Let’s set your scene. You’ve just created an app. You could have done it by yourself or, you have hired an app development company or app developers to help you. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have created an app.
Congratulations! You’ve done what few could and you’re on your way to a life of success! Now all you have to do for your app is to compete with the other 3.48 million apps. You are all alone and now your app will compete against those apps that were made by
top app development companies.
But in today’s article, we will be focusing on some key aspects that you should do right before and after launching your app for the world to see (Or laugh at. Depending upon how you look at it)
Also, even if you have missed some of these things or even all of these things, you can integrate them into your app with regular updates. After all, this is why alpha and beta testing is so important.
So now without further ado, let’s dive in shall we!
1) Icon Is Everything
If I ask you what comes first when you think about McDonald’s, then you’ll probably think about the golden ‘M’ with a red background, unless you’re thinking about their burgers, which is cool too. Or how about the brand Nike? BMW? Audi? Apple? (Not the fruit you nincompoop, the brand)
The image in your mind quickly focuses on the logo and its colors first. And then to the tagline and then you think about any famous influencers that are associated with it.
The thing that I am trying to say is that logo matters. Period. It’s the first thing that anyone notices about your app so it is always a good thing to focus on your logo.
Some of the things you should focus on while creating your app icon is:
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Will the icon do justice when conveying your brand identity?
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Is your icon a good representation of your values and ethics as an app development company?
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Is your icon attention-grabbing enough for your target audience?
The last question is very important. Believe it or not, but not everyone can like everything. If your target demographics are young adult hipsters who are looking for a perfect date then you can not make your app look like a business meeting app.
I know, a lot of you will go like “Duh, we know that already.” But believe me, the number of apps developing companies, ESPECIALLY mobile app development companies who make this mistake just makes me want to leave everything and become a monk.
This brings me to the second point which is
2) Be Shameless When Asking for Reviews and Ratings
Here’s the thing, how many times have you bought a product online with absolutely no rating? Not many times, I know. And this is why all those development companies focus so much on asking for reviews and ratings.
The only problem here is the way in which they ask.
Let’s say you have developed a mobile game. Now if you have programmed it to ask for a review in between gameplay then you should probably just burn your servers down right now because your players will HATE it.
But let’s say that you have programmed the app so that it asks for reviews only once in a while, that too when the player/user is on the home screen. And what if you add in some personalized content in that?
The chances of your app hitting more reviews will skyrocket almost naturally. Now hey, listen, stop daydreaming. Those reviews will still be good AND bad. But the thing here is to know that any reaction is a good reaction.
“Any review is a good review” - US
And why is that, I hear you ask? Because reviews are the perfect way for you to see where you have lapsed. Is it the in-game currency? Is it connectivity issues? Is it trolls? All these reviews help you create a better app and in turn, you gain more users.
So, make sure, only ask for a review when it’s a good time with positive personalized content. Thank us later.
3) Make Your App Marry Pop-up Notifications
Screw Titanic. This is the best relationship advice that I could give you. Always make sure to use pop-up notifications as a tool in your arsenal.
What? You thought I am actually giving real relationship advice? We all are
app developers here. There is no such thing as a “Real Life” or “Relationship” for us.
Anyway, just like asking for reviews, you need to make sure that your popups are timed correctly and designed for the right audience.
By how much, I hear you ask? Well as you can see in the title. The “40%” though by the way is just a conservative estimate. By just doing pop-ups correctly, Israel Post, which is the largest postal service company in Israel was able to increase its downloads by not 40%, by not 50%, but over 580%.
Conclusion
But before we end this article, you need to focus on a few key things. None of these features will work properly if you do not give your users an incentive. Games do it by giving in-game currency, apps do it by giving vouchers, etc, you get the point. But to develop an idea that actually works isn’t easy especially if you are new.
