8 components of the success of your mobile application (Part 2)

Lost your keys 1-4? You can find them in the first part.

... Last year I was in turmoil. For 14 months, I gave all my heart, soul, and modest savings to the application, which I was proud of.
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An app that earned less than one hundred bucks a month.

What did I do wrong? I set out to understand this.

I contacted three dozen successful entrepreneurs in this field, experts in mobile marketing and mobile analysts. I recorded a video interview in which I asked each of them: What is the secret of success in the AppStore?

Key 5: Learn some marketing tricks

Here is an independent developer’s dream: Stay behind the scenes while the power of your new application speaks for itself. People will find it themselves, quickly and naturally.

But in reality it does not work: too many applications and distractions in the lives of users. If you have developed a great program, your work does not end there. You must have a marketing strategy so that users can find your application and understand why it is for them.

A lot of developers are trapped by making an application release and not understanding why it did not immediately become successful. “Developers are frustrated because they don’t know what they are getting into,” said Rick Singer, CEO of GreatApps.com. - No one tells you: “Congratulations, your application is running! Here is a list of things you must do to make it successful. ” No, you just thank and pay a certain amount, and then - sort it out (or rather, develop) yourself. "

Think about it: at least every single day at least 1600 applications appear in the App Store. The App Store hosts 1.5 million business applications (1.8 million on Android). The chances that users will come across your app in the store, even if they are looking for something like this, are diminishing every day.

If you don’t do marketing, you’ll get lost in the crowd. But there is good news: you need to learn only a few marketing techniques to be ahead of 90% of independent developers who don’t promote their projects at all - they don’t even have a clue about this.

As entrepreneurs and independent developers, we are crazy about the stories of such amazing unexpected successes like Flappy Bird and Crossy Road. But truly noticed Sean Casto, founder and CEO of PreApps.com: “In reality, the possibility of such success is close to zero. Your chances of succeeding without an effective marketing strategy can be assessed as one in a million. ”

If you have a new application, then consider it as a novelty that you need to unleash. It is necessary to convey to other people what is amazing, but first of all it is necessary to ensure that users know about its existence.

In a recent conversation with the developer, Rick’s team insisted: “My screenshots are better than most, and that’s why people will download my application.” What did Rick's team say?

- But how do they start to find your application?

- But I'm not a marketer! I am a developer!

Marketing is not easy for most application developers. Crawling out from behind its keyboard can be a daunting task. And spending time on something other than developing applications can rarely seem like a pleasant prospect.
But in order to give your application the best chance of success, you need to allocate not less time and resources to your marketing strategy than to develop an application. For many developers, this looks like a bitter pill.

Think of it this way: you don't have to be an expert in marketing, but you have to start somewhere. You need to learn the basics, unless you have a business partner who will take this part of the business on your shoulders. As soon as you start looking at applications as business and not as a hobby, you will be ready to win a place under the sun among middle-class developers or even higher.

"For developers, it is very important to remember that many application creators, who, figuratively speaking, are beyond the poverty line of their applications, do not really approach their business as a business," Rick notes.

You must treat the app store as a distribution platform. This should not be your main marketing strategy. "It will be very difficult for you if you hope that the app store will be the door through which a wave of shoppers will rush to download your app," says Mark Wilcox. “If you find other channels, you will automatically get the advantage.”

Good news: you are on the right track. In this book (remember, this post is a translation of a separate chapter from the book of the author - approx. Translator) you will find wonderful solutions from both marketing experts and entrepreneurs-developers. Just try a few of them, track the results, adjust your strategy, and this will increase your chances of success.

Key 6: Treat it like a business

If you properly set yourself up for patient and constant work, then you have a chance of success. Focus on creating a long-term competitive business and avoid the thinking model in which the desire to get rich quick comes to the fore.

“Disappointment quickly befalls developers,” warns Rick Singer. “They want to instantly succeed immediately, because it was done by Candy Crush and a handful of other apps.” And we really live in a world of fast results. We live in a world where we can pick up our phone and reserve a plane ticket, book something, virtually we can do anything with a phone. ”

Developers rarely experience the same immediate reward for their work. “Even if you have a huge advertising budget, you still need time for marketing to produce results,” Rick notes. - The most important thing: the developer must have great patience. The second is persistence. Keep knocking on doors every day. And these two qualities will incredibly increase your chances of success. "

Another important detail requiring change: stop thinking of creating an application as a series of separate tasks, some of which are not related to “your work”.

"A surprisingly large number of developers see themselves exclusively as developers," said Martin MacMillan. “Those who are now more intelligent in their approach to business look at it as something much more holistic, saying:“ Well, being an application developer is a business. I can be a marketer, and look from the point of view of the consumer, and be a developer. "" To succeed you really need to think about all facets of the business.

This is not easy, especially if you are developing applications because of the love of writing code. “A lot of developers love writing code. Well and good. When it's a hobby, but not a business, says Chris. - And if this is a business? You start thinking about marketing, you are hiring an accountant, you don't want to skimp on design. Now for me, this is all very clear, but it seems to me that when you are boiling in all this, it is not easy for you to understand that you are really doing this. In a completely strange way, you yourself are sabotaging you. ”

So where can an independent developer expect success? Analytical company VIsion Mobile published the famous research results, which indicated that 60% of developers are in poverty in the application world. That means they earn less than $ 500 a month. On the other side of the spectrum, super-successful developers earn $ 1 million daily. And where do you expect to find yourself?

For a realistic assessment of Peggy Anne Salz’s success, she cites the example of an independent developer she recently spoke to. His niche? One special type of game: crosswords. “He is already earning from 5 to 6 thousand dollars a week, and plans that the profit will increase to 10 thousand,” says Peggy.

Can you duplicate this success? By following his formula for success, you will get an advantage. Choose a niche, meet your audience, create an application and meet the needs of your users. Repeat until you create a network of applications that your audience likes.