google+, and Pinterest have all had significant success with this strategy. It not only gives your product a feeling of exclusivity that increases buzz but also enables you to receive feedback from a reliable network so you can address bugs and UX/UI issues before releasing your software widely.
As your pre-launch beta test population, you can select the email list mentioned in Step 4 and reinforce it with an email campaign sent to a section of your present customer base that would profit from your mobile app. You can advertise the launch as a chance for free, exclusive access to your mobile app before it goes live and even requests reviews in return for that free, special access.
16. Partner With Affiliates
Influencers and industry thought leaders strengthen your association by establishing an affiliate program to promote downloads or purchases.
Find significant influencers you can pay to promote your app. These may be media contacts or social media stars with large followings. Give them a unique URL that tracks downloads or purchases so they will be rewarded immediately when their audience takes the required action.
17. Identify Potential Integrations
You may have noticed that some applications work together; for example, you can enter your Pinterest account using Facebook or combine your native Fitness app with your calorie counter or activity tracker. The average mobile phone has between 60 and 90 apps installed on their devices.
Users will find this more comfortable, and best of all, when you effortlessly integrate with apps your customers already use, you can enhance retentio.
For instance, all the apps that effortlessly interact with HubSpot are available in the HubSpot App Marketplace. Establish a partnership with the creators of these apps by getting to know them. How many avenues these app connections can open for you is something you’ll never know.
18. Organize a Launch Party for the Promotion
A launch party does not need to be extravagant. A webinar allows you to host a tiny, private digital launch party. Invite people to participate in a brief launch, including early adopters, marketers, tech reporters, and others.
Along with providing participants with all the information they need to install your app or spread the word, you can offer unique live discounts or benefits.
19. Notify the Influencers and Press List
Send more customized notes to folks on your press list after notifying your general email list. In a perfect world, you are now ready to continue it.
Include any pertinent press materials, product pages from the app store, and information about the launch of your app. Then, politely urge them to install your app and emphasize that even a little coverage can go a long way.
20. Publish an Update Log
Consumers are placing a growing emphasis on transparency, and one approach to being more honest with users regarding your mobile app is to keep them updated on any updates and new features.
The simplest way to achieve this is through an update log. Send those logs to your app store listings, and you could even create a page on your website just for update logs so people can readily view the updates you’ve made over the past several weeks.
By keeping users informed of app upgrades, you can boost retention rates when users notice new features they may have been waiting for or would find interesting.
You can utilize push notifications and in-app pop-ups to inform customers that a breakdown of the new features is available on a specific page on your website if an update is extremely significant, such as a substantial UI change or even an exciting new feature.
Few Key Suggestions Post App Launch
Once you are on the right track and have finished all the pre-launching strategies, it’s time to stay more alert on the post-launch plan, as this is the time to count on your reaps. Below are the curated steps to follow to generate better future tactics for your mobile app.
1. Monitor Feedback, Reviews, Responses, and Customers
You should keep an eye on user reviews of your software and encourage users to leave them.
Additionally, you ought to increase your visibility and downloads. This method can help you find flaws you weren’t aware of so you can fix them quickly and improve the user experience overall.
Inform your users of your progress regarding their reviews and feedback so they may see that you pay attention to them and address their concerns.
2. Encourage Ratings From Your Customers
Let your consumers speak for themselves to maintain the momentum long after launch without going over budget.
One of the first things a potential customer looks at when assessing your app is your ratings and reviews. Positive user evaluations and a high average rating are social proof for your software, demonstrating its reliability and superior quality.
Contrarily, unfavorable ratings and reviews scare away potential customers by alerting readers that your software might not satisfy their demands. Therefore, changing your overall average from 3 to 4 stars can effectively quadruple your app store conversions and projected downloads due to the importance of social proof.
Proactively collect app reviews from your most devoted consumers to increase conversion. You can stack the deck in your favor and make sure that both a greater rating frequency and a stronger average rating are achieved by only asking your most devoted consumers (for example, those who have launched your app five or more times). Using our ratings prompts, you can identify, target, and activate your most loyal consumers.
3. Monitor and Analyze the Growth Trend of Your App
Your app’s rankings in the app stores will fluctuate the most in the weeks after launch. This is because your app’s rank determines where it shows in search results and top charts and considers a wide range of metrics, including user ratings, reviews, installations, and engagement.
Usually, apps have received enough reviews and downloads to ensure that one bad review or one day of slow downloads won’t significantly affect their ranking. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with newly released apps, where a single comment might cause an app with few other reviews to have a lower average rating.
Expect your ranking (and subsequently your downloads) to fluctuate significantly daily during this period and only begin to normalize a few weeks in. By focusing on the variables that affect your rank and which you can later system to ensure that your app ranks highly, you may position yourself for success during this turbulent time.
Conclusion: Launch Your Mobile App Wisely
Do you have a mobile app that you plan to release this year?
Simply take the actions listed above to ensure that your launch will go smoothly and that you can retain users for a long time.
If you need further help in brainstorming your business’s ideas and want to get assistance, outsourcing the needs of your mobile app development to a third party is the ultimate choice.
Get in touch with Parangat, and we will help you at every step in launching a successful mobile app for your business.
