How is Blue Label Labs different from its competitors?

First, we live and breathe cutting-edge/bleeding-edge technology, so your app will similarly be cutting-edge/bleeding edge with a long “shelf-life”. Second, with a perfect mix of local, domestic and international talent you are guaranteed to get the optimal mix of a high-quality product and a fair price. Third, you will be assigned a dedicated Program Manager (PM) after we’ve established a contract who will be your single point-person for all of your needs and questions. This PM will stay with you for the duration of your relationship with Blue Label Labs and is your conduit to all of the resources we have to offer, thus streamlining your communication and preventing you from having to repeat your message to multiple resources or play air traffic control. Our PMs are the best in the business and we’d be happy to introduce you to a projected PM (and project team) once we’ve got an estimate on the table to discuss. Fourth, the size of Blue Label Labs team (now 64 people strong) means you don’t have to worry about the “single point of failure” issue that exists at smaller shops of just one or two developers, nor the burden paying for the high overhead cost associated with larger shops. Fifth, we have a stronger focus on design than most other shops. We split our design team into two specific functions—Product/User Experience and User Interface. It’s a rare unicorn designer that is good at both thinking through flow and product decisions, as well as branding, colors, logos and overall User Interface. To that end, each project team has both a UX Designer and UI Designer staffed to ensure top notch design. Sixth, with over 7 years of operation and over 250 apps completed, we have both the experience and extensive re-usable code base to ensure your app is built as efficiently and as inexpensively as possible. Seventh, our QA and Testing methodology is rigorous and as important to us as the actual development—meaning your app will be as bug free as is possible. We have a dedicated QA Engineer staffed on every project. This engineer is not the original author of the code ensuring the highest quality results from the QA process. Please see the below sections for more details.

How does Blue Label Labs work with clients?

Blue Label Labs Labs begins most projects with a Discovery, Planning & Design Phase (Phase One). First, we determine the proper technologies and development schedule. Second, the Design teams inherit the User Stories that were drafted during the sales process. User Stories are simple one-liners that outline the activities your users will need to be able to accomplish within the app. These User Stories then get grouped together into meaningful features and feature sets. The Design teams work with the client to finalize the User Stories. Third, our design team sets out creating greyscale wireframes to illustrate how a user will move through the app (i.e., the user experience, UX). Fourth, we transition to full color illustrations/designs that have the final look and feel of the app (i.e., the user interface, UI). Fifth, the app designs are then uploaded into a prototyping platform called Invision that allows our team to create tappable and swipeable “hotspots” so that you can show the app on your phone or via a mocked-up phone in a web browser. At the same time, we draft a Functional Specification document that details the technical hows and whys of the project for the development team. Once that work is complete, we them move on to the Development Phase (Phase Two). The Agile development/engineering team works hand-in-hand with the Program Manager and follows the wireframes and the Functional Specifications to build the app. Our first development goal is the First Deliverable milestone—we call this D1; this is a highly functional build of the app that contains a subset of features agreed upon by Blue Label Labs and the client. We then begin an iterative process of finalizing the remaining features. At the same time, a QA Team builds a full test plan for the app. The QA Team continually performs functional and regression testing on the app, reporting issues to the Project Manager. Learn more about our process here.

How long does it take to complete the average app?

Typically, for our average 4 to 5-month project, the Phase One: Discovery & Planning and Design lasts for approximately 4 to 6 weeks, with Phase Two: Development and Testing Phase occupying the remaining 3 to 4 months. At the end of the Phase Two, the final app is prepared for Deployment. Deployment involves moving any web services and server side components to a production environment and submitting the app to the relevant app store(s).

How much does the average app cost?

