With more than 1 million apps already on both App Store and Play Store, how can we ensure that our app gets noticed and that too, gets noticed big?!
This is a frequent and foremost question asked by our PES (Product Engineering Services) clients. I have often deliberated on it, delving into my mobile app consulting and pre-sales experience and have found that…
The key to make it big in the App world is to start small. Way small!
Every hit app which made its makers billionaires, started from a single line idea. An idea so simple, that it would seem simplistic to potential investors. The first step towards landing on such a goldmine of an app idea is to – describe your app in one line, such that it solves a nagging pain point in the field of your business.
Before starting to search the market if any such apps do exist; think of features you would like to have in such an app and make an exhaustive bulleted feature list. Make sure that you do not go overboard and include too much functionality in the first phase. A better way would be to split your list into Phase I (must have) and Phase II (add-on/great to have) features.
Now, look for other similar apps in the market. Do not call them competitors yet. Identify the common features offered by them, unique features that no other app offers and statistical data regarding the number of total downloads and its division over geographical areas.
Do your features overlap with existing app features? If yes, identify how you will represent them differently. Would you consider tweaking the actual functionality a little? Are there some features that no other app from the ‘similar apps’ list has? It is very necessary to have at least one unique feature that you can highlight as a key differentiator in the app market.
Take for example, Whatsapp. There were scores of chatting applications with the likes of Nimbuzz in the ‘similar apps’ list. It offered everything from one-to-one chats, group chats, profile, status messages which these apps already had. And then they hit the home run by including Offline Messaging as a chat feature, along with a one-time login using ‘phone number’ as the unique identifier.
The last and the most important point in getting your app noticed is spreading ‘word of mouth’ in the local community. Online marketing and ad-campaigns are just add-on to your app’s visibility when your app is so handy that a first time user recommends it to people he regularly interacts with. If you can get every beta user to bring in 10 other users known to him, your app can spread its user base faster than any form of viral marketing.
Summing up the 4 tips to make your app get more visibility in the store:
(I would not call them rules, because they are more of pointers to a successful ‘App strategy’ than actions to be followed religiously.)
- describe your app in one line
- make an exhaustive bulleted feature list
- have at least one unique feature
- get every beta user to bring in 10 other users known to him
