How should operations be performed in the three stages of APP development?

The bell of 2017 has rung. As I am about to enter my 9th year in product operations , I feel both happy and sad! I am happy that I have gained experience in product operation last year, but I am worried about how to reach a new height in the new year.

I haven’t shared any useful information for a long time. Maybe many of my friends have almost forgotten me? Ha ha! Okay, let’s stop being so pretentious! Let me get straight to the point and share my experience and insights on product operation last year.

I started to come into contact with the product "Tonghuashun Investment Account Book" in February last year. At that time, the product was still in the research and development stage and was not officially launched for public beta until April. So, it can be said that I really had a blank slate when I operated this APP! Market, channels , soft articles, etc.... What do you want? There is nothing!

Friends who know Liu Xingshi all know that I started out as an SEO and have only been engaged in APP operations for about two years. All the projects I had been involved in before were taken over midway, but this time it was a completely new project, from research and development to official launch. This is a brand new challenge opportunity for me. This is exactly what I value.

Before the APP is launched, you must prepare for the battle

What should I do if I take over an APP that is under development? Sit back and wait for it to go online, of course not, that will catch you off guard! It took nearly two months from the development to the launch of the investment account book. During this period, I made sufficient preparations, which can be summarized from the following four aspects:

Product development period (before launch)

Features: The investment account is under development and has not yet been officially launched.

Main work: Prepare for the launch of the investment account.

Target user sorting.

It includes the following tasks:

1. Analysis of target user groups;
2. Target user group profile;
3. Analyze the target user group locations;
4. Analyze the user groups and other situations of competitors.
   

   App store ready.

I have made sufficient preparations for this:

1. Detailed introduction of the App product, recommendation, slogan, etc.
2. Planning of APP’s corresponding icons, guide images, splash screen pages, application market thumbnails, etc.;
3. I have sorted out the download channels and accounts of third-party app stores (there are nearly 400 Android markets and nearly 20 Apple channels. I will talk about why I have to sort out so many of them later).
   

   Preliminary publicity preparation.

Regarding the early promotion and trial operation preparation of the APP, I did the following 10 things:

1. Planning of the investment account official website;
2. Authentication, establishment and maintenance of official Weibo and WeChat ;
3. Collection of various stock, finance and other related forum communities (nearly 80);
4. Prepare corresponding news articles (one per week) and picture advertisements;
5. We held a Baidu launch event and self-recommended new products on several channels;
6. Exposure on Baidu Tieba, Zhidao, Wenku and other channels;
7. Establishment and maintenance of blogs for Sina , NetEase, Financial World, Hexun, etc.;
8. The first public beta H5 page forwarding activity,
9. Maintaining platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, and QQ groups, interacting with users, answering questions from users, collecting feedback, and other detailed work;
10. Make weekly, monthly and quarterly work plans and arrangements, complete the "Investment Account Book APP Operation and Promotion Plan", and plan an initial, mid-term and mature promotion strategy for the entire APP.

During the period before the APP was launched, the work progressed exceptionally smoothly. Everything was ready, except for the launch!

In the early stage of APP launch, recruiting seed users is the key

After the APP is launched, don’t rush to use all your energy to promote your product. Instead, we call on seed users to join QQ groups or WeChat public platforms to collect users’ suggestions and feedback. Once the product is not verified, not only will it waste manpower and material resources, but it will also easily receive bad reviews. On the one hand, the product's reputation will be damaged, affecting its development. On the other hand, it will be extremely difficult to attract these target user groups in the future.

feature:

1. The investment account has not been online for long;
2. The investment account function is still being polished;
3. The need for investment ledgers has yet to be verified;
4. Investment books account for a small market share;

The main goal at this stage is to pursue the quality of users, not the quantity!

The product needs to do the following:

1. Product functionality;
2. Product usage experience;
3. Product style and atmosphere;
4. Service capabilities (server, customer service acceptance capacity, etc.).

The following operations are required:

1. In terms of application market; in principle, we can be found in all major, medium and small application markets. The more coverage, the better. The APP copywriting and description have been verified by users. The core keywords include investment account book, Tonghuashun investment account book, investment accounting, investment, financial management, accounting, account book, fund, and stock, which can be found in the main positions;
2. Search engine: In principle, all major search engines can find the official website, download method, contact information, and optimized news articles of the investment account book;
3. In terms of forum communities: strive to find promotional copy and download methods for investment books in major stock fund forums and download forums;

During this period, my official QQ group and WeChat public platform have collected nearly 1,200 core users. It can be said that they are loyal users who have been using the investment account book since the launch of the APP.

In the middle stage of APP development, we are bravely moving forward in the face of difficulties.

