作者：Ed Vause

在Appromote，我们注意到开发商在应用发行前总是会做错的一些事。以下我将列出一些最常见的误区。

1.在闭门造车中开发游戏

我们总是能够发现许多未达标准的应用的出现。从市场营销角度来看，我们不可能成功推广一款缺少USP或者未能有效组合在一起的应用。

那些在闭门造车中开发游戏的开发商们似乎未意识到他们的应用公然窃取了早前应用商店的成功，或者也有其它应用采取了相同的做法但却取得了更好的成绩。

简单地说，这种方法并不是一个好的开始。

我们强烈建议开发商们能够让好友或陌生人去测试他们的理念，并获得一些建设性的反馈。开发商们还可以聘请一些论坛（如TouchArcade）上的测试员或使用专业的测试服务，如Testology。

app marketing(from biznessapps)

2.未规划市场营销或分配预算

开发商总是会投入好几百个小时以及高额资金去创造他们的应用，但却很少去考虑市场营销和游戏推广，直到他们意识到重要性时往往都太迟了。

通过审批再规划市场营销已经难以有效吸引大量用户的注意了。

开发商需要为应用发行前，发行时以及发行后做出实际规划，并预留出市场营销预算。这包括一些基本元素，如设计图标，制作预告片，编写新闻稿，进行推广，创造广告等等。

市场营销活动应该在发行前至少3，4周便展开。除此之外，今天许多成功的应用都为持续的市场营销活动留下了足够的预算。

3.对PR报以盲目的期许

PR是市场营销组合必不可少的组成部分——如果不是这样那PR机构也没有存在的必要。此外，PR还能帮助我们更好地意识到目标用户。

但是推出保守的评价却不足以保证应用的成功。最佳应用总是拥有最有效的新闻宣传，从而能够有效推动销量的提高，但是在Pocket Gamer，148 Apps和TouchArcade等网站上获得评价却不足以吸引广大用户的注意。

PR的作用便在于帮你获得积极的评价，让你能够将这些评价放置在应用描述的最上方。

当然，你可以规划大笔的PR预算，但是如果你不能创造出一款真正优秀的应用，那么PR也不可能拯救了你。

4.不理解苹果和谷歌的挑选标准

苹果和谷歌都希望能够获得最一流的产品去显示自己的技术与设备。所以为了获得这两个平台的推荐，你必须先创造出一款富有创造性的出色应用，并且能够展示出最新硬件和软件的优势。

谷歌不可能希望你将一款iOS移植应用推给他们，所以你最好能仔细阅读这两个平台对于开发商的要求，以确保能够满足他们的基本要求，如后退按键的使用。

5.不理解用户

所有成功的企业主都非常了解自己的用户。通过数据挖掘，电话或在线调查，焦点小组等各种方法，他们都能有效地掌握用户的喜好与需求。

Tesco便是一个典型的例子，他们利用Cliubcard忠实顾客奖励计划去掌握顾客的想法。为什么会有这么多应用开发者忽视了这一问题，在完全不了解用户的基础上开发游戏呢？

除此之外，开发商们还可以使用像Flurry或Localytics等针对于手机游戏的免费分析服务。

6.App Store并不是用于测试的场所

许多开发商都认为在一些较小英语国家（游戏邦注：如南非，澳大利亚，爱尔兰等）进行“试发行”是一个很好的主意，能够帮助他们在面向全球市场发行前进行测试。

但是问题在于这种方法不可能真正奏效。

首先，你需要让人们察觉到你的应用，而这需要投入一定的市场营销预算（去瞄准当地的用户）。其次，你不能因此获得一些较大评论网站（来自美国或英国）的报道。

最后，少数玩过游戏的人将留下自己的评价，而如果你的应用测试结果不好，他们的评价将会是：“总是死机”，“糟糕透了！”

也就意味着这种负面反馈将始终伴随着游戏在今后的任何发行，并在应用取得成功前将其拉黑。

此外，苹果不喜欢任何低于标准的产品，所以在新西兰App Store进行“试发行”将会破坏你在正式发行时获得苹果推荐的机会。

我们总是跟周边的应用开发商说，在将产品推向任何应用商店前都应该尽可能去优化这些应用。不管是漏洞测试，用户反馈还是媒体评价都是不错的方法。

只有呈现出一款真正优秀的应用并获得适当的市场营销/广告的推动，你才有可能吸引广大用户的注意，并在发行时取得巨大的成功。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The ten commandments of app marketing, by Appromoter MD Ed Vause

By Ed Vause

Here at Appromoter, we notice a lot of things that developers do wrong before they launch their apps.

