Note: These are my own opinions and observations and this is not the official stance or guidance of any of the sites for which I write.
About half of my day job consists of keeping tabs on new iOS and Mac apps, including writing features or full reviews of ones that catch my eye. Now, there are hundreds of thousands apps in the App Store and I know that it’s hard for you developers to capture the attention of the blogosphere to get a bit of love for the most recent by-product of your sweat, blood and tears. To help you out (and to vent a little frustration about what happens far too often, frankly), I’m posting this guide on what to do and what not to do to when submitting your app for consideration for review on a major site.
Know the site you’re targeting
Look for the review submission guidelines – all of the major app review sites have them. And for the love of all that is holy, follow those guidelines. They’re there for a reason. (Here are the ones I’ve posted at AppShopper.)
Failing to follow them usually makes it more difficult to get a grasp of what your app offers and when there are other developers who have followed the guidelines and given me everything I need right from the start, I’ll just file your email and look at their submissions instead.
Be informative and concise
I don’t need a 5-paragraph description of what your app does. Tell me in 2 or 3 sentences at most right at the start of your email. This is your “elevator pitch” for your app. Craft and refine it so it tells me why your app is special and unique, without using the words “special” and “unique.”
Prepare a media kit and make it easy to access
If I like your elevator pitch, I’ll keep reading your email and I’ll want to see screen shots and a link to a YouTube demo next. Attach a couple of screenshots (really, I don’t need 20 screenshots showing every last thing in your app) to your email and post more on your site if you really want to show more.
Note that a demo video can be very handy. Also, it’s a great bit of media I love to include in my posts if I do feature your app. Use a utility like Sound Stage for the Mac to record one.
A link to a blog post (or a press release) is also useful. Don’t feel the need to draft a formal press release if you don’t have experience writing them – a blog post will do just fine. Be sure to include important points like the release date and price. A bit of background on who you are on your own site’s About page is also nice – if there’s something unique there, I’ll include it to enhance my article. Describing the people behind good apps is something I like to do if possible.
Don’t leave me hanging
This really falls under the “Be informative and concise” section above but it happens often enough that I want to address it separately. If your email to me looks like this, there is no way in hell I’m going to review it:
Dear Reviewer,
Please review my app – I worked on it very hard and it is really good. You can find it in the App Store here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blahblahblah
Thank you,
Developer
(And, yes, I see a lot of emails that essentially look like this. And I have to wonder, dear developer, what were you thinking?)
Don’t pester me
This applies more to PR/marketing firms but I have seen some developers who do this as well. It’s safe to say that the major app sites get hundreds of review requests each week and there’s absolutely no way to respond to all of them. Emailing me every week to ask me if I’ve looked at your app yet only irritates me and makes me less likely to review your app. Your original email didn’t get lost and I do look at every email that arrives.
I usually reply to those who I end up featuring so they know about the post and I’ll sometimes ask for more information on apps that look interesting. But 99% of the emails received go unanswered because it would be physically be impossible to respond to all of them and get my other work done as well.
However, don’t take no response as a bad sign. Sometimes I’ve downloaded your app to try out and it sits on my iPhone for a while and I finally get to try it out a few weeks later, or I start using it regularly and put it on my list of apps to review once I’m satisfied I’ve spent enough time with it.
PR/marketing firm hired? Doesn’t matter.
If you’re a larger app development firm, you may be wondering if hiring a PR firm is worth your while. Frankly, from my point of view, it doesn’t matter. As long as I get the information requested in our app submission guidelines, I don’t care who it comes from.
What I have seen is that a PR firm will more than likely make sure you’ve prepared a media kit and have all of the resources in place to make reviewing your app easier. If this is an area you feel you need help with, go ahead and hire one.
Promo codes are not necessary (and don’t make me more inclined to review your app)
The app review sites I’m familiar with have dedicated iTunes accounts and funds to purchase paid apps that look interesting enough to check out and possibly review. So, the lure of getting an app for free isn’t really all that enticing after all and doesn’t influence the decision to review your app. You’re welcome to provide a promo code but know that one isn’t necessary (and it may go unused even).
