THE AUTHOR:
We are living in a time when a brand image is not only what you offer but how you do it. The quality of your services and products matter as long as you provide a beautiful package. However, when every other purchase starts online, it is essential to ensure effective and visually attractive marketing channels that will ensure customer retention. Out of all the possible options that online businesses employ nowadays, a mobile app is the most flexible and beneficial tool to interact with the target audience. Successful mobile apps are extremely profitable and can be customized to different monetization strategies. For instance, Google Play grew at 16 percent in 2019 and amounted to $12 billion, which is indicative of consistent mobile app growth in the global market.
If you are wondering what it is the best way to make a successful business app, the truth is that there is no such way. Creating a mobile app is more just an attempt to keep up with trends. Its role is bigger: translating your business value and supporting your brand image, which is why you should rather think of what business needs your future app is meant to fulfill.
The idea to design a business app seems right. However, one should realize that the competition in the mobile app market is an all-time high. With 3 million apps on Google Play and 2 million apps on the App Store, you should be poised to produce an impeccably user-friendly and cutting-edge app that will be no inferior to others being present in your niche. To pull it off, you probably need a detailed guide on how to make a successful business app that will show you consistent steps to translate this idea into reality.
How to Make a Successful Business App
Follow these steps to create an app that fits your business in the best manner.
Step 1. Come up with an app concept
An innovative idea lies at the core of every successful project. Before jumping into the market or launching a business app, a business owner should be sure of either of these things: your business value is new to the global market and has no substantial rival or your app’s design will be way superior to the apps of your competitors. In the first case, it is enough to provide a simple and intuitive design to ensure good UX. In the second case, you should be prepared to think outside the box and offer users one killer feature that will let you stand out.
Step 2. Do market research
Researching the market will be the second step towards your learning how to make a successful app. Knowing the ins and outs of your niche is essential. It gives you the ability to reach out to your audience and tailor your products or services to their specific needs and pains. It is reasonable to gather relevant information on social media, check Google trends and keywords. Based upon research, you should have one or several buyer personas that will roughly represent an ideal customer for your business. Note that a very narrow niche is likely to give you a high conversion, whereas a large niche is always characterized by higher competition.
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Step 3. Define software requirements
Yet, it is not time to start the app-building. Now you should make a list of well-thought characteristics that you would like to see in your app. For instance, you would like it to be responsive and easy to navigate as well as support in-app messaging or push notifications. You should also think about your expectations regarding technology to be integrated into the mobile app. Many eCommerce businesses employ AR features in their apps to let their customers get more information about their products or services. Or you may want to see contactless payment methods in your app, which is likely to improve the level of customer satisfaction. All these details should be communicated at this very stage. Once the project development starts off, every modification will be costly and push the release date of your app. If you have no fixed vision of what your business app should look like, it is best to consult with someone competent in this field. Many IT companies offer consulting services. You can talk to IT experts who know various ways of how to make a successful business app and in a brief interview, you will be advised what software and technology will benefit your business model best.
Step 4. Recruit a developer
Choosing a developer is the turning point on your road to a business app. Depending on your project budget and requirements, you can choose between a local team, outsourcing, and freelancing. Each option has its own merits:
– Freelancing is fit for short-term projects and gives you direct communication with your developer.
– On-site development lets you supervise the process and allows for better teamwork through face-to-face communication.
– Outsourcing gives you access to a wider pool of experts as well as does not require you to participate in problem-solving.
The price for each type of service changes correspondingly: whereas freelancing usually offers the lowest rate, outsourcing and in-house development are both more expensive but also less risky when it comes to quality assurance. In fact, it is possible to find a modern solution for any business app idea if you know where to find a good developer. The best places are usually software developer conferences and events that gather the best tech talents to know how to make a successful app and where you can talk to potential candidates and assess their expertise.
Step 5. Create an MVP
Many experts teaching how to start developing an app recommend building your app on an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that will serve as a basis in the business app development process. Basically, your MVP is a prototype that has the core functionalities to solve your business problem on a basic level. Later on, your dev team will upgrade it until it fully complies with the product requirements and fulfills all of your business needs. Using an MVP in project development is an effective way to minimize the risk of error and losses during project building. It is an essential part of Agile methodology, which is now believed to be the most effective out of all methods on how to make a successful business app.
Step 6. UX/UI design
An app is a bridge between your business and consumers. There are a number of mobile app development features that are sure to increase customer engagement.
1. User-centered design. This approach makes you prioritize user experience and put an emphasis on simple navigation, intuitive interface, and high speed. All these features are considered the pivotal points of an app with excellent UI/UX design.
2. In-app feedback. It gives your audience a chance to share their feedback, recommendations or complaints, which is essential to know if you plan to improve UX consistently.
Offline mode. This feature allows you to stay accessible to your customers even when the connection drops. It might be also an advantage over your competitors’ online-only apps.
3. Analytics. Built-in analytical tools are highly recommended to all eCommerce businesses that plan to make the most of mobile app marketing.
4. Integration with social media. It can be a must as a part of quick registration (through Google or Facebook) as the majority of users dislike spending time on long singing-up. However, social media integration can provide an enormous boost to your marketing efforts.
Step 7. Monetization strategy
Your app’s budget should include marketing costs that are needed to ensure your app promotion after its release on mobile app platforms. A monetization strategy should fit with your business model and resonate with your audience, i.d. your users should be interested to perform one or another action that will convert to your profit (e.g. traffic into sales). Note that gamification strategies usually show a higher percentage of paying users. As such, starting a points program will let you engage a larger segment of your audience and enlarge your customer base.
Step 8. Ongoing app maintenance
In the efforts to maintain your app, you should consider the option of adding new features or revising the current ones. Also, it will be necessary to support the app’s infrastructure (development libraries, databases, etc.). Pay special attention to regular debugging as a way to keep your app running smoothly. Do not forget to refresh the app’s UI/UX design after certain milestones to keep your users engaged. Finally, your IT team should maintain the effectiveness of all security measures to keep it safe and bulletproof.
Step 9. App Store Optimization
The number one rule on how to make a good business app for the App Store or Google is to ensure that your app is followed by the right keywords once it is approved by editors. Since it takes time to collect positive reviews, increase the number of downloads and thereby get featured on either platform, the entire focus should be on search optimization. This may include deep linking, CTR and URL optimization, etc. If you do not keep a team of marketing specialists, you can turn to digital marketing agencies that will help you get your mobile app to the top.
What makes an application successful?
Measuring your app’s performance is essential to gain insights into your business growth. KPIs are needed to better understand changes to your app’s revenue, traffic, retention, or popularity. These are some of the most important KPIs to help you monitor your app’s success:
1. Cost per acquisition: It is the number of the total cost of a marketing campaign divided by the conversions, which shows the
2. Uninstalls: The number of downloads is a good indicator of your popularity, but it also matters the percentage of users that opt for uninstalling within 30 days after a download.
3. Retention rate: The percentage of active users in your app constitutes your loyal customer base that roughly provides monthly revenue to your business.
Keeping track of metrics is one of the basic ways on how to maintain a successful business app. The knowledge of how your audience interacts with your app and responds to updates is extremely important for further app promotion and brand awareness as a whole.
For further inquiries
If a success story of your mobile app has yet to be written, contact Computools’s expert team via info@computools.com that will help you determine your business app concept and functionality as well as explain to you how to make a successful app.
Computools was selected through an RFP process. They were shortlisted and selected from between 5 other suppliers. Computools has worked thoroughly and timely to solve all security issues and launch as agreed. Their expertise is impressive.