A Marketer's Complete Guide to Launching Mobile Apps

Step 1: Define Success
If you're aiming for a successful mobile app
launch, you need to define what success
looks like. Set some measurable goals around
your launch. I recommend measuring success
around your active install rate -- this tells
you retention rate, or the number of people
who install your app and then don't uninstall
it -- the number of ratings you receive, your
average rating in the app marketplace, and if
you're selling your app, revenue generated
from your app. To help you set some
benchmarks, most free mobile apps have a
higher active install rate during the first
month, usually around 50%, after which it
levels off around 30% . The average app store
rating is a 3 (out of 5), for which you should
certainly strive much higher to maintain a
healthy active install rate.
Step 2: Claim Your Social
Media Accounts
Pre-launch, claim your accounts in social
media, and use them actively to generate
interest like Android Photobooth did on
Twitter. You can use your social media
accounts to showcase the app while it's in
development and solicit feedback and ideas
from your future users. When your app
launches, though, be sure to change the link
in your Twitter bio to direct to the app store.
Remember, your goal isn't site traffic; you
want to drive downloads.
And don't discount newer social networks
like Pinterest for launching your mobile app
-- the highly visual social network is the
ideal place to show other mobile app
developers your product in its final stages
who may have some great suggestions for
UI/UX improvements. Unless, of course,
you're trying to beat a competitor to market!
Finally, if you're a HubSpot customer, you
can leverage another app -- the Facebook
Welcome app in HubSpot's app marketplace
-- to help with your mobile app launch on
Facebook. Generate some pre-release buzz
by customizing a page that lets people sign
up for an alert when the app launches. We'll
get into some fun pre-launch deals that will
generate buzz around your app that you can
associate with this email alert in Step 11.
Step 3: Create Content
Spend time creating content that clearly
explains how to use your mobile app. This
content should include blog posts, press
releases, social media content, website copy,
and email marketing copy. You can pre-
schedule all of this to go live on your launch
day, though you should check in periodically
on social media during launch week to
provide real-time updates that pertain to
support issues, reviews, and respond to user
recommendations.
Step 4: Record a Demo
Create a video that shows how to use your
mobile app -- you can easily do this with a
user-friendly program like Camtasia that
allows screen capture and voiceover
recording. Clearly explain what the app does
and why it is useful in real-life scenarios in
this video. Again, there are so many mobile
apps out there, that differentiating yours will
come down to clear communication in all of
your marketing materials. A short video demo
is one of the easiest ways to display the
value of your mobile app. For an example of
a fantastic mobile app demo, see Salesforce
Chatter's mobile app demo video , which
shows how the app works on the iPhone,
iPad, and BlackBerry.
Step 5: Launch a Dedicated
Site or Page
You can launch either a dedicated website for
your app -- more appropriate if your mobile
app is a business in its own right -- or
simply create a page for your mobile app on
your website. The latter is what most
companies who launch a mobile app choose
to do. To complement your social media
efforts, you should launch these pages even if
your app hasn't yet hit the market. Direct
users to this page of your site, let them view
your demo video, and encourage them to
sign up for a download alert email once your
mobile app goes to market.
Step 6: Choose an App
Store
Mashable recommends choosing just one app
store in which to launch your mobile app at
first. This should help you get the highest
concentration of users and ratings possible.
Additionally, you'll be making lots of changes
and improvements to your app during those
first few weeks after launch, and having your
app in just one store will help you streamline
those updates as they roll out. Once your
app is more established, feel free to expand it
to more app stores.
The most common app stores are the
Android Market and the Apple App Store ,
though there are many other app stores out
there (even HubSpot has its own App
Marketplace !).
Step 7: Network With Other
App Developers
Reach out to other app developers that have
created an app that could be complementary
to yours, and whose users might also like to
use your app. You could set up a mutually
beneficial co-marketing opportunity that
helps you both increase your install rates.
Just be sure to select developers who have
great ratings in the app store; you don't want
to associate your app with a bad product.
Step 8: Pitch Your App
Pitch your story to tech, mobile, and industry
journalists and bloggers. Be armed with the
video demo you recorded, and be prepared to
give them a free download of your app so
they can get to know the interface and your
app's capabilities. Make yourself readily
available to them to answer any of their
questions, and consider them another test
group who can find bugs and make UX/UI
recommendations.
You should start pitching at least a few
weeks in advance so they have time to
experiment with your app and write a
compelling story without being rushed. Plus,
the more time they have, the more likely they
can fit you into their editorial calendar.
Step 9: Tap Your Network
for Buzz
Reach out to your business network and ask
them to share your content about the app's
impending release socially. Send your
network a sneak preview email with a link to
your demo video so they can see how your
app works, and include social sharing
buttons to make sharing your content simply.
This is also a great recourse for bloggers and
journalists you've contacted who aren't
willing to publish long-form content about
your app; you can ask them if they'd be
willing to tweet a blog post you've written
about your app instead.
Step 10: Set Up Paid
Advertising
Because of the Google algorithm's freshness
update , you might gain some organic search
tractions at your mobile app launch.
Complement that search presence with some
paid advertising during launch week. You can
also set up paid, targeted ads on Facebook
to drive users to your Facebook fan page,
where they'll be greeted with your welcome
screen encouraging them to sign up for your
mobile app (see Step 2).
Step 11: Launch an Invite-
Only Beta
Before you take your mobile app live to the
public, consider an invite-only beta launch.
Websites Spotify, Google+, and Pinterest have
used this tactic with great success. It not
only creates an air of exclusivity that
generates buzz around your product, but it
also lets you get feedback from a trusted
network so you can fix bugs and UX/UI
problems before rolling your app out full
scale.
You can use the email list referenced in Step
2 as your pre-launch beta test group, and
supplement it with an email marketing send
to a segment of your current customer list
that would benefit from using your mobile
app. You can position the launch as free,
exclusive access to your mobile app before it
launches, and even ask them to write a
review of your app in exchange for that free,
exclusive access.
Step 12: Put Download
Links Everywhere
This step is for when you're ready to go live
to the public. Put links to download your
mobile app on your blog, your website's
home page, in your marketing emails, and on
your social media accounts -- you can even
add a mobile tab to your Facebook page .
Take a look at Zappos' mobile app page
below, which includes three calls-to-action
on just one page, all of which are to
download its mobile app.
Step 13: Monitor Feedback
and Encourage Reviews
Finally, monitor peoples' feedback about your
app, and strongly encourage users to post
reviews. It's not just that the apps with the
best reviews get the most visibility and
downloads; this process helps you identify
bugs you wouldn't otherwise know about and
make quick changes to improve the user
experience and make your app stickier. Keep
users updated on your progress as you make
it so they know you're listening and
responding to their feedback.
For two examples of mobile apps taking the
feedback and review process seriously, take a
look at Zappos and Salesforce. Salesforce
includes user reviews not only in the app
store, but also on its website. This review
shows a real-life application of its mobile app
helping a customer.
Zappos takes encouraging feedback seriously
-- the copy on the mobile app page of its
website asks people to tweet at them on
their mobile-dedicated Twitter account with
recommendations to improve the app. Plus,
Zappos' tagline says it all: "Try it. Rate it.
We Love You."