App ratings and reviews can make or break the success of your magazine app on the stores.

Having a highly rated app will help you rise in rankings and stand out from your competitors, while the opinions expressed in reviews play an important role in converting app store visitors.

Positive app ratings and reviews act as social proof, motivating users to take a chance on your magazine app. On the other hand, if you don’t have any ratings or reviews – or worse if you only have negative reviews – visitors will be less likely to download your app.

Publishers can increase their visibility on the stores and get more downloads by building user feedback into app marketing plans. Here’s a checklist of actions you can take to improving your app rating and collect reviews – plus a handy infographic at the end for quick reference!

App Ratings & Review Checklist

• Get a head start as soon as you launch. Ask bloggers and early adopters to rate and review your app in order to have an average rating for your launch.
• Use push notifications. Identify your loyal users and send them a push notification asking them for an app review.
• Use in-app pop-up messages. Launch a message inviting users to review your app after they have performed a specific action, like making a purchase. Users are more likely to rate your positively after successfully completing a task.
• Use App Engagement Ads. Experiment with app engagement advertising to re-target your superusers with display and social media ads.
• Use email. Segment your email list to target app users (by OS) and ask them to review your app (make sure you link to the correct stores). Also, include a CTA to review your app in your support email signature.
• Counteract negative feedback. Create an in-app form or support email for users to report bugs or issues.
• Respond to feedback. After fixing bugs and re-publishing your app, reply and ask users who gave a bad review to reconsider their rating (Google Play).
• Leverage your mobile site. Use a pop-up or banner on your mobile website or landing page to get users who have installed your app to rate it.

How have these tactics worked for you? We’d love to hear how you’re increasing app store ratings and reviews in the comments below!