Gone are the days when mobile phones were used only for making calls and receiving them. These days it’s all about apps as they rule the mobile industry. There are about millions of apps stored in various app stores. Every day, hundreds of apps are built and used by the people. But out of them only a few handful make it to the list of famous apps. Thus, to stand away from the crowd, the mobile app development should be successful and fulfilling in many of the dedicated categories.
Let’s find out the factors on which the success of an app highly depends.
1. Your app should serve its purpose
Without worrying much about the category, your app should concentrate more on the purpose. It should serve the main goal of providing solution to a bunch of audience and be useful to them. Take care to know the difference between purpose and needs. If you are fulfilling the purpose but failing to fulfil the end users’ need then the app might fail due to all valid reasons.
2. Make your product as great as possible
The key lies in doing the job in the best way. Talking about best apps, they do only one thing and get the best out of it. Of course, it should be well designed and have all the UI and UX effects which can make it better for the audience.
The speed, colors, combinations and such small factors matter to most of the users. If your app is perfect in such a way, then there will surely be tonnes of followers for your unique app.
3. Major focus is Android
In the initial years, iPhone was introduced to us as a smartphone and to make use of all the apps. But with changing times, Android has taken over the mobile industry.
It is a major dominant platform over which almost more than 50% of mobile phones are developed. Moreover, it holds about more than 60% of market share, giving us enough reasons to include Android in the road map.
4. Always have user’s point of view
The users’ needs and motivation is all that should matter when you have an idea in your mind. A deep understanding of users’ requirements and their way of perceiving things is very essential. For this will give you a better concept and a profound foundation to give users the best experience.
A user is not online all the time. Moreover, he or she might not have access to the web in remote areas. This calls for good usability of the app in offline mode. There are several apps like WorkFlowy and Evernote who work seamlessly even when the user is not connected to WiFi or any other similar signal.
This design pattern should be planned by the developers right in the beginning. Such features will help your app to compete well in the future markets.
6. More and more developers are using grids in their apps
Making use of grids adds consistency to your app. It helps moving to and fro from pages to pages without any obstacles. They are an important design feature which add a visual connection between the apps and users which, in turn, makes it more user friendly.
7. Make is as convenient as possible for the users
Whenever you start designing or mobile app development, make sure you are helping the consumer in making their life simple and quick. After all, apps are actually made for them. You have human-centred designs, but you might not have a good number of follows as each has its own way of using and deciding whether an app is useful or not.
Thus, with growing competition as well as demand in the market, entrepreneurs are going out of their way to use the best mobile app development practices and create apps which actually makes a good sense to the audience. The above points stresses the aspects on which the success of an app highly depends.
If you use apps or know about android app development or iPhone app development, then you have definitely viewed or heard of app preview videos. Google and Apple app stores are maxing out at almost 2 million apps each and new apps stand out because they infuse bright colours with bold designs or simply because they are developed by reputed organizations. In a sea of developers and designers, each with their own unique ideas, mobile app preview videos help your product stand apart from the crowd.
What an app preview video does is it increases the chances of your iPhone or Android app being downloaded and it does this by simply allowing prospective users to take a look at what your app offers and how it works. We can tell you off-hand that a paid app has a higher chance of being downloaded if buyers can preview what your app does before investing their money.
Here is an example for an app video:
App stores are the battleground where iPhone and Android apps compete for downloads regardless of the effort that has went into android app development or iPhone app development, budgets or marketing strategies. The best apps as well as the obscure ones are given equal opportunities to strut their stuff in elaborate app descriptions, screenshots, ratings and reviews.
User Psychology
The only thing standing between your app and a million downloads are the users. Unfortunately, users are lazy. Studies have shown that more than 60 percent of iPhone or Android app store visitors don’t even look at the two most effective means of describing what an app does – screenshots and descriptions. This means that 60 percent of prospective users won’t even bother to check what your app does. App preview videos are the next best thing in these situations because almost everyone will tap a play button instead of scrolling through text.
Image courtesy: Apple
StoreMaven reports that adding preview videos increases conversions by 20 percent for App Store and 35 percent for Play Store. In other words, people are more likely to download your app if they watch a video of it first. Did you know that app preview videos can affect the ratings of your app? Tune conducted a survey which revealed that apps with preview videos were generally given a higher rating than apps without them. The average rating for apps without a preview video is 3.81 stars, almost half a star lower than the average rating for apps with a video: 4.24 stars.
