As you may know, the product implementation is an essential part of any digital startup. However, the work does not stop after all the code lines are written and the product itself is placed on Google Play, iTunes or whatever. Moreover, the most laborious part of your product development is only about to begin.
You may say, What? I thought it is all over. However, you are deeply misinformed. There are a lot of difficulties you are going to face with and even more problems needed to be solved. You see, your product's success depends not only on the innovative features it offers but mostly on the marketing strategy. That is why it is very important to think through all the aspects.
Every marketing stage plays a crucial part during your product development. In this article we are going to discuss the actions can be taken during the post-launch stage including:
- blog strategy
- advertising campaigns
- optimization and more
Let's begin.
How to be visible to your clients
It is difficult to underestimate the role of marketing during the project development. Marketing is an integral part of any business from small to large.
Without proper marketing campaign your product simply does not exist. In case, users do not have a clue about its presence on the market - the chances for success are minimum even if you have created something really innovative.
Marketing is a quite complicated process as every detail is essential. Let's single out several steps you can conduct during the post-launch stage.
Make sure you are social
In the world of likes, tweets, and comments - it is essential to have a blog strategy. From 2009 to 2012 the number of company blogs increased on 14% and it is still continue growing - do not ignore this fact. Nowadays, blogs represent the core of a contemporary social marketing and communications strategy.
They are aimed at company's strategic positioning enhancement as well as on the product promotion. Your blog site should be designed professionally and filled with an appropriate content.
So, find the time for the editorial strategy development, hire professional writers and think through all the content which is going to appear there including guest programs.
Do not forget about company's pages on different social networks. This step provides your users with an additional opportunity to learn the details, get the feedback or just to share certain information with friends.
The usage of social media in marketing (Source: Statista)
Optimization
As I have told you before - every detail is important during the marketing campaign. The app store optimization is not an exception.
What do I mean? I mean that you need to make your app store page more attractive to the visitors. In turn, it leads to increased number of downloads.
You should pay attention to those elements you can see underneath.
- App name - catchy & memorable
- Icon - minimalistic & associative
- Keywords - providing better search optimization
- Description - creative & informative
- Screenshots - demonstrative & beautiful
One more marketing trick within your app store is the app's update descriptions.
Statistics claims that the average smartphone user has 25 installed apps. It means more than 10 updates every two weeks. Look at your update list. How many apps waiting for an update are you having at the moment? Try to identify the marketing-friendly description among others.
Cannot find anything? Here is an example.
The space usage example
You see, this description stands out among others at least with the help of an eye-catching word 'free'. Its text is absolutely marketing friendly as informs the customers about a trial. Furthermore, it contains a link for the customer support not to mention the update description itself.
Learn more about the app store optimization in our related article
So, a wise space management is useful detail helping in drawing additional customer's attention. Such approach can be really effective for those users who have not run your app for a long time.
Digital letters
Except for the letters on the pre-launch stage with a notification that the app is about to go live, you can provide the post-launch email campaign. It will refresh user's memory.
The content of emails should include:
- Pricing model
- Unique proposition for those who are going to buy it through a link in email (optional)
- A link to the app store page
- A link to the video trailer (if you have one)
Make your letters customized. Do not follow templates. Let your potential users understand that you paid due attention to every detail related to the project.
Smart PR grows the audience
I think you do not mind if a few thousand new clients will start using your product. That is the reason why PR is never enough. For instance, such social network as Facebook needs no introductions, however, it still continues its advertising campaigns investing a pretty penny into them.
Let's consider closer how to draw an additional attention to your project.
Online advertising
Previously, we have discussed some main ingredients intended to help us in grabbing a piece of the world wide web attention. However, we can add some spices able to make the product even more noticeable to users. I am talking about advertising.
The fact, you are aware of your company details (market, prospects, target audience etc.) as nobody else will help you in effective advertising program establishment.
Google AdWords is considered to be a flexible, cost-effective and result oriented solution to launch your campaign. Banners appearing on different resources will gradually help to increase the number of users.
However, you are still in need of keywords.
Think like your customer
In order to sort out the most relevant ones, you should think of the words and phrases you would personally type in the search line while looking for your product. Nevertheless, to be more exact, you still have to study the views from the outside. It is not a bad idea to visit the forums of your target audience. There, you can meet people describing the problems in their own word. That is very important.
