We have experienced an accelerated growth in mobile app development. But this growth picks up an exceptional speed that is beyond amazing. Every second person is installing and using apps.
Thus, creating innovative mobile app ideas is necessary as simplicity is no longer considered. With the latest tools and technologies, everyone is developing outstanding apps, thus making it challenging to stand out among competitors.
Without any plan or solid strategy, no business will risk jumping into the development part, as it might incur costs and take much time to start again.
So what is the right thing to do? What factors should businesses consider while creating amazing apps? Well, the process is simple but lengthy.
If you invest your efforts and time in piecing together all the building blocks, the mobile app development process becomes more accessible. Preparing yourself for upcoming challenges will make achieving every long-term and short-term goal easier.
There is no single market where mobile app development has not been done.
Creating a mobile app is not a single-day task, so put your efforts and creativity in the right place to achieve the expected results. For a seamless development process, you must consider the following things before start working on your app.
Let’s dive deep into the details.
Research your market
Getting into the market details should be the first-most step. Understanding what is trending in the market and what types of apps are getting more traction and popularity among customers is necessary.
The mobile app market is getting busier with the development of new apps on their way to making a difference in people’s lives.
Not only this, you can get insights into your competitor’s work, their development process, and their strategies that have helped them to scale and create a brand identity. These insights are helpful as they will help you understand how to optimize your apps from the initial phase.
Diving into research provides a better opportunity to plan better strategies and help you learn from others’ mistakes to avoid potential challenges they face.
Also, check the market to see if any similar app exists on both the Apple store and Google play. If yes, then how can you make a better app than that?
Who is your target audience?
Does you app has a purpose to cater to? Do you know who will take keen interest in your app? If you do not know what difference your app will make, you must work on that.
Knowing your audience is necessary. as it will help you understand how your app will be used and praised. But why it matters a lot?
Because most of the customers expect that the companies will understand their needs and come up with something that will benefit them.
It might be a hard step to know your audience well, but you can make your efforts easier by answering the following questions.
- What should be your app’s key functionality?
- What problems are being solved by your app?
- Who is going to use this app?
- What value will you app add to the customer’s life?
- Understand your business goals, and create strategy to achieve them via your app?
If you can find the answers, your app development journey will be more streamlined. Also, understanding customers will catalyze your scaling business and deliver better and more efficient products.
To ease your efforts in finding and targeting the potential audience for your app, you can use several tools and integrate them within your system to get real-time information. Also, you can try conducting surveys, interviews, and creating focus groups to get the latest interests of your customers.
What type of mobile application do you want? (native, hybrid, or web app)
Choosing what type of mobile app you develop will solve the customer’s problem as you have various options, whether Native, hybrid, or web apps.
Each type has its benefits and limitations. But this decision will be easier once you understand what is trending in the market and your customer’s interest. The significant difference between these mobile app development approaches is as follows.
- Involved in programming languages. You can choose any mobile app development approach based on your available resources, expertise, investment time, and budget.
- What are native device APIs required for your app to function effortlessly? You can choose the preferred platform, iOS, Windows, or Android.
- What user interface and experience do you want to add to your app?
Choose the right mobile application development company
If you want an outstanding mobile app but lack technical expertise, you must look for the right company to develop a mobile app per your business requirement.
These companies offer all services required to create an app. How can you find the right fit?
- Understand their expertise and values.
- Research their performance via testimonials and feedback on social platforms.
- Connect with the company’s team to get an idea about their offers.
- Know what technologies, frameworks, platforms, and languages they will use.
- Understand their development process, pricing model, and hiring model.
- Analyze your competitors strategies and metrics for eliminate chances of failures.
But why is there a need to hire dedicated mobile app development teams? The reasons are satisfactory and influence enterprise companies to go for dedicated teams.
What are your monetization options?
Well, every business wants to generate revenue and gain profit out of it. Once you have MVP ready for your app, you will better understand how your app will work and how you can monetize your application.
