Steps for a Successful Mobile App Launch

Building a mobile app is one milestone for a successful app.  The end goal of mobile app development is to launch or re-launch a mobile product that not only drives downloads but also maintains high user engagement and retention rates. Unfortunately, for many businesses launching new products, attracting attention from potential users and standing out in the app market has become increasingly difficult. This is largely due to a saturated market that has become extremely competitive. For businesses looking to gain a competitive edge, leveraging a comprehensive app launch strategy is essential for paving the way to success in the app marketplace. 

• Step One: Know Your Audience 

The first step in preparing your mobile app launch strategy is conducting market research. Developing a thorough understanding of your audience (demographics and pain points, for example) before moving onto the steps outlined below will save time and money down the road. Knowing exactly what your audience wants will help you to better understand how your product addresses their pain points and fits into their daily life. Furthermore, this research will give you insight into what they dislike about the apps that are currently available in the market, giving you the opportunity to ensure your product doesn’t follow suit. It’s important to uncover the underlying reasons for your user’s frustrations by examining their behaviors and attitudes. 

• Step Two: Define Your Positioning Statement 

With nearly two-million apps in the App Store, you need to offer something unique and valuable that will attract potential users to download your app. After you’ve defined your target user, you need to determine what differentiates your app from competitors. This is called a Unique Value Proposition which describes why your product is valuable to your customer and why they should buy-in. With so many mobile apps on the market, you need to let your audience know why yours, in particular, is the most valuable. Your message will be drowned out if you simply describe what your app does. Instead, focus on why it’s different than any other product on the market. 

• Step Three: Define Your Success Criteria 

Success criteria outlines the benchmarks that your product will be compared against to judge if your app launch has been successful. To show stakeholders key information on your success or failure you need to first set some goals and define how they will be measured. Set your goals around active install rates, number of reviews, and average rating score, for example. If you want project success, you have to define what success looks like for your project. 

• Step Four: Prepare Launch Activities 

You’ve done all of your market research and now it’s time to focus on the execution of the actual app launch. For a launch to be successful, there should be an established marketing plan in place to ensure that every step is made and executed properly and in a timely manner. 

1. Promoting Your Content
2. Identify Key Influencers
3. Create a Press Kit
4. Product Curation Sites
5. Optimize Your Product Page Description

• Step Five: Launch Your Mobile App! 

Now it’s time to finally submit your app to the app store(s). At this stage, you should be aware of the submission guidelines your app needs to meet before submitting to either app store. Apple’s guidelines can be found here and Android’s guidelines can be found here.   

• Step Six: Post Launch Follow-Up 

According to a report from Localytics, 21% of users now abandon an app after one use. While driving downloads and acquiring users is important, retaining those users is even more critical if you want long term success. Therefore, it’s imperative your app makes a good first impression within the first few days, showing immediate value and providing good user experience. 

1. Measure
2. Listen to Your Users
3. Incentivize Continued Usage
4. Re-engage Your Users
5. Keep Ratings High
6. Closing Thoughts 

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At Emqube we focus on building high quality hybrid mobile apps. Contact us if you would like us to build an app for you.