Best marketing pitch for ipad app : Are quotes any useful?

"Best meeting report iPad app ever"

"Meeting notes on iPad have never been that easy with iTakeNotes" 

"Best Meeting Minutes iPad App Award Winner"

Sounds familiar? If you've been shopping around the App Store, you've probably noticed that quotes are just everywhere.  I looked over in productivity apps, 5 out of 20 app pitches were starting with quotes.

Well, most of the App Store marketing specialists tell you that you need to give quotes because shoppers are looking for social proof. And putting quotes first is a good way to give shopper a virtual "certificate".

Shoppers want quotes to avoid bad surprises

The web is full of junk and so is the App Store even if Apple is checking who's showing up. We are all looking for a recommendation from someone, either customer reviews or "media" quotes.

Following the same phenomenon you have for restaurants or hotels, iPad and iPhones magazines both online and at the newsstand have appeared almost everywhere.

Why?

Because we don't want to spend money on something that's not worth it. But the issue I am not comfortable with is the same issue we find all over the web, from TripAdvisor to Amazon:

Fake reviews and fake quotes

Yes fake reviews are everywhere now

Yes there is a business of paying for reviews and getting supposedly independent reviews. I don't say that all reviewer sites and magazines are not sincere but there is a fair share of that market which is corrupted.

And it's going to be more and more difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.  This is the reason why I believe that quotes are likely to become less and less effective unless you are able to quote a review from an unquestionable brand, which will be difficult to find.

Rather than presenting your app like if it was a broadway show, I would rather not use quotes unless they are really worth showing.

Instead refine your first sentence, the one that makes the difference, make it sounds true about your app: what does it bring to the user? What is the pay off? In conclusion I would say:

Be true, it will eventually pay off

Best marketing pitch for the App Store: choosing the right words

Most of App Store Marketers tell you to put up quotes at the start of your app pitch. But since you are writing your first pitch, you have no reviews yet and it's going to be just plain text.

As we stated in a previous post, most shoppers won't read your text, so you better say what you have to say really quick. But how should you structure your pitch? And which words should you use and which ones should you avoid?

How to structure your pitch?

- A first sentence that summarizes exactly what you app does and the added value it brings to the user. Remember the umbrella principle, your app main feature should be crystal clear. If you want a good indicator that it works: even a 10 year old must understand it.

- Put your app in its context, be concrete: in which case, should you use it? At work? At home? In a boat? Be precise.

Don't write a too long pitch: Be concise

- Then explore the various features of your app. The best way to do it is to follow the most common user case. Otherwise describe what makes your app truly different.

- Saving time, money or Willy is always good so don't forget to put upfront positive effects included in your app.

- Since most readers won't spend too much time reading, do not write long sentences, use short ones. And use them with bullets as often as possible, they are easier to catch when scrolling down a text.

Which words should you use? 

- Personalize as much as you can: avoid words such as "user", "individual" and so on. Prefer the "you".

- Avoid technical words, remember the ipad (or iphone) user is not an app developer.

- Some studies have shown that buyers respond more to some words than others. Words such as "new", "discover", "now", "instantly" etc. should be preferred wherever possible.

Some words can be confusing for the shopper

If you want to know more about persuasive words, I suggest you read this article from Jonathan Farrington's blog, a famous sales coach.

Best marketing pitch for the App Store : understanding reading patterns

The App Store requires you to write a presentation of your App, which is something you have probably seen a hundred times if you have surfed on the App Store with your iPad. This post will focus on some reading pattern issues that I found important to capture before getting into the "pitch" subject which I will review in a second post.

As of today, there are no real public studies about readers behavior on the App Store. The only way we can figure  how readers behave on the App Store is through how they read in real life and more specifically how they read on the web, something that has received a lot of attention in the past 15 years.

