How to Launch a Successful App as An Indie Developer

One thing I want to get into is you've gotten so much love from Apple. You've gotten so much press out of it too. And some of these questions are about like, how do you go about launching an app? So you want to walk us through some of your strategies? Sure. Um, so historically, you know, we were just talking about like, Differentiated distribution edge. I think historically I've really seen my ability to get, press and get featured by Apple as that differentiator, like it's going to help me launch my app into, um, a larger audience right off the bat.

Um, Even for me with really great contacts that has gotten harder and harder over the years, like, you know, big sites don't care as much about, um, apps anymore. You know, like tech crunch, isn't writing about individual apps, unless it's just something really interesting. Um, But, but the way I've done that in the past is, is really just getting good at storytelling. So like, you know, if you, if you go back and search whether up and then whether outlets before that, it was in like tech crunch of the verge and big sites like that.

Um, because I found compelling stories to tell. So like when weather. Atlas, which was w we just rebranded it to weather up, but it launched us weather Atlas. Um, when we were releasing that in 2017, there were rumors of the taller iPhone 10. And so I positioned it as, and told the story around, like, we are building this app for the future of devices and it's really, it wasn't like, I just was BS thing. Um, so that's weather up.

If you search weather Atlas tech crunch, it'll it'll, it'll show you the original launch in 2017. I positioned it as like we're building this app for the future. And it really was true that, and I, it says, what does it mean? So an eight, because we didn't know it was going to be called the iPhone 10. Everybody just thought the tall iPhone was going to be called iPhone eight. Um, but, but I told a true story. So it wasn't just like the assessing or like writing a narrative.

Like we saw the rumors and we built an app around. Thinking about vertical space, not being a constraint. And how would you develop, how would you design a weather app where vertical spaces, a lesser constraint. And so if you scroll up, you can see that, like we built it where you can see the, the, um, radar and the weather map and the data in the same pain. And it's a card interface where you can slurp it up and down.

And so then we built this and then we told the story like, Hey, we built this for the iPhone. Eight iPhone 10. And that's interesting, right? People want to like iPhone the rumors around the iPhone eight and 10 around the iPhone eight were really hot at the time. Everybody's talking about what's Apple going to do leaks were happening and everything. And so I found a compelling story. That was true. Cause I don't like you're not going to get very far like BS in a story and trying to pitch it, but like.

If you find something that's going on and have a compelling story to tell around that you can get that kind of attention. And then, then that second one that, um, the other posts that you were showing on tech crunch was another story around, um, just creating a really differentiated feature. So we launched, um, calendar events in your weather feed. And so. That was like a really unique feature that hadn't been seen. And so when you have a daily driver weather app, um, And you introduce something that's really unique.

Like it can get attention because you're telling a unique story that people actually care about because they care about weather apps. So, so my advice would be to look for those interesting stories that you can tell. And then, um, Find ways to pitch those stories around like around the audience and why they should care. So like, if you're pitching Apple, why does Apple care Apple cares about pushing there? And you've talked about this a ton, but I'll just reiterate.

You know, Apple cares about like the new widgets and I was 14. They're going to care about that. They're going to care about, they cared about AR and pitch and featured a lot of apps around AR they care about, you know, adopting all these technologies that they're pushing. They care about selling their devices. They care about. Making money via subscription. So like being a subscription app, I think does give an edge right now for getting featured by Apple.

Um, so it's like you think about your audience and if you're pitching apples, like tell them a story they care about. If you're pitching the press, tell them a story they care about, what do they care about? They care about people. Reading their story. They care about their audience. Feeling like tech crunch is valuable and that they're not just posting random stories about random crap, but actually posting stories that people care about.

So you, and so again, like telling a story about this rumor tall iPhone was a compelling, interesting thing that, that, that the writer. Thought their audience would want to read about. So, so, and then when you're telling a story to customers, like you need to understand in your screenshots, like what story are you telling those customers? Where are they coming from and all that kind of stuff. So, so I think that the edge there is really storytelling.

And then I will say I've been talking to a lot of developers lately. Who about how getting in tech crunch in the Virgin sites like that? It's probably, actually not the best. Like we didn't actually do very well from the stories. Like people it's just a drive by thing. It's a huge audience, but like you just don't have people see it. And they're like, Oh, another weather up, whatever. Um, where I've seen developers be a lot more successful.

