10 Best Steps to Create a Successful Mobile App
how to start developing an app
With the increase in the smartphone users and the development in the field of operating software’s, the mobile app market is expanding very quickly. You need to be very specific about the approach for mobile app development so that app is accepted by audience. By creating a mobile app you can be a successful entrepreneur and reach your right audiences. Here we have discussed some 10 steps to creating a successful app.
To create a successful mobile application you need to follow a systematic approach to app development. Many successful traditional entrepreneurs are not very acquiescent with how to start developing an app or how to make a successful app rather they prefer to keep their business offline. Similarly, with the growing demand of the customers, the scenario of the business marketplace has changed a lot. Almost every individual has a smartphone and who want to do work with ease.
Therefore, every offline business irrespective of their size or service offering are implementing app development in their business to reach masses in no time. Furthermore, every entrepreneur has a question in mind, what to do during the development period of the application. Â So, lets read about the whole planning process of the pre-app development phase and the precautions that you must take to create a successful mobile application to help you out in app development stages.
Steps to Create a Successful Mobile App
- Idealise
- Revenue Model
- Area Of Operation
- Legal Work
- Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Customer Satisfaction Policy
- Before to Launch
- Feedback
- Create a Reliable Privacy Policy
Steps to Create a Successful Mobile App
Idealise
Your idea must be smart enough to solve the problem of your target audiences. Because the main ideology behind every business is to solve or fulfill the customer needs by providing product or service. The idea should be unique and productive, the people should be able to connect with the idea of your app.
If you think your idea can bring out a change in a particular industry, sector or marketplace then you should plan about the next developmental step involved in shaping your startup idea in the right direction.
Revenue Model
- Freemium apps – These apps are free to download, but certain features and contents are locked, and they can only be accessed through a purchase.
- Paid (premium) apps – The user needs to purchase the app from the app store in order to use it. Because of the cost barrier of this model, a mobile marketing strategy is critical to demonstrate the unique, superior value compared to the free apps.
- In-app purchases – This model works by using the app to sell digital or physical products as a mobile commerce sales channel.
- Subscriptions – This model is similar to freemium apps, but brings a benefit of a recurring stream of revenue.
- In-app ads – This is possibly the simplest model of all because there is no cost barrier for the user. As with any advertising space, it’s important to never sacrifice user experience in order to gain more ad space.
Plan your revenue model. Well, you are investing in the app for a good return, so plan your revenue generating model beforehand. Decide whether you want to go for paid ads or sponsored ads or you opt for some different method.
Area Of Operation
The important step before designing the app is to determine the area of operation you want for your app. For example, do you want to target the local or the global audiences? Another important decision is to select a specific operating system like an Android app, iOS app or a Windows app, or simply you want to target all the three platforms.
According to experts, in the beginning, you should go for the Android platform, as they have more users attached to it and after getting success on this you can move to the other platform. Geolocalization features within your app allow you to target your customers geographically, while push notifications let you offer them your service or product when they’re most likely to be looking for it or need it. Don’t waste it, target it!
Parnas Ghosh
Legal Work
Handle all the legal work. Make sure to follow each legal procedure before entering the app market. No matter how small your app business is when you start out, it’s usually well worth the expense to form a limited liability entity and make sure you are protected financially. Although taking help from professionals is recommended.
Before you begin negotiations with other developers, designers, copywriters, etc. that you are considering working with, ask them to sign an NDA and agree that they won’t disclose any sensitive info about the project. It serves as evidence that you took steps to protect your confidential information, and it will make the other person think twice before they do anything.
Complete all the legal paperwork and clearances beforehand, so that they won’t cause any issue in your startup growth stages. Like, make all legal documents with care and don’t ever forget to patent your app before the launch.
Marketing
Marketing your app starts long before you ever bring it to market. Before you start telling your development team to start building out your app with a million different things, reach out to your customers and talk to them. Before you start telling your dedicated development team to start building out your app with a million different things, reach out to your customers and talk to them.
After all, you want to make sure that whatever you are building, is going to be just right for them. Your customers are busy people so try to give your customers something in return for helping you.