Use Google Autocomplete
Start typing and the search bar will suggest several different ways to autocomplete your search term. As you may know, this function is based on the most common searches.
Use Adwords Keyword Planner
It is very useful tool when it comes to keywords. Here you can learn the frequency of a separate keyword application as well as the bid you should pay in order to get it in your own ad.
Use Google Analytics
The Google Analytics dashboard will help you to define those keywords people are already using to find your site. Include them in your ad campaign, it will help to increase the traffic rate.
Now, let's consider general pros and cons of Google AdWords usage.
Google Adwords pros and cons
Make your audience involved into the project
Crowdsourcing campaigns have become another powerful instrument in the field of social marketing.
The crowdsourcing idea is in involving the Internet users contributions in order to obtain needed idea or service. However, it is a great marketing instrument as well.
A clear example of the similar campaign is McDonalds Burger Builder launched in 2014. The company decided to give their clients an opportunity to build the perfect burger of their own. Users could create the burgers online while the rest of the country had an opportunity to vote for the best one. As soon as the winners were chosen - McDonald's released the burgers weekly.
From this example, we can see that company managed not only to draw clients' attention to itself but also to see their product preferences. With the help of the acquired information, they are able to start cooking the burger with no doubts about its popularity and profitability.
So, as we can see, crowdsourcing can be used for cost-effective business development, market research, opinion gathering and much more. Its effectiveness is proved by the experience of such big companies as Lego, Samsung, Pebble, Airbnb etc.
McDonald's Burger Builder
Keep going
As soon as you have gained the reputation and awareness in your sphere, it is necessary to develop a highly target speaking program. The analyst and media programs should be thought through as well. They are needed for making sure that your clients remember about you and the brand is still relevant. This way, you will be able to keep fit.
Being on this stage, you should focus on the development of those content and initiatives gradually leading you to the market's top position.
A pinch of development
Yeah, development again. You see, there is a chain. The app will not be successful without anyimprovements and changes which, in turn, cannot be conducted without the changes in a code. The code cannot be improved by itself. We highly recommend you to think through this aspect beforehand.
Every successful app has it
I am talking about bugs. You should understand that bugs are a normal practice in IT. Even having a bug-free app you will certainly get several minor ones after an update. It is nothing less than a law of the digital world. Again, look at your update list and you will see that every popular app has a certain amount of bugs that have been solved in this version.
Do not know why do you need post-release support? I think our related article will help you to answer this question
Despite the fact that bugs are a normal practice, they needed to be fixed. In order to avoid the delay in fixing and do not harm to user experience, we suggest you think about the tech support service in advance. This process can be compared with cars' maintenance service. As after a certain distance, some improvements and corrections are required.
Never stop growing
Get a million of downloads is not enough. You need to keep your users engaged all the time. In another case, the app may be abandoned. So, do not hurry to throw away the business card of your mobile app developers.
Let's consider the example of Pokemon Go. It is undoubtedly an interesting app concept filled with modern technologies and powered by a world famous brand name. However, it is a pretty monotonous and may seem to be featureless for a significant number of the target audience. That is why we have observed the incredible post-launch success followed by declining interest to this game in just several months.
In order to establish the long run relations with the users, you should focus on the engagement. Otherwise, you will see people dropping off pretty soon.
You know exactly what will bring back the popularity of Pokemon Go? Learn, how much does it cost to create a similar app
The market of informational technologies is growing rapidly. You should understand that. In order to keep your users - new features and regular updates are a must.
- Add new features to your app only when customers need it - do not overfill your app with the new functions. Make it only after detailed analysis of its expediency.
- Removal of no longer useful features - it is normal to get rid of something old and unnecessary. Make frequent updates to the app - it shows users that an application is still safe and sound.
- Do not delay the release of an update as well as do not conduct them very often. It is a good idea to make a schedule which will be in handy in case there are some ready-fixed bugs.
Post-launch components
We can see that after all the work you have done during the pre-launch stages - there is not less work in a post-launch stage as well. So, keep calm and develop your product.
As usual, our professional team is ready to help you at any stage of your app development. Do not hesitate to contact us and ask your questions.