As a side note, I’d recommend you save those promo codes for a contest or promotion on your site, Facebook, or Twitter.
Things that make me ignore submissions immediately:
– Sending a blanket email to several sites at once (and not bothering to BCC all of the emails included).
This is like yelling “Who wants to take me out to dinner tonight?” to a roomful of strangers. No one feels flattered you asked and no one with any dignity or a modicum of self-worth is going to respond.
– Submitting an app you already know I won’t review
TouchArcade, a most excellent site dedicated to iOS games, is a sister site to AppShopper. In favor of their expertise and to avoid overlap between our sites, I don’t review games. (To be truthful, I have mentioned some games here and there but only because it was huge news or I really, really liked the game but this has been more the exception than the rule, by far.) This is clearly stated in the app submission guidelines. If you ignore this, you’re either an exceptional optimist or you have trouble understanding directions. Either way, there’s little chance that I’ll even finish reading your submission once it’s clear your app is a game. Please save yourself (and me) some time and don’t bother submitting it.
– Contacting me through my personal site/email/Twitter
AppShopper and every other major app site has an email address dedicated for app submissions for a reason. Actually, several reasons. First, that email address may forward submissions to several reviewers at once, so if you target just one, you’re possibly missing getting the information about your app in front of all the people who should see it.
Second, my personal site/email/Twitter is just that – personal. I don’t like to mix work and personal stuff and most professionals I know don’t either. You may think you’re being clever or even “cutting” into a virtual line ahead of others to get my attention but you’re just annoying me in the end. And that makes me ignore your review request.
And last but not least, you have a stupid app
I’m sorry, but your fart/dating advice/boob viewing app is never, ever going to get a second glance from me. Why? Because it’s stupid. It serves no purpose other than to provide less than 30 seconds of amusement and annoy or titillate its users or those unfortunate enough to be in close proximity to those users.
Frankly, I’m not quite sure why you even bothered creating such an app. Perhaps it was the lure of quick money or the result of a bet lost among friends. Whatever the case, I don’t care. I don’t do stupid apps.
When I select an app to feature or review, it’s because it does something incredibly useful or unique and usually looks really, really good while doing it. It’s innovative, well-designed and a joy to use.
___
That’s it. Still not sure how to get the attention of app reviewers? Read the submission guidelines of the sites you’re targeting and this post again. Then make sure you have a useful/cool/unique app to begin with and email away.
Thanks for sharing the tips, I’ll share them with my fellow developers.
Hope I did my homework right. 😉
What an obnoxious post, Marianne. And what a load of crap about it being “physically impossible” for you to respond to e-mails. You could “craft” a polite, considerate auto-response letting submitters know that you are reviewing their submissions.
Being a gatekeeper has gotten to your head.
You know, I love my job. I love finding cool, useful, and beautiful apps and being able to share what I’ve found with others. It makes me happy to promote the hard work of developers who have put out a great product. This post was intended to help those developers increase the chances of getting their app reviewed.
Of course, this post was also to let me rant a bit (on my own blog where I can do whatever the hell I please) since I see developers do many things that certainly don’t help them promote their apps as effectively as possible. But it’s still not really about me – everything here is meant to help developers, despite my snarky tone. The snark is intended for those developers who can’t follow directions or put so little thought into promoting their apps that it’s ridiculous (and detrimental to themselves in the end). My guess is that you must fall into the latter category if you’re this bitter about an article with tips to help developers.
Also, an auto-responsder isn’t feasible given the wide variety of emails received at the submission email address – I’ve tried it. I’ve seen developers only get frustrated about receiving the same response to 10 separate emails they’ve sent about 10 different apps they have in the App Store. They then turn around and send even more emails complaining about how it’s just a bot responding to their emails. We also get site-related suggestions and technical support requests sent to that address (from a whole other group of people who can’t bother to find the correct address to use for issues related to the site or app), for which a “thank you for your app submission” response isn’t appropriate.
