Mark Twain once said, ‘The secret to getting ahead is getting started’.

As the number of apps being launched in the market every day has crossed a line to whooping millions, the challenges for app marketers continue to grow. The blooming industry offers a lot of opportunity for the developers, but at the same time competing with these figures is sort of a nightmare. Most of the app owners are of the view that the journey of the application begins from the day when it launched. This is not true! Enhancing it’s visibility and getting it noticed by the target audience is an ongoing process and should go hand-in-hand with the development. This is what makes the pre-launch strategy crucial. Are you preparing to launch your own app somewhere soon? Are you considering the other success factors as well or is it just the design that you are concerned about. The blog will give you an insight of the things that you need to consider other than development to ensure a successful launch. Listed below are some of the common mistakes that you need to avoid before launching the app and the ways to deal with the same. Have a look.

1. Not investing in marketing research

This is the biggest pre-launch pitfall of a mobile application. An adequate market research lays the foundation for a successful business prospect. The market research includes two types of analysis: the user research and competitor analysis.

a) User research

The research can give you a great insight of who your target audience is and what they are looking for. Online surveys and questionnaire based research is the most used methodology. However, getting the feedback of the users who are already using a similar type of app can be beneficial. The good and the bad reviews of competing apps will give you an idea of what your customers value as well as what are their pain points.

b) Competitor analysis

Research the key players in the category in which you are dealing. Take an overview of the how these apps are named and the keywords that they are targeting. Just adding too many features in the app is not enough, you need to place it in front of the right audience. You need to perform adequate research on your competitor’s apps in the following areas:

• Functionality
• Pricing structure
• Speed and load time
• Compatibility to the various devices as well as platform
• User interface and experience

2. Being your own beta tester

Launching the app without getting all the red flags checked is hazardous. Thus, a thorough beta testing is essential before making it live in the market. There is not even a single mobile app development company that won’t be in sync with this fact. However, one of the basic mistakes that are committed by most the development firms is not hitting the actual target market for the beta testing. Getting the app tested by the end user is one way to get unbiased feedbacks. The iOS apps can be tested using TestFlight prior to being released on the Apple Store. While for the Android apps, you can invite beta testers. This will even give you a customer base even before the app is launched.

3. Not having a marketing strategy

The development stage is the best time to start making the pre-launch strategies. The marketing goals and schemes should be ready even before the app is actually launched. This is a crucial aspect of getting your app discovered. So, getting the marketing team involved very late is one of the pitfalls that every company needs to get rid of. The team needs to have a hands-on of every feature of the app. However, no matter how early you start marketing the application, the success of the campaign is not guaranteed. So, it is advisable to have a backup plan for the same. At the same time, you need to be ready to resolve the uncertain bugs that might come post-launch.

4. Failing the implementation of App Store Optimization

Creating a buzz on the various social media platforms and optimizing the position of the application on the various search engines is essential. At the same time, having an adequate app store optimization strategy is inevitable. Here is a survey report of that specifies the varied source by which a new app is discovered by the user. According to it, 63% of apps are discovered through app store searches.

Image Source: Kissmetrics.com

Here are few of the factors related to it.

Title– The keyword used in the title should be the most searched word for the apps of that category. Carefully choose the title in the first go as changing it later can make it difficult for the words to spread about your app.

Keywords– Invest some time in searching for the relevant keywords. This will improve your search rankings and help to target the right audience.

Ratings and Reviews– It is difficult to control, but users to rate and review are important to build the trust.

5. Not paying attention to customer support

While the reviews and complaints will come after the launch and once the users start using it, but you need to gear up with a robust customer support system even before the launch. In an extremely competitive market, every user must be treated with care. Once the beta testers are selected, actively engage with them to learn as much as you can. Provide reward points to the testers. Get your entire team in the feedback loop on the app, so that, the problems are understood and resolved wisely. The positive reviews and 5 star ratings will optimize add to the visibility of the app on the store. Moreover, apps with good reviews automatically grabs the attention of the users.

Over to you

One of our previous articles ‘Mobile app development in the nutshell‘ talks about the various aspects that should be considered during the development process. Engage in the pre and post-launch hacks of app development and improving your business fortune.