Creating a successful mobile app is no easy feat. One must look for the right resources, have a proper budget, and plan everything to avoid going astray. It can be hectic, demanding, and difficult and may lead to failure even after several trials and errors.
If you own a business and want to create a mobile application but are not sure how to proceed, here’s a step-by-step guide to help you start the process.
Creating a Successful Mobile App
A successful mobile app must intelligently integrate three key elements: the product, the market, and the user. These components must synergize to provide users with value, functionality, and efficiency. When it comes to the characteristics of a successful app, we can categorize them into two primary areas: consumer-focused and business-oriented.
Consumer-Focused
The following are the characteristics of a consumer-focused mobile app:
- It is stable, reliable, and provides data protection
- The product’s design goes beyond aesthetics and is designed with attention to meet user requirements.
- The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are intuitive, making lengthy documentation or explanations unnecessary.
- The app guides the user through the process.
- The app caters to the primary needs and expectations of users based on how they utilize a particular service.
- It also provides rapid access to customer service.
- The app is built with digital accessibility in mind, ensuring that users can utilize the app independently, regardless of their circumstances or abilities.
Business-Oriented
The following are the characteristics of a business-oriented mobile app:
- Assuming that business conditions are met, release the app features promptly.
- The app promotes user acquisition and retention.
- It also provides a seamless payment experience and safeguards against data breaches.
- The app is cost-effective in terms of maintenance and future development.
18 Tips to Develop a Successful Mobile App
Identifying Your Audience
The first step in creating an app is to identify your target audience. This helps you evaluate the business potential of your app idea concerning market demand.
So, how do you do it?
Begin by researching statistics and insights, checking for trends, and conducting qualitative and quantitative research. Gather user feedback based on the prototype version of your mobile app. Utilize every available source of knowledge, collecting demographic data such as sex, age, gender, and location, as well as information about your users’ behaviors and motivations.
Narrow down your target audience to improve the chances of success. While a larger target audience may seem appealing, it also increases the likelihood of issues with your app idea. It is easier to target a specific niche audience with a tailored product.
Value Your Customers
To provide value, an app must address a specific problem identified by a target group of potential users. It should provide significant benefits to users, motivating them to download and utilize it. The unique value may stem from the price of a particular service, the speed of information transfer, the application’s functionality, or access to features or services unavailable through other channels.
Explain Your Business Model
Each mobile app business model comes with a set of benefits and drawbacks. To determine which model suits your requirements, examine industry practices and analyze what your competitors are doing. If a model works well for them, it may also work for you. Alternatively, it could present an opportunity to disrupt your industry.
It’s worth noting that not every successful mobile app must generate revenue. Some categories of apps, such as enterprise apps, provide value in ways other than direct profits. For instance, some companies develop apps to enhance business processes or streamline workflows.
Define Your Feature’s Scope
You’ve probably devoted some time to your product idea and envisioned powerful features it could have, such as payments, social sharing, integrations, and notifications – all of which appear essential.
Although multiple features may seem like a good idea, it usually isn’t. What users truly need is the simplest approach to solving their problems. Once you’ve determined the core feature of your app, highlight it in the best manner possible. Every additional option, personalization, or integration makes it more difficult for users to understand the value you’re aiming to provide.
Less is more, especially in the early phases of product development. This is one of the primary principles to keep in mind. You should also define features by creating user guides and documentation using software documentation tools.
Choose the Right Approach
The success of a mobile app depends not only on its functionality but also on the way it’s built. Choosing the right technologies and development approach is crucial for designing a successful application. There are two main options to consider.
The first option is a platform-specific native mobile app development and coded for a particular mobile platform, such as iOS or Android. The programming language used for these apps is specific to the platform’s operating system. Native apps can utilize the hardware and features of the device to a great extent, resulting in an enhanced user experience.
The second option is a cross-platform app, which can be deployed across multiple platforms, including iOS and Android, using a shared codebase. Development teams can use cross-platform software development kits (SDKs) to code these apps.
