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Apple Feature Request Form

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App Masters12:55Open on YouTube
Chapters show their main points

The bottom line

Apple now takes feature pitches through one login-protected developer form, and a pitch wins by stressing new Apple technology and a believable personal story. Apple rarely replies, so a well-planned pitch and daily App Store checks matter.

Key takeaways

  • Apple now takes feature pitches through a single form, not the old email. 2:25
    • The form was announced at WWDC 2017. It replaces the old app store promotion email, which is no longer the right address.
    • You must log in with your developer ID to see it. Steve Young's team landed 12 Apple features in 16 months using this process.
  • Pitch early and set a realistic launch date. 3:40
    • Apple now wants notice six to eight weeks ahead, up from three to four. This matters most for games, because older games are harder to get featured than new ones.
    • Developers underestimate launch time, so the planned release date should include a buffer.
  • Describe the app in terms of Apple's own technology. 5:18
    • Mention features such as 3D Touch or ARKit, and anything newly announced at WWDC that the app already uses.
    • Apple pushed iMessage apps hard after announcing them last year, and will likely push AR apps next.
  • Tell a personal story backed by social proof. 8:03
    • Young cited his 400 podcast episodes and earlier apps. Other winning pitches used an ex-Microsoft developer and a developer with millions of downloads.
    • Test the story on strangers. If nobody reacts with "that's cool," rework it.
  • Apple rarely tells you a feature is coming, so keep watching the App Store. 10:28
    • Banner features may bring a request for promotional art through the iTunes Connect developer forum.
    • Two of three clients featured in the main spot never heard from Apple. Young found out by checking the App Store every day.

In a word or two you've got to get Apple's attention.

Steve P. Young

Chapter summaries

0:00 A new route to a feature

The old way of pitching Apple stopped working before the new form was announced.

  • Young saw the change coming before the announcement. 1:01
    • His team kept using the old method and sensed something new was coming.
    • Three clients were featured in May 2017 using the process.
    • Young says no other app marketing firm has landed as many features.
    • The form was announced the week before this recording, in June 2017.

2:17 Reaching the form and its timing

Use the form through its login-gated link, and treat its timing rules as firm for games only.

  • The old promotion email should be dropped. 2:23
    • Young says I wouldn't use it if I were you.
    • The short link appmasters.co/appleform redirects to the form.
    • A visitor who is not logged in is asked to log in first.
    • The link is also in the show notes.
  • Apps that are not games have more room on timing. 4:10
    • A significant update still deserves the lead time.
    • An update that is already out can still be pitched.
    • The game rule may change with iOS 11, Young notes, and holds only as of today.

4:26 Filling in the fields

The basic fields are simple, and the description is where a pitch is won.

  • The Apple ID comes from the app's page in App Store Connect. 4:59
    • Developer name is whoever is contacting Apple.
    • Find the ID under My Apps, then App Information.
    • The worked example is Paintball Rush, featured by Apple in China in 2016.
  • The description should sell the app's fit with Apple, not how cool it is. 5:18
    • Young says not to talk about how cool the game is.
    • Highlight newly announced features already in use, and the earlier the better.
    • The goal is to describe the app in the way that Apple wants to see it.
  • Version number and platform come last. 6:19
    • Platform choices are iOS, Universal, iPad only or iPhone only.
    • Young picks iOS for his example.

6:29 Filling in the form's basic fields

The form replaces Apple's old giant spreadsheet, and its basic fields give Apple the facts of the launch.

  • The form asks for plain facts about the app and its release. 6:46
    • Fields cover category, worldwide availability, language and business model.
    • Young's example entries: games, worldwide, English US, freemium.
    • The category is an open text field for now. Young expects a drop-down soon.
    • The form also asks for the version number and for features planned in a future release, such as watch support.
    • The planned release field is your launch date, so plan it carefully.

7:52 Telling your story

The story field is the real pitch, and it must be about you as well as the app.

  • The story should go beyond describing the app. 8:03
    • For Pink Ball Rush, Young listed his apps from 2011, 2013 and 2016, then his years spent learning and interviewing people.
    • The point is to show this is not a first attempt.
    • The form labels the field tell it to the world.
    • A first-time developer can explain why they made the app.
    • Another pitch stressed how the client buys different games and has developed for a long time.
  • Most developers make themselves too much the hero. 9:10
    • Apple's attention has to be won in a word or two.
    • The webinar offers a pitch template with real examples.

10:22 After you hit send

Apple gives no signal on timing, so the App Store is the only place to find out.

