You’ve spent a lot of time and money developing the best app you can for the Microsoft Store. You know that the key elements of a successful marketing strategy are:

  • Standing out from the competition
  • Getting quality engagement from your customers

The Microsoft Store Services can help you achieve both, and the technology is simple, accurate, and dynamic – at no additional cost!

Standing out from the competition

While there is no published data on how many apps there currently are in the Microsoft Store, (it is well over a million) the apps offered have a high standard of security, technical compliance, and engaging content. Microsoft provides many innovative and well thought out tools that enable developers to deliver the best app experience possible to the broadest market.  As a result, the store is booming for both the developer and the consumer.

The store showcases different apps separated by category and theme and it is up to Microsoft to decide which ones it will feature. But how can better your chances of being selected? Follow these guidelines to be eligible for consideration. These guidelines also make sense if you want to make it easier to get your apps promoted in reviews, social media, and on any other platforms your app is offered.

  • Pictures make the pitch. Screenshots and images should be well thought out and compelling. Your leading screenshot should really represent your app and engage your target prospect. Put your prospect into the experience as closely as possible and show how the UI looks on each device it supports. More info.
  • Build one version of your app. Don’t create multiple apps such as free and paid. Instead offer a free trial or even make it a free app with paid add-ons. Doing so gives you one listing that appeals to all types of prospects, makes your brand clear and avoids creating confusion.
  • List in all relevant markets and languages. Localization compliance for each market is also required.
  • If necessary, content filters should be on by default. If your app features 16+ content, the filter should be password protected inside the app itself.

Get quality engagement from your customers using Feedback Hub

Customer feedback containing bug reports, problems, issues, praise and improvement ideas is increasing.  There is no better way to manage your app’s roadmap than through the eyes of the user. Now you can get customer feedback delivered to you directly through the Feedback Hub and it’s easy. Just add a button to your Universal Windows Platform app that launches the preinstalled Feedback Hub. 

It’s a brilliant idea because it gives your customer a chance to engage with you directly, so you can respond quickly and either fix a problem, plan new features or make your promotion more relevant by pushing the features most admired by the users. 

Important: Feedback Hub is included in Windows version 10.0.14271 or later on the desktop and mobile device families. Microsoft provides instruction on how to hide the feedback control by default and have it show in the initialization code only if the Feedback Hub is available on the user’s device. 

To be able to launch Feedback Hub from your app, you will need to use an API provided by the Microsoft Store Services SDK. Follow their design guidelines in this link. More info.

Microsoft wants your app to be a success and has been closing the gap between your offering and your prospects with continually refined technology. Analyzing an enormous amount of app business data and consumer behavior, Microsoft is able to provide a better insight into the market needs than you could afford to do on your own. Best of all, they make it easy for you to stay on the cutting edge with your app marketing.

For more info:

Services SDK

Featured App requirements