Avoid These App Launch Mistakes (Part 4) - App Startup Series

What is up nation it Steve P. young, and welcome to part four of this YouTube series, where we talk about how do you take your app idea and put it into a startup, and then finally get some success for that idea. That's been swirling around in your head for some time. And in part four, we're going to talk all about. All the mistakes that you need to avoid when launching your app. And with me, like for the entire series, he is the man from B7 dev.

Go check them out. If you're looking to develop your app, the website is B7dev.com. Haim. Welcome to part four. We made it. Yeah, that's great. We got to the end, so, okay. And do these YouTube live series. I mean, part one, we talked all about all the things that you got to do before building it. How do you part two building it part three. How do you hire it? And finally, we're going to talk about finally launching your app.

All right. The first thing I want to really cover is that soft launch in pre-order. Is there anything that you want to cover with the soft launch? Yeah. Today you have today, I mean, always with apps you have. Ways to do closest betas. Okay. You don't need to launch directly to the market before you can actually. family and friends or colleagues, et cetera, to taste and to, to receive after you already have this up is your baby.

You need to get a, the most feedback that you can before you actually launch to the market. Okay. So you have tools, eh, let's name a few. So you have a classic. One is a test client. For both iOS and today for Android, that you can stay a cent to limit the number of phones. I think that up to 100, you have up to 100 devices. You have, eh, the, the, the annoying thing or the cumbersome thing is that you need to get the identifier.

What is called the UID for each number. Okay. You have a, some other similar systems. Eh, Crashlytics and et cetera, that you need to get only the email. Okay. The email for the Apple user or the, uh, the average user, they have conducted count and they will get a better version. Okay. In this way, you get feedback in a safe environment. In, in a sandbox, let's call it by this. And then you want to be exposed to bad reviews, to problems, to, to crashes during the real lunch.

Okay. Eh, so it's a closed beta, maybe a steep, you can tell me more about the soft launch that you spent on. Okay. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought test flight, you can now send a link out and then they can get the app that way. And you don't necessarily need all that stuff anymore. You need for this, right? You need the UID or the, the Apple user, eh, and then they will get an email from the system telling you got this version to test.

Okay. It's not that you go to the app store for them? No, I thought they had a link available within test flight. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Then they can contact you directly. This is not working. This has crashed. I don't like these. I don't understand that, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. Okay, cool. So what I want to talk about with the soft launch thing, I think it's so critical. And I think one of the biggest mistakes I see Aaptiv creators make is like, Hey, I've got an app, Steve, and I'm like, duh, you probably do.

That's why you're talking to me, but it's like, let me show it. And even if I did this with a. A couple of students that I'm mentoring where we, I was like, Hey, don't, don't show me how to go around your app. Like they just had an envision I'm or Figma. And I was like, let me try clicking around. And even then that's enough data for you to see to where they're tapping. What are they trying to do? Are they trying to swipe?

Because too many times I see app developers. They go, Hey guys, I got this app. Let me show you how to do this. You tap here, you tap here. I'm like, You already know how to use your app, let somebody else kind of figure out how to use your app. And so even if you can get somebody at a coffee shop these days, it might be a little bit harder, but even if you can watch somebody else use your app, that is very valuable feedback.

And one of the platforms that I've used to to get these early beta tests, users is user testing. And I've got a video that I'm about to shoot where we're going to, I'm going to react. To somebody's doing a beta testing, use tech, user testing and the critical questions. I asked them, where do you understand what the app does? Right. I want them to understand it. Do you, do you know how to buy? That's a critical mistake and we're going to cover that too.

And then also, you know what you're getting, if you buy. Right, because I want to understand and what the value of a user testing.com is, somebody is using your app and then talking over it and being like, okay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And just kind of saying, look, I think this is confusing and I think this is here and then you can ask them any other questions. And the last thing I ask them is what's stopping you from buying it.

So you can get users that say, Hey, you're looking for, and this is my app. A sleep sounds app to help you fall asleep faster. What's preventing you from buying now. Want to understand that because all this, I can then utilize in my marketing and in my UX UI to then say, Oh, you want to fall asleep faster? Or I don't want to buy, because I don't want to pay for something like this. I can do YouTube. Right? So you want to start understanding the user a little bit there.

Yeah, let's re remind the, the, the, the Watchers, what UI and UX means. UI the user interface are those doses screens. Okay. The way that they are built to let the user. Eh, intuitively understand what they are. It's about how you need to navigate to move from a screen to a screen from action to action. Okay. Should be really, really, really natural for a user to understand what is going on. Then you eat is for user experience.

That includes. Some other factors that's that it, the meaning is how the user feels. What is the sensation after using their time for processes? Okay. The, the, the, this sensation that he gains understanding. The idea. Okay. Simplifying the processes for navigation. So they are very much interrelated between them, but yet, eh, they are very, very, very, eh, use for improving the whole process. That may sounds really exotic, but.

