Driving business growth with iOS app localization

The last 9 years have witnessed a Big Bang in the smartphone industry. Now you can have the smartest phone in your pocket without burning it. In the last 3 years, the explosion of smartphones with the most sophisticated technology combined with a user-friendly interface has led to the development of many different types of applications. This is a worldwide phenomenon. The power of apps to capture diverse markets and expand business reach cannot be underestimated.

Industry insiders argue that the iOS App Store will maintain its prime place in the app store market and remain entrenched – projected gross consumer spend generated is estimated to be over $60 billion by 2021.

As the Earth continues to spin and the iOS App Store continues to rule the roost, the importance of localizing apps in making them an effective business tool cannot be underestimated.

What is the apple of your eye? Identify the category of your application.

There are 24 categories of apps in the iOS App Store, but they can be categorized into 7 broad categories:
1. Lifestyle
2.Productivity
3. Games
4.News
5.Entertainment
6.Utilities
7.Social networks

An application developer must understand that the programming style is particular to the category of applications. Some apps may work better with storage outside of the app and pull data from a web service when needed; a different category may require the use of 3D modeling software.

Global audience means skillful localization
The iOS App Store handles distribution and payment to help fuel your app’s global journey. Developers need to locate apps and marketing materials to ease their way.

1. User-visible content such as texts, icons, tip files and graphics, especially cult-specific, audio and video files will need to be translated into the target language as part of the localization process. Keeping these files separate from the source code makes it easier to work with internal translations or external localization services and integrate content back into the application.

2. Apple’s Application Programming Interface (API) can be used to accurately express user-visible values ​​such as dates, times, measurements such as lengths and weights, prices, currencies, and currency symbols.

3. Successful localization of the iOS app ensures that the app will work with user-generated text in any language or multiple languages.

4. Locate app store metadata such as app name, description, keywords, screenshots, and images. Remember: App descriptions should be short, simple and to the point, listing the most relevant functions and features. Beyond these basic needs, an app developer would be wise to research what users of other apps in the same category value.

5. The improved localization needs a sensitized acculturation. For an app to be well received, it is of the utmost importance that the localization incorporates culture-specific content. This requires a deep understanding of local customs and trends, including regional seasons, holidays, taboos, etc.

6. Offering local sharing options, such as messaging, email, or social media, can go a long way to market apps and products to new markets. Researching which media are best recommended for specific markets will reduce localization efforts and help app developers hit their marketing targets.

7. Incite your audience to action. An easy way to highlight an app is to use the ‘Download in App Store’ badge as a call to convert the casual surfer into a user.

What you don’t measure, you can’t improve: mastering application analytics
Application analytics is absolutely essential for understanding customer behavior and retaining existing customers as well as acquiring new ones. However, adding analytics to the app is only half the game. A developer needs to know what to do with the data thus extracted.

Here are some points to ponder about app analytics:

Application analysis must be configured from the word ‘Go!’ Studies show that, on average, an app loses 77% of its users within the first 3 days of installation. This number increases to 90% in the first 30 days. Incorporate analytics early on for your app and not after 90% of your initial users have left the shores.

No data is better than wrong data. If you base your future decisions regarding app features, promotion budgets, and app economics on the wrong metric, you can kiss success goodbye. As a simple example, the evaluation of purchases by measuring clicks on the BUY button can be misleading.

The precise measure would be to consider payment acknowledgment receipts, as these are the actual proof of a complete and successful transaction.

More data can be a useless flood that depletes what’s important. It bloats your app and negatively affects the number of downloads. Resourceful developers know how to cut resource usage. Channel your analytics towards the target users, target service, and user interface.

business sense
Analytics should be able to deliver the answers to the following:

Who is the user?
How do they find your app?
How many users download your app?
How long do users use your app?
How often do they use it?
How much does each user cost you?
How much is a user worth to you?

The magic formula is that the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer must be at least 3 times the cost of customer acquisition (CoCA). This makes an application sustainable and profitable.