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When 53% of apps are discovered through app store browsing, it becomes quite clear that your brand image must be strong enough to make your app stand out among 1.5 million available. Your app branding is what will make the customers not scroll past your app when they are browsing the app store.
App Store Optimization (or ASO) is is the process used to improve app store search rankings and increase mobile app downloads. For your ASO efforts to be most effective, you should invest your time and effort in enhancing the following elements of your app:
- App name
- App icon
- App description
- App ratings
But before you dig into these must-haves of digital marketing of your app, you should answer the main question, “Are these app elements designed according to my target users?”
Knowing Your Target Audience
The importance of audience cannot be undermined. You may get excited about an app but if the audience isn’t, then the idea is useless. The audience should be at the forefront of the thought process from conceiving the idea of your app to its creation, designing, and branding. There are many factors such as age, gender, education level, and even culture, which play a vital part in affecting their decision to download and use your app.
For instance, if you are designing a fantasy football app, your target audience will be for the most part: male, college graduates who are in their mid-20’s to late-40s. Some other people may be considered as secondary targets but you won’t consider elderly homemakers as primary targets for the app.
keep in mind when, where, and how often users will be accessing your app, and what they will be using it for. Would it be used for human resources, sales, or banking, fitness, gaming, or purely for entertainment? Once you begin to understand your target audience and how they will be using your app, many important decisions become more clear:
- App features/capabilities
- Pricing
- Upsell opportunities
- Design
- App Marketing
How to Identify What Appeals To Your Target Audience
Consider answering questions such as these to help you understand what appeals to and motivates your personas:
Average Age of End Users
If your target audience is younger, they might go for an aesthetically pleasing app design and minimalistic interface.
The older audience might prefer a fast and simple interface with larger text.
Area of Residence
Language, cultural expectations, and geography all tie in together. If you are catering to a certain geographical region, make sure that you consider how things may be interpreted and/or translated.
Similarly, your end users hailing from different geographic regions may prefer different app design aesthetics. For instance, Apps targeting Asian demographics tend to be more vibrantly colored than their European and North American targeted counterparts.
Education and General Socioeconomic Level
Most of the time, socioeconomic level correlates with education level. This often reveals a person’s exposure to technology and how an individual uses digital tools at a younger age, so hey are more likely to prefer complex and sophisticated apps. Those with less exposure to technology at a young age might prefer a more user-friendly app with fewer steps in the process.
Establishing Brand Image by Focusing on the Key Components of ASO
After extracting a segmented group of app users as your target audience, you will be able to grasp what they prefer, how they are expected to use your app, and what is likely to attract them to and download your app. The next step is to focus on key areas of the app store page:
Icon
The first impression of the app should be eye-catching. It should attract the interest of your target audience and make them interested in learning more about the app.
Tips for designing icon
Stay clear from using words in the app icon. Reserve them for the description and app title
- If possible, add borders to the icon to make sure that it stands out against all backgrounds
- Have a consistent color scheme throughout the app design as well as icon
- Focus on one idea to keep it simple
App Name
Once you have named your app, it cannot be changed. Thus, you should give it serious thought. Here are some things to kept in mind when naming your app:
Tips for choosing app names
The app name should signify what your app does
- Do not use more than three words in the name
- Never include special characters in the app name
- It should be easy to pronounce by the users
App Description
The written description compels users to try out your app. You will need to experiment with the app description to see what is most compelling to your target demographic: humor, information about app’s features, or functionality, description of the user’s experience, etc.
Tips for writing an effective app description
The first three lines are the most important and immediately visible to people visiting the app page from iPhone, iPad, or a PC.
- List the features and benefits of the app
- Use entire allotted character amount
- Include user/blog reviews or awards as social proof in the description
- Localize the app description
- Convince the reader. Keywords will follow later
App Ratings
- Those five stars mean a lot to an app user. However, written app reviews have an even greater impact.
- Encourage users to rate your app and leave reviews
- Include contact information such as website and email address
- Ensure that support page URL is useful and valid
- Utilize SDK solely for sending positive reviews to App Store
- Utilize SDK solely for sending negative reviews to support
Wrapping It Up
Now that you know how to develop and refine app brand image, you are in the best position to optimize your app according to the key areas of ASO discussed in this post. If you would like to learn about the other crucial areas of ASO that can make or break your app’s success, download our free App Store Optimization Checklist.
Or reach out to us, SF AppWorks: The Bay Area’s best mobile application development company, for your app development and app marketing needs.
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