Pricing Launch Strategies
Nick Kuh
I've now got an iPad app in the review queue and am planning the best launch strategy I can. I wondered if anyone has any advise to offer on this.
My app is a configurable portfolio app for iPad. The most successful competitor is this one http://ipadportfolioapp.com which has been in the top 100 photo/video charts for about 2 years. It's also the most expensive iPad app in the top 100 photo/video apps at $14.99
Most of the portfolio apps are priced quite high - between $10 and $20. I planned to launch my app at $16.99 and then changed my mind to match Portfolio for iPad at $14.99
Now I'm wondering if I should start with a launch sale at $9.99
I've spent some time and money on getting a site and promo video made - http://www.nickkuh.com/portfoliopro which I think looks good but what's the best way to launch an app like this price-wise?
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Nick
Damian Soong
Nick
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Adrian Driscoll
I think that 4.99 is a good intro price (as UK will be under 10 as well) but you will be trapped into it if it gets some traction but then you won't care. If not then you can push up to 9.99 and start the slow build up to establish it.
Adrian
Aimer Media
lee@gmail
t : 07540 723783
skype : Lee.Probert
twitter : @leeprobert
Adam Martin
Lee's approach because:
- makes it zero-risk for someone who's considering switching
- ...and zero-risk for new time buyers who see the "established" app:
they can get yours *as well* (instead of having to choose which one to
buy)
- over time, you can re-price it to something reasonable
Because my guess is: you need your critical mass of existing users /
word of mouth ASAP before you start selling it toe-to-toe on pricing.
Or ... you need an awesome marketing campaign, maybe?
Nick Kuh
Free isn't really I route I'd choose even with in-app purchase.
There aren't really any free portfolio iPad apps (that I've come across anyway). Sure, that could be a reason to choose that route as no-one else is doing it. However, from researching App Store history using App Annie I've seen that some of the competitor apps have tried the free approach and pulled their free lite app.
There really aren't that many portfolio iPad apps in the App Store so in theory I shouldn't have to make too many sales to come up fairly high in searches for 'Portfolio' etc. May be wrong but who knows...
From reading most of the reviews of the highly priced competitors (that are far from perfect apps) the reviews are pretty positive on the whole and rarely mention the price being too expensive. A lot of the reviews mention how they've bought every portfolio app and this one's the best they could find etc. These kind of findings suggest to me that my target market aren't put off by high prices...
Interestingly, there is a 'low' priced ($2.99) portfolio app called Minimal Portfolio that I've followed. It was pretty high in the charts when Apple were featuring it but now has dropped fairly far behind the much more expensive 'Portfolio for iPad'. Minimal Portfolio is actually a much better app in many ways but I think it's low price actually puts some buyers off as they associate quality with a higher price.
All kinda interesting - different from the usual $0.99 or free markets.
Think I'm going to kick off with a $9.99 sale and see how it goes.
Nick
Damian Soong
How are you planning to market the application? Strategy there goes hand in hand with pricing.
Nick Kuh
Adam Martin
> A lot of the reviews mention how they've bought every portfolio app and this one's the
So *that* counters Lee's suggestion :) - given this, I'd avoid free -
but the rest of it wouldn't sway me. Your point about how you might
need many sales to go up the charts is a good one, but ... I think
"get high in the charts" as a marketing strategy doesn't matter so
much for niche apps like this one.
> I've prepared a press release and will write to a number of Photography blogs when it's live.
IMHO it's all or nothing - no point in a press release, or approaching
bloggers, if that's all you're doing. These things can have a
catalysing effect when done *in addition* to other, more effective
things - but otherwise they tend to be a drop in the ocean.
These days, I won't start a new app until/unless I have a basic
marketing campaign fleshed out:
- Who's going to buy the app?
- Why?
- At the moment when they're most likely to buy the app (given the
chance), what were they doing?
- Where will they be?
- Who else will be with them?
...etc.
For example, an app that's in dev right now targetted at film crew (NB
some of this is intentionally oblique/vague, some of it is just not
yet decided!):
- purchased by camera assistants, lighting people, and (occasionally)
their bosses (who sometimes need to check / correct juniors)
- they're on-site, frustrated with the crappy paper tools they have
available. They're surrounded by the rest of a film crew, and if the
app works well in the first 5 mins, they're likely to evangelise it
immediately
- OR: they're off-site, with other people from their industry, and
someone else shows them the app on their own phone
...etc
So, the (planned) marketing strategy is that the latter situation is
easier to control. The former situation is the "in the long run, this
is where we'll get lots of sales, once we have a critical mass of
users". In the short-term, we have to be more concrete.
Looking at situations where the latter might happen, the easiest one
is going to be in post-production, when there's less risk, less
concern, and more time for people to try tools. Sure, it might happen
in social situations too - but that's really influenced by the app
design (is it lickable, etc ;P), not by the marketing.
In post-production, we look at the other tools people will have with
them, and approach their authors to arrange promos. We also construct
webpages with SEO aimed at catching people who are in post-production
right now and idly googling for "post production camera tools".
...with all that done, we'd approach bloggers etc. Because by this
point, the bloggers now fit into an overall strategy - we know which
bloggers we want to approach first, we know what we'd like them to say
about the product, etc. (not because you can put words in their mouth
- but in the opening email, you get to hilight maybe one feature of
the app that you think they'd find interesting, and by this point we
know what feature to use).
Robert Friston
Sent from my iPhone
Paul Ledger
Nick Kuh
I was especially interested to discover that if you switch off automatically release my app on approval that you can still send out promo codes for journalists/blogs to download your App Store app before it's released to the public! That's a very handy tip indeed.
Cheers
Nick