Image courtesy: Tune
In App Store and Play Store, higher ratings help new apps move up in app rankings and app rank is the default sorting filter applied in both stores when people are browsing. Newly released apps don’t have a tonne of reviews which prospective users can read so unless there are other pointers, like preview videos, users will classify the app as suspicious and move on to other options.
Ankit Jain, former head of Google Play search said at a recent Google I/O conference “Video previews are the next level of screenshots. With a short video, you’re able to show the user really what it’s like to play with your app. Giving potential users an accurate impression of what your app is all about is an approach that keeps on giving… developers have told us that uploading a video can really help gain user adoption, and users in a lot of studies have told us that video previews are amongst the most convincing features of an app details page.”
Image courtesy: Tune
If you have spent your time, effort and money for android app development or iPhone app development, then you want it to have higher ratings. Almost 60 percent of the ratings are achieved through app descriptions and user reviews but where can you find that extra edge to push your app in front of the competition? 40 percent of smartphone users consider app preview videos among the top three deciding factors for a download.
To sum it up here’s why preview videos are essential for your mobile app:
1. It engages users more directly than text or screenshots.
2. Videos are easy to share and have the potential to become viral, unlike text.
3. Users prefer watching videos to scrolling and reading.
4. Videos communicate ideas more clearly and effectively in very little time.
5. It provides a demo of your app so users know what to expect.
So if you are confident that your iPhone or Android app is sure to hit the top-10 list, give the users a preview of your app because if there’s one thing we know, it’s that people like to tap play buttons on their smartphone screens.
5 Simple Tips To Make Mobile App Videos
Now that you know why app preview videos are important, let’s get on with understanding how to make them and ensure the efforts of your android app development or iPhone app development team doesn’t get wasted.
1. Define a script. On Apple’s App Store your preview video has 30 seconds to tell users about your app and convey its usefulness. While Google’s Play Store does not have a time limit, studies show that the average viewer will look at a video for two minutes before moving on. This sort of constraint implies that you need to brainstorm ideas to highlight the most compelling features of your app and write a script which will effectively showcase each of them. Unlike Play Store, App Store does not allow localisation of videos. This means that for an iPhone app, the same preview video is viewed all over the world so including text or narration is not the best idea since you are limited to one language.
2. Capture the video. Apple’s app preview guidelines state that absolutely no real-world footage should be included in the video, unless you have developed a camera app. Your preview video should contain only animation and in-app features. We suggest using expanding dots to convey taps and moving arrows for gestures. Of course, if your app works on only one or a few screens, a preview video won’t really get you anywhere. Play Store, on the other hand, provides a set of loose guidelines/suggestions which, if followed, will ensure that your preview video effectively communicates the usability of your Android or iPhone app.
3. Add music. Including a sound track in your preview video will make it livelier but, for legal and moral reasons, you are limited to using audio tracks for which you have acquired licensing rights. Let’s just say Beethoven wouldn’t like his compositions to be used in an app without his knowledge. For this reason, several app developers source audio from SoundCloud and look for royalty-free tracks. If you are showcasing your Android or iPhone app being used then it is a good idea to include the UI sound effects to give a sense of continuity to viewers.
4. Format your video. Apple’s guidelines are very particular when it comes to preview video resolution, file type and even pixel shape. Your video has to be shot at the native resolution of devices on which it will be viewed. This means that for iPhone 6 users your video should have a resolution of 750 x 1334 and for iPhone 6 Plus: 1080 x 1920, any other resolution and your video is rejected. A tool called FFMPEG will help you easily reformat preview videos.
5. Upload your video. Play Store allows you to link promo videos from YouTube so post your preview video on YouTube and then link to it. Be sure to make the video Play Store specific, for example – don’t include an end slide that says “Download from App Store and Google Play”. App Store is more specific when it comes to preview videos – you need to upload the video using Safari, Apple’s web browser. Apple rejects videos which have non-square pixels but luckily, there are several online tools which will convert your video into a square-pixel format.
So, you are armed with valuable video making knowledge. You can go ahead and make an app preview video that will make your Android/iPhone app shine brighter than the competition! Do you have experience creating an app preview video? We would love to hear from you in the comments section below.
You can almost always get a great app if you put in sufficient and focused effort. Yet, the Apple store success is practically a different story. Sometimes, things can go really bad. But, if you are so sure about your app’s potential and can’t forgive yourself for the whole iPhone app development turmoil, you should definitely consider giving your app a second chance.
However, there are certain things that you must ensure are given notice, so as to give your iPhone app the highest chances of success. This article will discuss what you could do once your app fail to make the required admiration among the crowd in the iOS market.
