Our experiment with CTET mobile app

It was mid of November 2014 when we were preparing upcoming features for PocketScience, our android app for class 10 students. We were having hard time in building business model around PocketScience. It was difficult because our users were class 10 students, having no money to purchase in-app content. It was difficult to reach to parents who can see value in learning through mobile apps.

We Indians can sell thousands on education but don’t like to spend on mobile learning

We come to know about CTET exam which is entrance exam for aspiring teachers. It was scheduled to happen in Feb, 2015. An idea striked us !! What if we launch simple mobile app for CTET candidates and measure conversions. We were confident that we will get around 1000 downloads in 2 months if we launch app by December end. Although we were not sure of what kind of content we can sell through app.

# Planning in Nov & Launch in Dec

We reused code of our existing app and launched first version of CTET app on 25th Dec. The app was aligned with exam syllabus. App structure was simple discussion forums on different topics.

# 5000 installs by Mid-Feb

App was downloaded beyond our expectations. 1000 installs happened in just two weeks and it crossed 5000 mark by mid-feb. Rating was not so great but we were happy with mixed response on our first version.

# Landing page for selling Mock Test

Our purpose of experiment was to measure conversion to paid content but we were running short of time. It was not possible to launch another version of app with in-app purchases so we decided to setup landing page where we could sell Mock Test papers for CTET.

# Email marketing to app users

We collected sufficient emails from mobile app signup process. We used that email base for marketing Mock Test papers. Our marketing campaigns drove good traffic in 3–4 days, just before exam date.

# Paid Conversions

500 page visits — 150 payment button clicks — 11 sales

Not bad!! 2% conversion is considered good but.. We asked ourselves

“do we really love doing this work?”

• Answer was No, Why? because we were not delivering value. CTET exam is conducted to test skills and ability of person so that he/she can be a good teacher. A teacher who is going to nurture future generation.
• But here, we were selling shit to people who were dreaming about clearing exam with little effort. Yes our product offering was shitty and we realized it soon.
• Then what is value? Value of such product is supposed to be learning. When people are ready to learn hard way and we can become medium of delivering that learning.

Can we do with Exam Centric App? May be Yes, but we don’t know yet!!