If we were in full-swing on a new project, a client can estimate a cost of between $10,000 and $30,000 per two-week sprint ($20,000 to $60,000 per month) for the effort—typically billed bi-weekly. If Blue Label Labs is handling everything from Discovery, Planning & Design through to Deployment in an app store, total app costs average about $120,000 for one “platform”–iOS, Android, Web, etc. That said, it very much depends on the complexity of the design and development required for each individual app, we’ve completed full apps at costs of between $50,000 (a bare-bones, simple MVP/prototype) and $2,000,000 (a full featured, enterprise apps). We provide free, no commitment estimates to clients. After the app is submitted to an app store(s) or pushed live on the web, the Blue Label Labs team monitors the app store and customer reviews and deals with any issues, questions, delays or approvals that arise. We have a great track record with app submissions and make sure that the app submitted is highly likely to be approved without issue. Post approval, a maintenance agreement can be put into place to cover and small issues, minor app edits (e.g., color, image or text changes) and any bugs that might linger. At the end of the project, we will transfer all source code and project files to you and you will remain the sole owner of all IP in the app. After that time, we provide our services at an hourly rate of $120/hour for ad-hoc updates or at an hourly rate of $100/hour for a mutually agreed upon set number of hours in a 6-month retainer. The monthly maintenance cost for the average app is $2,000/month: in other words, a retainer of 20 hours per month at $100 per hour equals $2,000/month and guarantees expedited service vs. ad-hoc requests.

What is the difference between a Native App, a Hybrid App and an HTML5 App?

Native App: A Native App is an app written for a specific platform like iOS or Android—in other words, the app is written in the coding language used for development on that specific platform (Objective-C or Swift for iOS and Java for Android). When you build a Native App, you get access to all the hardware features exposed by the native code APIs and SDKs. For example, Apple iOS Push Notifications are one example of a feature that cannot be supported by an HTML5 App. The graphics and user interface of a Native App are far superior to any Hybrid or HTML5 app. You would choose this option, if you want to use the user interface components from Apple’s proprietary user interface libraries (i.e., the usability is better); you want full device hardware access—cameras, microphone, and geo-location; you want peak performance with no lag; you want users to be able to access the app off-line (i.e., without Internet access); you want access to push notifications and in-app purchase; and you want your app to de discoverable in the app store. On the downside, your code is less portable across operating systems and it is often the most expensive development option. It is our recommendation that if you plan to start a true, revenue generating, app-based business, this is the only viable option. Hybrid App: A Hybrid App is a form of web app that is deployed to a native platform like an iPhone or Android phone inside a native shell. This shell is usually little more than a web browser view (to display the HTML5 content) and some other hooks to allow your web app to potentially access some more hardware features that are not available inside a typical mobile web browser—e.g., push notification and in-app purchases. It improves code portability because if you want to port your app to another platform, you only need a native shell on that other platform to run it, the HTML5 content of the app is directly portable. These shells can be hand written, but can also be generated automatically by tools in the marketplace like React Native, PhoneGap, Cordova or Xamarin. These tools allow a developer to push the app out to multiple platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, Windows Mobile) quickly by generating the shell and packages required to do so automatically. This sounds powerful, and it is, but clearly creators of these third-party platforms have a lot of configurations and hardware to support, and thus, the solutions do not always work the same across all devices, and in practice, testing and hacking of special cases will be required by the developer to get proper functionality. You would choose this option if you want a balance between cost and usability; you want access to some (but not all) of the phone’s native APIs/SDKs and hardware; you want to be able to quickly deploy across multiple device types; and you’re not worried about high-end graphics. On the downside, because these third-party hybrid platforms (e.g., React Native, PhoneGap and Xamarin) need to support so many device types there are always implementation and usability issues to workout. In addition, you will only have access to the features of a new operating system 6+ months AFTER it is released by Apple, Google or Microsoft. In this way, your app will never be able to cutting-edge technology. While we are fully capable of building Hybrid Apps, it is our recommendation that this option is only viable for simple, lo-fi apps that are heavy on text and images, but don’t need much in the way of functionality or user interface. An HTML5 Web App: An HTML5 app is essentially a website with JavaScript code written to allow the app to perform dynamically, as opposed to a static website that you need to refresh to see the changes. It works interactively to make it feel like an app, but it is actually running in a web browser. It is essentially a website, which will support multiple viewports or screen sizes so that it works well on mobile. Because it is running in a browser, it is confined to what is possible within a mobile web browser. You would choose this option if you want to support multiple platforms with the same app/codebase; you want to deploy it on the web; you want the widest possible support across multiple device operating systems and manufacturers; and you want to be able to update your source files on your server and have them immediately deployed to all devices (i.e., removing the need for the app approval process). On the downside, your app is not discoverable in the app stores; it will never look and feel like a true mobile app; and you will have limited access to some of the software and hardware functionality of the phone (e.g., push notifications and cameras). It is our recommendation, that this option is only viable for view-only content where users are not expected to interact in any meaningful way.