Incentivize your customers by offering them a special discount, or some form of educational content. Retain your customers by letting them know about your app’s idea and ask them what they would really like to see in it. How can you make the app more savvy and beneficial for them? Remember, your customer has their own audience and if you’re able to convince them, you’ll be hitting all the right notes to bolster your success and staying power.
Social Media Marketing
The first step is to create a profile on all social platforms. Make sure you establish yourself on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and even Snapchat. Advertise your product or service on different social media platforms and use distinguish tactics to get the attention of the audiences. Likewise, do creative blogging, post interesting videos, and images related to the app.
Whether your app is brand new, been available for years, or still in the development process, you can leverage social media marketing to drive lots of downloads. Engage with these people. Give them a reason to follow you. Make sure your content is interesting and informative.
What does your app do? Who is your company? How will your app help improve the lives of users? YouTube usually doesn’t come to mind when most people think of social media marketing. But that’s a terrible misconception. If you don’t have a YouTube channel, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. That’s because YouTube is the preferred method for users who want to watch video content.
Customer Satisfaction Policy
Stay in touch with the users. Always reply to the customer’s questions immediately and satisfy them with your answer, it doesn’t matter how silly the question is, you need to answer them all. That is why creating in-app feedback forms is an exceptional opportunity for all app owners to get precious feedback on their app.
It is advisable to spot the services that need to be implemented and offer users an alternative channel to complain rather than posting comments on the web. Your customers will always remember how easy it was for them to reach out to you in their time of need and how swiftly you could deal with their problems.
Before to Launch
Offer interesting initial offers. To get people to download your app and let them try out the app free for some time period. This will attract more attention and people always go for the free app and that will create the market for your app. So, offer some catchy initial offers. Launching a poll to how many users want to opt for a free trial could tell you the excitement about your app amongst the target users.
Use social influencers to promote your service or product by giving them a personalized unboxing kit so that they can guide their subscriber to buy or use your product or service. This will significantly help you to kickstart your entrepreneurial journey by creating a mobile app to offer unique or improved service/product to your target consumers.
Feedback
Solicit feedback proactively by messaging your app’s customers at an opportune time, or at the right mobile moment, with a message showing you care about their experience and opinions. Even if the customer does not currently have feedback, prompting keeps your internal feedback loop top-of-mind with customers.
Effective feedback loops should be a frictionless part of the customer experience and designed in a way that resonates with the needs of a mobile customer: quick, non-intrusive, and optimized for mobile screens. Once a customer does provide feedback, let them know that it’s valued! Customers should know that their feedback isn’t going into a black hole. Take the time to respond to each customer who leaves feedback.
Regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative, recognize it for what it is—a gift—and give thanks. If the app feedback contains a suggestion or bug report, let the customer know where this issue stands in your roadmap. And once that issue has been fixed or that suggestion has been implemented, reach back out to inform the customer of the impact their feedback made.
Rishabh Rathi
Create a Reliable Privacy Policy
And finally, you must include a privacy policy while creating a mobile app because it will collect any sensitive information from users. This policy needs to cover what information is being collected and how is it used. The benefit of taking this step so early is to give yourself plenty of time to get any legal consulting you may need, as well as plan and implement safety measures within the app.
The security of your app is one of its key points, and you must ensure it is being built early in the development. Your users’ data is your most valuable asset, and you should ensure you have processes in place to collect, handle and store this data, as well as to manage any potential security risks. Once you go through these preparation steps, you will be ready to dive into creating a mobile app for a successful deployment and launch!
FAQs
What makes an app successful?
A successful app combines three aspects in a smart way: market, user and the product itself. All these factors need to work together to give users a unique value, great usability, and good performance. Accessibility is the last but not least key feature of a successful mobile app.
How much does it cost to maintain an app?
The industry norm for software maintenance is about 15 to 20 percent of the original development costs. So if your app cost $100,000 to build, roundly estimate to pay about $20,000 per year to maintain the app.
How to create a successful app?
- A successful mobile app starts with an app idea
- Identification / Clarification
- Design your app
- Identify approach to develop the app – native, web or hybrid
- Make an app prototype
- Integrate an appropriate analytics tool
- Identify your testers: Listen to them and incorporate relevant feedback
- Release/Deploy the app
- Capture the metrics
- Upgrade your app with improvements and new features
Parnas Ghosh
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