But what is app monetization? In simple terms, how can you make money out of your mobile app? Choose a suitable monetization model that brings more revenue to your business. Below are different approaches.
In-app advertising
It refers to the ads that pop-ups while the app is in use. The market is widely adopted this approach for better effects.
You can use different types of in-app ads-
- Banner, such as a big display Ads
- Interstitial Ads
- Video Ads
- Native or traditional way of including Ads
- Rich Media, such as images, video, animations, etc. Ads
Freemium- in-app purchase
Customers can download and use the app for free but some features are paid. This is where the revenue comes from by opting for the app’s premium features.
Today, it is one of the commonly used strategies for generating revenues.
One-time payment
This strategy is not that popular as it allows users to pay for downloading the app. Most people do not want to pay to use any app. But, if you still want to develop a one-time payment app, the app must be unique and offer high value.
Such apps come with a trial or free ads. For example, fitness apps offer free trials for some time and then ask to subscribe to a plan to continue.
Referral or Affiliate marketing
This strategy allows the app to offer value to its customers, such as coupons and seasonal offers of other brands. You can include such ads to promote another company’s product or service from within the app.
App publishers also get paid for promoting affiliate products or services. Today, the affiliate market is getting much popularity. This way, small companies can rely on the popularity of big brands to generate revenue and create a presence in the market.
Work on your app marketing strategy
Now that you have everything in place, you must start working on a marketing strategy that will help to reach your app to potential customers. You must identify your app’s key features and functionalities and focus on them while promoting it.
It does not matter if your app is ready or in a development phase, marketing must start from the early stage, so there will be no delay once your app is ready to launch.
If you are unsure what strategies to follow, you must consider the following as your priority.
- First, define your brand, choose an innovative logo, and set the tone of your content. Make sure to keep the content’s performance consistent throughout.
- Find the right platform to promote your app. Make sure that your potential customers are accessing the channels you are putting efforts and money into.
- Create solid content that keeps the customers engaged and influences them to know more about your app.
- Today, people follow some influencers, whether they are on LinkedIn or Twitter. Ensure to include them while promoting your app to have a practical impact.
Optimize your app store information
Now that your app is ready to be launched on a specific store. But, despite outstanding offers, functionalities, features, and interface, you are still not getting enough potential customer’s attention.
Why is that?
Why potential customers cannot find your app on the app store?
If this is the reason, you must take considerate action to improve and optimize the strategy to place your app in stores. It improves the discoverability of your app. Both app store has different requirements and rules for publishing your app there. Make sure to adhere to all the rules to impact your app better.
Below are some crucial elements you must take care of while placing your app.
- Name of your app.
- Keywords for improving search for your app.
- The app logo should be clear and bold.
- Screenshots for explaining the working of your app.
- A short yet impressive description of your app.
- A video is supporting your app explaining its features.
If you are creating a platform-specific app, either Android or iOS, you must place it on the specific platform. But if your app is hybrid, you are good to go with either store.
Ensuring the app’s security
Security is everyone’s concern, and nobody is willing to reveal their personal information just to access any app. So, what security measures must you include to keep your customer’s trust? Today, mobile apps are facing substantial security vulnerabilities.
Well, you should include a security policy specifying what information will be used by the app and how it will provide a great user experience.
Before it’s too late, the developers should consider legal work and implement them from the beginning of the development phase.
Mobile app development with OnGraph
Are you developing a mobile app? Have you done your research? What should be the focal point of your app, etc.? This type of question arises when a developer starts developing it. Such questions need to be answered for efficient working and having a vision of your app.
Creating a mobile app is not a simple task; it consumes time, effort, money, and research to develop an out-of-the-box app. So, get into detailed research about the market, know your customers and what type of app you want to develop, and analyze your competitors’ metrics for better understanding.
You cannot just get up and start developing an app, make sure you understand your app’s purpose. If you are unsure how to get started, then our skilled team at OnGraph will help you do all the critical tasks for you. So, bring your ideas to us, and we will turn them into reality.