The mobile application is a multimillion-dollar industry, and the expected market size of this fastest growing industry by 2027 is USD 366.34billion. Did you know, on average more than 107.2 thousand applications were released on Google Play every month in 2020? But how many of them will make their unique place in the user’s device? This totally depends on how innovative the app concept is and how perfectly an app development company deals with the mobile app launch.
Minimizing the mistakes before and after launch is the key to outshine in this industry dominated by a few influential names. We have jotted down a few pre and post-launch pitfalls that could impact your app success. Have a Look.
Pre- Launch Mistakes
Table of Contents
Ineffective Beta Testing
The mobile users of this digital world are only inspired by applications that deliver a smooth experience. App crashes are the fundamental reason for app uninstallation and contribute to 70% of it, making meticulous beta testing essential for every app development company.
Why is Beta Testing Important?
- Beta testing helps to better understand the functionality of the app and identify the gaps that we overlooked in internal lab testing.
- It ensures that the final product delivered is free from bugs and errors that might end up being the reason for lost customer interest.
- Beta testing helps spot any lags, app crashes and security issues in the applications and allows the developers to nip them in the bud.
- Positive reviews and download numbers have a profound impact on how users will see the app and a solid beta testing strategy is an efficient method to achieve that.
How Is Beta Testing Done?
Beta testing can be conducted with the help of a small number of expert application users. It can also be released for the public for a broader review depending on the niche and target audience of the application. A solid best testing involves hundreds of users ( recommended number is 100-300) who give valuable feedback on the technical and user experience aspect of the app. Twitter, Erli bird, Beta Bound, Reddit, Beta Testers are some great platforms to connect with the most suitable beta testers according to your beta tester persona. Take their feedback and recommendations to make the app bug and error-free before giving it to real users.
Undecided Release Date
Giving your idea a definite shape of a fully developed application is the most satisfying experience for an app development company. It sounds like a challenging task for them to wait for the release but a definite release can be beneficial in multiple ways. Some of them are:
More Visibility:
In this fiercely competitive app development world, the sync between the marketing team and the development team should be reasonable to avoid being lost in the plethora of apps released daily.
Creates Interest:
A definite release date after the marketing team is done with its job of echoing about the app in the tech world is the right approach. This gives you a chance to be prepared for the app release and for your audience to know about it.
No Clash With Other App Releases:
Another great benefit of determining the release date is to ensure that your app release doesn’t coincide with another app release from a different company targeting the identical audience or some other massive tech release. When the public attention is divided, likely, your app will not create the desired buzz. Timing is essential, and mistakes surrounding it should be suppressed by making accurate decisions.
Insufficient Market Research
Whether you are an Android App Development Company or deals with iOS applications, the market is quite saturated for both. There is little to no room for repetitive ideas and applications with the same features. This is where in-depth market research will come in handy.
Why is Market Research essential?
By gathering information about your competitors and what makes their applications successful and the reasons behind an app’s inability to connect with the users, it will help you become better at the game. It empowers you to work on areas that make your app less exciting or very similar to the pre-existing ones because capturing some one’s ee customers is quite tricky than coming up with your own unique selling features. The app’s first look and experience matter a lot, and with efficient market research, you can avoid the hassles of adding new features at later stages in the hope of seizing the attention. The review section of your competitor applications is the best way to understand consumer behaviour and likes and dislikes better.
Ways To Conduct Market Research:
- Interview your targeted audience
- Conduct easy online surveys.
- Design a pre-launch website to take feedback.
- Talk to account managers and developers.
- Offer incentives to people who participate in surveys.
- Use influencers to help you know more about customer interest.
Extra Tip: Accept the market research results and if your idea doesn’t sound interesting to a huge chunk of people in your research, it is necessary to make big changes.
Not Investing In Marketing
A world-changing application can achieve its goals if it gets the desired reach. Capitalizing on marketing for mobile applications delivers tangible benefits and contributes in various ways in the product’s success. Marketing is no longer about making a few social media posts or something superficial. Properly documented marketing strategies and well-executed campaigns are needed to make your application go viral.
Do you really need a marketing plan for an app?
Skipping or incorporating a marketing strategy can suppress your app discovery, resulting in delaying the expected results. The marketing team should be closely involved with the development team to get enough knowledge about the USP’s of yours to brainstorm new ideas focusing on these features.
For instance an iOS app development company launches an application that records a user’s progress that is shareable. The marketing team can focus on this feature and create a campaign with user’s progress and turn into user generated content to draw more people to participate and encourage them to download the app. Tons of ideas are available, and not utilizing them would be a huge mistake.
Zero App Store Optimization
Optimization isn’t another fancy word that marketers use, but it has a science behind and has real benefits in making your app successful. App optimization is a process through which you increase your app’s visibility in the marketplace. Some crucial steps of app store optimization are:
App Name:
It starts from choosing a unique name for your app that can be a copyright protected branded name or something relevant to what users will use when looking for an application like yours.
Keywords:
The second crucial step is keyword research. Think of App store optimization as SEO for applications. There is a limit of 100 characters in the keyword section. You can develop a list of all possible relevant keywords and narrow it down based on your audience behaviour.
Other Features:
Marketplaces allow you to add a small video explaining the app, screenshots and brief description of the app to entice users. Utilize and optimize them well to increase engagement.
Post Launch Mistakes
No Attention To User Reviews
The first few reviews about your application are crucial and significantly impact visitors’ decision to download the application. There is no way you can regulate the process, but you can effectively address the user’s concerns and support them with the inconveniences to retain them. No matter what kind of reviews are, show gratification for the positive and respond wisely to the negatives. A no show policy can make it worse.
Not Fixing The Issues
A perfect app would exist in an ideal world, and even after thorough beta testing there can be some issues and bugs that users report after the launch. Your app development team should be on call to fix them right at the spot to deliver a seamless experience to users. Application crashes on specific devices, connectivity problems and UI concerns are commonly reported ones.
No Regular Updates
A successful application is one which has something to offer to the users now and then. An app becomes lifeless and boring after a certain period, and if you don’t release updates with new features to keep the user glued to the application. Regular updates are part and parcel of app development that result in long term commitment from the users.
Neglecting Tracking
To improve your application and better meet the users’ demands, it’s necessary not to neglect the crucial step of tracking parameters and engagement rate. Your active monthly users, retention rate, revenue per users and other KPI can give a better overview of the app performance and make it attractive over time.
Bringing it All Together
The landscape of mobile application is evolving rapidly, and with increasing competition, there is no room for mistakes from the development and marketing perspective. This article is a comprehensive take on the subject. Avoiding these mistakes will surely exponentially increase the likelihood of your application’s success, resulting in gaining a fair share of earnings from this highly profitable industry.
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