Um, buddy of mine runs an RV app and. He got a ton of downloads one day. He's like, dude, how do I find out where these downloads came from? Like they came out of nowhere and turns out it was a small YouTube channel, or I don't know exactly how many, but it's a relatively small YouTube channel that you wouldn't think to drive the kind of traffic. Like he probably got more downloads and I got from a tech crunch, uh, um, um, uh, Story, but it's because it was a very focused audience on YouTube that cared deeply about RVs.

And this guy got on and, um, talked about this RV app. Organically because they liked it. And so it drove a ton of downloads. So what I've been talking to, especially like more like the folks who aren't, you know, funded and don't have a PR rep who can go pitch to tech crunch in the verge. Um, and, and whether or not that's even valuable for a lot of startups is, is debatable, but go after the smaller niche sites and audiences that, um, That really care about your product and then tell them the story that they're going to care about.

What would be your advice if you want organic downloads in a short period of time, this is specifically for games and Sunil says, it's the same thing. How do we get started and drive enough downloads in short period of time. And I think, you know, just some rapid fire questions and then we'll get into the app audit as well. What do you think David. Uh, I'm here. Mechanics are really tough to get like, uh, again, I mean, I think it just goes back to a lot of stuff we were talking about, like find a niche that find a niche that you think you can get attention with.

Um, and, and there are, I mean, there are still keywords. I mean, app store that, that you can find and target, like if there are only, you know, four or five apps that do some specific thing, like if you can find a, you know, something, an accountant needs that there, that they're actually going to go to the app store and search, like, you know, accounting. Tool helping or whatever, like you can, there are still those niches where you can find keywords that are going to organically drive downloads.

But if you're in any, like, even reasonably competitive keyword, you got to look outside of search organics. And so you just got to find a niche. Where you can get attention in other ways, like you just, you gotta think about the micro influencers and bloggers and like, you gotta find a way to get the attention to drive those. So, so I mean, that's organics like word of mouth and things like that, um, are fed by getting that attention.

So, so. Yeah, you got to start with getting the attention and then, and think about, and, and you got to think about too, like the organic funnel. Like why is somebody going to hear about your app? And if they hear about it, why are they're going to care enough to go download it and, and tell those stories, like having an app that has a story to tell so that people will tell it. I like it. And I can agree with, I agree with everything you said.

I think what we've kind of broken down through this entire interview has been look, find the right target audience. It doesn't have to be the biggest and you have to start that early on. I think too many times, they're like, I'm ready to launch, what do I do? I'm like, what are you watching? Oh, tomorrow. I'm like, what? You know, these are things that you should be doing a month in advance and find targeted users. Yes. You shouldn't even be.

I mean, honestly, like if you're trying to make money, if you're, if you're, if you're a hobbyist and just want to release an app, Whatever, just build an app and do it. If you're actually wanting to make any money, like you need to understand your marketing plan before you built the app. Because if you build an app that is not marketable, like you're not going anywhere. So like start with the marketing, then build the app.

What traffic courses are working well for you, David? Um, I mean, really? I I've done very little paid marketing over the years, so it's, it's the success I have had, like with my mirror up and with gas cubby back in the day with launching a pro it's all organic. So like lots of their pro did really well with, um, word of mouth and it did it once her pro got a lot of consistent, um, buzz. That kept going. Like it wasn't like I had a big launch and got a bunch of attention and then it just died down.

It was like, people would talk about launching it per row. And like videos would pop up on YouTube about people describing how they use it and stuff like that. That's like really hard to generate, but that's, I mean, again, it gets back to like product differentiation, marketing differentiation. It's like launched in a pro. Was a very unique product. And it was a very useful, productive product. And that was in a way it's it's distribution edge is that it was so unique and helped people that people would talk about it would blog about it would.

Um, and it was, and I mean, funny enough, like it was complex enough that people would. Do a podcast about it. Do these blog posts do YouTube explainer videos because it was a, cause it wasn't so simple to just download it and like make it happen. And so, so yeah, and then like my mirror app, it was ASO. Like it just w you know, I was able to latch onto the mirror keyword and just ride that wave. Um, my weather app has been primarily like, Getting featured and press, but it's not doing well.

