Writing Good Appstore Descriptions

Who writes the best app descriptions?

How do you write a good description for your apps? It's a question often asked by app developers and a very important question at that. You've probably wondered how many apps are submitted to the appstore every day; current research shows over 800 apps being submitted for approval to iTunes every day! So a well written description is crucial for two main reasons, the first is to get your app noticed in searches and the second is to generate sufficient interest in your app to make customers buy it.

Prior to this article we've written about 6 or 7 application descriptions , both for games and other types of apps. (You're welcome to enquire about our app description writing service if you want by the way) So we're not experts by any means, but we've equally done a lot of research into this and hope to give you some genuine advice about writing a good description to make your app stand out.

Using Keywords in your app description
Google has a lot of powerful keyword tools available that many bloggers and websites use succesfully to generate interest for their sites and score highly in search rankings. Similar principles can be applied for app descriptions so it is suggested to use Google Adwords and similar keyword tools to generate terms most likely to get search hits for your app. For example type the phrase "Angry Birds" into Google Keywords and you'll see which search terms people use most of the time to arrive at the Birds. Now take that knowledge and use it in your own app description.
It's important to see what your rivals are doing too. If you have yet another Flashlight app for example look for the bigger Flashlight apps on the Appstore and see what search terms customers are using to get to those apps. Think obscure and get in customers heads, think in your niche too, if you really want to make an app to find discount online jewelry see who the leaders in the field are and emulate their app description ideas.
 Writing the first line of the App Store description.

Even for free apps is  - the description is crucial for potential downloaders  to determine if they want your particular piece of programming.

If they don’t like the first line of your app’s description - they likely won’t read any further - they probably won’t download it - and they definitely won’t pay for it.

Baiting the Hook for App downloads

An author of a book will set a "Hook" to make their readers interested. The hook is the bit that makes the reader want to read more. Look at the start of this app marketing article and I'm sure that you'll see that you've read this far because of the hook: You're reading to learn how to make more money by getting more downloads by having the best app description you can possible have. Now you might be hotshot app programmers but you also need to be marketing and writing gurus to get your app noticed; basically your app needs a hook! It needs to convey the exact purpose for which the app has been created.

Can you explain your app in approximately 15 words?

If not, you better get back to work -- because app downloaders are just like blog readers - they have short attention spans.

They also have hordes of highly paid marketers competing to make them part with their money. Which brings us back to the point of researching for SEO (search engine optimisation) for your app.

What do the best apps have in common?

Look at the top performing apps - read the first lines of the descriptions - note the similarities - copy the structure.
How do the best apps write their descriptions?

Instagram

15 Million Users Love Instagram! It’s a free, fun and simple way to make and share gorgeous photos on your iPhone...

Spotify

We’re the #1 music app in the App Store - check out the 5 star ratings below!

Draw Something Free

Play the Free version of Draw Something, the most popular social drawing and guessing game in the App Store with over 7 Billion drawings created!

Tumblr

Follow the world’s creators. Post anything: Share photos, video, quotes, chats, links, and text...

Songza

Working? Relaxing? At the gym? Songza plays you the right music at the right time. As seen on CNN, NY Times & NY Daily News...

Pinterest

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find in your life. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

What are the similarities?

They all quickly get to the point of explaining what the app does. They explain what the value proposition is for the user, what solution the app provides, what people can do with the app - and they all do it in as few words as possible.
They also use the old salesmans adage that if somebody else has something then you should have it too. Effectively social pressure has been applied and you want to stay being one of the cool kids by having the same apps that the cool kids have, keep up with the Jones's by having the same apps as them!

Apps for cool kids!

Smartphone apps are just like everything else in life - the more people who have it - the more who will begin to want it. High numbers of users, mass media mentions, quotes and “as seen on such and such blogs” all constitute a form of third-party endorsements - they’re like testimonial letters.

The potential downloaders for your app have no idea who you are, but if a million forums, Pinterest pins and Blogs recommend your app well then the customers know and trust these so the social momentum generated by the mainstream media will transform an app from another hasbeen to the next New Star Soccer.

You don’t have many  users yet -so that app description strategy needs some work.

Has anyone said anything great about your app? If not, find someone reputable who will - or enter it in an app contest and win an award - then you can harness the power of the third party endorsement.

Until then - just keep it as simple as possible and tell people what the app actually does.


Authoring the app description in Practice
Now that's a little bit about how the pros do it, without the budgets of the big companies you're limited to not having massive marketing budgets or cutting edge research to back up the principles behind your description. However hopefully this article will give you a little bit more idea behind the principles and need for a well authored description, putting it into practice is as simple as getting one of your new and current apps and experimenting. Hopefully you'll see the results before long, and you can even measure your own success by searching for your app on the Appstore, remember to use different search terms and try to think what would motivate a potential customer to find and then buy your app.