Has Blue Label Labs ever transitioned an app the firm has built to a client’s internal development team? What is the typical process and how long does it usually take? Is there a fee for this?

Quite often Blue Label Labs transitions an app to a client’s in-house development team. As part of our regular transition for any client, we transfer all functional specs, wireframes, UI design resources, screen flow maps, passwords/certificates/credentials and source code to the client. We also have extensive experience working in tandem with a client’s existing engineering team. For example, Blue Label Labs will build the front-end experience of an app on top of a client’s existing backend web service and databases. These transitions are the quickest, averaging only a few days, since the Blue Label Labs team and the client team have already been working hand-in-hand for months. If we are handing over a complete project with no prior engagement with the client’s development team, then the transition can take a little longer depending on the support needed. This can range from a few days to a couple weeks. The transition is typically free of charge unless engineering resources are needed to facilitate the transition or the Program Manager is required to spend more than a week on the transition and training. We’ve even helped companies to interview potential new technical team members—e.g., developers and CTOs.

How does Blue Label Labs provide training to a client’s development team so that they could make app enhancements and how much would that training cost?

Along with all the project documentation and support outlined in the answer to the question above, we are happy to provide hands-on training to in-house developers/team members as part of the transition. There is typically no extra charge for this if only a few hours are required. If ongoing training is necessary, for example an in-house developer is not familiar with app development and requires a crash course, then we can offer our services at our hourly rate of $120/hour for training. We’ve even aided our partners in their hiring of their own technical/development team if/when the time is right.

How many designers and developers does Blue Label Labs have on staff? How many work on each client project? Where is the team located? Can the client talk directly to whomever will work on the app?

The Blue Label Labs team is comprised of 64 individuals across its UX Design/Product, UI Design, Development, Program Management, Quality Assurance, Sales, Marketing and Leadership teams. We have 6 Designers, 10 Program Managers, 35 Developers, 3 App Marketers—the remainder of the team is comprised of the Sales, Marketing, Operations & Leadership Teams. Depending on the size of the project, a team of at least 7 Blue Label Labs staffers will work on your project: 1 Program Manager, 1 UX Designer, 1 UI Designer, 1 Technical Architect, 1 Front-End Developer, 1 Back-End Developer, and 1 Quality Assurance Engineer—in addition to the technical and strategic oversight provided by Blue Label Labs leadership. The majority of our Design and Program Manager teams is based in New York City, Seattle and San Francisco areas. The Developers and Quality Assurance Testers are also based in the aforementioned cities, in addition to India-based team members. The Development, Design and QA Teams are managed directly by the Program Manager. The Program Manager is your primary point of contact and the liaison across all other Blue Label Labs team members associated with your project. That said, clients are welcome to speak directly with any individual team member as is needed.

Are projects priced based on “time-and-material” (i.e., hourly) estimate or a “fixed-price” quote?

Projects are priced on a “time-and-material” basis. With 7 years and 250+ apps of experience to our credit, we are able to produce very accurate estimates. We do our best to stay within budget or provide you ample warning if we think we may exceed our initial estimate so we can coordinate how to move forward together with you. Prior client references can vouch for the accuracy of our estimates and can be provided to you upon request.

