Building on part one, where we provided an introduction to the app landscape, our series examining mobile app promotion and optimization continues with insights on how to develop an app that’s easy-to-find with staying power.
Below are tips and strategies to ensure that your app can be easily located in the various app stores, and that they are being recommended by the ever important “family and friends.”
So how do you build an app that will be easy-to-find and have staying power?
It’s all about understanding your target audience and the competitive landscape. You need to ask yourself these questions:
- Is the app you’re building filling a need for your target audience? Is that need currently not served by your competitors?
- Do you have a sense of what your unique selling proposition is? Your unique selling proposition should not only convince your target audience that they should pay attention, but also have a call-to-action that encourages them to download the app. This statement should outline the points of differentiation, have compelling visuals, and provide an immediate call-to-action.
- Are you building something that allows the user to “snack” on content vs. “feast?” Based on the data, most users are not going to use your app for more than a few minutes a day. U.S. users spend two hours and 42 minutes per day on their mobile devices, and 86% of that time is spent in apps. See the breakdown below of how that two hours and 42 minutes is divided by the type of app being used:
So if you’re creating a news app, your users are only going to use your app for an average of 4 minutes and 18 seconds a day.
- Are you building a great user experience? If not, you might collect negative reviews that would negatively impact your app’s success. Are you testing your app with your users prior to launch?
- Are you developing the app for multiple devices? Apps that are featured on multiple devices rank better in the app store.
Posing the aforementioned questions to yourself may not guarantee success, but being diligent at this stage of development could pay huge dividends for your app’s longevity down the road.
In our next series installment, we’ll take a long look at app store optimization on various platforms.
Click here to view PART 1 of the series.
