Apps 101

Your friend may be able to make an app for cheap. Anybody can buy a book and learn how to code an app, but it’s not just about knowing how to code an app. Does your friend  know the Apple Human Interface Guidelines, does your friend have 20 years of design experience and know what users are going to expect. Does your friend know about advertising and marketing? Does he know what Apple will and won’t reject? That’s what Rocksauce is going to do.

We’re going to make sure your app is poised to hit the right markets, right users and make people happy so that way at the end of the day you have a solid app that everybody wants to use.

CEO Q Manning: It depends on whether or not you’re dealing with an android app or an iPhone app. Android apps aren’t much of a question. Do you have the right certifications and does the app work? If the code is broken, then it won’t work on the app store, otherwise Android will let it remain in their app store.

iOS applications have a very strict set of guidelines that we have to follow. The Human Interface Guidelines require the buttons be in the right place, are they right size, etc. Another thing to consider is the content. Apple does look at the content of every app that’s on the app store, the Android marketplace doesn’t. When an android app is submitted, it goes up in the marketplace that same day usually. Apple assigns your app to a very specific person who will look at it and review it, which may mean that someone else who submits an app just like yours on the same day might get theirs approved faster. It all comes back to talking to Apple about what did and didn’t work.

Here at Rocksauce Studios we follow those guidelines and are very good about doing so and will tailor your app to each operating system whether it be Android or iOS.

CEO Q Manning: What Rocksauce Studios does is stack the odds in your favor. We’re going to make sure your app looks great and functions right. We’re also going to focus on a marketing plan to make sure that everyone knows about your app. 

We look at the marketplace and make sure your app is original, and if there happens to be a similar idea, we’ll help you make it a little more distinct so you’ll have a better chance of a return on your investment. We focus on that by working on branding, marketing personality, and business planning because it’s not just about your app, but also the business that you’ve built around your app. We’ll help you develop a business plan that focuses on how you and your investors will get your money back, what the marketing campaign will be, and how to best grow your app by implementing new features at the right time.

COO Peter Yoder: It comes down to knowing your audience, knowing what’s out there and being able to connect with them in a solid way.

CEO Q Manning: Number one way, make sure that app grabs attention. You have to have a great design, you have to stand out from the herd. When everybody has the cheaply designed apps, you’ll have an app that has a great brand and a great personality. We understand what looks great and what grabs attention? We understand that users focus on what looks good and gravitate towards that. 

COO Peter Yoder: There’s also of course word of mouth advertising. It comes down to great design and a great user interface, the way it looks and how it was designed.

Q Manning: If you have an app on the store, how does anyone find out about it? You have to use Twitter, Facebook, landing pages, etc. Every possible you can imagine marketing your app, we’re going to help you out with. That’s what we do here, your success is our success and we want to make you as big as possible. 

Peter Yoder: So that’s why you want to go with Rocksauce Studios. We will make an app that stands out from the crowd and ultimately makes a great return on the investment you put in.

There are about two dozen advertising networks specifically focused on the mobile platform. We look at the markets and see which ones are going to get you the highest cost per click, the right network for your app.

We’ve developed partnerships with ad networks to help you develop the exact type of ad that will work best for your app. There are far more advertising options besides the simple type of ads that pop up on YouTube videos for example. There are other options that are better suited for your app, and we will help you figure that out.

We focus on where ads are going to go from the very beginning in the Bleuprint phase. It’s important to think about what type of advertisement we are going to use and more importantly where it will be most effective.

We talk with you and figure out which ad networks and what the audience will expect and we implement all of those discussions into the and an ad never feels like an afterthought but an essential part of the app, making both the user and advertiser happy.

It’s important to know that there are many types of marketing, and different types for different apps need specific types of campaigns. The great thing about Rocksauce is that we’l cater it to that specific app, and to your specific budget. One thing that’s really important in this day and age is viral marketing as well as word of mouth advertising. 

