Developing a mobile application might be a challenging process but one that many people have successfully overcome given that there are over 2.3 million apps on the Google Play Store and over 2 million on Apple’s App Store. How many of these apps are successful?
Launching an application requires a well-managed process incorporating design, development, and eventual implementation. Since app development is a huge investment, all the stages, from planning to eventual launch, should be well-thought-out.
As a startup distributing business as software, you should attempt to utilize useful tips for launching new applications into the market. We’ve compiled a list of essential steps and tips that can boost your business outcomes.
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8 Stages of Launching a Mobile App
Before an application gets to its end user, it goes through a three-step process: pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. The success and expected profitability of the mobile app will highly depend on its proper launch.
Any software product launch includes the following eight stages:
- Market & Competitor Research
- Strategy & Project Roadmap
- Design & Prototyping
- Development
- Testing & Feedback Gathering
- Marketing
- Launch
- Post-Launch Monitoring & Support
Through these processes, you’ll be able to orchestrate successful app releases that will help you meet your business objectives.
Before App Launch
Let’s start with the steps you can take before launching mobile apps.
1. Research the Market Thoroughly
Before detailing any aspect of the launch, whether it’s advertising, defining monetization models, or beta testing, thorough market research that helps you find out your target market and analyze your competitors should be prioritized.
Market research enables you to know your audience’s needs and expectations. It will also allow you to compare your offering to what your competitors are already providing. This should help you outline any key gaps or unique selling points you can exploit.
You can find relevant information about your competitors by reading their app store customer reviews. Here, you will see what users like and dislike in your competitor’s apps.
2. Target the Right Audience and Define the Value You Can Offer
As you prepare to launch, clearly define the objectives of your applications by targeting the right audience. This will enable you to define the value your applications seek to offer them.
Do user research to determine your app’s requirements. This helps you understand your target audience better, enabling you to design your product launch in a manner that will be effective.
Some influential data points include the following:
- Audience demographics
- Age
- Location
- Their interests
- Their pain points
- Apps they currently use
Once you’ve targeted the right audience through interviews, surveys, and user personas, you can communicate the value of your product.
You should be able to demonstrate how your app delivers value by solving a specific problem generally highlighted as a common pain point for your audience. The application should offer an essential benefit to users, motivating them to download it from the app stores when it’s launched. It can provide a unique value in many forms, such as price, UX, speed, functionality, or richness of features.
A good app offers more than just one benefit; it should help solve an array of problems that users are dealing with on similar applications.
3. Choose a Pricing Model (i.e. Monetization Strategy)
The ultimate goal of any mobile application is to generate revenue for the app development company. Businesses offering software as a primary product choose various advertising-based business models for monetization purposes. Common pricing models include charging users per download, in-app purchases, and subscription-based fees.
All these options have pros and cons. Therefore, it’s up to you to determine which pricing model is generally accepted and popular among your target audience and competitors. For that, you should understand your industry’s best practices.
4. Decide on the Appropriate Platform
Mobile applications can be launched for use on iOS or Android devices. This factor highly determines the platform to launch your application on. Typically, you can choose between the Google Play Store and the App Store. Another option is a cross-platform application. It gives your app visibility on multiple platforms, which means you’ll reach a wider target audience.
5. Exploit Social Media Channels
Every app requires an effective online presence on social media channels that will massively help your app launch efforts. Using various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat can create product awareness and keep users eager to test it.
Social media helps you consolidate a strong and dedicated fanbase before you officially launch your app. Through these channels, you can run targeted ad campaigns and implement a series of marketing strategies.
Launch
You’ll be set to launch your mobile application when you’ve done all the above. While at it, here are some useful tips to help you make the process fruitful.
6. Optimize App Store Listing
You’ve probably heard about SEO; in mobile application launch, we also have an optimization strategy referred to as app store optimization. This marketing practice enables you to enhance your app’s visibility in the app stores. This technique includes, among other things, optimizing your app’s title, visuals, icon, and description, thus allowing it to rank higher in the marketplace.
7. Gather Feedback from Multiple Channels
Once you’ve launched your app, you’ll need to actively and regularly gather user feedback. The comment section can be utilized for this purpose, but having a devoted email and phone number (a feedback form) can be just as resourceful.
As part of your feedback processing funnel, review, sort, prioritize, and implement the gathered feedback. It helps you improve your app’s functionality while contributing to market research, which will be crucial in understanding your target users’ pain points.
8. Refresh the Content to Engage More Users
Every app release should be followed by proactive content to continuously engage with your users. Boosting app engagement through refreshed content helps to attract more customers.
Engaging content can be delivered to your audience through strategic ad campaigns, social media marketing, and event hosting. Remember, content is a cornerstone for every successful app marketing strategy. Content can be delivered in many forms, including landing pages, guest posts, and blog posts.
9. Turn to Influencers of Your Specific Niche
Influencers can also help to market your app during its launch. They usually have a large following of people who could be your potential target audience. When these influencers interact positively with your app, they entice their followers to try it out (and can provide them with discounts or rewards).
