How about if you need to compete with only 200 Apps in the entire marketplace for your Mobile App marketing. Sounds like a fairy tail for every marketer.
In 2009 when the App Store was launched, That was how the landscape looked like. But in short span of 4 years, On October 2013 Apple Announced that the number of apps present in the app store has crossed the 1 million milestone. With a record breaking $10 Billion revenue. Google didn’t stayed behind as well and within few month Google also made the announcement of crossing the milestone of 1 million apps.
As the number in App Market Place raised, The challenges for marketers skyrocketed as well. Every now and then some overnight success stories pop up and people go crazy on them. So for having a massively successful mobile app a perfect marketing is a must have thing. Here we are discussion 10 pitfalls you need to avoid when it comes to pre and post-launch phases of your Mobile App Marketing to increase your chances of success.
Pre-launch Pitfalls :
1. Not Enough Investment in Market Research:
Research is a crucial factor in marketing. So before beginning any thing you should research the giants in the category of your mobile app. As it gives you great insights on what your target audience looks in an app. How does other apps sound? Are their name catchy? What kind of categories they are targeting? What are the key phrases they are targeting and ranking for? A complete analysis of all these factors is a very important, As it can help you in putting your app in front of the right audience. To begin with Create an excel sheet and list the key features in order to find out where your app stands among your competition.
This will not only give you the idea about your competitors but will also support you to fix the things that you have missed.
Marketers often overlook the power of user reviews. Make a list of all the bad and good comments as this will help you understand what kind of things are they loving in an app what are the points other apps are missing. Making a list of the missing features and asking you product development team to implement these changes will keep you a step ahead in the game.
2. Not Hiring Bounty Hunters:
So, You have spent last 1 year in developing some awesome best in class features with will make your app one of a kind once it’s out in market. And you get your entire team to send you their feed about the app. But, are you sure you want your team to send you feedback as “No One Say Their Child is Bad”. So are you sure you want feedback from your team only? Beta testing is one of kind initial opportunity to get unbiased firsthand feedback from your audience. People who will use your app in real time are the best to take feedback from.
Find where are your target customers, Dig out where they are spending time and what channel can you use in order to reach them. Also recruit beta testers. Always engage with them and learn as much as you can. These beta testers are also known as “Bounty Hunters”.Reward these bounty hunters let them be the first to know when you launch.
If you have hired some bounty hunters then Test Flight will be a great platform for testing. Number of Bounty Hunters totally depends on the number of factors you want to test and how much you are willing to spend on them.
3. Not Hiring the Marketing Ninjas Soon Enough.
You must be thinking that finishing up the development and launching your app is the biggest task. But what is the benefit if no one can find your app. 90% of mobile app fails only because they don’t concentrate on marketing.
I still remember what this guys said this in a conference “If you don’t accept marketing, Market won’t accept you” : Simar Singh
Now you guys be thinking but that xyz company had the marketing team but still they failed. The reason behind this is not hiring the ninjas on time. If you are going to hire the marketing ninjas after 6 month of launch they won’t be able to help you. Until you have a product that is solving the real problems. So not hiring the marketing team at initial time is equally dangerous as these guys need to plan the marketing strategies of your app. They need to understand what is your target audience where to find them and how to hit them.
Following are some of basic activities that your marketing plan should include:
1. Find out your USP: Know what makes your app unique when it stands among competitors.
2. App Store Optimization: Make sure your app is fully optimized when it’s uploaded onto app market place.
3. Video Trailers: Video Trailers are best when it comes to generate buzz in early days.
4. Constant updates: Don’t ever forget to update users about the development process. As it will not only allow users to stay updated but will also increase your user base with new signups for newsletters.
5. Beta Testing: Plan out the beta testing in advance so have feedback about how your app is working.
6. Forums: Forums are a good way when you are in initial phase. You can find your relevant audience in the forums also you will get multiple tips on how you can increase your app reach.
7. Outreaching: Don’t forget to outreach big players who will help you spread the news faster.
8. Press kit: Most of the people ignore the press kit as they don’t understand its power. Include your app icons, screenshots and other information about what your app will do and how it will help the user. This is a great way to tell people especially journalist about your app.
4. Not Planning the App Release Date in Advance:
The adrenaline rush that you have to launch your app as soon as the last line of code is written is understandable, but not planning you launch in advance is not. Make sure plan your launch date in advance. As it will help you in planning out the milestones about what should be done in this much amount of time.
Always make sure that you keep a track of announcement in tech world. So that your your app launch don’t collide with any of the big industry leaders launch because if a big player is launching any app on the similar day the attention that your app was going to get will be divided.
So always plan ahead of time. Make sure you have a release date as having a date finalized will help influencers as well.
Post-launch Pitfalls :
5. Not keeping an eye on User Engagement and Retention:
If you are thinking that having thousands of dollars to spend on marketing and plan around will be perfect for you. You are wrong. Paid user acquisition, should not be your marketing strategy. It’s always necessary to pump in some money when it comes to launch as initial downloads are necessary. But if you are thinking to pump in the money for long time. It’s not a good idea. Because people who will come with your paid marketing will start droping off soon.
6. Not Paying Attention to Customer feedback :
Let’s say you launched a damn big app and it got thousands or lets assume million of downloads. But you know in it you that some one will copy you and will launch another similar solution. So taking care of all of your customer is a must thing. Word of mouth is the most popular thing in marketing and it can be harmful as well if you are not paying attention to it.
Well Apple still don’t let you reply to a review but in google play store you can directly reply to customer. But people are not using it on its full potential. “People will care about you only if you care about them” So make sure you always reply to a customer. Try to be answerable om he same day. And also solve the problem if they report any.
So If you are about to launch your mobile app don’t forget to pre-plan things. Did we missed something? Let us know in comments
The post Launching A mobile app? Lookout for these 6 Pre and Post Launch Mobile App Marketing Pitfalls that you should avoid. appeared first on Blog.
This post first appeared on Social Media Marketing At Build Traffic & Success At Osvin Web Solutions, please read the originial post: here