Is Blue Label Labs able to guarantee that our app will be published in an app store?

Unfortunately, no application can be guaranteed for app store approval. However, Blue Label Labs has successfully built and deployed over 250 apps for the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores. We have a solid understanding and insight into what these stores will typically approve or disapprove of. We will warn you well in advance if any particular aspect of you project poses an approval risk. We have had a handful of instances where an app store has rejected an app for publication; not due to technical issues, but due to legal/business/terms of use issues; however, we successfully appealed ALL of these rejections and these very same apps are now in the app store for download today. We led these appeals on behalf of our clients at no extra charge. If your app is rejected due to technical reasons, we will make all necessary corrections needed to get approval at no extra charge. We are happy to connect you with some of our clients who did face some app store pushback to tell you about the rejection and our successful appeal.

What is Blue Label Labs’ policy regarding correcting defects and publishing an update in the app store?

We provide our services at a blended hourly rate of $120/hour for ad-hoc updates or at blended hourly rate of $100/hour at a mutually agreed upon set number of hours over a 6-month retainer. For example, a retainer of 20 hours a month for $2,000/month guarantees expedited service vs. ad-hoc requests. Ad-hoc requests are handled on a first come, first serve basis across all of our clients and development is based on our team’s earliest availability. The monthly retainer of hours functions much like an extension of the warranty period; issues are addressed within 24-48 hours and development will start as soon as the scope of the issue is defined. For those clients wanting a guaranteed 24 to 48-hour turnaround time on maintenance issues, a 6-month retainer is suggested.

What level of Quality Assurance is included and provided by you in your proposal?

A Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer is assigned to every project and builds a custom test plan for every project during the Discovery, Planning & Design Phase. During the Development & Testing Phase the QA Engineer continually tests the app using functional and regression testing. We test on a wide array of physical devices as needed for a given project. If we are building a backend web service and databases as part of the project, we will also have a set of automated unit tests that are run regularly to verify functionality.

What is Blue Label Labs’ quality assurance (QA) and testing methodology?

We believe that Blue Label Labs’ QA and testing methodology is part of our competitive differentiation. The fact that we dedicate resources to solely this function is something that sets us apart from other development shops for whom testing is simply an afterthought. At Blue Label Labs, QA is handled at all levels of development. There are generally 3 layers of QA/testing that happens for every project: 1.) Internal Development Team Testing Each Development Team has an internal QA Tester along with the Developer Lead who perform basic validation on bug fixes prior to builds being released to the broader Project Manager and QA team. Their validation is to ensure that items within JIRA, which we use alongside Trello, to coordinate team efforts and communicate with clients—are properly remedied according to their descriptions prior to “checking-in” or committing code. When items are resolved by the Development Team they are pulled into the “Testing Done by Dev Team” stack of Trello cards and/or within JIRA. When developing new projects, the Blue Label Labs Development Team will also be responsible for creating “unit tests” for our code so that we can quickly run a basic set of verifications. The dev team does the majority of their testing using iOS and Android app simulators. 2.) Dedicated QA Engineer Each project has a dedicated QA Engineer who sits independently from the Development Team who is responsible for: a.) Drafting a milestone based test plan which outlines a list of black box scenarios to verify and the expected results; b.) Performing smoke and full test pass runs against weekly and milestone builds; c.) Verifying and closing bugs that the Development Team has marked as complete; d.) Working with the Development Team to report issues and regressions; and d.) The QA Engineer takes items from the “Testing Done by Dev Team” Trello stack and verifies whether it is actually fixed. If it is, the Trello card is moved to the “Done (Verified)” pile, or sent back to the “Weekly Priorities” or “Product Backlog” stacks, as appropriate. The QA Engineer will generally perform their tests on 2-3 devices, depending on project requirements. 3.) Project Manager (PM) Testing The final QA gate is the PM who is responsible for quality of the entire product. They will also work with the QA Engineer to verify items have been fixed properly in addition to triaging new issues coming in from the client and the QA Engineer. The PM will appropriately schedule issues to be resolved based on their severity and importance. The PM’s testing is done on actual devices.