It's very simple. Okay. What the rule number one of usability says is don't make the use of thing. If you need to explain how that works. That means basically you think the user won't understand in the field side, how that works. Okay. So let's do their positive process. Okay. Think before him. How they user will understand what you are. You meant to be what you want the user to do and guide him through the whole process.

All the screens. Okay. Eh, based on common patterns, what is common patterns for a login screen? My classical example is two fields. Okay. One button login with this. Okay. And telling the user. Okay, you did it right. Or you did wrong. Okay. What is next? So you need the user to understand by himself what the app does. Okay. If you need to explain, forget about that. No one will understand that if you think that you have is too hard for anyone to understand, go back to the design.

Consult with someone that knows how to simplify things. Okay. Because today everyone is simplifying the processes, simplifying the, the, the interface for the user. We are not in, in, in, in the eighties anymore. Okay. When you need to master to understand something simple. Okay. So. As someone that knows about this, uh, designer that knows about usability, they, they let us U I U X should be an indicative that this guy knows how to simplify the whole process.

You don't need to go crazy about this. Just make it simpler. Okay. The role is the list elements you have on this screen, the better for the user. Okay. Look at the iPhone, the iPhone is a masterpiece of you, 70 teachers, one button. And you know, you can do everything in just one button. Okay. So this is your servidity. If you didn't explain to anyone what they need to do the first time you see an iPhone or iPad, or, you know, they, they, they, or their eyes that you have there, I watch, um, and, and the musical, et cetera.

Okay. So th th the key here is don't make the people think, try to. Put yourself in their shoes, in the worst case as your family. Okay. This is a closed beta. Do you understand what they are test? Do you understand how you do to buy something here? Okay. As this team does in the technical side, I cannot something more interesting. You have a lot of free libraries free as the case for analytics. Okay. So if you can put analytics paper, it is strategically all around the application.

You can track them, their analytics. How many of those users go to from point a to point B? How many users. Cross it, this is screen. How many users go to the buy screen? How many users tap on the pie or what offer from all the possibilities, data, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, you have, this is for free. You cannot eat. When you design the app, you can ask it for the, for the developer. Please put their analytics.

Um, do you have a recommendation for the analytics tool? That you have a lot of, a lot of a pre systems. You have a mixed panel. You have, I don't know you name it. I mean, I don't want you, I just thought like let's just recommend rather than giving them so many options. I think Firebase is probably the more, the gold standard right now, and it's free and you can pay for it. And that's what we use. Internally too. And I'm glad you brought that up.

And I think it's so critical. What you said is, Hey, let's not, if you confuse you lose, I love that saying, and you don't want to make it hard for the user do at one thing that you need them to do within your app. The next thing I want to cover too is it's never too early to monetize people, launch like, Oh, let me, let me get them to use my app a little bit more. What's very crucial. Is that. There's a stat and I might be saying the wrong step, but by 80% of the people don't come back to your app after first open.

Right. You'll lose them. They open it once and they're gone forever. Right. And so I think it's critical that you try to monetize your sh during that onboarding experience, you try to show them the pricing page, how you can buy, because it then tells the user, Hey, I have a premium value, especially if your subscription, now I have a premium value behind this app. If you want to buy. We've seen people actually buy right during the onboarding process, but if they don't lease, they know if you go to Haim's website B seven dev, we go to my site, what do we will have?

We will have call to actions, contact us, or get free training. We'll have some call to action, but yet app developers tend to hide their call to action, which is technically to buy or do that one thing within their app. So make sure that you. Try to monetize right off the bat because we as app developers, we have a very short window of time before we eventually lose the app. If you look at day seven, retention, day 30, retention, it all goes downhill.

As you get further on in the retention cycle. Yeah. Basically you can tell me by yourself, how many applications do you have in your phone? I mean, how many millions of applications around there? How, how many. Applications application, sorry you use actually use your phone. The idea is simple. This one idea that you want to, to, to trust me on the, the one problem you want to solve or the one game you want to play on this app, do it and then monetize.

Okay. Because. Everyone knows that you are there to earn money is not for free. Okay. There are free apps. Okay. But eventually they will monetize. Don't be shy to monetize because otherwise, I mean, there is a legend that says that in technology, you can put a lot of free features on free contents and then you eventually, one day you will monitor it. You can lose money forever. No, it's not true. I mean, in this case, your data.

Is the pro, they are earning is not the money, your money. They want, they want your data. Okay. We know Facebook, Google, et cetera. They look, they let you do a lot of things for free, but if it's not your case, it's not that you are that big shark doing that. So go monetize as soon as possible. Okay. Because they understand that you have, as you say, esteem, eh, you have. Usually you have just one shot for doing this.

You don't have all the life there. Won't be there all the time on the phone here. And the last thing I want to cover too, concerning the app launch. There's so many things that people talk to me about, like what are the, all the marketing activities? And I have a video that I'll link up where we talk about, we break down all the activities, what you can control, what you suggest, what I would say at a macro level for this YouTube series is.