  • Apple no longer replies to say it is interested. 10:28
    • That used to be the process before the form.
    • Heavy features like banners may bring a message in the developer forum.
  • Apple never announces when a feature will run. 11:48
    • It works like PR, where the outlet never says when it will publish.
    • Young will share any change in the process.

In the growth library

Steve Young, Founder of App Masters, app marketing agency. Walks through Apple's new feature request form from WWDC 2017 and how to fill each field to improve the odds of getting featured. Based on getting 12 clients featured by Apple in 16 months, including three in May 2017.

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript325 lines
0:01

coming up I'm going to share the new way that you have to pitch Apple to land a feature stay tuned what is up at nation it is Steve Pekin founder of masters doc oh I thought I try to true do the opening with a little more lyrical song and rhythm for you alright today I want to share with you a brand new form the Apple has just created during their WWDC 2017 announcement which just happened last week as of this recording they announced a brand new form that they want developers to use when they want when developers like you and me want to get featured by Apple so it's a brand new way to pitch Apple and it's the way that I started noticing this actually a few months back because we were trying the old method and I started a sense that there was a brand new thing coming up and so this is the brand new form that you have to use when you want to pitch Apple for a possible feature okay but before I show you that

1:16

form and what to put into that form and how to do it and everything else I want to share with you a webinar a live master class that I'll be doing it is the exact process that we use to get three of our clients featured by Apple in May 2017 and twelve in total as of beginning of June 2015 and we've been able to accomplish 12 in the last 16 months so it is I think if you speak to any other app marketing firms out there I don't think anybody has been as successful as we are in landing Apple features for our clients right so if you want to be there go to app master CEO slash Apple app masters CEO slash Apple and if you're watching this at a later date I'm sure you can either access the recording of it or you know maybe I'll do another live one so just go to that link and your own you'll be able to catch it but it's happening June 15th at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time this Thursday as of this recording all right let's go

2:17

into how to pitch Apple now before we go into the screen share I want to share with you that we've been using app store promotion at Apple calm I don't think that's the right email anymore I wouldn't use it if I were you I would use this exact form now I'm going to share with you some ways that you can really make your pitch stand out okay so let's go to this form now there's the link it's going to be linked up into the video and also on the show notes and everything else so when you're listening to this as a podcast then you can grab it in your favorite podcast app or if you're just listening to it and you don't want to let go to any link I'm going to create a short link it's called app master CEO slash Apple Forum at masters CE o / Apple form now we redirect you to this particular form now you will have to actually log in to see this form so definitely do that okay you'll have to log into your developer ID that would

3:14

see this form alright let's go into this form so here it is again I'm not going to spell out the whole URL it's at masters SEO slash Apple form it will redirect you to this particular page if you're not logged in it'll ask you to log in first and then here's where you can do it I'm logged in to my Apple account now you can see you know they want to know six to eight weeks in advance before you're launching it my timeline was three to four weeks they've changed that now six to eight weeks so a lot of time now what I would say to this is if you are a game definitely abide by that because it's harder to get new games featured this might change with iOS 11 them just speaking as of today it's harder to get older games featured by Apple if you're a new game that's generally easier to get featured by Apple now if you're an app an on game this doesn't really matter as much but if you do have a significant update then go ahead and

4:18

abide by these timelines but if you're already out and the significant updates already out of still pitch Apple as well okay let's go into some of the nitty-gritty of the B form so developer name here I would just put your name is whoever's caught that contacting Apple up at Steve Young for me now app name I'm just going to go through an app that we actually got featured by Apple in China and go through that process for you so paintball Rush was the app that we've got featured in China last year that's 2016 and I think it was March that we got a feature or a ball can't remember but here's what you need the Apple app ID and I'll show you where to get it so if you go under my apps when you go under the app that you want to pitch under this app information you'll see this is the ID that they need Apple ID okay so you can copy this is paintball rush the game that we got featured last year there it is

5:13

describe your app now again the things that you want to really mention is don't talk about how cool the game is which I'm sure it is that's cool but talk about Apple specific things you know like 3d touch 3d touch-enabled or a our kid right a RK Apple just announced WDC 2017 video to come out with the AR kit which is augmented reality you know we've integrated it integrated you know they're going to make a big push for all the new features that they just announced in WWDC so make sure you highlight any of the new features that you're already using and the earlier the better right they Apple made a huge push last year after the iMessage stuff really got announced and they're probably going to make a big push or NEA archetype of apps as well so really start thinking about how you describe your app in the way that Apple wants to see it okay new features and all that stuff all right version number this is pretty