To head off any disappointment, I’ve simply made it clear in the submission guidelines that a reply will most likely not be sent. And frankly, I’m not going to worry about a dev who gets upset about not getting an automated reply to an email they sent. Who does that? I would hope that most devs are mature enough to handle this minor issue in life. If not, well, a review of their app is the last thing they need help with.
I would rather not get some generic auto-response… it just fills up my inbox with nonsense. I enjoyed this post. Great insight.
Not that there isn’t some good general advice here for developers to follow, but it seems like app reviewers from many sites these days quite often feel the need to publish condescending posts/tweets to complain about dev behavior. It’s not really necessary and just reflects poorly on the editorship (even if it is your personal blog).
It’s better to simply clarify a few points in your submission guidelines rather than attack the types of apps people create or how much they annoy you. These things are unfortunate but something that you’ll have to deal with no matter how many posts like this you write.
Thanks for the post. I don’t think I have done any of the irritating thing you mentioned but I did learn a lot that will help me in future review requests. Thanks for being honest.
Ok, so reviewers want others to think their work is important but it actually is not. Good or bad reviews or no reviews at all do not make any difference for the sales. Not in the App Store anyway. Apparently, people who read reviews and people who buy games are different people. Or maybe the reason is the number of people who care about reviews is to darn small to make the difference.
Anyway, remind me please why should give a rat’s ass about your guidelines and advises on how to please some pretentious teenager who reviews games for a living?
Reading comprehension score: F
I don’t review games. I’m not a teenager. The guidelines I posted weren’t intended to describe how to “please” me but to ensure developers increase the chances that their apps will get reviewed.
Yeah, we don’t see any difference with app reviews. From our analytics, near zero apps have been downloaded due to a review. We simply don’t bother. Why would a user need to waste time reading some tilted review when they can download the app and try it for themselves? Come on – this isn’t the 90’s anymore.
Good stuff! Thanks for putting this out. Most of this is common sense but having a guideline by a reviewer is very helpful. Still though- the don’t pester me thing…. I’ve followed guidelines and emailed reviewers, and have not tried to pester. However, For app developers, we have a moment in time (the release or significant update) that we shoot for when contacting reviewers. If they review a couple months later- The steam is lost and so is the ability to push it to a top spot in the app store. We try to strike when the iron is still hot. So please understand that timing is everything in order to get an abundance of exposure that will rank up our game temporarily. If the game fails after that- then it’s our fault for not making a better game but we really need the opportunity for coordinated exposure.
I understand that there’s a short period of time around a release when it’s best to “strike while the iron is hot” and ensure there’s as much coverage as possible for a new release/major update. My biggest piece of advice here is to plan ahead accordingly and make sure you’re reaching out to sites in advance with information, the planned release date, and the offer of a pre-release build. From a reviewer’s standpoint, we also want time to prepare and emailing at the last minute and repeatedly asking for a review or coverage within the next day or two (or even same day, which I’ve also seen) feels incredibly presumptuous and rude, in my opinion (I’m not saying you do this but I’ve seen this a lot). I don’t work on the timetable of any developer and it’s quite likely that I already have the apps I plan to cover lined up and don’t have the time or room to cover others on such short notice.
Also, consider your paid advertising as well. The big game houses and the successful game developers I’ve seen make it a point to plan well ahead to purchase ads on major sites to coincide with releases as well (I’m talking months ahead of time here, not days). While this shouldn’t impact reviewers, the awareness a solid ad campaign can create could catch the eyes of reviewers as well and put your game on their “to check out” list if they haven’t already. In short, never ignore paid advertising. Few, if any, successful companies in any industry rely solely on word of mouth and free advertising via review sites (the legit ones that don’t do paid reviews, anyway) when releasing a new product and you shouldn’t either.
Thanks a lot, Marianne
You just killed my dream of making an app that allows you to watch boobs and make farting noises while dishing out awesome dating advice! 🙂
In all seriousness though, thank you for these tips.