As a result, here’s our rundown of the most common mistakes we see developers making.

1. Developing in a vacuum

It never ceases to amaze us how some apps just aren’t making the grade. From a marketing perspective it’s practically impossible to successfully market an app that has no USPs and isn’t very well put together.

Some developers seem to operate in a kind of vacuum, apparently unaware that their app is a blatant rip off of a previous app store success, or that there are other apps out there that do the same job but a lot better.

Or, quite simply, that the idea was never any good to start with.

We strongly recommend that developers test their ideas with friends and strangers alike to get some constructive feedback. Developers can recruit beta testers on forums like TouchArcade or use a professional testing service such as Testology.

2. Not planning or budgeting for marketing

Developers spend hundreds of hours and a lot of money on making their app but often give little or no thought to marketing and promotion until it’s too late.

Pressing the launch button when you get your approval will not magically yield you thousands of users.

Developers need to realistically plan for what will happen before, during and after launch and also set aside a realistic marketing budget. This needs to cover basics like icon design, creating a trailer, press release writing and distribution, advertising and more.

Your marketing activity should begin at least 3-4 weeks before you launch. Beyond that, many of today’s successful apps have a budget for ongoing marketing.

If you intend to pay for advertising then take a look at our recent blog post which goes into more detail on the subject.

3. Unrealistic expectations of PR

PR is an essential part of the marketing mix – if it wasn’t then all the great and the good of the world would not employing PR agencies. Among other things, it’s great for creating awareness and generating a preference in the target audience.

However, sending out a release and securing reviews is still no guarantee of success. The best apps will garner the best coverage and will drive sales, but just because you get a review on Pocket Gamer, 148 Apps and TouchArcade, don’t necessarily expect the numbers to come pouring in.

What PR is great for is getting you good comments and reviews so you can put them at the top of your app description.

Ultimately, you can have the world’s biggest PR budget, but if you don’t have a great app then it’s pretty pointless.

4. Not understanding what Apple and Google are looking for

Apple and Google expect top notch products that really showcase their technology and devices. To realistically have a chance of being featured, you need a great, innovative product that showcases the latest hardware and software advances.

Google won’t like it if you give them a lazy iOS port so it’s a cardinal rule to read the developer guidelines closely for both companies to ensure you have covered the basics, such as utilisation of the back button.

There is never a guarantee of getting featured but if you want to have the best possible chance then read our earlier post on what Apple wants… what it really really wants.

5. Not understanding the customer

All successful business owners know their customers well. Through data mining, phone or online surveys, focus groups or a myriad of other methods, they will do all they can to understand what their customer is doing and what they want.

Tesco is a good example of a company that values customer insight through its Clubcard loyalty scheme. So why do so many app developers ignore this issue and live happy in the knowledge that they will never know anything about their customers?

There are some fantastic free analytic services such as Flurry or Localytics that have been designed specifically for mobile. Use them.

6. The App Store is not a place for beta testing

Many developers seem to think it’s a good idea to ‘soft launch’ in a minor English speaking territory (South Africa, Australia, Ireland etc) in order to test their product before they launch it globally.

The problem is that this doesn’t really work.

For one, you need to make people aware that the app is there and this requires some marketing budget to target people locally. Next, you cannot really generate any meaningful media coverage as most of the big review sites are in the US and UK.

Finally, a tiny percentage of people who play your game will then leave a review, and if your app is not properly tested these reviews are likely to be along the lines of: ‘keeps crashing’, ‘complete crap…avoid.’

This tells you nothing useful and this negative feedback could well follow you to any other launches in the future and doom your app to failure before it ever gets off the ground.

Moreover Apple don’t like sub-par products so by ‘soft launching’ an untested app on, for example, the New Zealand App Store you will destroy any chance you might have had of getting an editorial boost from Apple when you do launch globally – and for what?

We always say to the app developers we work with that it’s incredibly important to have the app as polished as possible before it goes onto any store. Bug testing, user feedback and even media previews can all be done before the app goes live.

The optimal chance of getting the downloads you need to make the launch a commercial success will be with a simultaneous global launch with a really great app and an associated marketing/advertising push.(source:pocketgamer)