BSSA #61 - How I would grow again a Shopify App 🚀

Video content is not going very well. But it’s been only a bit more than a week!

We don’t even have 10 videos posted yet.

We’re currently in a testing phase following that process:

• Brainstorm types of videos (getting inspiration from other people doing it)

• Brainstorm topics for the videos (based on what our target users are interested in)

• Record many short videos

• Push the videos to our video editor that follow a process on how to edit them

• We then push the videos to the platform

• We analyze results

We want to find patterns. Types of videos people love (that bring installs).

We’ll do some testing for a few weeks to get data and then we’ll do both testing + posting videos that work.

Growth is lower

If you’ve been experiencing lower growth recently, don’t worry, me too!

Many apps will see lower growth during summer because fewer people work at home and many will be on vacation or outside!

From my experience, this is what you can see:

February, March, April, and May will be good

June, July, and August won’t be good

September, October, and November will be awesome

December won’t be good

January will be slow but will start again at the end of the month

Obviously it depends on your app. For example, I have an app to create offers, which works like crazy for Black Friday, Christmas, etc…

Shopify updates

Shopify is testing many things for the Shopify App Store, and we’ll see if it’s positive or not!

1) They changed the reviews positions

You know it, when you open the app, you see 3 reviews. And it used to be the last 3 reviews. Now Shopify released an algorithm that will pick the best 3 reviews.

It was a success for me because the reviews shown are long and of great quality.

But for some other people, bad reviews moved to the top 🥶

2) They added ads to the homepage

They had recently added geo-targeted ads, and it seems like they want to improve ads even more. Some people have access to a private beta to run ads on the homepage of the app store!

I don’t know how they are shown and the impact, but we should follow this!

3) Reviews won’t be published immediately

Now Shopify will wait before publishing a review. They will ensure the reviews aren’t fake before posting them!

This is probably a good thing! Except if legit reviews are not accepted with their algorithm?

How I would start again

I had a drink with someone last week who asked me: “If I had to start again, would I still follow the same path?”

I quickly thought and told him “no”.

I used Facebook Groups to grow WideBundle and WideReview in 2020. It was already the end of groups.

But in 2023, I don’t think they are still the best ways to grow a business. Sure I would probably still use them, but not as much as I did.

And so I gave him the easiest process I would follow. It has 11 steps.

Here it is 👇

1- Finding problems (2 months)

I would go on Twitter/Linkedin and engage daily with merchants.

My goal would be to have 10 Shopify merchants as early users to try my future Shopify App.

I would talk to them to find out what other apps they use and what problems they have

2- I can then build the first version of the app (2-3 weeks)

I build the app with them. Feedback is important at this point to know what you should add to the app. This is an MVP, it's ok if it's not perfect.

3- Release on the App Store

I would then go straight to the Shopify App Store to publish it because it can take some time to be approved.

I put the app for free (this is our strategy to reach page one for our keywords)

It can take 2 weeks to 1 month to be accepted with the iterations.

4- Target long-tail keywords

Our strategy will be to use the Shopify App Store to get early traction using SEO.

First I would need to find long-tail keywords for my app that I can rank on.

The strategy is:

• Check a keyword

• Check how many apps are ranking for it (that's the traffic you can get)

• Check how many reviews the apps on the first page have (that's the ranking difficulty)

You want keywords where you can easily rank in the first positions

These keywords get less traffic but at least you can get some of it. It doesn't make sense if you use a keyword with traffic, but you're on page 3.

So try to use keywords you can rank in the first 10 positions at least. The more, the better.

5- Get fast reviews

The Shopify App Store algo will push apps with many reviews.

But something is more important: Velocity.

The faster you can get your reviews, the better! That's why early users are important. Get quickly to 10 reviews.

To get quick reviews there are 2 things you have to do:

→ Offer fast and incredible support (easier to get reviews)

→ Always ask for reviews even if you just helped with a simple thing

You get more reviews by asking for more.

6- Talk to your users

During that time you have to talk to every user!

One good strategy is to:

→ Send a notification to Slack when someone installs

→ Use a tool like Crisp to trigger the live chat with new users

So you talk to them at the best time. Don't wait for emails.

7- Track your data

Even more important, install a tool like Mixpanel. This will allow you to track every action a user will do: installing, using a feature, clicking on a button

And you'll be able to track numbers like: activation rate, conversion rate, etc

You also have to improve the App listing on the App Store.

Install Google Analytics and track the installation rate.

→ Improve the listing

→ Improve the images

Your goal is to improve that installation rate. At the same time track the words used by people to find your app.

8- Improve your app

Based on: support, data, conversations

You have to improve your app with new features, bug fixing, dashboard fixing

At some point you'll improve all your metrics

9- Add a paid plan

Once you reach page 1, our strategy is over:

→ Add a paid plan

→ Remove the free plan and add free-trial

And thus even if your app isn't "perfect". Your goal was to reach page 1, it's done.

10- Start new channels

I would go with:

→ Influencers

→ App partnerships

→ SEO

→ Videos

11- Iterate

Now it's a constant iteration process and you'll probably find more ways to increase that MRR!

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 😁