The continuously growing mobile app market has put some pressure on the app developers. Considering that there are
3.2 billion smartphone users all over the world, the fact that the mobile industry is thriving is no surprise. With the growth of the mobile industry, both startups and large companies want to gain the attention of the users. The challenging part is to create a marketing strategy that will help you avoid pitfalls and have a successful product launch.
If you are looking for a comprehensive strategy that will help you do that, you need to choose the right go-to-market strategy for your app. With the right strategy, you’ll have a strong start in the competitive app ecosystem. So, here is what you need to know in order to bring the product to market successfully.
Identify the Market Opportunity
You want customers to need or want your product. If there is no need, there will be no market opportunity.
This demands that you research the market opportunity and identify the desire for such or similar apps.
First, define your target market and then look for market opportunity.
Pay attention to competitors, how many of them are on the market and what is their success rate. Look for their weaknesses and your advantages over them, because that is what you can focus on in your marketing strategy.
Know that what makes you different from the competition is what will sell your product.
Find the Product’s Purpose
Each new app aims to entertain, inform, educate, or solve a user’s problem. The question you need to ask yourself is: What is my product’s purpose?
Think about the value that your app has for the users. What problem will it fix?
The product needs to have a goal or an aim that it needs to fulfill.
Defining the purpose will help you take your market strategy in the right direction because you’ll know what your product has to offer.
Define Your Customers
Your customers are the ones that make your app a success or failure. Consequently, you need to consider your target audience to form the right go-to-market strategy.
Products are made for users so you need to understand who they are, what are their preferences, and what are their demands.
As
Steli Efti, who is the CEO of sales CRM Close.com said: “Whoever understands the customer best wins.”
Define who exactly your target audience is. Collect demographic info as well as more personal identifiers such as their passion, preferences, and wants.
Use Google, social media, and information about your competitors to find out more about your target audience.
Lock in Monetization/Business Strategy
Whether the app is the main source of revenue generation or it will facilitate or support another product is what you’ll need to define to approach the monetization and business strategy.
The models that are mostly used are:
* Paid Download – The best choice when you want to link revenue to downloads and you have a strong marketing presence.
* Advertising Based – The best choice when you won’t directly monetize from users.
* In-App Purchases – The best choice when you have gaming or service app and can earn profit even with app store fees.
* Subscription – The best choice for a content-driven app that encourages repeated use.
* Freemium – The best choice when the revenue comes from both ads and users.
Ultimately, the big question you need to answer is how the app fits within your organizational objectives?
Choose the Right Message
Messaging refers to how you present the value to the users.
The perspective that you take is an important part of your go-to-market strategy.
In order to present your product in the best light and form a messaging strategy that will get the user’s attention you need to clarify a few things:
* What is the value that the app brings?
* How can it benefit the user?
* What message is the pricing sending?
While the first two questions you’ll know how to tackle from the previous research, the third one can make you think some more.
The pricing is the part of the message just as the value or the benefits. It tells the user more about your product and defines your market strategy.
Will it be a premium product that will be supported by aggressive selling? Or will the price be lower than the competition so you’ll form the message around that benefit?
Think this through and define the direction of your messaging.
Set Up a Launch Strategy
Once you’ve defined all the basic pieces of your market strategy, you should start thinking about how you want to introduce the app to the market.
First, think about whether you want to start with the minimum viable product (MVP) to test the key concepts and see how you can improve the product. This approach can reduce the launch costs but it will also demand more time.
Another option is to use a more mature product.
When it comes to the very launch, you can opt for a soft launch or a hard launch.
A soft launch is realizing the product to a specific and restricted audience. The process comes before launching the product completely and helps you to identify any issues and improvement opportunities. It is the preparation for a hard launch.
A hard launch can come after the soft launch or it can be the first choice. Every Android and
iOS app development agency opt for hard launches because they are expensive and risky.
However, the hard launch does have a competitive advantage because it minimizes the opportunity for replication of the idea.
Some Final Thoughts
Nothing can guarantee your success because you are not the only factor that has an influence on it. What you can influence is to do your best in order to prepare for the product launch and marketing.
By defining your go-to-market strategy through these steps you can increase your chances for success. It will at least help you to avoid commonly made mistakes which is a great starting point. Lastly, remember that the market strategy should always be adapted to the nature of your product and your position in the market.
