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The #1 Apple Feature Mistake

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App Masters16:01Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Weak design, above all the app icon, is the biggest mistake that keeps apps from an Apple feature. Cheap A/B tests of dramatically different icons fix it and helped two apps get featured.

Key takeaways

  • An Apple feature is worth chasing because it brings large, lasting growth. 0:58
    • A feature can bring over 100,000 downloads for a game and roughly 5,000 to 20,000 for a non-game.
    • It adds social proof and real revenue, and later features get much easier once the first one lands.
  • Design is the one thing featured apps have in common, starting with the icon. 3:13
    • The icon is the first creative anyone sees, whether an Apple editor or a user scrolling a sea of icons.
    • Big game studios with strong Apple ties A/B test icons through Facebook ads and Split Metrics before launch.
  • A free poll of very different icons shows which one works. 6:01
    • The poll went to a Facebook group of over 20,000 app entrepreneurs, with options A to D.
    • Icons that differ only in small color shifts teach nothing, so the options must look dramatically different.
  • Icons improved by testing helped two apps get featured. 6:47
    • The word game Bali Side was featured in the US category and 12 other countries, including banners in Canada and Australia.
    • A Chinese-learning kids app polled friends, then combined icon A with the Chinese characters voters liked in B. It was featured in the US main category and Canada.
  • Indie developers can get strong icons cheaply. 11:17
    • Dribbble offers inspiration, and you can ask a designer to adapt an icon for you, at about $100 to $200.
    • Ask whether the icon has been sold before and whether it can be changed. 99designs is another route.

You want to make them dramatically different.

Steve P. Young, App Masters

Chapter summaries

0:00 The mistake is design

When a client asks for an Apple feature, design is the first thing checked, because weak design is the most common mistake.

  • Every request for a feature starts with a design check. 0:42
    • Clients ask for launch help and the best channels, then add that they want a feature.
    • One thing gets looked at first.
    • A feature is hard to control, but there are ways to steer it.
    • The fix is promised at the end: easy and affordable.
  • The number one mistake is design. 2:45
    • It is a six-letter word starting with D, posed as a guessing game.
    • Most clients already have good designs.
    • A few tweaks were enough to land features for some of them.
    • Two client case studies follow.

3:13 The icon decides the click

A user clicks into an app only if its icon speaks to them, so the icon is worth testing before launch.

  • People tap the icon that speaks to them most. 3:48
    • Example: a blocky pirate icon works because he sees a face and a pirate.
    • A fan of that kind of game wants to know more and clicks in.
    • The featured apps' icons are well designed, and the apps inside likely are too.
  • Big studios pay to test, and a small budget can do the same. 4:07
    • They test screenshots as well as icons.
    • The goal is to launch with the best icon.
    • Anyone with a little budget can buy the same testing.
    • A free version comes next.

4:44 Two case studies

Both apps polled their audience on icon options, and the results shaped the final icon.

  • Bali Side's icon did not say "word game". 5:04
    • The app mixes solitaire and Scrabble. It launched in late 2016.
    • The monkey dominated the icon, so the icon gave no hint of the game.
    • The app itself was beautifully designed.
    • Voters mostly liked D and C, but the team went with B, which they liked best.
  • Honest feedback on weak design comes first. 7:09
    • There is no harm in trying for a feature, but a weak icon needs work first.
    • That is the first thing he looks at.
  • The Chinese-learning kids app was polled outside the app world. 7:26
    • The poll ran in his personal Facebook group, not the app entrepreneurs group.
    • It is a parents' app, so he wanted friends who are not app creators.
    • He wanted the opinion of a broader space.

8:02 Turning poll votes into the final icon

The best icon came from combining the elements voters liked, not from picking one winner.

  • A good icon shows what the app offers. 8:08
    • Option A won over the author because its graphic spoke to educational content from award-winning TV shows.
    • Its 3D element and little happy face suited what kids are drawn to.
    • The author did not much like the other options.
    • The poll went to his own Facebook friends: which icons do you like, A, B, C or D?
  • Merging the voters' favorite elements beat choosing a single option. 9:06
    • Commenters liked seeing the ABC letters next to Chinese characters.
    • The final icon kept most of A, added a small book to look educational, and put in the letter A and a Chinese character.
    • His gut favored A, yet the combination is what landed the feature.
    • He doubted a Chinese app for kids would be featured. Good design, strong content and the client strategies made the difference.

