During last two years of my work with app developers, I have often seen young start-ups and indie developers trying to figure out the perfect strategy to launch their app. A good launch strategy ensures that your app gets the early kick of downloads and also create virality.
I tried to do some research and also compiled some examples which I have seen in my short experience about how people have used various tactics to launch their mobile app.
The following are the three important parts of the launch strategy —
Analyse
Use SimilarWeb to get to know from where your competitors get traffic and downloads. This will also give you a list of in-store keywords and search keywords which will help you create an effective description of your app.
Get in-app analytics in place. You can either use Google Analytics or Localytics or Flurry or Mixpanel for the same. GA is free and offers a set of compelling features. You don’t want to miss out on any data point after launch, hence this is a pre-requisite.
Use AppAnnie to get in-store statistics about rank history of your competitors. Combined with data gathered from XYO.net, this will help you make you milestones for growth of your app.
Create
Social media accounts for your mobile app. Creating Facebook, Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram account is suggested. This is one thing which News in Shorts did perfectly. They had more than 50k likes on Facebook before they launched their android app. Even Bobble Appcreated this viral effect on social media.
A compelling video about your product. A great video not only helps you explain your product but also increases the conversion of play store page visit to installation. I really admire the video which LookUp created. It explains the product really well with humanly emotions.
Screenshots of your app. This helps in explaining the app to app store page visitors. It should contain screenshot, some informative text and relevant background color. One such example can be below —
App name and Description. I would be writing a detailed post on this later. You should really give a lot of time to this part and never hesitate to experiment.
Press Release and Media List. Create a lost of influential people, bloggers and journalist whom you want to reach after launch. Try to find someone who knows them personally and get an introduction. It increases the chances of getting evangelised or covered.
Create a mailing list. If you already have a web presence, create a mailing list of all your users. One of my friend had around 1M sign up on his website. When he launched his mobile app, he ran a mailing campaign to all of these 1M users, which resulted in more than 100k downloads for him. If possible, create a beta invite list. Also maintain a list of people with whom you have discussed about your app, keep them in a separate list.
Implement
Pre-launch social media buzz. Create a buzz on your social media account about your app launch. Try to engage with people on twitter. Post relevant pics on instagram and facebook. Upload videos of pre-launch on youtube and share it across accounts.
Setting up app page on play store. Make sure that the page includes the video, high resolution screenshots and a compelling description. The app name also plays a major rule in ASO.
Reach out. Reach out to influential people, bloggers and reporters to get coverage for your app. Focus on blogs from where your competitors get traffic from. This can be found using similar web as discussed above. Use the PR generated in your description as well. This should be a constant exercise and should continue even after launch.
Tracking. Always use UTM parameter while sharing your app. This enables you to track the effectiveness on campaigns and channels.
Social Sharing. Do enable social sharing on your app on Day 1 itself. You can also implement in-app referrals. Appvirality gives a brilliant way to achieve the same.
Mingle. Get out of your office or home and meet early adopters personally. Go to mobile events like mobisparks, Mobility Conference, GDG meetups and speak about your app. It’s an interesting way to create evangelist for your product.
Last but not the least, never hesitate to experiment. Experiment with everything said above until you find the sauce to growth. Once you are there, it becomes all about scaling now.
