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Where to Focus to Grow your iOS app

Where to Focus to Grow your iOS app

Presented at Mobile Growth meetup in Belgrade.

More Decks by Aleksandar Vacić (Radiant Tap)

Other Decks in Technology

Transcript

  1. Where to Focus to Grow your App
    MOBILE GROWTH · BELGRADE, SERBIA
    Jan 26th, 2016

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  2. Aleksandar Vacić
    R A D I A N T T A P. C O M
    Publishing apps since 2009
    Main job since 2012
    70+ apps in total @radiantav · @aleksandarvacic

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  3. What Growth?
    Downloads
    Active Daily/Monthly Users
    Paying Users
    Product Sales
    All of the above?

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  4. AIM RIGHT
    GROWTH COMES FROM
    WHAT SUCCESS MEANS FOR YOU
    ▸ I want to be new Facebook / Instagram / Twitter 

    = global domination
    ▸ I want to be a leader in my niche 

    = topic domination
    ▸ I want to live comfortably of my own product 

    = lifestyle business

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  5. Prepared
    BE

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  6. KNOW YOUR MARKET
    APP STORE CHALLENGES
    ▸ Too much of everything
    ▸ Mostly free or low-cost
    ▸ No trials
    ▸ No paid upgrades
    ▸ Terrible Search & Ranking
    ▸ Zero contact with your customers.
    FOR INDIE DEVELOPERS

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  7. KNOW YOUR TOOLS
    MEASUREMENTS & METRICS
    ▸ iTunes Connect App Analytics, Sales & Trends
    ▸ iTunes Affiliates program
    ▸ AppFigures.com
    ▸ Mixpanel.com, Adjust.com (AppTrace), AppAnnie.com etc
    ▸ Collect customer contacts: landing pages, newsletters,
    support contacts

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  8. KNOW YOUR OPTIONS
    MARKETING AVENUES
    ▸ Blogs sponsorships
    ▸ Podcast sponsorships
    ▸ Ad Networks / Exchanges
    ▸ App cross-promotions
    ▸ Social Networks / Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Pinterest
    ▸ Word of Mouth / Organic Installs

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  9. Approach
    RECOMMENDED

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  10. SOLVE A PROBLEM AND ASK
    GOOD MONEY FOR IT
    RECOMMENDED APPROACH · SOLVE REAL PROBLEM
    http://lucvandal.com/2015/07/05/how-to-be-a-successful-indie-developer/
    Luc Vandal

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  11. WHEN SHE COULDN’T FIND A GOOD APP
    TO KEEP TRACK OF HER HOURLY JOB, I
    VOLUNTEERED TO BUILD A GREAT ONE
    FOR HER.
    RECOMMENDED APPROACH · WORK WITH CUSTOMERS
    https://medium.com/@carlosribas/how-hourstracker-earns-five-figures-a-month-on-the-app-store-85a20bb972eb
    Carlos Ribas

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  12. IF I WAS TO RELEASE A RECIPE APP…, I’D BE
    IMPRESSED IF I COULD GET MY MOM TO DOWNLOAD IT.
    THEREFORE, FOR MY HEALTHY RECIPE APPS, I ALWAYS
    TEAM UP WITH HIGHLY INFLUENTIAL BLOGGERS.
    RECOMMENDED APPROACH · PARTNER WITH RIGHT PEOPLE
    https://medium.com/ios-os-x-development/how-a-2-99-recipe-app-became-a-top-2-paid-app-in-the-app-store-f7e83abbb40e
    Andreas Kambanis

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  13. Successes & Mistakes
    LEARN FROM SOMEONE ELSE’S

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  14. Apps available since 2012
    LIFETIME DOWNLOADS
    211k 274k 2k

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  17. KEY TAKEAWAYS
    ▸ Not really a pressing problem for most people
    ▸ Low daily usage → not a good fit for freemium app
    ▸ Temporary free sales are only good if you already plan to
    go freemium and want to increase customer count

    ▸ Still a worthwhile app - a good show-off of my skills

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  19. KEY TAKEAWAYS
    ▸ Good target problem → lots of people want to be in better
    shape
    ▸ Great app → lots of word of mouth
    ▸ Nice, reasonable, organic growth
    ▸ Following Apple’s pace pays off and leads to…
    ▸ App Store features and promotions, which help, a lot

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  20. ISSUES & CHALLENGES
    ▸ Seasonal app
    ▸ Limited life span / no follow-up apps
    ▸ Hard to succed against well funded competition
    ▸ Running communities / coaches don’t really rush to partner
    with me (my app replaces them)
    ▸ Way too common name makes podcast ads useless
    ▸ App review sites are not a good fit

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  21. to grow Run 5k
    WHAT CAN I DO

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  26. 2016 targets
    OPTIONS I CONSIDER

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  27. PLANS, LOTS OF PLANS
    ▸ Experiment with targeted ads / Facebook, Instagram
    ▸ Make new apps / programs to follow up 5k
    ▸ Try Product Hunt for the launch
    ▸ Use IAPs as basis for my own affiliate scheme
    ▸ Simplify initial user flow, affiliate rewards

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  28. PLANS, LOTS OF PLANS
    ▸ Use local push notifications to remind customers
    ▸ Export to calendar to push for more regular runs
    ▸ Push the IAP more heavily, from first completed run
    ▸ Allow large number of options for humble brags
    ▸ Focus on sharing through SMS, email
    ▸ Expand social network sharing, as appropriate

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  29. PLANS, LOTS OF PLANS
    ▸ Be reasonable.
    ▸ Continue working on 2-3 client projects per year

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  30. FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS
    THANKS FOR LISTENING.
    SpeakerDeck.com/radianttap/

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