However, please try to understand what we, developers go through. You just poured your heart, soul, last savings, your time into the app, and now you are just hustling, trying desperately to get anyone to notice it, because deep down you KNOW that all your app needs is a chance, just one mention on MacRumors, appShoper, TUAW……
So you e-mail and contract as many people as you can, and sometimes you just have to cut corners, because there is only 24 hours in a day, and you have designers, developers, family and most likely another full time job (to support your little app habit, your family and yourself) to deal with….and here you are again, at 1 am on a Friday night starring at the screen, working on getting the word out..
It would be nice to have a budget for a PR Firm, outsource all the Marketing, buy lots of Ads everywhere….but most of the time we are just one-two people shops trying to survive and somehow make in this super competitive market.
How can we (indy developers) possibly compete with the polished pitches of PR firms? How can we reach you, the influencers, and get a few seconds of attention for our message? That’s why developers try to reach you on your personal e-mail, twitter, etc – their pitches just get lost in the avalanche on professionally crafted individualized marketing messages, so they try to use any advantage they can get over those big guys.
Just know that the next time you get an awkward app pitch via personal e-mail or twitter – it’s most likely an Indy developer running on red bulls and 4 hour of sleep. Try to cut him or her a little slack. 🙂
Sorry about the rant and have a great holiday weekend!
I’m glad you found these tips helpful!
I know that creating an app takes a lot of hard work and I don’t *really* get mad at developers for doing the things I mentioned despite my snarky tone here. In the end, I think all developers should just use common sense and courtesy when contacting anyone (not just app reviewers).
Good luck! 🙂
Thanks Marianne!
Very VERY good advice! You reaffirmed many principles I inherently believed, and pointed out a key point I failed to consider: personal=personal… 🙂
Cheers!
Hi Marianne,
I’ve heard and read a lot of people saying essentially to “build a solid relationship with reviewers/websites/blog authors” to get a leg up, get noticed, increase your chances etc. I wonder what your take is on this? It seems to me like you’re saying you want things to be short and sharp, and that you’d have no time for that kind of thing?
Thanks, great article.
Regards,
Jay
Jay,
Thanks for your comment.
To answer your question, it’s mostly a “no” for me but not completely. Also, I think my view here is different from those of other review sites – TouchArcade is one that comes to mind since many of the big game houses put out multiple games every year and previews and advance reviews and teasers are a huge part of their marketing cycle. These kinds of sites *need* to be in the loop constantly to give their readers the best coverage of what’s up and coming.
When it comes to the smaller/individual developers that I prefer to focus on, the best way to get my attention is by being succinct up front and having a great app to begin with. I *will* remember you and will ask to be kept in the loop for future updates and new apps. I know I’m absolutely terrible at responding to emails these days but I really do at least read through all of them (well, at least the first part if it’s more than 2 paragraphs). If anything, I just ask that developers be patient and not give up. 🙂
Hi Marianne. Impressive that you can back handspring. i hate black licorice, too.
Great post, thanks so much for the insight. I thought I was pretty clever finding your personal blog and was about to send you an email when . . . I found this post. I’ll contact you and the other app reviewers via the proper method.
Ethan Parker
The Planner guy
Allow me to express my thanks as well, for sharing your insight. Highly useful for my upcoming sumbission boost.
Vedran,
Thanks for reading my post and I’m glad it was helpful!
Dear Marianne,
Wanted to thank you for this post. We have recently released an app for the iPhone, and this post was really helpful in structuring our requests and not pestering reviewers 🙂
@Vedanta,
You’re welcome! I’m glad my post was helpful for you and thank you for visiting my blog!
My initial plan was to submit an App by sending a simple note along the lines of “hey, check this wonderful App” followed by link to the App Store, and then email you every day of the week (including weekends) until it is reviewed… mmh, might have to rethink my strategy.
Kidding of course. Thank you for the informative and helpful post, much appreciated.
