5 Tips to Prevent Your App From Being a Bust

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With 74% of last months apps in the App Store becoming ‘Zombie Apps’ (Apps that didn’t rank) it makes you think: how can these hundreds of thousands apps not even get off the ground? My answer: bad marketing.

While quality of product is certainly an important part of any business, it’s NOT ALWAYS this way, do you remember how shitty Windows Vista was? (maybe not if you’ve been an iLover the whole time ;)) But..what did Microsoft do instead of fixing the KNOWN issues that their users were experiencing?

Marketing baby – and lots of it.

It didn’t matter after a while, because people just bought into the illusion that Windows Vista was ‘semi-good’ according to the marketing, and by the time their sales started declining they came out with the nicer, better, less f’ed up – Windows 7.

So today we’re going to cover 5 things you can do to make sure your App isn’t a bust, like the OS I described above.

1) Make your App Remarkable.

This should come as common sense, and I’ve certainly written about it in the past. But you want to make an app that is SO AWESOME people can’t help but tell their friends, family, and the rest of the world about it. Tools like Apptrace can help you keep an eye on your competitors. Whenever you’re designing an app (and ideally before a single line of code has been written), it’s important to run through a check-list. Here’s a checklist I usually advise people to go through:

When looking at an app, ask yourself if the app has these 8 qualities: 
(if it doesn’t have 6/8 move on)

• Fun/Entertaining:

How much entertainment value does the app provide? Does it bring joy and excitement to users? Does it make them laugh? Like a great movie, a great app keeps users glued to their screens.

• Intuitive:

The best apps are simple and easy to use. People can figure them out intuitively and quickly. Consumers shouldn’t have to read extensive instructions to get started. Angry Birds and Doodle Jump are masters at this.

• Engaging:

How engaging is the app? Apps should be as engaging as possible while also showing off innovative capabilities of the device.

• Addictive:

You can’t put it down. You can’t wait to get back to it. You’re hooked. That’s how the best apps win their users.

• Value:

The app needs to give far more value in people’s minds than what they paid. It should be something they use consistently and feel that they benefit from.

• Cross-Cultural:

It’s important that apps appeal to the greatest audience possible. The more people who understand and use the app, the greater the likelihood of the app becoming a hit.

• Great graphics and sounds:

The top apps are like eye candy. They’ve got great graphics that are a treat to look at. They also incorporate high-quality sounds.

• Viral:

Word-of-mouth is a huge form of advertisement. When people get really excited about an app, they share it with lots of people. Why not try to take advantage of free marketing?

2) Work out your KPI’s

You need to have metrics to be able to tell you what’s working and what’s not. This starts with determining what KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) you’re going to track is going to be. Whether that’s: time spent in a single session, app sessions per week, un-installs, etc.

It’s important to have these considerations in mind sooner than later, as it could save you a 2nd trip through App’s average 9-day approval process.

There are several SDK’s out there that you can use, whether it’s open-source or some from other advertising networks such as: MillennialMedia, Tapjoy, TradeMob, and even Facebook.

 

3) Make a Splash from the Get-Go

Whether you can, or can’t compete with the quality of products that already exist in the marketplace you want to launch with a SPLASH that everyone either gets drenched in, or at least has some water trickle on. The traditional rule of thumb is: For every $1 spent on development, you should spend $2 on marketing. This may be a shocker to some, but it could be a relief to others who aren’t certain on how to budget their development in its entirety.

Let’s say your app is going to cost $15,000 to build (not unlikely) then that means you would ideally want to have $30,000 for marketing. Sure, that seems like a-lot and, don’t get me wrong – for an indie developer, it probably is. But, I should say, that one can also squeeze the most out of their $ by reading my book (shameless plug I know). But also by doing their market research and identifying their MVS (Minimum Viable Segment – beforehand). Although, ideally when making an App, you want it to cater to a large chunk of users.

One common mistake is that developers will launch their app, see how it performs, then decide that they need to start marketing. WRONG. Seriously, imagine this type of thinking for a Movie Release – that would be ridiculous.

As is aforementioned, you want to make a splash from day one – ideally, well before then even. This is especially the case on iOS however where Store Rankings are based on the average downloads from the previous 3-5 days and the momentum from that period. By getting a lot of downloads the first day, then this will only benefit you moving forward for organic user acquisition that will find your app as a result of actually ranking.

Timing none-the-less, is also an important factor. Do you want to launch during Power Week, or do you want to launch a few weeks after? It’s important to keep in mind when the app stores will be frozen, etc.

 

4) Respect User Privacy

This is especially important now that Apple has updated their guidelines on how you can collect information from users who are minors. As of May 1st, Apple no longer accepts new apps or updates use privacy violating UDID tracking technology. With over 93% of devices operating on iOS 6 you definitely want to keep in line of Apple’s IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers).

 

5) Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.

Seriously. If you’re not planning your launch, and if you haven’t bought my book to help you create a POWERFUL launch plan, then I don’t know what you’re doing. Maybe you’d rather epitomize the example I described above and “see how it goes” before you decide to start marketing. Inevitably, the choice is yours – but if it were me, I’d choose success over failure.

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