When the investment account reaches the following characteristics:

1. The investment book requirement has been verified; (weekly retention rate is at least 25%);
2. The rate of spontaneous positive reviews from real users has increased significantly (more than 500 positive reviews in mainstream app markets);
3. The investment account has a certain market share (accumulated 100,000 seed users);
4. Competitors of the same type as investment accounting have emerged in large numbers;
5. The investment account needs to rely on rapid growth to quickly capture the market and break out of the siege.

Now is the time to invest in your account book and grow rapidly! Because there is no budget for the APP, this stage is particularly difficult! As long as it is a promotion method that can bring in new users, you should try it. You have to do all the hard and tiring work!

After countless attempts, we can summarize the promotion methods with better effects, which are mainly 5 points:

1. APP listing, promotion and optimization;

1. Go online on major Android platforms and do our best to lay the foundation for channels. After all, if an App wants to gain more users without spending money, laying out channels is a very important task. For example, the investment account covers nearly 200 channels of all sizes. The most obvious effect is that it is of great benefit to the exposure of search engine brand words.

2. Initial issuance application. When I saw App Store say that a certain app had 600,000 downloads when it was first released there, I jumped up and applied for an App Store debut. On the day of the launch, I spent the whole day in front of the statistics tool . After a day of looking at the statistics tool, I found that the Android downloads were 400 more than usual... I really didn't lie, not a single more. The later launch results of 360 Mobile Assistant and Baidu Mobile Assistant were even worse. I burst into tears when I talk about this. But we can’t blame others, after all, it’s free, and cheap things don’t come cheap!

3. Now Xiaomi, Jifeng, Anzhi, Lenovo, Huawei, and Sogou have special topics and tags every week. You can apply for them. They are all free. Every Android market has activities. I will also try to apply for some.

4. New product recommendations that can be obtained for free: Xiaomi's new product recommendations, 360's new product recommendations, Lenovo Music Store 's fresh and hot products, Huawei's new product recommendations, Sogou's niceAPP, App Store's new product recommendations, Meizu's new product recommendations, Baidu's Golden Bear Paw Award, Wandoujia Design Award, these are all very good free resources.

5. About ASO optimization . The overall optimization idea is: cover hot words + optimize keywords + download volume + optimize comments. It is impossible to change the description copy and hot words frequently. The download volume is unlikely to change significantly except for inflating the volume and rankings . What can be done in the long term is comments. Exchanging positive reviews with other APPs every day is a good choice.

2. Promotion of news articles and PR drafts;

PR is not hard advertising. It is very important to learn to tell a moving story in the right way. In the Internet age, everyone is a source of communication. By writing articles on major news media and social platforms, the communication effect is extremely good. Many media outlets support submissions and the resources are free. This is overlooked by many people, but it is very important.

3. New media promotion;

As long as the content of new media such as Weibo and WeChat public accounts is good, the dissemination effect will be good. A Weibo post will at least have a reading volume of . The content of Weibo and WeChat operations must be combined with product content. WeChat promotion is a process of accumulating fans. Once the number of fans reaches a certain level, you can adopt the method of mutual promotion among fans.

4. SEO search engine optimization such as Baidu and 360;

Based on your own product features, optimize the coverage of your product’s core keywords in search engines. By utilizing Baidu Tieba, Zhidao, Lianyu, Wenku and other series of products, Baidu will definitely take special care of its own children. There are also social platforms such as Zhihu and Douban, and Baidu ranks very well. If you create a few news articles every month, the effect will be very good as long as the advertisements are cleverly inserted.

5. Event planning , execution and promotion.

Many people say that you have to spend money to organize an event. In fact, this is not entirely correct, as long as you find the core highlights of the product. It’s quite good to do some word-of-mouth sharing activities. For example, we can organize some free activities based on the number of new stock winning numbers, monthly stock trading bills, and bills for all shareholders (we just did this and it had over 3 million views). These data are closely related to the interests of users, and users are willing to share them.

These are the gains and experiences from 2016. Personally, I think the most effective method is to go all out to promote the app in the market . Although a good Weibo forum can attract a group of users, the download conversion rate is too low. As for some test sharing activities in WeChat Moments , if the copywriting and H5 technology are not good enough, it is better not to do it, as the effect will be really bad.

What I feel most deeply is the promotion of brand reputation, and we must make the product itself good. When users share with their friends, the effect is a hundred times better than us going through all the trouble to promote it. Among the core user groups of Investment Account Book, there are several industry bigwigs and Chief Product Experience Officers (a customized position, purely free service, and they are merciless in complaining about product bugs). They have been using Investment Account Book and have helped promote it for free on channels such as Snowball and Himalaya FM. It’s not because the product is very good and has met their expectations, but because I have given them more humanistic care on weekdays!

With the support of these core users, not only did the product improve, but it also helped me do a lot of free publicity. Here, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to them. The driving force behind the investment account book is inseparable from these lovely friends!

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

This article was compiled and published by the author @刘兴时 (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!