CEO Q Manning: The big goal is to get your name out there. If people don’t know about your app, how can they ever download your app? Just being on the iPhone or Android marketplace is never enough. You’ve got to let everyone that it exists, that it’s the best, and ultimately that it looks good. When I go to the iTunes store, if there are 5 free apps, but one great looking app, I will always get the great looking app even if it costs a dollar or two because I know that someone is taking the time to think about the look and feel of the app and what I want as a user.

It depends on what kind of app you’re going to have. If you’re going to develop a Twitter app, well Twitter already is free so it might be a good idea to have a free on too.

The benefit of this is the more people that are looking at it, the more your app travels, and the more you can make from advertising.

If you have something that’s based on a small number of users, you want to focus on one thing; growing that user base. How do you do that? Make your app free and put advertising in it. That lets your app get as big as possible and then you can go to marketers and other future investors and show them how big your ad network is. 

If you’ve got a more specific app like a travel app or are filling some specific niche there is some value to that warrants a charge for that app whether it be a large or small amount. It all depends on your end users and what problem the app is solving as well as what you need back from your users.

Because an app can bring value people are willing to pay for something that they see value in. Here at Rocksauce Studios, we help develop the best value for the market your app best fits in.

At it’s base level, the coding is very different on both platforms. We won’t bore you with those details.

From a development standpoint, at Rocksauce we understand that the Human Interface Guidelines for both platforms are very different. The iPhone only has one button and the process of going back a page is very different than from an Android, which has an actual back button. It’s important to understand the differences between the two and most importantly to know which platform is ultimately best for you, we understand that here at Rocksauce.

COO Peter Yoder: One that is focused on the features that your audience wants and also one that creates buzz that encourages other people to pick up that app, finally of course, it’s one that focuses on getting you back the money that you put into it.

CEO Q Manning: One of the things we look at is market saturation and ask ourselves ‘What is and isn’t there?’ If there are too many other similar apps, we’ll come to you and say lets take a further look at your app, see what it’s missing and then see if we can get it to fit a specific niche so that it stands out. 

Here at Rocksauce Studios, we listen to our clients to help them develop the best app possible. To properly think about this question, think about the process involved with buying a car. Maybe you want a car that’ similar to a Honda Accord, that’s a great car, very reliable, will last a long time. Sometimes you’ve just gotta go for a BMW, very luxurious, fully loaded, navigational system, a car that makes a statement. That may seem like a strange analogy, but the reality is that there are markets for both types of cars, and both types of cars are very successful. 

So how do you decide? Well we’ll help you by focusing on features. What features do you want? More importantly what features do you need? The more features your app has, the more it will cost. Here at Rocksauce, we won’t give you every feature that you want, we’ll give you ever feature that you need. Looking at your budget, the marketplace and making sure you have the features you need for success, that drives the cost of development down.

By listening to the needs and wants and tailor it to the market that will best sell the app. Honda and BMW are both great selling cars, it just depends on what kind of market will be most successful for you.

CEO Q Manning: We look at your app, we look at the market, we look at the design and we talk about what’s going to make your app successful. We blueprint every screen, no matter how many your app might have, it could be 10 screens or 100 screens, we will plan it all out. Once you, the client, approve the design, we send it out to the developer, not just any developer. We help you find the right developer for your project and for your budget. It could be a local developer here in Austin, or a smaller town like Savannah, Georgia. There may even be an overseas developer that’s the right fit for you. We will find the right developer for you and for your app. After all, you don’t want a games developer for your social media app, and vice versa you don’t want a social media developer working on your game.

The advantage we have over other companies is specificity. Rather than focus on getting your app made and you out the door, we focus on specific aspects of your idea and your overall success once an app is made.

What is going to make your app successful? How’s it going to look? How’s this going to function? What kind of markets are you trying to reach and how are you going to reach them? These are just a few of the questions we ask ourselves early in the development process. 

We are about getting the best user interface, the best design with the most eye catching features that will get people talking about your apps so that they also continue to use your apps. We also put thought into your business model from a marketing and branding perspective so that your money on a quality non-cookie cutter concept.

Larger in house development companies have a large staff creating a lot of overhead that goes into the fees they charge to develop your app. By focusing on your success, design and branding and marketing of your app, you end up saving more money and coming away with a better app.

That’s the Rocksauce way.