Long-term success after the app launch – here’s how!

A mobile app can be a great thing and make an important contribution to a company’s success. However, the prerequisite for this is that someone finds out about it in the first place.

For this reason, it is important to accompany the app launch with the right marketing measures to attract attention. After all, nothing is more frustrating than spending months building a great app that is then hardly used.

The best way to market your app naturally depends heavily on the purpose of your app, the target group and the budget. Here are two examples from our customers:

The LIstory app guides visitors to the small country to almost 150 historical highlights along the Liechtenstein Trail. This is a hiking trail on which tourists can get to know the history of Liechtenstein in just a few days. It was opened to mark the country’s 300th anniversary, which also coincided with the launch of the app.

At the festivities, the app was presented together with the hiking trail and introduced to users. The app was thus ideally integrated into the communication measures and continues to play an important role in Liechtenstein Tourism’s marketing strategy. The app is also being continuously optimized and expanded. This ensures that the investment in the app does not simply fizzle out, but generates lasting interest.

The FOOBY project was never just an app project for our customer Coop, but a large-scale cooking platform that includes a web portal in addition to the mobile app. No wonder, given the highly professional approach to marketing. FOOBY was heavily advertised right from the start in order to attract – and retain – as many users as possible. In addition to various online activities such as banner and video ads, there are now branded shopping bags, cookbooks, collaborations with food bloggers, POS activities and much more.

Once the app is live and has generated sufficient attention at launch, phase 2 begins: monitoring user sentiment. After all, we don’t just want to reach as many people as possible with our apps – ideally, they should also like the app. If users don’t like an app, they will delete it immediately.

To ensure lasting quality, it is important to listen to your users. Which features are well received? What bugs are cropping up? Do we have any weaknesses in terms of content? Because one thing is clear: no matter how much research goes into an app and how much testing is carried out, at least minor issues will always crop up.

These optimization potentials must be recorded and taken into account in the next update. The following therefore applies: At least the ratings in the App Store and Play Store must be kept in mind. It is also best practice to respond to feedback. It can also be helpful to use a monitoring tool such as Hootsuite or Google Alerts to keep an eye on opinions on social media platforms and mentions on the web.

Unfortunately, however, you only receive feedback from very few users:

Studies show that less than 1% of users are actually willing to provide feedback on the app. This can lead to reviews being overrated and incorrectly weighted.

This problem can be mitigated by requesting user feedback, for which there are various third-party tools. Another option is to write to the email distribution list if email addresses have been stored for app use.

If everything has been done correctly up to this point, there is now a list of suggestions for improvement from real app users. In addition, operating systems are constantly evolving and new devices with different screen sizes and resolutions are appearing. In short: only a regularly updated app is a healthy app. It is important to internalize this principle and plan accordingly.

App stores are, to put it mildly, a shark tank. There are currently around 2.7 million apps available for download in the Google Play Store and around 1.9 million in Apple’s App Store. Each of these apps is desperately fighting for the favor of smartphone users.

It is clear that the app must be publicized with classic marketing measures as described above. But you can also do a lot to generate more downloads in the stores themselves. You have to keep one thing in mind: App stores are separate, closed ecosystems that function according to prescribed rules. The process can be compared to search engine optimization (SEO) for websites. After all, app stores are simply search engines in which users search for apps. Factors such as the naming of the app, the choice of a suitable category and sound keyword research are essential for visibility and therefore success in the app store.

The comparison with SEO fits like a glove in that app store optimization is also a long-term matter. Selected keywords, descriptions and visualizations should therefore be regularly checked for their success and adjusted if necessary. There are also suitable third-party tools for this. Alternatively, you can also hand over the ongoing optimization to experts.

The development of a mobile app is a journey that does not simply end once the app is live. Long-term success is not possible without constantly recording user feedback, changes in technological conditions and a clear marketing and ASO strategy.