Android App Release Checklist 2023: 15 Strategies to Prepare Before Launch

If you are searching for a mobile app launch checklist and wish to know the nitty-gritty of what to do before the app launch, this blog is the one for you.

Year after year, with plenty of apps released on app stores, the following are the numbers that justify how phone users are growing steadily. The number of mobile apps available on the Apple App Store is about 4.75 million, and 2.9 million apps on Google Play Store currently, as per Statista. On the back of these numbers, according to a report by Statista, mobile apps are expected to generate a revenue of over 613 billion US dollars in revenue by 2025 at a CAGR of 9.27%.

You may spend days, months, and sometimes years developing an app but one mistake during the release may jeopardize the project leading to failure. Therefore to sustain in the ever-growing competitive landscape, businesses and new-age entrepreneurs must have a winning mobile app launch strategy to succeed and stand out in the market.

We have summarized the mobile app release checklist you can follow to release a quality app that can lead to plenty of downloads – not downvotes.

So, without any further delay, let’s get started.

App Launch Checklist: What Should be Ready Before the Launch?

The following is an app checklist that includes the groundwork for how to launch an app in the market. You must think, plan and strategize a few months prior by following things to do before launching an app in the marketplace.

Define Target Audience and do Competitor Analysis

Establish an Effective Pricing Approach

Test Everything You Can

Check for App Store Optimization

Develop Branded Visuals and Screenshots for Marketing

Compile a Good Press Kit

Build a Dedicated Landing Page

Develop A Media Outreach Strategy

Send Alerts to Audience and Influencers

Create a Pitch and Present it to Industry Experts

Adhere to Submission Guidelines of App Stores

Submit the App to the Relevant App Store

Choose the Right Launch Date

#1 Define Target Audience and do Competitor Analysis

A unique app idea can increase your brand’s online presence and generate better leads. With the number of apps on the Apple App Store at 4.75 million and 2.9 million apps on the Google Play Store, ensuring that people know the app’s existence is essential.

Though Google Play has more apps available for download, Apple App Store is doing a better job as global consumer spending is more on Apple apps. It is, therefore, essential to find answers to the following before you develop compelling marketing strategies.

• Who is the intended target audience for the app?
• What is driving traffic to the app?
• How better are you faring when compared to competitors?

Before you commit to launching an app, you need to understand what you are up against. Check if they have the same themes, visuals, features, and presence. Check out reviews t by users etc and see what they are good at and what they lack. Integrate all these and ensure your app offers something unique and better than competitors.

 #2 Establish an Effective Pricing Approach

Monetization is an essential thing to consider to make money on your app. The model you choose depends on the end goal. With many pricing models, your app can follow one or a combination of a few below.

• Free to use/download
• Subscription-based
• In-App purchases
• Pay once, use forever

Who doesn’t love free stuff? The free or freemium strategy is by far the most popular among all. It is most effective to drive in consumer awareness and building an audience even before making a sale. For example, Spotify’s premium tier offers a personalized and ad-free listening experience and a free version that listeners can download and hear.

The paid or subscription model works best if you are trying to connect a niche audience with specific needs. Therefore, market research is essential to support the pricing of this service. It is not suitable if you are targeting more app downloads, but it has the potential to grow a loyal user base if your app meets or exceeds their expectations.

Before you choose your app’s pricing model, ponder over the following to help you guide it to a more strategic approach.

• What value are you offering for your app?
• What are the costs involved in running your app?
• How many downloads would you need to cover the costs and what price point?
• What are features expected to be leveraged upon as an upgrade or up-sell?
• How much are competitive apps charging?

#3 Test Everything You Can

Is your app impeccable? Bug-free? Testing and refactoring will be a long-term part of your app launch, and the chances are, when you feel you are done, another arises. Review the app from time to time to ensure the following is done.

• Is the user interface working as it should?
• Has the speed been optimized for the app?
• Does the team have everything needed to test for issues?
• Have you paid attention to marketing and optimizing the app store?

Once you have tested it, retest it again and look out for issues that can arise post the launch.

 #4 Check for App Store Optimization

Word of mouth can be effective, but experts suggest users find new apps by searching for a specific query when they browse app stores. Therefore, your app must rank on both stores, and the following four key elements play a role in ranking well.

• Keywords must be used wisely in the name and description
• Visuals and branding used in the app
• Number of downloads that the app generates
• Rating and reviews

Studies have proven that keywords in the app name impact app store search ranking by at least 10%. Both Apple and Google app stores restrict the title to 30 characters. Therefore, the usage of keywords naturally is essential to make your point quick and effective.

#5 Develop Branded Visuals and Screenshots for Marketing

Customers are visual learners. Users gravitate toward an app that is visually and aesthetically pleasing. These visual assets are essential to telling your app’s story. To promote your mobile app effectively, you must create alluring screenshots, videos, and other visuals you will share with the press, social media, website, etc., providing clear ideas about the app.

Potential app users are likely to view these materials to learn more about your services and decide whether or not to download the app.

 #6 Compile a Good Press Kit

You want your app to receive enough press radar, so use an effective PR strategy or seek help from PR consultants to ensure your launch gets maximum media coverage. They are professionals with connections to media houses and tech publications which can lead to a major spike in downloads and coverage if you get your app featured on them.