Can Blue Label Labs help me with Marketing and PR?

Absolutely. We aim to be your full-service app partner. Our Marketing & PR Offering is designed to help you launch your app and gain marketing exposure. Learn more about our Marketing & PR Offering here.

App Design & Development

App Marketing Tools That Can Help You Grow Your Business

The idea behind most software releases is to garner as many users as possible to maximize your efforts – as such, app marketing tools are a must for helping you grow your business. Know that your real competition is likely using powerful systems to keep their edge so to be a viable contender, it’s vital you follow suit.

The problem a lot of new apps encounter stems from the fact some of the best tools on the market come with a hefty price tag while some of the more affordable options are hard to discern. Finding the best platforms to grow your business through your app is a challenge between navigating price and understanding features. First, we’re going to revisit some baseline strategies for marketing your app then we’ll look at the general value of these tools followed by a peek at some great options that are budget-friendly for a startup.

Getting prepared to market your app

In the past, we’ve covered some tricks on how to get as many users as possible for your app. The ultimate goal is to attract the highest number of users for maximum results, whether it’s earning revenue or supplementing some other enterprise. While every tactic has a role, setting up a solid website that’s heavily optimized via an ongoing search engine optimization (SEO) initiative – and tied into your app store marketing (ASO) efforts – needs to be the bedrock of your marketing strategy.

Few will get lucky and find that their product sells itself but for most businesses, attracting uses requires excellent content and app marketing tools to spread the word. Concise, well-constructed content allows companies that are releasing truly innovative digital products to explain why users should adopt your service. For those entering a more competitive space, your content allows you to differentiate your product from the competition.

Before you go full bore into creating supplemental content for your SEO strategy, your pages on the app stores as well as the landing pages on your site must be tweaked to perfection. Keeping in mind that it will often take time to start ranking in organic searches, these pages need to be refined to get messaging across efficiently. Regardless of how you plan to monetize your app – for example, when offering a freemium model and IAP to unlock premium features – your initial focus should hone in on enticing users to download and use the app before worrying about upselling your services.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Getting users to at least download your app substantially influences where your app is positioned in both the App Store and Google Play. Too, visitors typically have short attention spans so it’s important to sell your idea quickly.

A good example of this is how the app we built for bopdrop made it to the top 200 free apps in its first week, thanks to getting 2000 downloads on its first day. Popularity contributes to a kind of momentum that helps an app maintain – and ideally improve – its position with digital marketplaces, whether the App Store or Google Play.

The value of app marketing tools

Early in your app development journey, form a plan to get pieces in place that will ensure you’ll be able to release a consistent stream of valuable content, ideally before your app is even available. Getting eyes on this content is the next step and where app marketing tools come into play.

Good, cost-effective platforms will be essential to both figuring out the subject matter for your content and getting the word out to your audience. Without tools that can help you identify topics, distribute your content, and measure your results, your product will almost certainly sit on a “shelf,” so to speak, blending in with the millions of other products on the market.

The challenge most new businesses encounter is identifying what products will actually work without killing the budget.

App marketing tools to consider for building brand awareness

Let’s start by taking a glance at one of the most prolific providers on the market, Salesforce, which we don’t’ recommend for startups and small businesses. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud has just about everything you could want for marketing and customer engagement – while they have a track record of pleasing customers, the platform is costly. For startups, it’s just not the best solution when you’re in the early days of a product release.

Avoid Salesforce in the beginning as other tools on the market are much more cost-effective at moving the ball down the court during your early years. Instead, we recommend using a combination of the following tools to get started.

