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Madhukar Kunam 
Week10.pptxCOIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms Week 10: App Stores and Marketing
Dr. R. Balsys, CQU, 2018.
Source: Beginning Mobile Application Development in the Cloud, R. Rodger, 2012, ch. 13 pp. 435-441.
Week 10 – App Stores & Selling Your App
This week we:
Create icons & splash screens for Apps
Prepare screenshots and App metadata
Understand AppStore terms and conditions
Determine how to develop a marketing plan
Understand freelance work
Understand how to use apps for business promotion
Use both standard and guerilla marketing tactics
Learn about building communities around our apps
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Icons and Splash screens
Icons are visually associated with your app and need to be well designed and aesthetically pleasing
They should be designed by a graphics designer and a number of different sized .png images are required
You full app also requires a “splash” screen
Screenshots of the main screens of your app are required for submission to Apple’s App Store and the Android marketplace
On Android you can get a screenshot by holding the Back key and also holding the Home key down for a few seconds or by taking a screenshot from the emulator
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
App Metadata
When submitting an App to a store the following information is required
A short textual description of the app
The category to which your app belongs
Keywords relevant to search results for the app
Supporting website address for the app
Any promotional graphics or video
A change log for the app
A content rating
The market geographical regions
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Working With the App Store
App must be submitted and accepted before they are available
Apps need to be digitally signed
The general business model is that the store receives 30% of either the sales price or the subscription fee, to be paid every 30 days
In-app advertising revenue appears to be exempt from the terms
You need to read the terms and conditions that apply to the use of both the Android Marketplace and Apple’s App Store
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Determining a Marketing Strategy
A number of questions need to be answered to define a marketing strategy. Specifics include:
Demographics, what are the sex, ages and incomes of target audience
Needs, what user need does the app fill?
Cost of promotion, how much will advertising cost relative to the market size?
How will the app be used?
You need to test and verify that your answers are correct
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Building Apps for Other
Most likely you will be building apps for your employer or on a contract basis for someone. You should build for success
Explain to clients the importance of usability, meeting app store guidelines, common interface conventions, the economics of cloud hosting, and how to launch and market the app
Make sure you have a documented contract for work, have received a down-payment before starting and invoice your time and costs as they occur
Offer fixed rate or standard time and materials day rates. The fixed price should be about 50% extra to cover time blow-outs in development
Offer a discount for early payment
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Promoting Your Business
A number of strategies can be used to promote your business
Subscription Based Services. Here the app is distributed for free but a monthly subscription is charged for services. The key is that the service must be of value to the customer or they will not pay
Offering free versions of the app. These all limit the functionality of the app. The idea is the user can get a feel for the app. The fully featured app is then purchased
If your business already has a commercial presence then the app can be promoted through those channels
Selling in-app Ads. If enough people use your app then selling advertising space in the app can be a useful revenue stream
Premium services can be offered at a higher rate
In-app purchases. In this model the app is free or almost so, revenue is gained by selling items, eg games offering magical items for real $’s
Cross application apps are developed once but deployed across multiple devices thus increasing market base and potential revenue
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Selling Apps
You need to be clear on why you are developing apps and whether you are building reputation or trying to make money
Coding plays a relatively small part in the time involved in selling apps. Most of your time will be spent marketing the app
You need to set goals such as
What apps for what audience
How much income per month are you targeting
Only build what can be done. Plan for apps that take about a month to develop
Consider how you will pay the bills before your income starts turning up
Set timelines for the progress in 1st 3 months and stick to it
Use a spreadsheet to model all your expenses and expected income
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Embracing Marketing
You need to understand marketing. If you want to make money then your target demographic must be able to buy the app
You need to understand where your market goes to find information and make sure your product information can be found there
Each app must be continually updated and marketed
You must either develop 1 or 2 high value apps or, more likely, develop a large number of less costly apps
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Marketing Tactics
There are a large number of apps out there, getting noticed is hard
You need to keep track of every $ spent on an app and your time spent on an app. Use a spreadsheet for this and convert your time into dollars on a contracting basis. Monitor this on a weekly basis and if an app does not pay then consider spending your time elsewhere
Only advertise in arenas where you know you will get customers from
Use real people to help you user test your ideas. From this develop your marketing ideas
Plan your marketing campaign to last months, using advertising, blogs and other means for this
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Standard Tactics
Create a website to go with your app. It allows you to market and service your customers
Have a forum on the website and continuously mine the forum for useful information
Use social forums to spread the message about your app
Create a mailing list forum for you app and use this to spread marketing information
Develop promotional material for your app and use it. Use different promotional material and track the effectiveness of it
Give your app to well known bloggers in the hope they will write about it
You can use traditional media for advertising as well
Submit your apps to mobile app competitions
Provide a free lite version of your app
Price your app competitively
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Expensive Tactics
Advertise your apps on on app directory site where the ad will be seen
You can target high readership content sites and or advertise within other popular apps
Create a sustained media campaign targeting social media and major content sites
Use an advertising agency to do the promotion for you
You can also use offline advertising such as radio, TV and newspapers to advertise
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
Guerilla Tactics
A young individual is unlikely to have much money to put into advertising, so use non-traditional ways of getting your message out
Build a community around your app. Forums where you actively participate with your users is one way to do this
You can start a forum with your test users and encourage them to bring their friends along
You can offer in-app rewards to people for helping marketing your product
You can offer rewards to bug-hunters to find bugs in your code
Have a social media sharing page in your app users can use to connect to social sites
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
…Guerilla Tactics
Direct potential customers to the app websites where screenshots, videos etc., can help them make the buy decision
Ignore piracy – pop up a “please buy” message occasionally to encourage purchase
Try to develop a high value content blog for your app
Provide links to your apps and app website in your email signature
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CQU - COIT20270 Application Development for Mobile Platforms
