When you are working on your mobile app, you may ask yourself many questions. You might be worried about technical issues, an execution, cooperating with developers, team building or fundings… However, each entrepreneur I have talked to pointed out that acquiring users is the biggest concern, which gives them sleepless nights. Despite the fact, we truly believe in our product and we are convinced about its value, the closer to launching the more this thought comes to the forefront. What if our product does not interest customers? Will they be willing to download the app? How to encourage them to register, test it and use it?
So I gathered a list of the most important conclusions and experiences and prepared some hints for the start of app marketing activities.
Basics - have a strategy.
Marketing without a strategy is like driving without a map - you will certainly get somewhere, but not necessarily where you want, not the shortest way, not without turbulences. Therefore, planning promotion should begin from building a strategy. What is more - we shouldn’t start creating an app without a well-defined target group, addressed needs, and without a pre-designed communication. I truly believe - and the analysis of case studies provides me undeniable evidences - that thoughtful and consistent activities resulting from the strategy can guarantee success.
Talking with the target group, identifying key personas, their needs, habits and priorities will enable you to address problems, find main communication channels, adjust the messages and plan activities with the highest probability of success. Methods such as Lean Startup, Customer Development and Design Thinking provide us many useful tools. I use them at every stage of the project work, anywhere I want to understand better, see a wider context, create ideas, solve problems or test a hypothesis.
A product, that encourages
The second pillar is a good, perfectly designed product. Not only visually appealing and technologically solid but specifically - developed targeting the user and his needs, solving real problems and providing good experiences. And once more - a solid business analysis, i.g. in the form of Lean Canvas, should be your main work foundation.
Good UI/UX is also important. An app has to be useful, enabling a smooth interaction, providing good experiences and optimizing conversion.
Designing for mobiles differentiates from designing web apps. When making design decisions, a good UX designer considers issues such as devices, on which the app will be used - for example, a screen size of the recent smartphones forces locating interactions (buttons, active fields) in its lower part. Most people’s thumb does not reach upper parts of the screen, using such designed app is therefore fatiguing.
I am not even mentioning obvious technical issues such as a lack of errors - crashing the app is the most common reason for uninstalling it.
App Store Optimization (ASO)
The process of preparing the app ends once it is added to the store. Usually it’s an App Store, however, if you want to reach a wider target group, it’s worth to diversify this channel - you should consider Google Play, and other alternatives such as: Amazon Appstore, F-droid, Huawei Appgallery, or Galaxy Apps.
How to attract users to your mobile app at the store level? Ensure an aesthetics and prepare neat descriptions, graphics and screens for the store. A well-developed app profile can successfully increase the rate of organic downloads!
Gain (positive!) reviews from the very beginning - obviously this requires careful preparation and quick reactions to bugs, but we still care about the quality. When launching your app, ensure solid technical and UX tests to provide users truly satisfying experiences of interacting with your product.
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