6:20

self-explanatory platform you can kind of decide iOS Universal iPad only iPhone only so forth I'm going to put oh s Universal our version number if we were to do this I think it is 2.0 yeah so we're not doing this but obviously if we were then we would do that supports iWatch know in the day has even in future release so you can start doing that this is essentially what Apple would ask us for a possible feature and a huge spreadsheet that they've now put into a form so a lot easier so right now here games I imagine this will be a drop down soon but for now it's open form just click games this if it's available worldwide I would just put worldwide language is supported I'm going to put English us so they know the business model is a freemium model I'm submitting to the app let's say June 2000 don't know what's today I'm split today's day tomorrow right plan release now this is important right this is when you want to

7:27

make sure that this is your launch date so really carefully plan it out I think too many times just from my experience working in a ton of developers is that you we all underestimate the amount of time it's going to take to launch the app so put in a little bit buffer okay that's okay if you have to go outside of it but put in a good buffer date so I'm going to just say July I'm just randomly picking today yeah now your story I've created a video already about how to craft I don't know if I have done that actually if I haven't done that it's going to be in a webinar but this is the real part of it what is your story don't just talk about your app you know like really and get inspired so some of the things I'll tell you that's worked in the past for me personally when I got this pink ball rush featured by Apple I said hey guys you know I created apps in 2011 from 2013 and 2016 I really focused

8:23

on learning and interviewing people and you know obviously helping companies with their app promotion but now 400 episodes in at the time I'm ready to release and get back into the game so I'm showing some social proof that hey this is not my first game I've been around the corner I mean I've been around I've been interviewing people and real-life you know putting the social proof so that's what I would really heavily try to weigh on it's social proof I got another client who was a X Microsoft employee and he was a developer and he's been developing games a younger person but he put that into the pitch another developer who I helped get featured by Apple we talked about how he's been in the app space he had millions of downloads already doing some of the reskin stuff and now he's ready to launch the custom game right so really talk about your story 9 a sense of too many times were too much of a

9:14

hero of our own story but I tell your story to strangers and see what they're really resonating with if you tell your story and nobody's saying oh that's cool then you probably need to rework that story but if you tell your story and then people are like that's cool that's those are the pitches those are the moments that you look for and I generally when I'm working with clients is that's what we've gotten really good at that's what the webinar is going to really talk about is how do you highlight your story and how do you highlight your pitch right because in a word or two you've got to get apples attention and if this is just about your story they're kind of labeling it tell it to the world and hopefully this won't be the first time if it is your first time tell us about why you decide to create this app another client that we're trying to get featured by Apple is we're talking about like how you

10:03

by different games and also that he's been a developer for a long time so really think through that story and craft a good one and that's what I will walk through in our webinar because we had a little bit of template that in real examples I'll share with you as well so that's really important okay that's all you got to do hit Send and then really just pray the I'll tell you what's the process before before it it used to be apple with replied to us and saying you know we're interested in Apple feature and so they don't do that anymore but now I believe you just have to watch the App Store if they're interested in featuring you what they have done recently this was a recent main for a client of ours they asked they responded to him in the developer forum under iTunes Connect and said hey we want some promotional art that's because you wanted a banner feature you know who skis going to get banner feature and got

11:00

that and so they'll do that if you if they want to feature you heavily like with banners and stuff they'll probably email you or message you through the iTunes Connect developer forum if instead times you won't even hear from them so for another for two of our clients that we got featured so we have three clients featured in main two of them we didn't hear from Apple at all it's just literally me because I do this all the time I look at the App Store features every single day and one obviously I was trying to get it in this particular spot so I kept just checking that every day every night well in the bathroom ticket to dislike or injustice but I was checking it all the time to see if it was there and then we got that featured so never heard from Apple we just landed a feature from that so it is very difficult just like PR they'll never tell you when they are going to publish the article

11:52

same thing goes for Apple things may change and I'll let you know if things do change but for the time being that's what's happening right now all right guys good luck if you do get featured by Apple please message me I get some lovely Facebook messages from people in that Steve I love your content we actually got featured by Apple just using some of the Freak stuff out there and then we're also going to create a playlist for you guys that shows you all the videos that we've created for Apple features that is it you're enjoying this video this podcast this blog please subscribe to whatever medium that you like the best if you want to subscribe to YouTube it is at masters co /youtube and if you're listening to this on the audio format for the first time that is f masters co / iTunes or if you're watching this on video and you rather hear on the podcast visit masters co / iTunes hope that was helpful

12:45

I'll be back our next video breaking down all the effective at marketing channels alright guys I'll see you later bye