In this day and age, you can find an app for literally anything. So, what separates your app from the rest? Quality app reviews can give you that extra push needed to make your app a success. In a world where everyone has a cell phone in their back pocket, mobile app reviews are becoming increasingly important in acquiring new users. 

Mobile app reviews are reviews conducted by users which are typically displayed on the app store platform from which the app was downloaded. Whether it be increasing your effort to obtain reviews from current users or paying a site to review your application, investing in getting mobile app reviews can help you acquire new users. Mobile app reviews often help to influence consumers’ decisions regarding whether or not they want to download a new app. According to a 2022 online reviews survey, “4 in 5 Americans read reviews before making a purchase decision.”

Better reviews will move you up in the app rankings and increase visibility. There are millions of apps available to consumers every year. In the Apple App Store, there were 3.4 million apps available in 2020. Without any reviews, your app will likely get lost in the shuffle. The more positive and comprehensive reviews that you receive, the greater your chances for receiving new users. So what can you do to increase your chances of getting more high quality reviews? There are a variety of tips, tricks, and strategies that you can use to gain app reviews.

Here are 6 tips to get you started. 

1. Use in-app push notifications and ask at the right time - In-app push notifications can be a great tool to help you get reviews for your app. However, excessive notifications can have the opposite effect. Too many notifications is one of the biggest reasons users delete an app. Keeping notifications limited means the notifications you do send out need to be effective. Timing is everything. Prompting users for a review at the right time will not only increase your likelihood of gaining a response but also ensure that the user has had enough experience with your app to deliver a quality response as well. Good times to ask are after in-app success like after the user has reached a certain milestone. Certain milestones may include completing a transaction, completing a level in a game, or sharing the app with a friend. If they complete certain important milestones within your app’s user experience, you’ll know that they have likely seen and experienced enough to voice their opinion about it.

2. Make it easy for users to leave reviews - Simplicity is key. Making the process of leaving a review too complicated or asking too many questions can cause your users to lose interest and give up on writing you a review. Be polite and be direct. Customers don’t typically go out of their way to leave a review unless their experience is notably amazing or notably frustrating. The entire process should not take up too much of your user's time. Remember, you are asking them to do you a favor by writing a review. Make sure it is as easy for them as possible. 

3. Make it fun! - People love chance and competition. Consider running contests or prize drawings to get more reviews. Offer users an entry into your contest in exchange for leaving a review. Bots or spammers may try to take advantage of this so consider protecting your contest with a challenge-response test like reCAPTCHA on your website, allowing only confirmed downloads to enter and limiting entries to one per person. Offer your contest for an extended amount of time to ensure you receive a substantial amount of reviews, but not so long that your engagement falls off. If you advertise your contest successfully, you may even see an increase in new users.

4. Ask for a diversity of reviews from several different types of consumers - Although you will have a target audience for your app, it is important to get reviews from a variety of different consumer types and segments. Customer segmentation entails dividing your customers into groups based on shared characteristics like demographics. This not only allows you to improve purchases or downloads from these groups with similar buying behaviors by using targeted marketing, but it also allows you to obtain a diversity of reviews that can inform what actions you take with your app going forward. 

5. Make sure they can do it on their smartphone from within the app - Accessibility is critical when asking for reviews from your users. Smartphones grow more and more popular every year, with 85% of Americans owning a smartphone as of 2021. Users are more likely to write a review if the process is convenient. Over half of all online reviews are posted from a mobile device. Again, the simpler the better. Make sure your users can leave a review from within the app. Not only is this easier for your user, but it allows them to quickly return to using your product and leave the review while their opinion is fresh in their mind.

6. Respond to user feedback - Once you’ve gathered those precious reviews, it is just as important to respond to users. Negative reviews can be daunting, but hiding from them will isolate your users. Responding to negative reviews not only helps you to avoid negative outcomes, but it also helps you to create positive ones. By responding to negative reviews, you can increase the likelihood of consumers visiting your business by nearly 45%. Consumers value trustworthiness in a business or an app. Responding thoroughly, with compassion, and in a timely manner can go a long way in the eyes of your users. It is important to take any praise or criticism into account so that you not only improve your service, but you also encourage additional reviews in the long run. 

Utilizing app reviews effectively will set you on the right path to make your app an even greater success. The key to doing so successfully is to think like your users. Trustworthiness and simplicity are the cornerstones of creating a successful user acquisition strategy. 

Acquiring and maintaining new users is one of the most difficult aspects of app development. At Camber Creative, we have an experienced Audience and Revenue Team that can assist you in this endeavor to help you take your app to the next level. If you are seeking some guidance developing or marketing your product, contact us at Camber Creative so we can help you grow your business and make your product an ultimate success.