@Alexis,
Glad you revised your plan and that you found this information helpful. 😉
Hi Marianne, I work at a small company and we’ve just released our first game, I’ve sent emails to review sites throughout this first week and I think I managed to nail it from what you said. Nevertheless It’s been almost a week for some sites from the day I sent the mail and code and it seems like some don’t even take the time to download the app, is this normal? I’m starting to feel like review sites just want to review those apps that are featured each week by Apple and not try to find some great app lying there unnoticed in the App Store; which is really why I follow review sites, to find new stuff I wouldn’t find myself by having a quick look at the App Store.
From what i’ve seen AppAdvice does a great job at reviewing, they did a review of our app (TicToe Fury) in just three days after it was released. Are there any review site which are really into searching for apps other than those by EA, Gameloft, Chillingo…? Or do review sites think they are the only developers capable of doing high quality apps?
Anyway, nice post, let’s hope in the next few days things get even better. Cheers 😉
@Sebastian,
Thanks for your comment.
One of the topics I didn’t cover in too much depth in this post is timing.
Many sites want to be the first to cover new apps without much concern about the quality of coverage. Others try to be first (or very early) AND offer high quality coverage. Others don’t even try be first but try to offer more thorough, high-quality coverage. I’d put TouchArcade into the second category and AppShopper into the third.
With that said, the type of app and its developer are indeed factors here. If an app is from a major developer and it’s a new release or major upgrade, sites will generally try to release their reviews and articles just before or as soon as it’s available to the public. Odds are that’s when most people will hear about it and look around for information on whether or not it’s a good buy or not.
If an app is not a huge release by a big developer, there is, frankly, less pressure and desire to cover it as soon it’s released. Why rush when few people will hear about it to begin with? I don’t say this to be mean but it’s simply a statement of fact when editors consider their editorial calendar (the schedule of apps/articles they already plan to write over the next few weeks to several months), writer availability, and the constant stream of review requests and other events to cover that come up every day.
Remember that the bottom line for most sites is getting more traffic and this does not always line up with the schedule of developers who want coverage on a specific day or timeframe, unfortunately. In general, it always helps to send your submission early so that sites can add your app to their editorial calendar in advance. Good editors plan what they will cover *at least* a few weeks out with wiggle room to cover major, unexpected events and news as needed.
With that said, don’t get discouraged. I’ve had apps on my iPhone for months before I finally got a chance to review them or I waited intentionally to post a review in a time when it was more relevant (e.g., a gift list app released in September when the December holiday season is a more likely time more people will find it useful).
The App Store is a difficult place to make it big these days, especially for games. The bar is so high with many users expecting console-level quality in $.99 games and I don’t envy any game developer trying to compete with many of the bigger development companies.
At any rate, I hope that helps and good luck!
-Marianne
Hi again Marianne, thanks for taking your time to write back, you seem to know tons about this business, we’ve been working really hard to get noticed on the App Store, it’s tough but with time I hope things get better. It would be great if I could give you a code of my app and you could give it a try, as a friend, with no need to receive nothing in exchange. I just think it would be great to have some sort of feedback from someone with your knowledge for games and apps. Who knows, maybe you’ll enjoy it.
If any time soon you have some time write me an email and i’d be glad to share it with you.
Anyway I know you must be really occupied with your stuff so I just wanted to let you know that this post really helped me, if I as a developer find something worth sharing about marketing apps I will certainly share it with all of you.
Please have a look at our new app uteach toddler. Available on itunes at this stage, soon to be on android. Very quickly becoming popular with parents.
There are 2 modes-Mother & Child
Mother mode- this is where you can take a photo,or use an image in your gallery, then add your voice recording and finally add text, you can cutomise font,size,colour.
Child mode- child taps screen,photo shows,voice is heard,and text displays.
This app is very popular for parents who are away for long periods. Also the learning possibilites are endless
Any more ideas how to help with launch? Are there any global websites for all countries ? Thankyou
@Kris: Your request in your comment for me to look at your app means you clearly didn’t even read my post.
Thank you for the great ideas. Just launched our own app and wanting to get as much WOM as possible without spending mage $$.
