How we entered the mobile market

Hi, Habr.
Not so long ago, we launched YouDo mobile apps ( iOS and Android ), opening up a new market. This direction was new for us, since no one had their own experience in developing and promoting mobile applications in a team. Today I would like to share my first observations (maybe they will help someone), for example, what gives the top in the Russian App Store, what effect can be obtained from reviews in glossy magazines, etc.

Start

During the creation of YouDo, we made one serious mistake: we started by developing a rather complex web interface and did not immediately think about how it would look on mobile devices. We decided that we would quickly launch the application, and nobody really needed a mobile interface. We were mistaken and as a result lost a lot of time for fixing errors. The mobile version, by the way, was made in a completely different style m.youdo.com

Which is faster

There are two ways to release an application for an existing web product. The first way: for starters, make a simple HTML application based on the mobile version, and then bring it to native. The second way: immediately start developing a full-fledged application. We went the second way on the advice of many friends and did not fail. Given our specifics, according to the first scenario, in the end it would be possible to make two different products, and not to improve one. In order to design the interface and understand how the future application should look, resources with numerous examples of patterns and mobile ui solutions really helped me.
mobile-patterns.com
inspired-ui.com
pttrns.com
lovelyui.com
androidpatterns.com
androidniceties.tumblr.com
tappgala.com

Studio or house

If your team does not have experience in developing mobile applications, do not immediately expand the staff because of this, it is better to try to find an adequate studio and release the first version with it. A good studio can help you with its expertise, give advice on packaging the product in the device. It will cost less than in-house development. We did just that. But now we are personally moving on to forming an inhouse mobile team. We understand that this will cost us more than developing an outsourced application. But work on the application will go faster.

For iOS or Android

From the point of view of developers, it is easier to start with an application for iOS. But I would advise you to start a survey of your users to understand the relationship of operating systems. If you are just starting up, you can read the analytics for your region. Android has a very important plus - you can quickly fix errors and upload updates to the official store after the application is released. You can involve users in testing until the application is uploaded (in iOS this requires the installation of special programs - we used TestFlight). In iOS, after the release, each review takes an average of 10 days: if you miss a bug, then users will have to wait.

When we first added the application, we were afraid that for some reason they would not be missed quickly. In particular, they believed that we would fall under the ban with In-App Purchase (payment outside the application). We were lucky: most recently, Apple lifted this restriction. There are also many stories about how sometimes developers try to go through moderation for several weeks, constantly eliminating the comments of App Store employees. Therefore, we decided to submit the first application immediately with an express review (this
opportunity is given once a year), as a result, already on the second day the application appeared safely in the App Store.

Promotion

YouDo so far only works in Moscow, so the city media was very interested in our service.
Offline feeds. The effect of offline references is almost impossible to measure, especially when it comes to prints. For example, after reviews in magazines like Posters and TimeOut, no leaps occurred at all. Similarly with newspapers and stories on TV. The mentioned data do not noticeably affect the attendance of the resource or the number of downloads. However, all this works great on brand recognition and gives a delayed effect. Conversion to customers is constantly improving: people have already heard about the service somewhere and therefore become more loyal at the next meeting.

Online. Everything is much simpler here. You can measure the conversion for each channel, banner and advertisement. Mobile traffic is now one of the few sources that you can buy cheaper than web traffic, especially if you set up a wide target. It is worth using. For us, the only problem is that you can’t get good
targeting everywhere . For example, to my great surprise, even Yandex has no way to target mobile users by region.

Top App Store

In our experience, getting into the top again does not give a sharp increase in downloads. For example, now we are in third place in the Lifestyle category and have risen to the maximum 12th place in the general Russian top of free applications.
On average, such positions give 500-800 installations per day. But given that our application is now designed only for
users from Moscow, it is still very difficult to rise even higher with such a restriction in the all-Russian top.

And here are our applications.
I would be glad to receive feedback. By the way, today we launched our coupon offer on Facebook (we are testing another marketing promotion tool), everyone can get a promotional code for 350 rubles for free. Great opportunity to test YouDo :)







Thanks for attention.
Managing Partner YouDo Denis Kutergin.