The 5 Phases of iOS Marketing and App Development

If you’re thinking about releasing an iOS app, you probably already know that iOS development costs are quite high, so you want to be sure you get the most bang for your buck.

With that in mind there’s a detailed and extremely helpful iOS development and marketing checklist from the experienced developer MindJuice. It’s focused heavily on marketing and touches on the five major phases of the development and release process that is relevant to any app developer. These are:

• Design Phase – things that you need to include in your app from the start, including social media features, ability to get direct feedback, etc
• Implementation Phase – keep a development blog and organize beta testers
• Testing and Pre-Launch Phase – setup Ad Hoc installations for easy beta testing, contact review sites for early access to your app, etc
• Launch Phase – choosing an app category, creating a good icon, refining the app description and picking good screenshots, having an app webpage, engage user forums and app review sites, sending out press releases, and creating video demos
• Post Launch Phase – keeping an eye on how things are going, this one is a work in progress

You can read the full extensive list at MindJuice’s blog.

If you notice there’s one key element that underlines each phase, and that is engagement with users from initial design to product launch. Some of the more successful apps (Angry Birds, Instapaper, etc) also have some of the more active developers in social media, and this is not a coincidence – developers must cultivate their userbase and respond to user feedback.

While this list is specifically geared towards iOS and the iTunes App Store, there’s no reason you couldn’t apply the same principles to Mac software and the Mac App Store. Whether you’re an active developer or just inspiring to be, it’s worth a look.