11:01 Getting strong icons without a design team

An indie developer can start from existing icon designs and have a designer adapt one.

  • Browsing icons by type gives inspiration to hand to a designer. 11:17
    • Searching Dribbble for "word game icon" returns many good-looking options.
    • A word tag icon, for example, could suit a typewriter or writing app.
    • Contact the designer and say you love the icon. Ask whether they can change bits and pieces to fit your app.
    • An icon that already exists is easy for the designer to sell to you.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, app marketing agency. The episode argues that weak design, especially the app icon, is the top mistake when chasing an Apple feature, and shows how to fix it cheaply with free A/B polls and bought icon designs. Two client case studies, a word game and a kids Chinese learning app, both landed Apple features after icon changes picked by polling Facebook groups.

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

Transcript414 lines
0:00

coming up you're going to discover the number one mistake that most app creators make when trying to land an Apple feature stay tuned what is up app nation it is speed P young founder at masters dot Co the place you go when you want action-packed content with real data case studies that's working to help you drive app growth in today's crowded marketing app space and today I really want to show you the number one thing that I look at when clients come to us and saying you know we want to help you please help us with our launch please tell us what channels are best and we'd love to try to get an Apple feature too and once I hear that keyword we want to try to get an Apple feature obviously everybody wants to get it right because you can get tremendous amounts of growth over a hundred thousand downloads if you're a game probably around the five to twenty thousand mark if you're not a game for

1:09

landing an Apple feature and it's real revenues that are coming in as well because there's that social proof that comes with getting featured by Apple so obviously it's a great channel it's hard to control we've got some ways of sort of figuring out how to control it but it's a great channel for app growth and it's one that once you landed feature an Apple feature subsequent ones become so much easier as well so I get it and when I hear that keyword when people say clients say hey I want an apple feature I immediately look at this one thing this one thing and it's the biggest mistake that I see most app developers may 2004 so and I'm gonna share with you towards the end of it how to actually fix it easily and affordability affordable affordably alright so how to correct that mistake easily and affordably okay let's get to it so the number one mistake for an apple feature and how to correct it easily and

2:10

affordably now because my end goal is to actually become a game show host I'm gonna play a little game alright so here's the number one mistake it's a six letter word and here's an emoji to help you out let me give you about five to ten seconds to kind of figure it out you think you got it you know put it in your head we're ready to go what do you think it is now if you want another hint here it is starts with the letter D should be pretty easy by now because if you think about Apple they want simple words that comes to your mind it's design that's the number one mistake and that's for one thing I really really look at and really kind of emphasize when I'm trying to work with clients or potential Apple feature now most people fortunately for me have really good designs that I think are great and that can land them an Apple feature in just a few tweaks have gotten them an Apple feature so I'm going to

3:09

walk you through two different case studies of clients that we really helped mend an Apple feature now I say design because if you look at all the apps art of being featured by Apple right now that's the one thing that they have in common there's a few other things I'll highlight later on but that if you look at these icons they're all really well designed right and if you go into the app I'm sure it's well designed as well but the icons that first piece of creative that anybody sees whether it's an Apple employee that's kind of figuring out which apps to highlight here or your your end users they're going to see the C of app icons and they're going to look at which one really speaks to them the most so as you can see you like blocky pirates for example that resonates with me because one I see a face and two I see a pirate so if I'm into these type of games I'm like okay what's that game all about I'm

4:04

able to click in a little bit more and one thing I want to highlight two is big game studios think about them right they've got great relationships with Apple they do a lot of a be testing on icons through Facebook ads through other means just split metrics is another platform they do a lot of a be testing with app icons screenshots and everything to make sure that the best icon is actually being presented upon launch so do a lot of this homework and do a lot of baby testing I'm going to show you how to do it for ibly but in the end if you got a little bit of budget you can do you can pay for it essentially that's what big game companies are doing all right let's get to from the case studies so here's one of my favorite apps this was an app that we launched late last year I believe 2016 and Jonah's great friend of mine who we've developed a good relationship now but here's what we did and I'm sharing

