Soft launch helps you gather vital information on how the users get interact with your app, which areas attract them most and how you could improve them before official release. It fills confidence in you to enter the app market with battle-tested game app. It maximizes the exposure of your app and gives a push to revenue model attached with the app. Ok now, it’s enough to tell about what Soft Launch can do and let’s proceed for what exactly it is? And how one could implement such?
What is Soft Launch?
Simply, soft launch means opening up your app in front of a small group or audience before releasing it officially. It is one type of testing that allows you to monitor your game more closely. Of course, testing helps you to do so, but during testing process, some issues like bugs, device compatibility, glitches, or other general functions go unnoticed. Soft launch sheds light on such issues.
Soft launch: Nuts and Bolts
The meaning itself illuminates the purpose of Soft Launch. Basically, it gives you an access towards a small group of testers; they would be your close friends or a group of your social networking sites. At one end, they will use your game and on another end, you will become able to pick up the insights via their usage, thoughts and experience with your game app.
The group is your own, so they will be brutally honest to give you a proper feedback. Their feedback is the answer of your question: whether to launch the game or not or go for any further development process.
Another four advantages of Soft launch are:
– Evaluating Success Factors
– Evaluating Problem areas
– Measuring User Responses
– Modifying Essentials to Make a Plea in Greatest Segments
How to Make a Move on Soft Launch?
Before moving on a Soft Launch, you have to decide first, which areas you want to test like virality, user experience, user retention, monetization, etc. After that, take a step forward and select your test market. A similar test market ensures the accurate results of your testing. For example, if you have plans to launch your game in the USA, then your audience must belong from the same country. Audience from China don’t let you meet with comparable results.
During your soft launch process, you have to keep tracking two most important data: 1. User Acquisition and 2. User Experience. User acquisition is necessary for app marketing efforts during official launch of an app while user experience is important to get answers of questions involved with game design, game development and gameplay. Take help from an outside partner for user acquisition tracking and in-app analytics for tracking user experience.
At last, analyze the information deeply when your soft launch comes to an end. Notify the areas where changes are must. Next, apply whatever you have learned from your analysis or studies. Make necessary updates that enable your app to meet the challenges played by users or to deliver excellent user experience.
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