Four Simple, Yet Vital, Questions to Ask Before Launching Your App

Over 5 million app options are now available… and that number grows by the day. You might have the best app in terms of functionality, user-friendliness, and be #1 in a host of other categories, but if you don’t get your marketing right… all that hard work – and investor dollars – go down the drain. Sometimes the things that make an app sink or swim seem trivial. Does your app have the right icon? This isn’t a minor question. Good apps with a crappy icon often get dismissed by potential downloaders. Back in 2016, Instagram replaced the “looks-like-a-camera” icon with a very modern look: white squares on a pinkish background – and got hammered in the press. Turns out, however, that Instagram’s marketing team was on point, and the redesign is today considered hands-down superior. Same thing with Spotify. They got mocked for changing their icon from a darker green to a brighter variant, but today, the old color looks downright ugly. Uber, however, made a mess when it redesigned its icon the first time. They’ve now simplified it significantly – and for the most part – they try to use their company name instead of a logo or icon.

The point is that something as simple as an app icon can be a make-or-break issue. This is why anyone venturing into the oversaturated app market needs the guidance of a quality, experienced app marketing services company. The game in the 2020s is just too complicated to be played by non-professionals. To prove our point, below are four questions you should ask yourself about your app marketing strategy before you launch – while bearing in mind that these are just four of perhaps two dozen other important metrics that need to be monitored and a long list of questions that need answers – answers that a quality ASO agency would be able to provide, along with detailed research to back up their claims.

1. What is your mobile strategy? Every app requires a customized approach to its mobile strategy and trends in the industry are evolving faster than most can keep up with. How do you plan to drive specific audience segments via different channels, and give them relevant messaging? Are you planning preview videos? Are you able to maximize the iOS 15 platform?

2. What psychological strategies do you plan to employ to change user behavior? Do you even understand the connection between psychology and marketing? Persuasion is a science, not an art form. Part of the psychological war that you’ll need to engage in is a strong understanding of the enemy – which in this case is your competition. Are you capable of fully analyzing your competition to learn from both their strengths and weaknesses?

3. What is going to be your approach to app store optimization or ASO? To get downloaded you have to be discovered. And after your app is downloaded, it needs to be installed before it does you any good. Do you have the tech know-how and years of expert knowledge that it takes to help move your app to the top of a massive pile? Are you able to aggregate research by monitoring Google Play and the Apple store algorithms – daily – for trend changes? Are you constantly updating the millions of keywords and phrases that increase your chances of getting indexed for suggested terms?

4. Is your app’s description and overall look eye-grabbing enough? As noted above, is your icon interesting and friendly – as well as descriptive? Persuasion, as noted, is something that has been scientifically studied for decades but the artistic element of icons and videos is significantly more subjective and, to state the obvious, is a combo of art and science. Do you have the experience to formulate a strategic art/science roadmap that leads to success?

A team of pros can help in so many areas: optimizing keyword rankings, picking the best screenshot galleries, producing preview videos, etc. A good ASO agency understands that there needs to be a huge degree of flexibility in marketing – constantly testing to constantly improve so that your app is pushed ever higher up the chain of visibility. Think about the last app you downloaded. Perhaps it was something not exactly earth-shattering such as – as a random example – a decibel meter. Why did you pick the one you picked? Was it because it had the most stars? Was it because you liked the logo? Was it because of the words that were used to describe it? How did it stand out amongst the literally dozens of options you could have picked? These ‘behind the scenes’ choices by an ASO agency are – in this insanely crowded app world – what makes or breaks an app. Don’t go at it alone. Call in the pros.