Kickstart your mobile app marketing strategy with competitive analysis

Picture this: A chessboard where your app's success hinges on tactical plays. In the grand game of mobile app development, the early moves often determine the outcome of the match. We're here to guide you through the crucial early stages, all centered around the powerful foundation of competitor research.

While it's often easiest and most effective to kick off this process before you've even begun developing your app in order to create a durable mobile app business plan, fear not if your app has already taken its digital form. Competitive research is a knight in shining armor in the early stages of crafting a winning app marketing strategy. Whether your app is a mere concept or a fully developed masterpiece, we’ll show you how to wield the power of competitive analysis to strategize, adapt, and secure victory on the digital marketing gameboard.

Think of it as the opening move in a chess game. A competitive analysis is a strategic examination of your competitors–their strengths and weaknesses, their marketing tactics, and their position in the market. It's about understanding the landscape you're entering, much like sizing up your chess opponent.

First and foremost, competitive research provides critical insights into the industry landscape, shedding light on mobile app marketing trends, emerging consumer preferences, and evolving market dynamics. By studying competitors, marketers can identify gaps and opportunities, allowing them to tailor their strategies to better meet the needs and expectations of their mobile app target audience.

Furthermore, competitor research helps in benchmarking, enabling realistic performance goals for tracking progress. It empowers app developers and marketers to make informed decisions, refine their value propositions, and stand out in a crowded marketplace. Ultimately, understanding the competition is a strategic imperative in achieving long-term success and maintaining a competitive edge in the ever-evolving world of app marketing.

What are the benefits of competitor analysis?

Knowledge is power, making competitor analysis your competitive advantage by providing:

1. Fact-driven strategy development: Just like in chess, understanding your opponent's actions can help you develop a strategy with concrete insights and strategic moves. Where they appear to be falling short, you can fill in the gaps. Where they excel, you can learn from their wins and find a way to apply these techniques to your own unique offering.
2. Deep understanding of user preferences: Analyzing how your users are interacting with competitors in the context of current market trends helps identify the key aspects of a competitive user experience.
3. Time and money savings:  With a robust analysis of the competition comes less upfront testing and learning. While trial and error will always be a core component to any marketing strategy, a strong foundation built from research and planning will drastically reduce your margin of error.

Now, let's proceed with the strategic moves for conducting a mobile app market analysis. You can follow along using this simple competitive analysis template.

1. Identify competitors

You’ll begin your competitor research by identifying the pieces on the chessboard. Who are the players in your app’s vertical? These opponents fall into three categories.

Leaders: Kings on the chessboard. Leading competitors hold a dominant position and are the primary focus of everyone's attention. They set the standards and directions in the industry, are well-established, and often have a large user base, making them the central pieces around which the game revolves.

Identify these players easily with app store market research. Find your app’s category on the relevant app store(s) and make note of the top 10 free apps as well as the top 10 paid apps in that category.

Niche players: Akin to knights and bishops on the chessboard, niche players occupy unique positions. These apps have specialized offerings that cater to specific, often underserved, segments of the market. Their influence may not be as widespread as the leaders, but they play an important role by serving specific user needs.

Also recognizable with app store market research, you can dig deeper into sub-categories and search for keywords related to a particular niche to identify these competitors.

Now that you've collected your findings, it's time to draft your own approach. Craft a unique value proposition for your app that aligns with the gaps you've uncovered in the market. Your pricing, positioning, and mobile app marketing strategy should reflect this distinct journey. Remember, it's not about replicating what your competitors are doing, but learning from them. Utilize the knowledge you have gained to create a path that's uniquely yours.

In a realm where innovation is the key to success, competitor research becomes your strategic game plan. Armed with insights, you can forge ahead, taking calculated steps in the early stages of app development and marketing strategy formation. To learn how to measure the success of your strategy, check out Adjust’s Mobile Attribution solution, learn about next-gen measurement, or request a demo.