If you agree to this study being posted on Read Write, the App market will be $25 billion by 2015 and as I see it, many entrepreneurs are already coming up with more and more creative apps under different niches. However, I believe there is a lot of potential that still needs to be tapped.
The only problem that I see at the moment with the people is the lack of proper planning and management of how to continue it in the longer run. According to my observation, many great ideas fail to perform in the market only because they were not released at a proper time or they had forgotten to consider some obvious checks. Since, there is a lot of competition, not everybody is lucky enough to get a second chance.
If you are one of those who are either building an app or about to launch it, this post is especially crafted for you. In this post, I will be including pointers that you should consider before launching your next app in the market. Read this and give another look at your project and see if you are really ready for the release!
What do you want from this?
Obviously the end goal of any app would be to get good amount of money in return . Here, the question is about how you are going to reach that goal and this needs to be answered before publishing the application in the market.
The goal of What’s App was ultimately to earn billions of dollars but in order to achieve this end goal, what they did was they created the need of it in the market and generated the biggest customer base in the market. Once they had achieved their goal, they signed one of the biggest deals in the history with Facebook.
Before you launch, you actually have to answer this question and specify the defined goals in order to achieve the ultimate goal after going through a series of successes.
Unique Selling Point (USP)
This is another factor that needs to be determined or you might not be able to achieve what you have been expecting from your investment. Cloning whatsapp and expecting to earn billions of dollars from it is nothing but day dreaming. All other apps that offer similar services like whatsapp are not worth billions of dollars. You need to have the USP like snap chat has with their product.
Regardless of how big problem you are solving, try to create a USP that helps your app stand out from the rest or it would be considered as just another app in the market and you might not be able to achieve the expected return on investment.
If your app doesn’t have a Unique Selling Point (USP), the best idea is to stop and think again!
Is it the right time?
Remember 3-D TV? Although, it’s still available in the market but due to the lack of programming and other factors such as headache of wearing glasses and highly expensive hardware, many people refused to give in to the option and as a result, it didn’t create the revolution in the market. I call it a failure and one of the reasons for its lack of success is that it was launched too early in the market and people were not exactly ready for it.
Before launching your app in the market, make sure that it is the right time to introduce it or else, all your efforts might go in vain. It is a good idea to start with beta testing and see how people are reacting to it and then after having the data in hand, you can plan your launch accordingly.
If the gathered data goes against your expectations, it is advisable not to consider the launch at that specific point in time. Give your idea a second thought and come up with something that the targeted audience would easily digest.
Where do you start?
Another important question, which most of the people fail to answer unfortunately deals with the platform to be used for your app. You need to know where you should actually start. Although, the use of Android is spreading like crazy, it is important to consider that people using iPhones tend to spend more money on applications as compared to the android users.
The idea is to give a fresh look to your project and see which platform you should begin with, later moving on to the rest. If you have a paid app that offers real solution to a user’s problem, then probably the best idea is to start with an iPhone app; whereas, in case of a free app, opting for Android is a better idea.
Again, it is important to have data in hand before coming up with the final decision. Try to create a quick survey around your app on websites like survey monkey or mechanical trunk and see how people are responding to it and decide accordingly.
Double Check your Security
One of the major problems, that many app project owners do not consider as important, is the security of the data being provided by the audience. In the app industry, the most important thing is the data being provided by the users, and therefore, if you are unable to provide security for their data, no matter how powerful your app is, people will eventually leave and go for other better and secure options.
Once your app is completely made and ready to be launched, it is always a good idea to ask your development team to recheck the application from security point of view. There is a tool called CheckMarx that automatically checks and identifies the security lacks within the code and offers possible solutions for it.
Once you have answered all the questions given above and you really think that you are ready for the launch, then go for it and see how the audience is interacting with the app.
Launching the app is no rocket science; however, considering a few factors would ensure a smooth launch. Make sure to give highest priority to your customers and the audience around your brand and continuously analyze the data and act accordingly.
There could be more questions but the ones given above are the most important ones and failing to answer them might lead your app to fail in the market.
So, try answering the questions and get ready for the launch!
Marketing anything these days is a very difficult road to take. So much clutter and competition in the way you better have a good grasp on what it is that you are trying to convey to your audience. ROI is getting easier to understand but still a sticky road when it comes to search engine marketing especially in the social media space. Let’s not even mention the complexity of the Google algorithm which continues to get even more complex each and every day.
This is a story about how one little (now big) mobile app took the traditional channels for marketing their application which triggered less than desirable outcomes. When I read the TechCrunch story the other day I really wasn’t that shocked. Mobile apps are becoming like websites and they are all over the place now. Do you really still think that just launching yours is going to bring you success? Most apps these days have to really think outside the box a bit to drive visibility. Mobile app marketing is a process that is changing very rapidly and those that win typically have something either really interesting boat loads of personality.
“The day my app (AutoCAD WS) crossed one million downloads on the App Store, the first question that crossed my mind was how did I ever end up doing marketing? I was a techy product manager and never imagined myself in marketing, until my app was in a life or death situation.”
Most app owners will never really know how this feeling actually feels but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be trying to reach a 1 million download mark. Iris Shoor created a mobile that was later acquired by a much larger organization and she gives some extremely valuable information on how she went about marketing a mobile app. Her experiences are amazing to read about especially if you have a mobile application you are trying to market.
First, let’s watch a little YouTube video regarding the mobile app we are discussing.
AutoCAD WS Video
Now let’s talk about what worked and what didn’t for just a moment.
What didn’t work?
- Traditional PR agency efforts
- Blogger outreach
- Lots of writing
- Website tweaking
What did work?
- Creating interesting content
- Focus was humor
- Brand connection
- Viral marketing
- Relationships with current users
- Collecting lots of feedback
- Language translation for international users
Here is a screenshot of the current website.
To read the entire article click here and channel over to TechCrunch, you will be happy you did.