Let's start with facts from real life: People read on average 200 words per minute. Since there are between 15 and 20 words per line, the average person reads one line in 5 seconds. So if they get to your app description and knowing they can only read 3 lines without having to scroll down, they are likely to spend 15 seconds on your App description, yes, 15 seconds and that's it.

You have 15 seconds to get your audience interested

Not only they spend a very limited time on your description but eye tracking studies suggest that reading is not a smooth process: we read over the text, stop from times to times in a process called fixation. Then we move forward or backward (if we didn't understand for example).

Fixation is good in marketing because it increases the chances that the reader will remember.

But fixation depends on how long the word is (short words don't get much fixation) and its nature: if the word is a content word, there's 85% chances we will fix it, it it's a function word, there's 35% chances we will fix it.

Fixation is a reading process you'll be looking for

And it gets worse:

• Web studies have shown that people will scan the main sections of a page and make decisions in 3 seconds about staying or leaving.
• If they stay, meaning that they do scroll down your app, if their behavior is similar to web user behavior, they will read only 20% of your text, often focusing on a triangular area in the upper left corner. Eye tracking studies have shown that this reading behavior looks like an F shape, specifically on e-commerce sites.

F shape reading pattern

Now let's apply this behavior to the app store where you don't have as much choice as on an html page. Here are the most important part of your text before the user scrolls down:

This is what most customers read before they scroll 

and if he took the decision to scroll down and "read" the rest of the text:

This is what most customers read if they scroll down

I don't have an eye tracking device and I haven't try to check that this web reading pattern apply to all users (but I swear I will). Using an iPad to browse the App Store is something very new that is likely to evolve over time. Also the impact of screen captures is not taken into account.

Nonetheless until someone smarter than me with an eye tracking device challenge this theory (for which I will welcome any input), I suggest the following for App developers:

• Put the most important content first, in the opening sentences and paragraphs and get straight to the point: what is you App about?
• Make short sentences with content words
• Use bullets lists wherever you can

If you want more information about reading patterns, I encourage you to visit the following sites:
- Nielsen's research on web readers : Nielsen is one the eye tracking most recognized searchers and is the first one to have identified the F shape pattern
- The National Center for Children with Disabilities (yes) has a very good article on the subject that you can find here
- Apple studies that you will find if you work for one of these organizations  (and you can send me whatever you have)

What is the real impact of keywords on the app store?

You have a great app but how the millions of iPad users will now that it does exist? If they don't know, how can they find you on the app store? We developed a meeting report app, but how will user know that there is a meeting report app?

Two ways: either you are very visible on the app store, a probability that comes very close to winning the national lottery, either you have found the magic keywords.

If this happens to you with keywords, wake up, you're dreaming 

Magic keywords combine both a very high search by the users AND a very high ranking of your app in the search results. Needless to say that even Hogwarts best students won't find out the magic keywords for your app.

So here's my advise: find the right keywords for your app, don't spend too much time on it and most importantly try not to mess up that process.

Finding the best keywords for your app: take your app main feature with the umbrella principle in mind. It's raining outside, you need to go out, what are the first words that come to your mind? "rain", "wet", "umbrella" and so on.

For iTakeNotes, we came with meeting, meeting report, minutes, notes, conference,... Those words are close concepts to our app main features. And we did it in english, french, spanish...

Don't play keyword strategy too long

And that's enough. Seriously.

There are so many things to do to market your app, no need to spend more time on it. Think of it: you're not alone, thousand of smart developers are out there and came with the same ideas. If you are familiar with game theory, you will realize that keywords are just too basic marketing to help you differentiate your app.

But still don't mess up your keywords. On the app store there is no coming back i.e. once your keywords are set, you will not be able to change them unless you make a new app release.

There is no second chance for keywords on the App Store

Now a few useful links:
- How to deal with keywords on App Store: check out Noel Chenier article on its blog, very useful
- The most used keywords: very interesting article by Bryson Meunier on Searchengineland
- A very interesting slideshare on the subject can also be found here