Thank you for a great post Marianne! It was a tremendously useful read for us. The post along with the discussion in the comments section shed a much needed light on how app review sites work. Information really hard to come by for a company releasing its first game. Thanks!
Marianne:
Thank you so much for the post – funny thing, I just launched my app a few days ago and searched on how to have your app reviewed and this by far was the most detailed I have seen. I have submitted a few today already (one to AppShopper as well of course) it is good to hear what is in the mind of the reviewer!
I hope my app lands across your “desk” soon. Again thank you for the advice
Richard
Nice post Marianne!! Straight to the point! Give us more!!
Dear Marianne,
you (and all the other app reviewers for that matter) need to realize that developers don’t make apps to impress you, so that you can give a good review. They make apps because it’s their job to make apps and they like it. Using this kind of language like “IF I like your app” or “you have a stupid app” makes me avoid giving my app to you, because you think you are somebody with power. This is not the case. If this is your job, as you say, you need developers as much as they need you. Show some respect to them. And to tell you the truth, if the App Store would work better, (promoting and marketing all the apps, not only from the big companies) developers wouldn’t need people like you to review their app.
I don’t know if you know anything about programming. If you don’t, you should take the time a talk with a fellow developer and he will tell you how difficult is to make an app (even the simplest one requires time and effort that you can’t imagine). It’s easy if you sit behind your screen and judge an app only by the “elevator pitch”. Developers are not puppies, waiting for you to throw them a bone. On the other hand, if you do know about programming, then I would expect from you to show some sympathy to all the developers out there, who, as you said “put their sweat, blood and tears” to it, literally.
I understand the guidelines and all the comments you put, so that everyone’s life become easier (developer’s and yours). Even though I don’t agree with everything you’ve said, I understand that you were only trying to help. But, hey, keep in mind you are talking to other human beings! You are not very helpful if you say to someone that he is stupid because he made a fart app and you don’t like it. Other people do. For me, a good reviewer is the one who actually reviews everything. If you don’t like the app, you always have the option to give a poor rating. And if you tell me you don’t have the time to do that, well, it means you’re not good at your job. It means you are not any different than the App Store, if you select what you review. So what’s the point? If I had to impress someone, that would be the App Store and not you, I hope you realize that.
And one last thing: most of the developers lack the communication skills (you already know that, otherwise you wouldn’t have written that post). With that being said, there is a chance that you won’t review a really great app, just because you didn’t like the elevator pitch!
Have a Happy New Year! 🙂
Really liked your post, helped me a lot on getting the right point of view when trying to get my APP reviewed. It’s as simple as trying to walk in the shoes of a reviewer, and -of course- having something really unique and useful to promote. As always, the quality is the key! So much thanks!
Marianne ,
Loved your post and ofcourse the comments that followed it. It offered great insight to see an app being viewed from different vantage points. I hope this entire article with the comments would help a sensible, thinking developer and fellow reviewers(to understand the developer’s end of story). Keep up the good job.
Thanks
Just wanted to add a follow up on the comments that reviews don’t matter.
They actually matter big time. At least for the educated buyers I know, since they’re the only reason most of us will even consider a try.
Most people don’t have oodles of memory in their gadgets and time to waste to “just quickly” download every app in sight.
What arrogance to think that all users are that thoughtless. We’re looking for an app to fill whatever specific purpose we need met at any particular moment and not just any old app out there. What am I going to do with an app that searches for TV shows when I need one that edits/organizes my email?!?!
I’m always defending the developers, since I fully understand their need to eat and that they are using precious unpaid time to develop their apps.
But no one is forcing them to design an app, especially one that’s of little use to the general, money earning & spending, educated public. And especially if they are hoping for a strong following.
Grow up & realize that advice is just that…advice. Follow it or not. But don’t blame the reviewers. .pro or not..if they ask to be considered when taking the time to let you also know where you hit the mark or where you could improve to increase sales.
After all, we’re the ones that have to “want” your app for it to be a success, no matter how much you think it’s great or relevant.
Just an opinion. And Good Luck to both sides.