It’s no doubt that a mobile app can act as a revenue generator for your business. While the idea to make an app may be alluring, you need to be aware of the barriers to successful app launch. Creating an app isn’t a cakewalk. A lot of time and resources are required for making a great app.
Unfortunately, the money and resources that you dedicate to develop a truly amazing app can all be put to waste if you fail to fabricate a proper mobile app launch.
Once you’ve launched the app, you need to think about how to make your app more engaging and alluring so that more users visit your app.
Here, in this article, I’ve discussed the key phases of an app launch. Here are three important stages of an app launch that will help you launch a great mobile app with many downloads and in retaining customers to your app after the app launch.
These stages include,
- Pre-Launch Stage
- During the Launch Stage
- Post-Launch Stage
Let’s read and explore these three stages of launching an app for your business.
The ‘Pre-Launch’ Stage
Pre-Launch is one of the most important stages of an app launch that just can’t be ignored. You need to sketch a proper marketing strategy for your app and work strategically for a successful launch.
You may get easily carried away in the excitement of getting your app in the market. If you diligently launch the app with attention, it pays off in the end. You got to do a lot of strategic planning en route to a successful app launch.
Here are some easy hacks to help brands start off on the right foot to increase their chances of success in getting their apps launched.
- Know your target audience
- Do a thorough research
- Empower your brand to communicate well with the customers,
- Identify your customers’ needs
- Prioritize features that the users want
- Update and pre-message users in advance to inform them about the upcoming changes in the app.
The ‘Pre-Launch Stage’ is considered to be one of the most critical and key phases of an app launch. Here is how the research data is segmented into three sections during the ‘Pre-Launch Stage’,
- Customers’ Needs
Carefully study the features that draw your users to the app and keep them hooked to your app. Study the data and analyze what your users love most about the app.
- New Features to be Added
You may have added the most advanced and popular features. But, all your efforts will go in vain, if these features fail to attract your users. Integrate only those things that are beneficial for your business and desired by your customers too.
- Features that Need to be Removed
Adding too many features in your app without assessing what your customers want or need is a sure-shot recipe for disaster. Feature bloat creates a lot of confusion for the users and it can even drive users away from your app. Moreover, integrating too many features creates a maintenance issue and adds to the complexity of managing large codebases.
This gives your users ample time of time to get used to the features before they hit. Also, this keeps your users excited about the newly added feature and helps in customer retention of your app.
This is why the pre-launch stage happens to be one of the most critical stages of launching an app. As the success of your app depends on this stage, you need to put in special attention and your best efforts to launch the app.
During the Launch – Leverage the Benefits of a ‘Phased Approach’
After the ‘pre-launch’ stage, the period during launching an is one of the most important stages of an app launch. Many business owners and entrepreneurs make a common mistake of asking for feedback at the end of the app development when the entire app has been developed.
What works better for an app development process is the “ Agile Approach”. In the agile methodology, the whole development process is divided into small parts known as “ sprints”. Each part then undergoes exploration, planning, iterations to the first release, product ionizing, and then maintenance.
In the agile approach, you can monitor all the stages of the development process and then, examine the quality & features of the app at the same time. An agile approach allows you to assess and control the overall process of making the app. It gives you the flexibility to deliver the app that you expected to develop for your business.
Other business benefits of Agile Methodology include,
- The use of the Agile approach helps to make the initial launch of the app more manageable and feasible.
- Also, the use of the Agile approach enables you to keep your users engaged with more additional releases at different stages of development.
- You can assess the performance of the app and avail the appropriate feedback on the same.
- It prevents you from jumping too fast on the quality and features of the app for which your app isn’t fully prepared.
You can ask for customer’s feedback and conduct surveys to find out what more about the customers’ likings. After knowing about the customers’ preferences, you can prioritize and integrate essential features in your app accordingly. The time during the launch is perhaps one of the key phases of the app launch.
The ‘Post-Launch’ Stage
Last but by no means the least, here is one of the most important stages of app launch. This is the ‘Post-Launch’ stage. After launching the app, you face a number of problems.
A lot of things may go wrong or may not go as you expected. That’s obvious. You need not worry about it. All you need to do is to learn how to handle the situation in an effective manner. How you respond to these problems is what matters.
In 2011, Netflix, a music-streaming app, announced a sudden increase in its prices. Netflix did that without informing the users in advance and asking for their feedback. As a result, customers started drifting away.
Then, Netflix came with a scheme called Qwikster. It was an attempt made by them to mitigate the losses made due to price increase. Unfortunately, Netflix did the same mistake again. They didn’t ask for customer input before proposing the scheme. Netflix soon realized that the customers hated this idea. Finally, Netflix ran under losses and called the entire scheme off.
On a different note, here is the story of Burbn. Initially, Instagram started as Burbn. The idea was to offer a tool that could help people make plans and work together. But, the idea didn’t work as expected and didn’t gain much popularity.
So, instead of pushing the whole plan, the team analyzed their usage data. They found that one feature—photos—was getting the most attention and being liked by a large section of their users.
Burbn diverted all their focus and efforts on that one feature. This is how ‘Instagram’ came into sustenance. It’s a pretty incredible story that lets you know that a lot can be achieved by listening to your customers.
Things may go wrong, but if you are willing to respond in the right manner, you can surely overcome all obstacles and make a great app for your users. There is a lot you can learn in the ‘Post-launch’ stage, which is one of the key phases of the app launch.
Wrapping It Up
While these stages of launching an app let you know about the life on app launch, you must keep this in mind that launches do not happen in a day. It takes in different stages that involve planning in the ‘Pre-Launch’ stage, decision-making & execution of the plans in the ‘Post-Launch’ stage, and problem-solving in the ‘Post-Launch’ stage.
The success of your app depends on how well you manage and handle the full journey of the app launch. Take advantage of the customer’s feedback, engage your customers, ask for their input. Keep your users informed about the latest changes that you plan to propose in your app. Also, listen to your customers after launching the app and include their suggestions to resolve issues if there are any.