Don't try to go too big too soon. Like I get it. If you're social network, even, you know, Facebook started just at Harvard, right? If you're a dating app, you got to start somewhere, start somewhere small and concise. And if you're a subscription-based app, it's okay. Slow and steady builds it. There's been a lot of apps that want to like pour so much money into marketing, all that stuff. And I've got clients who have money.

They have they've fundraised and they're like, let's, let's put a big budget. I'm like, no, no, no, no. Hold on. How would a big game developer do this? How would a big app company do this? They would soft launch in a different country. They want to run some Facebook ads. What is the retention look like? What does the LTV look like? And before they do a massive worldwide launch. So I always say slow and steady. Is better than a humongous app launch.

Even if you have the budget, you want to test that everything is sinking up first and foremost, and everything is working just like you. Imagine it before you pour more marketing dollars, we have all these stories of like Quimbee is the most recent one, right? Raise billions of dollars, but yet had to shut down and. You know, they went all in sometimes it's okay. There was another company that I forget what the name was, but they raised like 40, $60 million before they even launched.

And they eventually had to shut down. So you don't want to be one of these. And I've worked with bigger clients who take it really systematically about soft launching in a different country. Usually the Nordic countries running some ads, really testing their LTVs really testing their play abilities, making sure everything is working before they pour millions of dollars into their app launch. As we started the series with this idea, create that company.

Not that now it's an ever moving, ever going process. You need to test what is working. Discard, what is not working and then improve the money that you need to invest. You need to invest when you have a clear idea how it works. Okay. The way that works best the ads that they are, that work best, et cetera, et cetera. It's not that you launch. I mean, The idea of you get this idea, you develop a simple, simple thing without investing too much thinking about this and then getting rich.

It's just, this is just a fantasy. Okay. Behind every company that did something, you name it. I mean, I dare you to tell me who in the industry. First time, launch something without no experience without no mistakes without no experience did it and make the reach. I don't know. Anyone that did it in this way. I know a lot of people that is starting doing things, learning from their errors, trying again, again, again, improving our time.

And then someday they find that they may be, or they made some profitable product. Okay. Because this is about learning. This is about improving over time and not just one shot. Okay. This is my advice to anyone that wants to start creating enough. Okay. Take it with time. Don't invest everything on eat. Just start building something solid and grow for that. The, the, the keyword here is growing from something. Okay.

Yeah. I love it. I am. Yeah. Every, every developer that I know Haim has the same story of their first launch, their first app that they made, they thought, Hey, I'm going to launch this app. I'm going to be a millionaire overnight. It's can get thousand downloads. And usually it's people like us. Who've stuck in this game for a long time. That's like, it's our fifth app. It's our seventh app that actually takes off and really makes the money that we thought were going to make with that first app.

Hi, anything we missed that you want to make sure we cover? No, that that is everything. Just for you to know a lot less thing about this. If you go to a professional venture capitalist, someone that invests millions on your idea when they like your idea, or they like the product that you have, they feel thing they will ask you is what you did before this. Okay. They want to know what is the process that took you? From zero to get in front of them, pitching your idea.

Okay. They want to know if you learn from mistakes. Okay. So the idea is improving over time and not this fantasy is not something that really happens. Yeah, I love it. The one metric that I think you guys should focus on that note with investors, everybody's just going to look at this it's retention. Think about retention monetization. Don't always think about you need more and more downloads. That's the biggest fallacy fallacy is the right word.

Obviously the experience is like, Hey, I need more downloads. And we have a lot of case studies. Who've, you know, 17 X their revenues from one from a dollar a day to $17 a day with no additional downloads with just 50 downloads a day. And that's how we're able to see such a huge improvement. And we've got plenty of clients they've done the same 46% increase in revenue per download just by not increasing their down the downloads, but really optimizing the product well I'm thank you for joining me in this YouTube four-part YouTube series about how to create an app startup.

If you guys have any comments. Leave it into the YouTube comments, or just email me steve@masters.co. And let me know what you thought of this, but if you want to go check out Heim and his stuff, and you have this app idea, now that you follow this whole entire series, you're not going to avoid any of these critical mistakes that Hyman I talked about. Go check out B seven, dev.com B seven dev.com. Haim. Do you want to send the user anywhere else?

Yeah. My email is haim@visaandthen.com, C H T I M. At B the letter B as in banana, the number seven, the development.com or you can look after my name on LinkedIn or Facebook. Okay. You can contact me by this, or you can go to our website B seven dev.com and then you will have a contact form. So. Feel free to contact me for any inquiry. I'm happy to help you with anything that we can do for this industry. Hi, Ms. Everywhere.

So if you want to reach him, you can find him anywhere, but I would recommend just going out, go to the website B seven dev.com. Haim. Thank you so much for coming on and doing this. Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you on the next video. Bye.