The App Store has its own rating system. Before we download an app, we make note of how many stars and the type of reviews it received. For users, stars and reviews promise quality in an application. It is human nature to go after the most sought out and highly revered product. The higher the rating, the greater chance you have of a shopper purchasing your app.
Initial Impression
Potential users Initial impression works psychologically. Luckily Apple provides a platform that embodies a convenient application rating system.
Imagine this: You open the App Store on an iPhone/iPad and see a list of the most popular applications at the time. How many apps are we ready to look through? I’d say 30—max. We see the top apps with 4-5 stars and we trust them more. The chance of downloading or buying increases solely due to the number of gold stars. But for many, basing the quality of an app just on stars doesn’t cut it. That’s where the reviews come in. These are people that went out of their way to test the app and say something about it. It’s human nature to criticize so a positive review is really saying something about quality. Before you were in the dark, about to dive in but worried about wasting your time, a positive review told you it was ok to jump in, your trust increased. The rating is on the face of your app. It is crucial that you work on getting positive feedback, reviews, are constantly improving your product to keep users happy.
How App Store Reviews Can Increase Downloads
iPhone users are not billionaires. Somebody simply has spare time to express his/her opinion about an application. Somebody genuinely enjoys the app and wants to share his/her joy with other people on the App Store. Users might not even know the weight of the impact that their one review holds. One great interview alone can result in thousands of downloads!
Reviews bust users’ doubts about purchasing. That’s why it’s crucial for developers and publishers to gather reviews. To land at the top of the App Store, you need a high number of downloads. How do you get downloads? Organically convincing users that they NEED your application by having a high star rating and great reviews; that’s how.
Some Insights For App Developers
If you want to promote your application inside the App Store, you need to go outside the marketplace to find traffic, audience, your first hundred users or so. Their actions and opinion can help you to gather your first reviews and ratings; your future depends on feedback on these initial users. Here are some tips on how to go about doing so:
- Listen to your audience. You are a developer, they are the users. They determine the good and bad. Their feedback is gold, you must work off of it to answer their demands in the next version of your app.
- Reach out to people on Reddit and other platforms. It’s a platform you can use to increase traffic and downloads. After all, it is known as the front page of the internet! Also, it can help you to gather testers for your app.
- Involve as many people as you can in your project. Post your app in Facebook communities, share it on Twitter with hashtags. It will help you get your downloads and genuine feedback.
- Encourage your testers. You can present the launch of beta version as a competition, using incentives such as free access for life or give out physical gifts to 5 or even 30 people who have used the app. This could even help you in terms of marketing; somebody can display his/her gift on social media mentioning your app.
- Ask blogs such as Kotaku, and forums to advertise and review your app. You will get priceless feedback and free or low-cost advertisement that could reach masses.