App Launch Checklist: 18 Must-Do Things to Keep in Mind

“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin

This single line by Seth Godin showcases the base of product development that one must be aware of from the start till post-launch. Developing any product from scratch is not just a competing but intimidating part of the development cycle. 

However, after building, the launch of the app matters a lot. Hence, it is best to follow the app launch checklist to ensure that nothing is missing at the last moment. The myth that one clear is that the launch checklist is not only about the pre-launch strategies but also includes the post-launch part of an app.

There are instances when we miss out on the essential points that can end up failing the app and marking it as a disaster. This is the last thing that anyone wants to deal with so having a mobile app launch checklist handy can be a way to move forward. 

To help you make the most of your app’s returns and the many app promotion strategies that you have outlined, we have curated a list of items that will come in handy when you have to do a last-minute check before the app is made available to the world.

Steps To Consider For Mobile App Launch Checklist

The checklist is not limited to the one that has to be checked a week before the final launch of the app but it includes the whole process after the launch as well. This can include the development, design, testing, marketing, and deployment phase of the app. So, let us go through all three major parts of the app launch to understand its checklist process.

Pre-Launch Checklist

The Pre-Launch app checklist includes the points that will lay the groundwork for the app. This is a checklist before an app launch that should begin at least three months before the launch of the app in the market. 

Audience & Competitors

One of the major rules of launching a product in the market is to understand the target audience and competitors. This falls under the top app launch checklist rule for developing compelling marketing strategies. 

• Who is your intended app audience?
• What drives the traffic to your app?
• Why are you a better option than your competitor?

The app marketing will be confirmed once the answers to these vital questions are answered. This is essential for brand consistency in the market to reinforce and communicate with the audience in a few words.

Domain & Social Media Handles

Another essential part that is added to the checklist is to finalize the domain of the apps. www.app-name.com must be taken under consideration while completing the app as per the description and name. 

Along with this, the landing page of the app must be completed and social media handles finalized to market the app. It is an important part of the checklist before launching an app to ensure that things go smoothly in the market. 

The web presence is a crucial part of any mobile app development company to target the audience in the market. The age bracket has a huge influence when it comes to online marketing due to its targeting.

The data shown above is a rough idea of the audience present on social media as per their age brackets. You know the data, get your account registered, and share the content with the audience. This makes it easy to follow the launching of an app checklist to get accurate results.

Existing Community & Influencers

There are so many platforms available in the market that make it easy for the audience to connect with others in a similar niche. This forms a community of the people that are dealing in the market. 

Hence, following the market and existing community is a great way to broaden the community to discover new opportunities. It is not something that you can consider as a last-minute app checklist and must be given priority.

Participating in relevant discussions and following affiliated programs along with potential promotional partnerships matters a lot. In addition to this, the influencer market is also a way to step into the market and reach top communities. The audience prefers and shares the content of influencers which is a great approach to go forward.

It is best to prepare a list of such influencers and then pitch while nurturing the relationship as an app pre-release checklist to ensure nothing is missed. This increases the chances of getting featured in the market when the app is launched.

Submission Guidelines & Success Metrics

You have already started your marketing, sent out emails, and shared on social media about your app. If the app is rejected on Apple or Google App Store then it will be the most disheartening thing that one can go through. Hence, it is best to follow the guidelines or app store submission checklist of the store beforehand to eliminate the chance of rejection.

Once the guidelines are read, one can follow the App Store optimization ASO checklists to ensure that the app is meeting all the guidelines. This part falls under “how to launch an app” but it is best to know the guidelines to avoid any rejection.

Once this is done, follow the metrics of the app that make it a success in the market. How to make an app go viral? Why is an app successful in the market? What is unique about an app that makes it successful? 

These are the major parts that must be counted along with the loyalty and monetization points. In addition to this, it gives an idea before the launch on how to measure and make an app successful.

Beta Release

Before launching the app in beta mode make sure to have a feedback loop in place to bring in data and communication to the app. This will increase the quality of the app during the time of launch while enhancing customer communication. 

Once done, start planning the beta apps in the market while keeping the mobile app deployment checklist in mind. Follow all the essential deployment points in mind while launching the near-final app version. This helps in working on the last-minute changes of an app before the final launch in the real-world market.

