BSSA #60 - Build A Successful Shopify App 🚀

We finally started video content.

This is something I told you I wanted to try.

And we finally started! We’re posting everyday content on Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok. 🔥

We’ll have short content but also long-format videos.

This is a long-term strategy. I don’t expect it to blow up right away. Remember, the best way to get users is to do one simple thing a thousand times.

We’ll just post and see in a year what happens. At the same time, I’ll do what I know best: tracking data. 😁

I’ll see what videos are performing the best, try to understand why, replicate it and improve the videos that are not performing.

The first few months will mostly be for testing. We’ll try different types of videos and see what happens!

Who wants to start this strategy with me? Imagine how many followers you would have in a year with 1 video per day. And better, how many new users you would have thanks to that.

Anyway, I can’t way to tell you more about the strategy and what worked!

Video content isn’t the only thing we finally started. We’re starting a blog.

Our goal is to start using SEO.

Basically, the strategy for the end of 2023 and early 2024 is to bet on organic content. We’ll see if this bet is worth it!

If you’re losing your early traction…

Today I was talking with a friend who has a new Shopify App.

He was getting some serious traction but it stopped and he’s now barely growing.

This is probably the same situation that happened to me with my 1st Shopify App in 2017.

And he didn’t know why.

The reason is usually: you’re not tracking data.

So I asked my friend: What is your activation rate? What is your conversion rate?

And he could answer. Because he wasn’t tracking it.

Now look, you’re not growing anymore when you used to, but you’re not even tracking the most important metrics.

Let’s take an example if you actually DO it:

• You notice your conversion rate is good

• You notice your activation rate is really bad

• So you dig into the activation rate by checking your onboarding

• You notice the activation rate drops significantly at a specific onboarding step.

• You then update your app to improve that step. You don’t add a new feature, you don’t use a new acquisition channel. You just change what you already have.

• And suddenly, you start to grow again.

This is how it works. If you’re not tracking your data, you don’t know what is wrong with your app. The more data you get, the better your decisions will be.

Track your new features

Another example when you’re tracking your data.

In the past few weeks, we released many different settings for the app. And we followed the same steps I tell you everytime:

• Validate the idea (qualitative data)

• Validate the numbers after the idea is done (quantitative data)

So I decided to add these settings because I noticed people wanted it.

But then it’s not enough, I added properties for that on Mixpanel.

It means if someone is actually using that setting, it will update a specific property for that user on Mixpanel.

We’ll then use it for many reasons:

1. We’ll be able to track the % of people using it to see if it was worth it

2. We’ll be able to track the other metrics by breaking them down by this feature. Perhaps 50% of the people will be using that setting but 80% of them will be paying users, which is a good thing

That will allow you to make decisions on:

• Should you remove that feature?

• Should you update it?

• Should you ask people why they’re not using it?

• Most people using it are paying users so should I build more features like this one?

That is how I know whether I have to do something on my app.

Qualitative data + Quantitative data.

How do you track qualitative data? Reply to this email below!

That’s it for today’s email!

I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to share my newsletter with someone else: https://news.matdesousa.com/

And let me know what you want me to talk about in the next email!

See you next week,

Mat 😁