10. Test Various App Versions and Tweak Your Product
The purpose of building and launching an application is to have it stay in the marketplace without being overshadowed by newer apps. The question you need to answer is how to ensure your app stays relevant in the market.
Introducing new features and tweaking your product will keep users motivated to try out the new versions. Fixing bugs and solving technical issues should not be enough, but developing new relevant features ensures that your app is up to date.
Updating your app is essential because Google and Apple regularly upgrade their OS, release guidelines changes, etc. Therefore, be sure to tweak assumptions or some of the features to keep your mobile app coherent with the latest OS updates.
After Launch
Post-launch is a critical stage in the deployment of mobile applications. It entails ongoing support, monitoring, improvements, and affiliate programs.
Here’s what to do to ensure you get these processes right.
11. Communicate with Users Regularly
Apps should always evolve, and users should be aware of each evolutionary change in your application. For this reason, you need to inform them about these changes through regular communication.
You can accomplish this via social media channels or event hosting. You could also outsource a marketing firm or hire an in-house marketing team to handle regular customer interactions.
12. Monitor Your App Performance (and Competitors’)
The success of your mobile application will be highly determined by its performance. For this reason, you’re encouraged to monitor this metric constantly and optimize it to continue delivering a satisfactory user experience at all times.
An app’s performance or health can be gauged based on several things, including key functions, speed of processing commands, and responsiveness of its architecture, among others. An app with high performance guarantees seamless work in every aspect of its design purpose.
13. Release Updates and Add New Features
Releasing regular updates based on the feedback gathered will ensure that your app stays alive and competitive in the market. Successful apps are not simply developed with great functionality and features but those that consistently receive regular updates and new features catering to users’ needs.
14. Partner with Affiliates
To extend your reach to a wider market, strive to build new partnerships with affiliates. Affiliate programs help you cover new niches besides gaining more users.
Other developers could provide complementary solutions so that your app can work even better. By participating in each other’s affiliate program, you can deliver a more compact and complete array of services.
15. Improve the Onboarding Process
Retaining users is the next big hurdle once you’ve succeeded in getting them to download your app. One of the best things you can do is smoothen the onboarding process for new users whenever you introduce new features.
This can include posting tutorials on navigating your way inside the app and helping people understand how the entire system works.
Mapping user flows and user journeys is an efficient way to step in their shoes and experience both the physical and emotional way through the app, making this process less cumbersome for them.
Difficulties That Arise After Launching Mobile Applications
Here are some of the problems you can face after launching an app and our tips for resolving them:
- Marketing. You may have difficulty funding every advertising channel or choosing the best and the most cost-effective marketing platform. Stick to what brings your app more users.
- Scalability. How to launch an application that will stay on track for years? Don’t forget to address the scalability issues in a timely manner and ensure that it can support a growing number of simultaneous users.
- Frequent market changes. New trends in mobile development emerge regularly, but you don’t have to follow them all. Integrate only the ones that are likely to stay relevant for a while.
- High market competitiveness. If you find yourself in a highly competitive environment, narrow your niche. Target users are usually ruled out of consideration by top players.
- Disturbed focus. You want your app packed with as many useful functionalities as possible. But remember to validate every feature you add and give your users sufficient time to adapt.
Make optimal choices to balance budget limitations and necessary modifications successfully.
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Contact usFinal Thoughts
When an app is set to be launched, you’ll need to tailor your marketing strategy to your target audience. Ensure that you showcase value propositions to your potential users, optimize for the app store, decide on a monetization model, and gather feedback.
Carefully plan and monitor app performance consistently to develop timely updates and ensure your app stands out in the ever-competitive marketplace. The tips above should help you start executing a mobile app launch process, instilling confidence in everyone involved.
FAQ
How much does it cost to launch a new mobile application?
The cost of launching an application depends on several factors; hence, it's not possible to settle on a specific figure. Aspects such as marketing, development, and maintenance will have different cost parameters depending on the type of application and its complexity. However, mobile app development costs generally range between $5000 and $100,000.
Can I create a monetization strategy by myself?
Ultimately, all apps aim to generate revenue for the developer, which is why a proper pricing model is crucial. You can create your app's monetization strategy provided it considers the target audience, value offered, and competition level. But double-checking it with experts is desirable, especially if you don’t have prior experience.
Should I launch both iOS and Android apps?
Launching both iOS and Android apps might be challenging because they require twice as much effort and resources. However, it can be profitable in the long run, so it depends on what you can afford, time-to-market, app complexity, and user geography, among other things.
What are the key performance indicators to track?
When launching a mobile application, it is important to track key performance indicators to understand the needed updates and improvements. These indicators include user engagement, speed, latency, crash rate, push notifications engagement, CTR, retention rates, and load speeds.
What should be included in my marketing plan?
An effective app launch marketing plan should include proper market research, key strategies to follow, an advertising plan, etc. It is actually a rather comprehensive set of guidelines and analysis, which encompasses every aspect of app launch & marketing.
