The app journey can be an exciting one.

It all starts with the realization that, “Hey, everybody else is having so much fun with apps, my business should have an app, too!” Then comes the brainstorming about what features should be included, what platforms to publish on, and whether anyone on your team has a clue about how apps are actually made. Excitement usually reaches its highest point on launch day, when expectations are high, and reality hasn’t had a chance to go live yet.

The big moment has arrived. The app is done! “Here you go, world! Enjoy!” Unfortunately, that’s the last time most business owners think about their app. They send it out into the wilderness, and hope that everything goes as planned. “Finally! I’m done with that app stuff. Time to get back to real work!” Oh no! Another absentee app parent is born!

May we make a suggestion?

If you’re willing to spend time and money getting your app up and running, why not commit to the little bit of maintenance that can take it from standard to stupendous? With a little bit of TLC post-launch, you can tweak your app and make it super-useful and enjoyable for your customers. That way, your investment is maximized.

The answer is analytics.

Mobile app analytics can tell you a wealth of basic information about your app, such as how it is used, who uses it, and more. Armed with the info you get from analytics, you can figure out which features are popular, which are not, which platform is sending you the most users, and similar things.

More specifically, if you login to your Bizness Apps account and check out the analytics tab, you can:

• Check usage by location
• Check usage by app feature or “tab”
• Compare usage by platform (iOS, Android, and HTML5)
• See new visitors versus total visitors
• And more

Once you’ve seen the information provided by the analytics tab, you can start asking questions and improving your app. If you don’t have any users in a particular city, is it because of competition? If a tab is unused, is it because no one cares about that feature, or is the feature just not functioning properly? If all of your users come from the Android platform, maybe it’s time to stop running promotions that call out Apple fans . . .

Put the analytics information to use, making the most popular tabs more visible, fixing or removing unpopular tabs, and catering to your biggest fanbases (or stepping up efforts to chase members of your smallest fanbase).

That is, don’t let launch day be the last day you care about your app. Check in on it after some time has passed, and do some tweaking. That way, you’ll boost effectiveness, keep your users happy, and ensure that your app doesn’t wind up in the Recycle Bin.

For more about using Bizness Apps analytics, click here.