How To Rock Your App Pre-Launch

If you’ve developed and launched an app before, you’ve already learned a key lesson. There is plenty of work to be done before you ever come close to your official launch: crafting your pre-launch strategy.

If you want to have a successful launch, the work you do beforehand will be just as important. Here is a rock-solid app pre-launch strategy to set yourself up for success.

Create and Define Your Customer Avatars

Everything you do needs to be tailored to your ideal audience, so this is a crucial step. Who is your ideal customer? You may have several segments of your business, and a few buyer personas for each aspect of your business.

Spend the time upfront to decide who these people are. Try to build an understanding and awareness of what they want and need from your business, and your app. Doing so is the only way you can become, and stay, truly relevant. This will come into play with marketing, community building, and more.

Check Out Your Competition

Pay attention to what others in your space are doing. Who are their customers? Which apps are the most popular and why? How are they marketing and community building? What do their customer reviews say, and are there gaps you could be filling? Nail down your core marketing pieces.

While your marketing will eventually become a fluid and moving strategy, there are some core elements you need to iron out at the very beginning. Don’t wait until you’re ready to publish your website to decide on things like brand colors and a business name.

Key items you want to finalize during app pre-launch before putting yourself out there are: Your app name and business name Keywords you want to be found for A press kit A product demo Branding

Build a Website or Landing Page

You’ve created your buyer personas, decided on some crucial marketing elements, and crept the competition. Now, it’s time for the next major app pre-launch step: creating a basic website or landing page. This is where you want to convert interested audiences into early adopters by collecting email addresses. Then, on your big launch day, you can reach out to these critical brand ambassadors early. Without a landing page, it’s nearly impossible to start building an audience for your app.

Get on Preapps

Preapps is an excellent place to gain the attention of early adopters and potential beta testers. It’s one of several communities for app developers to gauge interest in their developments and grow your email list. Before you register, you’ll want to have the basic marketing elements finalized, as well as your app icon and screenshots.

Find Your Tribe

Use your buyer persona as a starting point to find out where your people hang out. Maybe it’s Reddit, maybe it’s LinkedIn. Start creating content and trying it in new places, to start finding and building your tribe.

Decide on Your Release Date

Your release date is pretty important. Why? The answer is another question. That is: what if you pick a date that is months down the road, and you realize too late Apple or Google are also launching something huge that day? Don’t just pick a date: research it. Make sure you’re not going to drown in someone else’s noise on your big day.

Create a Content Marketing & Social Media Strategy

If you want to win the long-game, you are going to need a content marketing strategy. If you want people to find and come to you, start with a solid content marketing strategy and plan.

Whether you realize it or not, you’ve already begun: you’ve got your buyer persona, marketing elements, and a landing page or website. On top of that, you’ve already tested out some content to see where your tribe might be lurking. Use this foundation as the starting point to create and launch a solid content marketing and social media strategy that will attract your ideal customers.

Keep All Your Hard Work Going

You’ve been going full-speed up until your launch date, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to relax. Next is to ensure you’re executing on your strategies. Drive business to your website by communicating regularly with the email list you’re building and with the social communities you’ve worked so hard to create. Keep the buzz going throughout the entire pre-launch and launch stage, and continue to build relationships with your audience as a regular part of your business activities.

If you want to rock your app pre-launch and be ready to nail it on your big day, follow the strategy outlined above. Good luck!

Post originally appeared on gojilabs.com.