You know, it's like, you just can't, you can't rely on those kind of sources of traffic. Like as much as you think like, Oh, if I get featured by Apple, like that solves all my problems. It doesn't like you need to find like consistent ways to get. Attention for your app. And if you can't, it's never going to go anywhere. It's only those that have been featured multiple times, you know, we've helped multiple clients get featured 34 different clients.

And I tell every client, like in the beginning it was very huge. And I tell them now it's like, they come to us thinking like, Hey, can you give me a good feature about like, it's not gonna make or break your business? Like, it's a nice little trophy again. It's great. It's going to drive some downloads, but at the same time, like, you'll be fine if you don't get featured as well. So. I think so many developers make the mistake that thinking that they can just go into a competitive market with a better product and that people are gonna find it and download it.

And Apple is going to feature Apple's featured by apps, whether up app like 10 times, it was like Apple, the day it was on the new apps we love it's. I mean, it's been all over the place on the app store. Did that like make it successful? No. And, and like, you gotta, and I mean, so there's, then there's like layers of mistakes that I've made with weather up. Like, you know, I, the monetization is not dialed in. Like we need to do better with, you know, communicating the value props.

We need better value props. I mean, it's a competitive space. So like people have really high expectations. So anyway, so, so in doing market research, it's like there's just layers and layers and layers that you need to understand to, to build a successful product in a. Market as competitive as the app store. And I'm glad you brought that up. David deem, when developers do see like, Hey, this is a crappy app. I can build a way better product on this.

I think the most successful in the app developer stories that I seen that I've actually been able to work with are people who come from the marketing background. Like they have an affiliate marketing background, they know Facebook ads, they got that, all that dialed in, and then they're able to launch an app and the product itself is good. Right. But the marketing is. Extremely solid. And they've been, that's how they've been really able to sustain that India lifestyle.

And also just be like, yeah, like really generate millions of downloads and generate millions of dollars per year. And a perfect example of this is actually one of my competitors that have a ton of respect for, and that is a carrot weather. So he went into the weather space, not just with a great product, which is a great product, but he went into it with a. Differentiated distribution, um, edge. And th this is something so, uh, I, I'm probably going to be building a new app at some points this fall and the developer I work with on that.

He, and I've been talking a lot about finding a differentiated distribution angle. So what Brian did with carrot weather, and funny enough, I actually. I kind of inspired Carrie, whether I, I tweeted DM, Tim, it's kind of a funny story because he's been so successful with it. And I had a weather app at the same time and I told him he should build a like, cause he had these a fitness app where it's like, it. It like berated you, if you didn't like work out hard enough and stuff like that.

And I was like, dude, you need to do this for weather because funnier, funnier dye had come out with a weather app. I was like, dude, you're like carrot brand would be perfect for weather. Um, and he DME like a month later, he's like, I'm actually building that. And I was like, cool, dude, do it. And so, but what, what this is, is like he has a differentiated distribution edge. The, the cocky weather robot thing, it's unique, it's differentiated.

It's it's interesting people share it. Yeah. People talk about it. People go to the app store and search carrot weather because they want this like crazy, powerful, sassy weather app that like, and, but then, I mean, here's an important part. I say that product, is it earlier? I was kind of insinuating product it matter, but it absolutely matters because he actually built a great product to back it up. Yeah. So, so you have a district.

You need a differentiated distribution edge, but then you need a great product to back it up because if you have a great product to back it up, you're going to get the renewals. Like, I mean, he's had subscribers for like four, four or five years now, like since very early on, because he built a differentiated product and he's continued iterating and adding new features and making it better and better. And, um, I mean, he's just killing it and he's, I don't think he's ever done any paid marketing.

Um, you know, he's not super high in like ASO, like searches for weather and stuff. Cause I watched that closely cause I want to be higher in those rankings and stuff. Um, but yeah, he's built a fantastic business. Um, and I, I mean, I don't know exactly how much he's making, but you know, estimates. Well, I'm in now that I'm at revenue cap and, um, Uh, I asked my colleagues, I don't have like direct access to all the data or anything, but I'll ask my colleague, like, is this sensor terror thing?

Right? Cause like they were making like sensor tower is, is pretty off. Uh, and yeah. And I've been able to double check it on my own apps and a lot of apps over the years and theoretically app, um, app any is better on the accuracy, but I mean, yeah. Um, sensor tower can be like orders of magnitude off. So. Just man close in the ballpark in the ballpark. He may be in that 30 K a month. Ranch.