What It Takes To Successfully Launch a Mobile App

So, you’ve had a great idea for an app, you’ve invested a good deal of time, money, resources, and employed one of the best mobile app developers in Kuwait to execute its design and development, and you and your team are more than happy with the final product. Now you’re all set to launch, right? Wrong. Launching an app is not as effortless as submitting it to the app store and simply waiting for the numbers to come in and for the downloads to skyrocket. No matter how functional and unique your app is, if the right marketing efforts aren’t supporting its launch, it’s just as good as the hundreds of thousands of apps that sit idle on major app distribution platforms, never seeing the light of day.

Marketing is everything when it comes to launching a successful app. It’s the heavy-lifting and the groundwork for ensuring that your app is actually seen, downloaded, used, and retained. And the measures that you adopt in the launching of your app can either make or break the deal. In fact, in order to create a high-ranking app, you don’t even need a big budget. It’s about strategy and implementation; it’s about working smarter, not costlier.

In order to kickstart your own launch process, we’ve condensed the basic stages of a successful launch strategy, all the way from market research to performance evaluation.

Step 1: Know your audience and your competition

Ideally, market research is something you should do way before you initiate the process of app development in Kuwait. Early research should function as a guiding light for the developing team, helping them streamline the app in accordance with what the target audience needs and wants and more importantly, what itdoesn’t need or want. However, it’s also crucial to take a closer look at your app pre-launch and ensure that what it offers is consistent with the market research you’ve conducted. It’s often helpful to ask questions like “What specific problem does the app solve and does it do so efficiently?”, “Who is it intended for?”, “Is there someone who’s doing it better than me? And if so, how do I change that?” Differentiation is key here. Knowing what makes your product different and stand-out from tons of other solutions already floating about in the market, will help you establishyour unique selling point.

Step 2: Create metrics for measuring success

Your definition of success will always be unique to you. But you can always look at specifics such as your app’s average install rate, average rating, as well as the number of ratings your app receives. Set some goals using the SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based) and determine your success rate based on the accomplishment of these goals. Goal setting will help you determine, as and when you track your progress, how effective your marketing strategy is and whether you should continue your approach or change it.

Step 3: Prepare for launch

Create a landing page by registering your domain. This is where you’ll showcase your app by posting previews and teasers in the form of screenshots and videos. You’ll want to put in the effort to make your content visually appealing and user-friendly as this is where your client base begins. Consider creating a blog and implementing SEO in order to increase traffic. Also, this is a perfect opportunity to link your landing page with web analytic services like Google Analytics and Optimizely in order to collect data and measure performance.

You can then select social media networks (especially the highly visual ones)that are popular with your target audience, claim social media handles, and showcase your app all throughout its development process on your accounts. Keep an eye out for the top influencers in your industry, network and communicate with them in order to establish a meaningful relationship, send them your pitch, and your app will have a high chance of getting featured.

Choose an app store for launch that aligns with your target audience preferences (primarily the Android Market and Apple App Store) and implement app store optimization (ASO) practices in order to secure a higher ranking in the app store. In addition to using keywords, you’ll want to make sure that your logo is visually compelling, and your description is carefully constructed. Consider this: most users will make a split-second decision after reading the first three lines of your product description, on whether or not they want to continue reading the entire thing. Your goal is to get your audience to click “more” and then download the app. You can also complement your organic search efforts through ASO with some paid, targeted advertising along the way.

Next, consider doing a beta launch to test your app and gain valuable feedback from a selected group of trusted individuals. You can start collecting early testimonials to increase credibility and partner with affiliates in your industry, incentivizing them to promote your app. And of course, don’t forget to promote your app on your social media accounts, conduct email marketing, and post your call-to-actions and download links everywhere. Yes, everywhere!

Step 4: Following up post-launch

So, you’ve acquired your users and driven downloads. But long-term success can only be determined by user retention. 21% of apps are abandoned after the first use, so you want to make sure that you’re constantly impressing your users and retaining their interest in your app.

Measure the success of your launch through pre-defined metrics in Step 2 of the mobile app launch process and determine the aspects of your app that need further improvement. Keep changing with the market demand and listen closely to what your users have to say. Use user feedback and reviews as a means to enhance your app’s user experience and let your audience know that you’re integrating their suggestions through latest features and updates. Most importantly, incentivize and engage your users through promotions, rewards, and other innovative means. Focus on precise and timely customer support, which is imperative for user satisfaction. Remember that you created the app in the first place to resolve your target audience’s problem. It is now your duty to ensure that you continue doing that by actively learning, improving, and adapting with their changing needs.

Being one of the top mobile app development companies in Kuwait, Design Master does not only help transform your idea – through a team of highly trained app developers in Kuwait - into a fully functioning app, but also utilizes a cluster of marketing efforts to grab your target audience’s attention and generate leads. Our iPhone and Android app developers in Kuwait and our marketing team will work diligently to successfully launch your mobile app and retain user for the long run.