You’ve got the go ahead from Apple so it’s time to label yourself an entrepreneur, buy yourself some lavish gifts and crack open the champagne right? Well, not quite.

Few apps are good enough to survive the harsh world of the App or Play Store without some serious post-launch work. Having the next Tinder or Uber-but-for-shoes won’t get you very far if you neglect your post-launch marketing or spend too much time celebrating and not enough time, well, working.

Here’s a few of our post launch tips to help you stay on track:

Monitor Engagement & Retention

We cannot express enough how important it is to monitor your engagement and retention. Real user data is invaluable when it comes to improving your app and getting the ball rolling on version 2.

The first thing to note is where the majority of users are dropping off and making sure you address why, alongside what you can do to change it. Is your sign up page too long? Too boring? Are there bugs that weren’t picked up pre-launch?

Use this data to refine your app and make appropriate changes. The app development team behind your product should be able to help you with this, but it’s essentially up to you to make sure users are responding to your app exactly how you envisioned – and if they’re not you need to work out why.

Listen To Feedback

Real user feedback is the best you’re going to get, and should not be ignored. When testing the app yourself it’s all too easy to view it with rose-tinted spectacles. You already know how it all works and may struggle to see how someone might not. It’s unlikely your app will be perfect – especially version 1 – but fortunately your users won’t be afraid to let you know exactly where you’ve gone wrong.

Whether it’s a review on the App Store page or a message on social media about how great (or horrible) your product is, take this feedback on board and start thinking about what you can do to address it.

App Store Optimisation

We went into more detail on how to optimise your app for the App and Play Store in an earlier post, but essentially, ASO is refining your app’s store page to make it show up in as many searches as possible for relevant keywords.

Keyword integration, your title and description will go a long way towards getting your app ranking higher. Launching your app and leaving the fate of it to the App Store Gods definitely won’t guarantee success. Make it easy for people to find your app by investing some serious time and research into ASO.

Check out this post for more ASO tips.

Get Social

It is worth having a social strategy in place before launch day – giving sneak peaks and creating a ‘buzz’ around your product is a great way to ensure users are ready and waiting for the product launch. It’s important to keep this momentum even once your product has launched.

Using social media is a fantastic way to build your brands’ voice and engage with your users on a more personal level. Customers love it when brands appear ‘human’, and social media is a great way to do this.

Provide Incentives

Some of the best marketing successes of the past few years come down to brands providing incentives. Encouraging people to share progress for an extra life, Tweet a link for a boost to the next level or get a friend to sign up for a discount code are great ways to increase engagement and spread the word of your app to a wider audience.

Consider running competitions to help build your social following or integrating video into your content strategy. We’ve done this with our own app Streats and the results have been great so far! Check out the Streats YouTube or Instagram pages and let us know what you think.

We hope you enjoyed our post-app launch tips and perhaps feel inspired to get started on your own project! Please let us know what you think or if you have any questions – either on Twitter or by visiting our contact page!