4:59

this because we did as publicly as well on a Facebook page and I'll show you what this is and when I first saw the app I was like well beautifully design I really like the concept it's called Bali side and it is a play a mixture of solitaire and Scrabble right so you build words but there's a solitaire type of feel to it the first time I saw it was like you know the feedback I gave Jonas was hey it doesn't feel like a word game because I think the monkey was really highlighted and said we have to do a better job of sort of highlighting that this is actually a working because upon looking at this app icon I have no idea but the app itself is beautifully designed right so we did this test on a Facebook group it's called the app entrepreneurs and marketers group so over 20,000 members on it really great lively group and I said hey guys you know we're launching this new game here's the website if you

5:51

wanna go check it out but it's a word game you want to explain a little bit and then put ABCD can you guys just let me know which app icon you like the best now the key to running this ad test is making sure that they significantly look different the biggest mistake that I see when you're running this ad test on this freestyle like this or miming freestyle I mean you're doing this for free through an app Facebook group is the icons look so stinkin similar like what's the big difference you're not going to get a huge list or a key difference in these icon variations if they're all look pretty much the same and they're just small slight color differences that's not a good a be test you want to make them dramatically different that's what we did here and you can see most people said dcdcdc and that's what people were saying now Jonas and I kind of made that final decision because we actually like be the best and

6:45

guess what happened we actually got a featured by Apple you can see we pretty much went with what we had in B and got featured by Apple this is featured in Canada Australia we got a word a banner and under the word cat or category in the US but 12 other countries so really great launch that we helped Jonas you know really succeed and that's what I really do for clients that I'm pretty really honest with people when I look at an app and I'm like oh well you know there's no harm in trying to get a feature I say you're your icon really needs a lot of work or your design in general really needs a lot of work and that's the first thing I look at all right let's go let's go to another case study so this is another app that we helped launch and it is a learn Chinese for kids game so really nice app got a feature spoiler alert but this was done through my own personal Facebook group because I didn't

7:41

want to go to the app entrepreneurs group because I felt like I wanted the opinion of a broader space I didn't want just at people right I wanted my friends who were not in the app space to give me feedback because this is more of a parents type of kids app I didn't want just like app creators giving me feedback and so we put this together now here's what I did again mine came up with B C D and D I said I don't really like any of them that much but when I went into the app I saw a it was a graphical element within the app I said I really like this because it speaks to what you're kind of providing which is educational content in a from award-winning shows from actual TV so like you know that icon speaks to exactly what you do and it's beautiful you know there's a 3d element and there's a little happy face it's very much like what I think kids would be attracted to okay and we did this poll

8:38

on Facebook through just my Facebook friends okay and as you can see I totally up the score here I just say hey guys which icons do you like we got an app that's learning to help kids learn Chinese through educational videos which icons do like a B C or D okay now here are the results thanks everyone here's the scores Italia all up I went in at night I stay at 23 for a 27 for B C D so forth okay I actually like a the best time and put that I like a the best but combining ABC would probably be best option love you guys because if you look we through the comment people have said hey they like the fact that you know you see ABC and you see Chinese characters to a really spoke to that so here's what we did and thanks to all the feedback boom as you can see we started combining it right now we have the most of the elements of a but we combined a little bit we had a little book to make it look educational and then the a and

9:36

then the Chinese character for a I believe I don't know I can't read it but you can kind of get a sense of exactly what the app does by looking at the icon right for kids probably and as you can see the app Gaiman came up with but for kids and you see elements and what it means so that's what I'm talking about design so important and doing these little simple tests gave me the impact I think what I read if I remember correctly was B people said hey we like the fact that you know Chinese characters were there so we just combined it I really liked a you kind of kind of feel it on your gut I really liked a but combining those elements brought us to this and landed an Apple feature we got this featured in the US and the main category and in Canada as well so really great stuff tremendous amounts of downloads that came with it even for a huge app like this which I wasn't so sure that we would land that

