In the UK, people have on average 90 apps installed on their phones. This number proves that there is a huge appetite for mobile applications. This, of course, is why so many new entrepreneurs aspire to launch something onto the market
Too Long? Here’s the key takeaways
- Rigorous technical preparation, high-quality user experience, app store optimisation, and regular improvements pave the way to success, which won’t be immediate of course, but solid and lasting nonetheless!
- Your app must respond to a user's need, provide a service, or fix a problem; be innovative; differ from competitors; be practical, user-friendly, and intuitive; display a perfect technical nature and be satisfying in the long term.
- A mobile app must be visible to users in order to be chosen, an app that is well placed is more likely to be downloaded. Don't forget about ASO (App Store Optimisation)
Don’t be stingy in the preparation
Yet, unless already well established in the landscape, it's rare that a company's app gets immediate success. Even if you have a well-prepared message, recruited bloggers, and spent a fortune on advertising space, nothing is certain. Your app will have the highs and lows that most start-ups experience: a big boost at the start (something new!), a lull (the novelty has worn off), and then a cruising pace at ground level with several predictable spikes in downloads.
In the world of apps, miracles are few and far between. It is almost impossible that your startup will be the next Instagram or WhatsApp. On the other hand, rigorous technical preparation, high-quality user experience, app store optimisation, and regular improvements pave the way to success, not necessarily immediate of course, but potentially solid and lasting nonetheless!
"Rigorous technical preparation, high-quality user experience, app store optimisation, and regular improvements pave the way to success, not necessarily immediate of course, but potentially solid and lasting nonetheless!"
Invest in quality
For a successful launch, you must have a high-quality mobile application. It seems rudimentary, but it's easy to find a good number of apps available in app stores that don’t follow this basic rule.
A high-quality app should:
- Respond to a user's need, provide a service, or fix a problem (even a pointless one like how to keep you occupied when stuck on a train)
- Be innovative
- Differ from competitors
- Be practical, user-friendly, and intuitive
- Display a perfect technical nature
- Give long term satisfaction
Your mobile app should fulfil all these requirements when entering the market: it needs to please users immediately (26 % of apps are deleted after the first use) and continue to please them, all the while generating more and more downloads. This is important because user interactions account for the most important app referencing factors: reviews, ratings, and download and installation statistics are all critical factors in ASO.
"Your app must respond to a user's need, provide a service, or fix a problem; be innovative; differ from competitors; be practical, user-friendly, and intuitive; display perfect technical nature and give long terms satisfaction."
Invest in ASO
ASO, what is it? Like all products, a mobile app must be visible to users in order to be chosen even if it is the coolest thing ever. ASO (App Store Optimisation) works with the model of natural referencing, but with professional app positioning. This includes different methods and techniques by optimising the position of an application in Google Play, the App Store, and others like Windows Store. This is because an app that is well placed is more likely to be downloaded.
ASO works with two factors: user interactions, like we talked about previously; and several SEO tools. A couple of examples:
- Optimisation of keywords placed in relevant fields: app name (displayed in the URL of the presentation page), description (condensed to a couple lines) and keywords
- Choice of primary or secondary categories (in relation to the rules of each store)
- Technical updates (an app that is never updated will stop being relevant, in the same way that an old website becomes obsolete)
- The power of the company which edits and distributes the application, in relation to their e-reputation and their natural referencing.
The channels you choose are up to you, but you need to put them into place before you launch.
Nevertheless, don’t neglect the quality aspect of your product, which is also a part of mobile app referencing. Even if you don’t have total control of user's reactions, nothing is stopping you from being proactive in managing client's reviews and ratings. Encourage your users to leave a comment, respond as soon as possible to negative reviews to show that you are aware of their comments (not all app stores offer this capability), and encourage satisfied users to be ambassadors of your startup. A big part of successful ASO come from developing great client relationships.
"A mobile app must be visible to users in order to be chosen, an app that is well placed is more likely to be downloaded. Don't forget about ASO (App Store Optimisation)"
Finally, the technical preparation of your app (brought together by high-quality and your work on ASO) is essential to launching successfully and giving it a chance to be long lasting. Remember that the benefits of a well-referenced and well-received app are more than getting a good ranking in app stores, it’s also a great way to boost the performance of your company!
