How to launch a Startup? Tips Before App Development

Hey, everyone. Today, we would like to share more tips for your startup idea tips launch, and here is why.

A couple of times a week we receive questions from Startups such as:
“How much would it cost to develop an app?”, “How long would it take to launch my app?”, “Can you create a Pokemon Go-like app?” and others.
Unfortunately, everyone is sure: “if I get the app-like X, I would get a minimum half of its success”. Originally that was not true.

The development process is just half of all efforts you need to do. The main thing in any app is a marketing strategy. If you want to save a couple or are planning to save on marketing just remember the next stories:

a) “Angry Birds” was inspired by “Crush the Castle” which didn’t have great success.

b) The first SmartWatch was prototyped in 2004 by Microsoft.

c) Nintendo launched VR gaming headsets in 1995 and call them “Virtual boy”!

Points to include in the launch planning of your startup idea tips

There is a list of points that should be included in app/product launch planning:

• The marketing strategy should be launched before development and design.
  This will help you with the targeted audience, design scheme, possibly product characters, date of launch, promotion campaign, etc. For this purpose, you can check our guide on how to create Requirement Documents.
• If you think you have a unique idea google it first. There might be similar ideas or products already. If there is no such — don’t run to the patent bureau to reg it. As you need to have something reasonable to the patent: drawings, unique code samples, or something else. Don’t be afraid to share your idea with professionals. — Just sign an NDA. No one needs your idea, as it requires a lot of work to make it live and there is no guarantee that it gets Fortune 500.
• If you have no friends-developers with whom you can start your Startup idea tips, You can find outsourcing firms or freelancers. There are a lot of pros and cons that can be simply googled. Feel free to ask them to estimate your project.

and sure…

• Make sure that you have a strict plan with the dates of the design and development stage. Sure, in real life there can be delays but not more than 2–3 weeks. Otherwise, your plan sucks or your team sucks.
• During the development process, your marketing and promotion should work. Don’t be afraid to show your prototype with a mass. = You already started on the development process design and your competitors have not. So, “Plagiarists” don’t have a chance. This will heat your Target Audience which will lead to a lot of downloads in the first days.
• After the app launches, you need to show traction. It can be a subscription, a list of downloads, number of active users, etc. Sure, it is based on your app type.

Only with this data, you can go to the investor. Any investor (if it’s not your friend) doesn’t care about design, technology, or idea. Every one of them cares about business.

What investors are looking for in startups?

• The team they are investing in;
• Market size and competitors;
• Why you are better than your competitors and how you are planning to come over them;
• monetization.

But that’s far not all. Why majority think that only development would be enough to earn money after? As for the marketing, it goes down to social posting and friend sharing.

Suggested points for your startup idea tips list

Here are some points we suggest to do:

1) The first thing you need is to create a landing page for your startup idea tips. The reason is to figure out the right positioning for your app. It can be updated and edited dozens of times. The main aim is to get the best conversion.

To create a landing page, you can use any website that provides open-source themes, such as Squarespace or Wix.

2) After you need to send relevant traffic to your landing page so you would be able to achieve two goals:

• At first, you need to validate your idea;
• Secondly, you need to get a few emails from people who are ready to download your app once it launches.

Once you have that emails, you can ask them about the idea, “What do they want to do?”, “What do they need to?”, and “How they are solving an issue without your idea?”

Use FB ads to send relevant traffic to your landing page, the most reliable channel is a paid campaign. Just create Facebook ads and drive traffic to your landing page.

Once you start sending traffic to the landing page, check the conversion rate with Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Localytics, Amplitude, or FB Analytics. If the conversion rate is more than 10 percent then you have a good app idea and the right target audience was selected. Continue running ads to the landing page based on your marketing budget to collect as many emails as possible. In the case of using FB Ads, we suggest integrating FB Analytics, they are more user-friendly to each other.

If you can not see a good conversion rate then you need to update one of the following — landing page messaging, target audience, or the app idea itself.

What to do to get a lot of downloads?

3) If you are looking for a huge bang on your launch day, use good press coverage for your app. Yes, you would need around an extra 5k, but it might be worth it. Here is a short plan of how our startups doing this:

• find reporters who can cover app launches. You can sort them out by looking up coverage on other apps that were launched recently.
• reach these reporters out and pitch your app. Just make sure they won’t write before the launch.
• Provide them with exclusive access to the app so they would be able to write and publish an article on the launch day.

4) Now you can start with App Store Optimization. The app store description can contain the same sections as your landing page has, such as — the headline, benefits, features, and a few testimonials. Check the details article What app store optimization tools should your startup use?

5) There are some quite inexpensive ASO companies, that can leave feedback about the app. With another extra $2-3k you can get around 200-300 feedbacks in a week. All of these will greatly help your app get Featured on AppStore or Google Market. With such coverage, you can be sure that your app will get Featured on AppStore (if it’s not a game).

6) Make sure that your Analytical tool is ready and set up well in the app.

7) Don’t forget to use Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube. These tools would be very helpful to attract new users;

Launch Day

Make sure publications are ready to publish the articles at the agreed time and open your bottle of wine. 🤓

All the work done will provide you with unbelievable results – you can be sure. Take your seat and wait for the user’s feedback – there will be a lot of work as with them, so with other newspapers.

The last advice, don’t afraid and move forward. We’ve prepared the article to encourage you: 20 Myths About Custom MVP App Development: Busted.

Also, we would recommend checking the following articles:
– How to Split Startup Equity among Startup Stakeholders?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Hope our short list of tips will be useful for you. Wanna more cool content, check our deep comparison between MVP and original app development.
If you have any comments, don’t hesitate to reach us directly