iTunes Connect, the way to submit your App

If you have checked all the boxes regarding your app submission check list, you can now move on to submission.
Submission happens only through iTunes Connect. If you believe you can talk to Apple about your app in the process, forget about it. iTunes Connect is just a landing platform which will inform you of the following submission steps:

1) Prepare for upload
2) Waiting for Upload
3) Upload received
4) Waiting for review
5) In review
6) Processing for App Store
7) Ready for sale

Between "Waiting for review" and "In review", 15 days will pass in a complete silence, so be patient. And pray. Pray that your testing has been well done, otherwise you will have to retake the whole process from the start.

ios developers praying Apple divinity during submission

Apple will check that your app is compliant with the AppStore rules and that it works. And that's pretty much it. Review last on average a few hours, very frustrating when you think that nothing happened for 15 days while "waiting for review".

If your app is rejected, Apple will give you the reason why (the bug they found for example). I strongly suggest not to discuss your rejection, even if you feel it's unjustified.

Don't play too smart if your app gets rejected

In a world where the only relationship you will have with Apple is based on your app and half filled dialog boxes, it's better to keep it clean. Remember that Apple is the one calling the shots here. Even if customers will be terribly frustrated from not getting your app, all these customers are Apple customers. And Apple is not going to jeopardize its customer relationship for you.

So what can you do during those 15 days? Well for one thing you can create a facebook or google+ page, a tweeter account and start creating some awareness around your app. If your customer target is not too wide, you can also start creating some buzz.   If you have connections at Apple, it might help you get some interest but we didn't have any so it didn't take us very far.

And then, one day, you will receive the magic notification "Processing for AppStore" very quickly followed by "Ready for Sale". You're in baby and that's worth celebrating!

Celebrate when you get your "ready for sale" notification

Nonetheless don't forget that :

- You will need to go through the same process for EVERY evolution (which will be very stressful for bug resolution)
- It's only the beginning!

Will everything be free on the App Store?

Creating an app is a painful process, it takes long time and you would believe it deserves to get some reward and a price. One thing when you start thinking about pricing an App is that you can't escape having those wild billionaire dreams where all users will pick up your app and you'll end up purchasing a beautiful island somewhere.

All app developers share the same dream

Before approaching any fancy real estate agency and putting option on a Ferrari, you will need to pick up your pricing model. Choices aren't that large even if Apple pricing matrix offers up to 87 tiers.

Setting the starting price for your app seems to offer lot of flexibility. You can either:

Option#1: Go for an upfront price ($0.99 and above)
Option#2: Go for a freemium model ($0 and selling in-apps)
Option#3: Go for upfront + in-apps because you are very confident
Option#4: Go for free because fame is the reward you are looking for

Option #1: For some obscure reason, someone at Apple decided to make prices start at $0,99 and by doing so made completely useless about 70 tiers above $10. On iPhone, prices have already got down to $0.99 and as Richard Gaywood stated it, it looks that there is very little room for prices above that tier.
The iPad has been somewhat preserved from the cup of coffee syndrome but there are very few apps above the $5 tier. I see a few reasons to this deviation from the iphone apps price behavior:

- The iPad reaches a different kind of public than the iPhone (families, business people) who sound more able to pay for an app that's worth it
- There are less apps for iPad than iPhone and competition has not been as fierce as on the iPhone market

Overall I think there is a market on the iPad for the moment but looking at the way iPhone market has evolved I am pessimistic and Option#2 is likely to become the standard.

No escape from the freemium model?

Option #2: The freemium model will probably become a standard in the months to come. Most of the games have already gone that way and with increasing pressure on boosting downloads, going free seems the way to go (check out this incredible experience). With a broader customer base, In-Apps purchases make sense, provided that they come with a service.

There are however 3 limits to this model:
- Customer behavior may evolve with the increasing amount of junk apps around. They may become suspicious at free apps and may be willing to pay if they see a point in getting your app.
- What has value has a price, everyone knows there is no such thing as a free ride. They know that there is a price to pay at some point either with in Apps or with no maintenance.
- Customers are zappers: they get an app and for a large majority of them, they just forget about it after a few hours, making In-Apps just inapt.

So big question is: are we doomed? 

Unsustainable business model will bring everyone down

Everyone needs to make a living. There are less and less investors on App Store start ups and many developers are giving up because it's just not sustainable that everything goes for free. Price war is like nuclear war, at some point everyone loses. Even Apple will start to worry (at some point) because what makes iPhone and iPad competitive is the number of apps available. And with an unsustainable business model, who will develop apps?

Conclusion and I am asking Apple here: why not make possible a 30 days trial on every app? It will give customers more confidence in what they buy and developers a reason to compete!

It's not that hard to do and cannot be more complicated than the pricing matrix!

Screenshots on the App Store: how to choose them?

Screenshots have always been an important part of the purchasing process on the App Store. It is the only way for the App shopper to get an idea of what the app look like.

If you are familiar with reading patterns, you know that the average shopper will surf very quickly through your screenshots (15 seconds is the average time spent). In that case, what's critical is to get the shopper to stop by. Therefore catching his/her attention must be your only obsession.

If the shopper doesn't stop by, it's not a good screenshot

Also if you have updated your iPad to ios 6 (meaning you have at least an iPad 2), you also noticed that on the App Store screenshots now come first, making it more important to put up the best you have, especially the two first screenshots which will make a difference.

On iPad 1:

Text first, screenshots second with an iPad 1

And now on iPad 2 or above

The first 2 screenshots come first on ios 6

I have also noticed some app developers have put concept pictures instead of their real app screenshots which is something I don't recommend. The shopper is visiting your App Store site to get an idea of what your app is about, if he/she was looking for concept pictures, there's all he/she needs on the net. If the picture you put up is not about your app, forget it.

Instead focus either on real app screenshots OR contextual picture of your app i.e the user using your app in a particular situation (remember the umbrella principle). 

In either case, I recommend one important thing: tell a story! Tell what is happening when you use your app, it's the best way to attract their attention.

Your screenshots should tell a story

A user case scenario is a good way to tell a story. Here's what we have picked up:

1) Screenshot 1: Welcome screen

2) Screenshot 2: Setting up a meeting

3) Screenshot 3: Meeting notes being taken

4) Screenshot 4: A finalized meeting Report

5) Screenshot 5: The email ready to be sent with the attached meeting report

You can also add a few comments on your screenshots to help the user better understand what the screenshot is about (features and such).

Finally don't forget to update your screenshots when you have a new version available.

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