10:28

feature I was you know like it's so nice right for kids a Chinese I didn't know if that would work but given that it's well designed there's really good content in it and our strategies that we're able to implement for the client we're able to get that feature as well so design really really important I showed you some of the ways that you can simply do it and affordably do it do do with your Facebook channels do it through some Facebook groups app entrepreneurs and marketers group search for it on Facebook you'll find it the one that's the biggest one there with over 20,000 members as of this recording so now you're asking this like see those are really cool and you know they had a design team both clients that I work with how do i is maybe an independent person indie developer how do i get cool icons well Jim I don't know it's made up that name but I'll tell you here's the splat spot you can

11:20

go dribble comm dribble of three bees go there look for the type of icon you looking or so what I put in here is word game icon until I put you'll come up with all these great looking icons bike huh that's interesting how do I pull that or that's a great one like I love the the word tag one right here I love that one that's a great one for maybe even a typewriter or writing app right or this one's decent but now you have all this inspiration that then you can take to your designer or even contact the designer on Drupal and say hey you know I really like your I love your icon is there a way that you can kind of change bits and pieces to make it work for me and then optimize that for for that just reach out to them and you can get some really affordable icons for me I got a camera app from one of my camera apps I got it for about a hundred bucks 200 bucks so one thing to ask the designers under book you're going to buy it from

12:16

them is one have you sold this app icon before and two you know one if you can change it if they haven't sold it you can ask them if you going to buy it because they've already created it obviously so it's pretty easy for them to sell it to you so you can do that or you can take it to any of these you know pass sponsor of the show as 99designs you could take in $9.99 and say hey you know here's some icons that I really like we're looking for a particular icon as well that's a way to do it now if you want to learn more about our Apple's feature process we're doing a live training next Thursday June 15th at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time 9:00 a.m. Pacific time 12:00 p.m. Eastern and I think it's 5:00 p.m. if you're on London or we're doing this live I'm going to walk you through exactly all the tools that we use our favorite subject lines how you can craft the subject lines the bigger mistakes there's also two more mistakes that most

13:10

people make for wooden walk you through the biggest mistakes so you don't you can avoid them when you're trying to land an Apple feature and then how to look for hitting opportunities within Apple we got a client featured in May and we found these hidden opportunities tool and that feature I'm going to share that with you and then lastly like how do you formulate the pitch I think the biggest thing because Apple features our editorial meaning you have to pitch Apple and you got to get on their radar how do you really tell a great story and that's what I'm going to show to you because I think that's our main secret if there is a secret to it because you can you know anybody if you read if you watch any my past videos I share with you how to get in touch with Apple through multiple ways but I think the real secret to that is how you really tell a great story we think we've done a really good job of figuring out the

13:59

right formula and I'm going to walk you step-by-step on this formula to really formulate an email pitch that gets and somebody at Apple their attention right anything I'm confident enough to say this that most of our subject lines always get an open I'm going to share the formula with you that you can use that you only need to be created you can just say hey what are these templates that I can follow and how do I come up with my own and I'm going to share some of the emails that we've been able to use for our clients now you can do it too so all that is being revealed I'm pulling back the curves for you in this live training they'll answer any questions that you have about this particular topic and lastly because people want to know that since webinars are so popular I will be selling a course on the back end it's the at masters playbook it kind of highlights everything about an apple feature our

14:55

ASO process are musically influencers process and all the different growth hacks that we have that really drive growth growth so it is the app masters playbook guiding you exactly through all the channels that we use to drive app growth but even if you don't sign up for this course you'll get a lot of great information on how to really formulate an apple pitch I promise you it will be very beneficial you don't need the course to get an Apple feature you're going to get exactly how to formulate the template and the pitch to get on Apple's radar promise you that be there it is the simple link if you're listening to this or watching this on youtube is at masters dot co at message co slash Apple that will set take you to the registration page sign up for it be there live June 15th and 9:00 a.m.

15:47

Pacific time I will be there live to answer any questions that you might have hope this to you there at masters code flash