1. Work on your social media promotion: Even after iPhone app development, if you are still willing to invest time and capital, you can start with social media promotion. You can drive some of your downloads via this method.
Promote your app on facebook, twitter, google plus and other places, where a crowd gathers on the virtual world. Include great looking screenshots and user stories. Fake facebook likes aren’t of much use here. You can begin with your friends, colleagues, and family, after which you can gradually reach out to the masses.
2. Ensure that there is an existing market demand for your app: You cannot sell a stupid or gross app idea no matter how cool it looks and function. For e.g., “Simstapler”, “The most useless app ever ” and “iBeer” are simply purposeless apps.
So, you should ensure that your app has an existing demand in the marketplace, or at least your app should be able to create a new demand. When it’s too late, there is nothing else that you can do other than throwing your app away and saving your time & money further!
3. Get a good description and logo: Your app name, logo, and screenshots together should catch the attention of your audience and prompt them into clicking the download button within 2 seconds after they have landed on your page. That means you should do a lot of homework here. If you are a solo developer and is not very good at creating something that could impress others, you should better get additional help from outside.
4. Get rid of that bad UI: If your UI is awfully bad, redo it. Your UI needs elements that engage the user. A good user experience is something that holds your users to the app that they once downloaded out of sheer curiosity.
5. Plan it right away: It is a big mistake that you did not plan your marketing strategy before starting with iPhone app development. The best thing you can do now, if you are determined to go forward with the same app is planning the strategy as early as possible.
Get insights about the different marketing tactics from experienced hands and choose the best strategies that may sell your particular app. Decide what parts you will stress like more videos or including offline promotional methods.
6. User retention: Don’t forget your existing users, how limited in number they are. If they are having complaints about your app, give them quick responses and if you require time to sort out an issue, politely inform them.
7. Getting feedback and monitoring customer engagement: You should learn to collect feedback from your customers, and most importantly the feedback should be valued enough. Customer feedback and customer engagement reports are two major sources that throw light on the performance of your app. Feedback will let you know what users like in your app and what they hate. You can also use your findings as a basis for designing your next app.
8. Measure your marketing effectiveness: After you implement each of your marketing strategies, there should be constant monitoring to check whether they are actually giving you the desired out-turn.
User retention has become a serious concern for almost all business owners. The influx of apps has made retaining users harder than ever for mobile app development companies and marketers.
One should never be afraid that loyalty happens by its own will. You can exhibit a certain level of control over these things, once you get an idea about how people generally behave. So, what are the spheres that you should pay attention to so that you could lure your users and keep their interest alive? The tips below answers you this question.
Watch out negative ratings
Oops! This might keep your app repressed. Bad experiences are communicated more swiftly than good ones. And when you show no interest in attending your users’ concerns and complaints your app review page will be flooded with dissatisfaction, disappointment, and contempt.
Quick response is paramount for trust building and user retention. Once people feel they are being neglected, there is no way of keeping them hooked on your app. Retaining existing customers is as important as acquiring new customers.
Do not promise what you cannot deliver
A mobile app development company should be careful to deliver what is promised in the app; or maybe it is better said the other way round. Do not promise what you could not deliver.
When a customer finds out that you have lied about something that is promised in your app, they will feel that they have been cheated and eventually they will fail to observe other worthful features in your app.
Think ahead
People don’t restrain themselves to the old views and ideas anymore. This is the age of exploration and comfort living. As a result, the demands and expectations in the market are rising day by day. Apps that make valuable and unique solutions are quickly absorbed into people’s everyday lives.
During the inception of app idea, you should do your homework and try to define why you want to promote something, and equally why your customers need to choose the particular service that you provide. This will make the cornerstone of every achievement that a mobile app development company will make in the future.
Provide existing communication channels
How many times have you felt annoyed when the telephone line that you are trying to reach is found to be dead? Your customers feel the same way when they are not being heard. You should allow your customers to establish personalized communication with you when they are in need of your support.
Making your customers feel like they matter will help you in cultivating trust in your brand. Apps that provides good customer service retains their customers far better than those which doesn’t. Loyalty is something that is determined by a quality and timely service too.
Something that is quite important like establishing a live communication channel, is providing talented personnels who could manage user queries and complaints well. Customers should be given respect for who they are and what they believe.
Ensure user engagement is taking place
Monitoring how much your users are engaged with your app and taking adequate measures to boost engagement will help you in retaining your customers for a long term. It should be noted that each and every user is unique and their needs are different. This in turn calls for delivery of user specific content, which will help in instilling interest and generating revenue.
