Getting consumers to notice your mobile application when the majority of apps are never even downloaded is no mean feat.
If social media has taught brands to listen to what consumers are saying, analyse what's important and act accordingly, shouldn't the same apply to mobile apps?
But how does a brand get a meaningful snapshot of customer sentiment around what's being said about its app?
Well, there's an app for that - sort of. It's an algorithm really, from Applause, that crawls millions of reviews across the various app market places, gauging sentiment and applying a score against 10 different attributes (see below).
The technology (part of the uTest stable) was unveiled back in February and is now being taken to the next level in terms of the ability to tag app reviews, share them with the relevant teams and create actions.
Already, the intelligence points product people, marketing teams and company chiefs in the right direction in terms of where improvements are needed.
It also highlights how travel apps are doing eg - overall consumers are happy with travel app performance and usability, with the likes of Kayak, TripIt and TripAdviser scoring highest. Meanwhile, where travel apps seem to fall down is in areas such as stability and interoperability.
With a Surikate/Gfk study released in January revealing most consumers don't get past the top 50 apps in the UK app store, it seems like a good time to be listening.
Interesting to note that a Tnooz reader attributes the success of his Ship Mate app (consistently in Apple's top 10 travel apps) to asking users to rate it via a link to iTunes within emails. The result is an improvement of a half-star in the ratings.
Matt Johnston, uTest's marketing chief, says the average Applause score is 65 for apps that have significant reviews so it's back to school for anything that falls below that.
One assumption made about the technology is that the 10 attributes are added to get the score out of 100 but different categories with the app marketplaces have different weighting - ie response/performance with gaming apps and privacy and security for banking apps, so Applause also takes that weighting into consideration.
How closely are you analysing your apps?