In the present time, many developers prefer MVP or Minimal Viable Product for development as well. In this, one can launch an app in the market with minimum and essential features. This ensures that the app is in the market before competitors. Later on, the app is updated regularly as per the feedback and prior plans. 

Press Kit Directory

If you want to make sure that your app is under press coverage radar then make it open for journalists and bloggers to cover it up. Make sure that information about the app is visible to the researchers without surfing through the internet to compile data. 

The directory like Press Kit contains all such information including descriptions, screenshots, logos, promo videos, social media accounts, and whatnot.

Even the influencers can skim through the essential points to get a hang of the app and proceed to decide it. This makes the job easier for sharing purposes since the data will be present in a single library.

Lock Page Description

Now, you will have brief feedback that is collected from online discussions, landing page tests, and beta. This will help in tweaking the app a bit before the final launch. The app launch checklist is essential to make necessary changes to ensure prominent results. 

Integrate App Software

Once the app is optimized as per beat suggestions, measuring and growing it comes as a vital part. This can be done with the integration of the app with crucial software that will be required in the market. This must be done in the pre-launch process since later the new version can rest the rating of the whole app. 

This is mainly witnessed in the Apple store due to which the iOS app release checklist can be a bit different from the app store submission checklist (guidelines). 

Launch Checklist

During the time of launch, there are last-moment points that one must include in their app launch checklist. This is to ensure that the app is deployed and passed on to the app store without any hiccups.

Submit the App To the Play Store

Well, the day to finally go into the market is here. You have reached the point where you are aware of the app store submission checklist and have optimized the app accordingly. However, go through them once more and submit your app a week before the launch to be at the safer end. Consider it as a last-minute revision.

The app takes time to get approval from the store before launching it in the market. This will help in simplifying the whole process as per the guidelines and launch date of the app.

Notify Audience and Influencers

Once Google and Apple stores give a thumbs up, make sure to spread the word around proudly. Send an email to the contact list including audience and influencers to inform them about the release and spur up some excitement in them to download the app. 

Use press lists and contact influencers who can potentially share the app in the market. Remember, you have already initiated a conversation with these influencers as they launch an app checklist and have a relationship with them. Hence, rekindle the cords and inspire them to use the app or maybe share it for a little coverage.

Design A Dashboard

There are instances when working on a smaller factor, we lose track of the bigger aspects. Hence, make sure to halt work for a bit and fix a place for identified KPIs tracking in the form of a dashboard. 

Over the dashboard, one can put up the metrics for its success in the form of accountability and goal orientation. It is one of the best practices for launching an app that can help in understanding the success metrics.

There are important metrics that are added together to work towards the success of the app such as total download count, app store rank, downloads in a month, all-time rating, last updated, and so on. This helps to give a clear picture of the app.

Post-Launch Checklist

Now, the app is in the store where the audience can download it and check out essential factors. This will take us to the next step of the app launch checklist which is all about after-effects.

User Engagement & Feedback

During the beta testing, you have added a feedback tool to the app that can come in handy now. That tool has already eliminated major errors in the app with the feedback and now communication with customers is open. Customers can easily share their feedback, seek support, and report crashes or bugs.

Hence, it is best to monitor the app at the earliest to eliminate such bugs and release the app in the market as a part of the mobile app launch checklist. When it comes to customer satisfaction, early updates can do wonders since the first 30 seconds are the decision-maker for the customer. So, hook them up as early as possible and compel them to use the app regularly.

The first week is extremely crucial for the audience as well since they will be rushing into downloading the app and checking out something exciting. Hence, it is important to keep in mind to recognize the potential regular users to focus on the retention rate. Make sure to offer a positive experience to the audience that compels them to return.

Hence communication plays a huge role in enhancing user experience. Make sure to reach out to them and make them feel important. A proactive, simple, and respectful interaction with customers can gradually increase the retention rate of the app.

Encourage Review & Rating

Let your customers speak their minds through rating and review in the next step of launching an app checklist. Remember that customers are evaluating the app and hence will put their inputs forward to get reliable solutions. They judge an app on the quality and trustworthiness so it is better to have a warning beforehand that it might not be satisfactory.

This will increase the conversion rate and more users will rely on the app that is honest about their status instead of fake promises. Don’t shy away from asking for a review from your loyal customer base to put the ball in your court. The rating plays an important role in identifying, targeting, and converting customers.

