One of the most important tools to help you promote your mobile app is one of the most basic: writing a good mobile app description. Your mobile app description gives your users a quick overview of what your app is about – and it gives you a chance to quickly demonstrate the value that your app offers. In a crowded app marketplace, writing better mobile app descriptions might be one of the most effective ways to help your app stand out from the competition.

Here are a few tips and tricks to write better mobile app descriptions:

• Borrow ideas from the most popular apps: Steve Jobs said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal” – and while you don’t have to “steal” or copy or plagiarize from another mobile app’s description, you can definitely use the most popular mobile apps in your category to get some ideas for how to write your own mobile app description. What are some keywords that other mobile apps are using in their descriptions? How do they format the description so it is easy to read and scan through? What can you emulate in your own mobile app description? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel – just look for some inspiration in the examples that are already out there in the app marketplace.
• Use social proof: If people are finding out about your mobile app for the first time, they’re probably going to be skeptical – “Is this app really worth downloading? What does this app do? How can this app help me?” Your mobile app description needs to supply “social proof” to indicate that other people have tried your app and have had a positive experience. To add social proof to your mobile app description, make sure to include customer reviews – even if you have a new app that hasn’t been widely downloaded yet, you can include actual comments from your early testers and immediate friends/family who have tried the game. If you have an app that is distributed internationally, include the number of countries where the game reached the number 1 position. You can also include mentions of the total number of downloads and the number of people playing/using your app (if the number is impressive – if your app is brand new and has a small audience, you might want to avoid giving specific numbers).
• Take advantage of authorities: We discussed in an earlier article about how to get mobile app reviewers to pay attention to your app. Once you’ve gotten some reviews, whether it’s in a widely-read publication or a niche site or a blog dedicated to your app category, you can use the positive reviews to promote your app in your mobile app description. Take snippets of the best reviewer feedback and put together a little “brag page” of positive comments about your app. (The “Bad Piggies” mobile app description has some excellent examples of short, powerful snippets of game reviews.) Give people a quick overview of some of the best feedback about your app – and include links if possible so people can read the full reviews. If your app has been given any awards, mention the awards in your app description. If any well known people or “celebrities” (whether Hollywood stars or highly influential experts in your industry) are using your app, see if you can get a mention from them on Twitter, and then quote their public praise for your app on your mobile app description.
• Tell a story: Just like we discussed in our article about creating a mobile app product video, stories and emotions sell your app far more effectively than statistics and specs. If your app is a game, use the app description to create an emotional connection with the characters – write the description in a way that drops the reader right into the middle of the story of your game. If it’s an app dedicated to a specific problem, start your mobile app description with a concise and vivid word picture of the problem that you are trying to solve. A good “story” in your app description will take your readers on a mini-journey and have them eager to click “Download.”

Read part 2 of How to Write a Fantastic Mobile App Description here!

What’s your take on this? What are your favorite “dos and don’ts” for mobile app descriptions? 

By Ryan Morel