Targeting keywords for SEO initiatives

Both ranking better on Google and connecting with prospects or existing users requires knowledge of keywords as this allows you to create content that aligns with interests. To dial into topics, use the free tool Google Keyword Planner to discover keywords and related phrases that are relevant to your product. It comes with several features that allow you to not only find keywords but create paid campaigns in Google Ads that can give your site a boost for a price.

If you’re not too savvy with SEO, don’t worry too much as this is a skill you can pick up with some effort. For a comprehensive overview of how to use Google Keyword Planner, this comprehensive guide from Ahrefs breaks down how to use the tool plus, they offer some useful tips for strategy along with some easily digestible examples. Ideally, you want to use a combination of both low and high competition keywords as well as be on the lookout for the coveted high volume, low competition keywords.

Too, paid platforms like Ahrefs (our preferred tool) or Moz are good options if they work with your budget. Both offer a bit more insight to site, backlink, and keyword performance using a format that’s simple enough for beginners who are willing to put in a little time to get through the learning curve.

Applying keywords in your content is another skill you’ll need to pick up as this is what allows the keywords to do their job. Assuming you’re using WordPress, the Yoast plugin will provide concise feedback on written content, allowing you to refine various aspects of a post to be as SEO friendly as possible. It’s well worth the hundred or so dollar a year investment.

Maximize your app page visibility with ASO

Getting your app to show on the marketplaces requires a tactic that’s similar to SEO but geared specifically for Google Play and the App Store. You can check out the ASO section from our blog How to Get Your App to Show on Google and App Marketplaces to see what this looks like.

ASO uses a system of keywords and app popularity to position your product in either store. Marketplace keywords are independent of those used for the web so affordable app marketing tools like Apptweak or App Radar are essential for researching keywords and understanding your competition. Both have packages running less than $100 a month that provide enough features to drive ASO efforts.

Both platforms are great for beginners as they help you understand the process as you dive in. Each tap into the marketplaces to analyze everything that’s on the market and provide insights into keyword performance and competition. By linking your App Store or Google Play account, backend intelligence on either platform uncovers KPIs and insights on an app’s performance for any given category.

Tracking customers and outreach

There are a ton of CRMs on the market that allow you to store customer information, create marketing campaigns, send emails, and track performance. We suggest using Mailchimp as is it has some of the most features at the best price points, including a completely free tier.

Mailchimp can help you reach your audience with features like customizable signup forms that you can embed in your website (or through their WordPress plugin.) The platform has an intuitive builder that allows users to easily create highly-visual emails that tie into campaigns specific to audiences you define. Analytics provide insights into how emails perform with data that reflects engagement for everything you send out. Knowing how emails perform teaches businesses how to refine messaging with different content or offers, thus allowing you to cultivate more interest in your product and most importantly, gain more users.

Blue Label Labs helps our clients drive marketing initiatives

Through data strategy, we challenge assumptions and hone in on real usage scenarios to break away from the competitive set and create new spaces. Not only do we know how to build great software for any industry, we understand how to identify audiences and market to their needs. We’re much more than just developers as we leverage the tools mentioned above to build brand awareness, leading to success for the apps we build like Word Hack, bopdrop, and many more. Get in touch to learn more about how we can help you drive more users to your app.

+ posts

App Marketing Tools That Can Help You Grow Your Business

Getting prepared to market your app

The value of app marketing tools

App marketing tools to consider for building brand awareness

Targeting keywords for SEO initiatives

Maximize your app page visibility with ASO

Tracking customers and outreach

Blue Label Labs helps our clients drive marketing initiatives

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Are You Using AI In Your Job?

App Marketing Tools That Can Help You Grow Your Business

| January 19, 2021

Getting prepared to market your app

The value of app marketing tools

App marketing tools to consider for building brand awareness

Targeting keywords for SEO initiatives

Maximize your app page visibility with ASO

Tracking customers and outreach

Blue Label Labs helps our clients drive marketing initiatives

Get the latest from the Blue Label Labs’ blog in your inbox

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