The rating of an app holds a lot of importance in the Android and iOS stores due to its fixed threshold. In the Apple App Store, it is essential to have five ratings at least while calculating the average rating. Otherwise, the app is considered underrated and suffers conversion or visibility problems.

Monitor Store Rank

The app store launch checklist keeps this point at the highest priority since an app is volatile from the day of launch in terms of ranking. It depends upon different factors that we have included in the above points as well such as retention, downloads, review, and rating.

For old apps, a slow day or a bad review won’t have much effect on the overall performance of the app. However, this is not the same situation for a new app since a single negative review can work as an iceberg to sink “App Titanic”.

In the initial week, the app undergoes a lot of variances and will take a lot of time to stabilize in the market. Make sure to manipulate the factors in your favor to prominently rank the app in the store.

First Update

Now, comes the time to release the first update in the market right after a few weeks of app release. Collect the feedback and work on them along with pending changes that were delayed due to the impending launch deadline. Show your customers that you are taking the feedback seriously and are working on them while fixing the bugs irrespective of total updated versions.

This is a major way to earn the loyalty of customers while taking their feedback as a priority and fixing the quality. It is best to go for an update per month to ensure that the release is done without the bugs. This will automatically affect the rating.

The performance must be measured regularly and added to the dashboard to track the rank of your app. Take it as an important step of the app launch the checklist and bring it into your routine to revisit the dashboard. 

Prioritize Customer Requirements and lock the Road Map

As mentioned above, it is essential to keep customers as the priority for your app and consider their feedback as an important point of the app store launch checklist. This will help in understanding:

• Frequency – of the issue faced by the users. You will know the number of times the user faced similar issues and how many have shown their interest in a specific feature.
• Priority – When will a feature add value to the business? Should you add it immediately or should you wait? Is it urgent to add these features?

This will help in working on a roadmap for the product that will move forward in the long run. You can add things as per their priority to the list to enhance user experience and attract the audience to the app. This helps in setting up the priority of customer-related bugs and increases quality assurance.

Continued Usage

Once your app fades into the new app line, it will be harder to get new customer acquisition. Hence, it is added to the mobile app launch checklist as a vital part since retention will hold a lot of value. It is essential to give a reason to customers to relaunch the app daily or engage with them.

It can be done via fresh content personalized experience, referrals, and bonus gifts to keep the customers hooked. Some aspects can show the organic growth of the app such as:

• Worth sharing – The app must have a unique factor that makes customers share it without asking twice. It is the convincing point for the customer that compels them to share it with their contacts such as refer and earn points.
• Easy to share – If sharing an app with others is a hassle for a user then note that it won’t go forward. Users want everything to be as simple as possible with minimal effort of their own. Make sure to simplify the whole process to ensure that users download the app with others.

This must be a part of your mobile app deployment checklist to ensure that no issues arise during the time of sharing.

Once this is done, consider push notifications as the priority for the users. There is no need to spam the mobile phone of a user with a notification after a few minutes until and unless it is a messaging app. It is one of the major reasons why users uninstall an app. Hence, it is essential to optimize the push notification frequency beforehand.
Here is a list of common reasons why users uninstall the app. A mobile app-building company considers these points to ensure that they are not adding any uninstalling factor to the app.

With regular optimization and analysis, it will be easy to understand these factors and eliminate them in your app at the initial stage. However, make sure to keep these points in mind for future updates as well. Adding new features doesn’t mean that previous features must be disrupted. 

Evaluate App Performance

The mobile app developers understand the value of evaluating the app regularly. This reflects the messaging strategies and subsequent app updates. The data will help in understanding the preferences, requirements, monetization methods, and requirements of the customers.

It is best to follow a few suggestions before working on any feature suggested such as:

• Go for a survey to understand the take-off customers on that feature.
• Roll out the app as beta testing to check the customer satisfaction level.
• Monitor the rating, review, updates, and retention rate of the app.

Key Takeout

These are the major app launch checklist points that one must keep in mind before and after the launch of an app. Launching an app on the Play Store is a big moment that we all wait for throughout the app development process. However, it is not a fixed time instead it is a continuous process that will take time to reach an ideal stage.
So, here is your mobile app launch checklist that you must be aware of. Let your awesome work shine.