Real Life iPhone App Marketing - 3 Lessons
Recently on Mobile Orchard, a developer focused blog and podcast that we enjoy, there was a podcast about Lessons in iPhone Game Marketing. The podcast was an interview Owen Goss, the creator of the iPhone app Dapple. He wrote a blog post back in March about the struggles of making money on his iPhone game. It raised a lot of controversy and got picked up by some major tech blogs. Mobile Orchard sat down with Owen to discuss the topic in more detail. There are a lot of good items in the podcast but we wanted to pull out 3 common pitfalls we see developers make when it comes to mobile app marketing.
1. Building good apps takes time
Owen indicates in the interview what we hear all the time. Building a quick proof of concept iPhone application isn’t that hard. But building a polished, usable iPhone application takes a lot more effort. Owen estimated he had a proof of concept in weeks but it took almost 6 months to produce the final polished application.
We concur, in fact, we argue that not all programming backgrounds are well suited to develop iPhone applications. In our work, we have found that former game designers/developers have an easier time producing a quality, fun to use iPhone app than former web focused developers.
2. Think about marketing the app from the beginning
Owen also indicates that he got a lot of feedback after his release that caused him to change the gameplay a bit. He also feels that his game is not ‘pick it up and start playing’ usable by the average consumer. There was also no built in incentive for players to drive word of mouth, like community oriented high scores, invite a friend, etc. Owen indicates that he is working on a new game that he feels is better designed for the iPhone market.
Note the distinction, Dapple, his current game, is by all means a decent game. What Owen has realized though is that his game might not be the best fit for the average iPhone market. When going for volume, you need to understand the average market and design an application that will be exciting, yet can be used quickly. He is now considering the market and how to encourage word of mouth into his next application.
As we tell our clients: The best time to think about marketing your application is when you are first imagining your application.
3. A successful launch is critical
This one may be obvious to many mobile app developers these days, but it bears repeating. Most people know that basics like getting app to review sites, video walkthrus, press releases, and more need to be wrapped up well before the iTunes launch.
Owen indicates that as he was getting close to releasing the application, he was so focused on bug fixing and last minute tweaks that he didn’t have time to properly execute a good launch. So even though people know they need to do marketing activities before launch, most don’t have the time to give it the proper focus.
With the volume of iPhone apps being approved every day, most iPhone applications that are released only get listed on the new and noteworthy page for minutes to a couple hours. The launch time is critical.
There is a lot more in the podcast - Give it a listen!
In Conclusion
We wanted to call out the 3 points above as we see it often with mobile application developers. While Bootcamp Mobile can help you after your product has been released, Owen’s story shows that you should think about working with us as early into the product design as you can. There are close to 40,000 mobile applications in the iPhone store. Without successful mobile app marketing, how do you expect to standout?