The power of influencer marketing must be addressed too to promote your app. Invite tech bloggers and journalists in your niche to cover up your event. Ensure information about the app is visible or have a press kit designed that includes the following.

• What your app does, how it functions, and what features does it have
• Pricing and other system requirements like about the company and contact information
• Assets and screenshots that the media can use. Images must give a good overview of your app and a few staged images of someone using the app.
• App logo in several sizes and formats

An eye-catching video promo or demo can be a perfect addition that they can use to promote. The information can be used to promote your app later on your website and social media account.

#7 Build a Dedicated Landing Page

Promotion of your app, before it goes live, is crucial as it helps in building a good fan following before launching the mobile app. Therefore, one of the best ways to promote your app over the web is a perfect landing page with a clear mission statement and all the necessary information in brief, such as brand name, success stories, app features, version, supporting information, etc. A clear call-to-action can be placed to funnel your leads to active app installs.

 #8 Develop A Media Outreach Strategy

Your hard work is useless if users do not know your app exists. Another mistake entrepreneurs often make is putting too much faith in the app and not focusing on an app marketing plan. Launching a mobile app on the marketplace and expecting people to find it themselves without a proper marketing strategy is detrimental.

Establish your brand by identifying what value you offer and making it unique. Next, begin outreach to build a relationship with writers, influencers, and bloggers who have the audience for your niche, and they will help you build better awareness about your mobile app. You can find them in the following spaces.

• Google News: Look at this with the app’s name and your competitors. Look at the reports which cover them.
• Reverse Image Search: Take images from your website or competitor’s and see what has been written about it and where. Bloggers and writers may feature some related images useful to you.
• Social media: Follow trusted industry sources, blogs, competitors, and hashtags to know the pulse. Twitter and LinkedIn are good options to start with to know industry-related news.

#9 Send Alerts to Audience and Influencers

With plenty of platforms available to connect with industry experts and audiences of the same niche, form a community to ensure your app gets the reach it deserves. Participating in relevant discussions and forums and forming potential promotional partnerships greatly affect your branding.

Also, share your app with top bloggers, and thought leaders to receive suggestions and answer any query. Reach out to them a few weeks or months before the launch date. You can schedule and publish blogs too on your website leading to the release with social sharing buttons on the blog so that the news can be shared as much as possible.

In addition, the influencer market plays an important role in stepping into similar markets and reaching top communities. This can be a great approach to go forward with as people prefer to follow and share influencers’ content. It also increases the chances of getting a good feature in the market once the app is launched.

#10 Create a Pitch and Present it to Industry Experts

After finalizing the list of influencers and industry experts, you need to start a conversation and connect with them. That begins with a proper pitch which consists of the following-

• Explain in brief how you found the influencer and why how valuable they are for your brand
• Description of your app in brief and what you offer based on the recipients’ demographics, interest
• Links to the press kit, landing page website, and app store product page
• Effective call-to-action

Once the pitch is ready, you must present it to industry experts and influencers, which is an important step in the app launch checklist. You can also give them a beta version of the app download link for free download.

#11 Adhere to Submission Guidelines of App Stores

Before you plan the launch, ensure your app conforms to all the rules and guidelines of the Apple and Android stores if you plan to release on either or both. Awareness of all the policies is essential as your efforts may go in vain if the app store rejects your app, which is developed with so much effort. You can opt for both app stores to widen your customer base or choose one depending on the target users.

#12 Submit the App to the Relevant App Store

Now that your app is ready for submission to the relevant app store, it must be at its best after following a well-planned testing process. We hope you have followed all the steps mentioned above and met all the requirements stated by the respective app store guidelines to increase your chances of approval. Once you receive approval from the app store, you can proceed to the final step, choosing the right launch date.

#13 Choose the Right Launch Date

Another aspect to consider is choosing an appropriate launch date for the app, which brings us to the crucial question – when is the right time to launch an app?

The market is flooded with apps, and competition is rising exponentially, noting this, the timing – day, week, and month will play a huge impact on the initial response of the app and later successes. TechCrunch says apps released on a Sunday do better than those released on other weekdays. 42% of apps on the iOS platform are currently in the top 200, and 11% of Android apps did better when launched on a Sunday.

Also, the most beneficial months to launch the app are December and January. Tuesdays and Thursdays earn higher revenue and downloads, and certain niches like gaming and entertainment apps saw more traffic on weekends.  Productivity and News apps saw traffic almost every day.

Therefore, research in detail the niche you are targeting before the launch. See what competitors and others are doing in the same line and how they approached the launch date. Compare about 4 to 5 competitors and launch dates, and you can see a common pattern they followed. Try to do the same before you target your release.

Closing Thoughts!

Launching a mobile app is a glorious moment and one of the most important events in any organization. However, successful app launches take more than technical knowledge. To get the most out of your app, releasing one that is technically good with proper optimizing and marketing strategies is essential for an effective launch.

We hope the above pointers give you a solid foundation for any product release and help launch an app with good market penetration. But if you need help launching an app, you can contact a leading mobile app development company like us. We have extensive experience launching apps and products, rolling out updates, and following best practices for a successful app launch. We are well-versed in conceptualizing good user experiences and crafting innovative solutions with a world-class team for various devices and OSs, ensuring a seamless experience.

Now that’s just for starters. Get in touch with us so you and your team can be at rest for a kickass app launch.

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