Launching the first version of the app during the holiday times is it a good or bad idea?
I'm close to finishing the first version of the app and I'm curious what the community thinks of launching during the holiday times? The app is a sport social network for athletes to house their skill videos and their achievement and share it with other social networks to get fans and buzz.
It doesn't matter unless you plan some splashy (and costly) marketing blitz.
Most saas websites take a long time to gain decent number of users (if they ever get there).
Launch as soon as you have something to launch and then iterate.
What matters is not on what day you launch but what kind of marketing and promotion you do during 6-12 months after launch, how you change and improve the service based on the feedback of customers.
See e.g. https://baremetrics.com/blog/long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death
Thanks for sharing a nice article.
FYI - here's the talk they referenced: https://player.vimeo.com/video/54076835
I'll agree with some other posts here - unless you are planning to buy Superbowl ads or something, your timing doesn't matter so much. It takes long, slow organic growth for most apps.
An under the radar launch can actually benefit you in catching dumb mistakes before too many people have a bad experience.
Good question. On the one hand, over the holidays people are normally busy and have lots of other stuff on their minds. On the other hand, however, your app is partly based on people watching inspirational sports videos and finding trainers - The last weeks of December and beginning of January is the very best time to market to these kinds of people, as it is top of mind for them then (New Year's resolutions etc).
And regardless, you should always launch sooner. How else are you supposed to find out what stupid mistakes you made?
oh wow the app store review was fast, it got approved in less than 24 hours! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prome-sport/id1289398659?ls=1&mt=8
I'll definitely launch because I'm not even sure if it's going to pass App Store review. I also heard it takes about 2 weeks for that. I'm going to do it and then start focusing on marketing and incremental build.
the 2 weeks thing is a relic from the past. The average for new apps is MUCH lower these days.
http://appreviewtimes.com/
bad idea - based on the app is about. I would try to pick a better and more relevant time to introduce this .
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
That multiple launch is a good idea. I have also put the support link on the app too for customer feedback. Thanks!
"...you will have to "launch" multiple times in multiple places..."
I think this great advice... I had a quiet rollout to a few channels, which had low volume. It wasn't a flashy launch, but it helped me get a few users in the door, which helped find bugs I didn't catch. Once those are fixed, and some other things tweaked, I'll do another launch to a different channel. And as the bugs/tweaks are ironed out, the launch channel gets bigger.