Keep a Simple UX/UI Design
Both B2C and B2B apps require a great design to be successful. Users prefer apps with a straightforward and intuitive user experience (UX) and user interface (UI).
Effective UX and UI design have shown a positive impact on business outcomes. A well-planned registration process can lead to better user acquisition and increased downloads. Similarly, a well-designed onboarding process can improve user retention and lead to recommendations to other potential users. If your app relies on in-app purchases, it’s vital to communicate the value of virtual goods to increase your app’s conversion rate.
Hire a development team.
The success of your product heavily depends on the skills and dedication of your eCommerce development agency.
While a single app developer may be capable of completing certain projects, outsourcing the work to a development team is preferable. Engaging a full-stack consultancy partner can provide both technical expertise and support for achieving market success.
Be on the same page as your team
It is essential to ensure that every member of your software development team comprehends your product, its intended functionality, and how it can be beneficial to users.
Mobile app developers are enthusiastic about the technology they employ and can be a valuable source of ideas if fully engaged in the creative process. They can discover innovative and efficient ways of applying their tools. Thus, involve them in your vision to make the most of their expertise and skills.
Aim for high performance.
Consider the user’s experience regarding bugs and glitches. According to a survey of 1,000 users in the US, 88% of respondents stated that they would discontinue using an app if they encountered such issues. Therefore, it’s essential to recognize that users will assign responsibility to you for any problems they encounter instead of the phone manufacturer or the internet service provider.
Ensure Your App is Secure
To get started, your development team must implement some fundamental security practices like:
- Encrypting personal data, such as the cache, API communication, or local database.
- Managing cryptographic keys and user session authorization through tokens.
- Validating tokens by assigning them separately to each device and setting different expiration times for sessions.
- Implementing secure communication standards, such as certificate pinning for HTTP.
- Conducting general OWASP-recommended checks, which can be found in a mobile security review.
Have a Go-to-market strategy.
As the development phase nears its conclusion, businesses should focus on a go-to-market plan that outlines the product’s distinctive value proposition and the strategy for gaining market share.
A go-to-market strategy emphasizes product distribution and should address the following aspects:
- Segmenting the target audience.
- Developing marketing and sales plans for each customer segment.
- Creating product messaging that positions it as a solution to specific market needs and pain points.
- Identifying the mediums or channels for marketing the mobile app to attract users.
- Planning the product launch.
Plan a marketing strategy.
At times, communicating your message can take longer than developing the actual product. Some businesses promote their apps before they are even available in app stores. It’s important to note that introducing your product isn’t a one-time marketing campaign. Your marketing strategy should be an ongoing effort. To start, break down your marketing plan into three phases: pre-launch, launch, and post-launch.
Update Regularly
In addition to resolving bugs and technical problems, develop new and relevant features to keep your app updated. It’s important to note that Apple and Google frequently update their operating systems to keep users hooked on their products and services. This may require pivoting some features or altering certain assumptions about your app.
Get feedback and upgrade.
To ensure the updates you make to your app are useful to users, make data-based decisions. Understanding how your product is used is essential. Analyze this information and respond as soon as possible. Set clear key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure your app’s success. For instance, consider adding a feature that provides more context on bugs to simplify their reproduction and resolution. Additionally, think about implementing a feedback form or prompt that asks users for their opinions.
Track your User Retention
Tracking user retention rate is an essential metric that helps you measure the total number of unique users who use your app during a specific time frame. To increase user retention, you can utilize onboarding, remarketing, and in-app messaging techniques. It’s also crucial to focus on finding ways to bring users back to your app effectively.
However, it’s important to offer genuine value to your users, as they will not use your app if it doesn’t deliver any real value regardless of your strategies.
Offer Excellent User Support
Offering excellent user support is essential when developing a successful mobile application because it helps to build and maintain strong relationships with your users. When users have issues with your app, they expect a quick and effective resolution to their problem. If you can provide this, you can build trust with your users, increase their satisfaction, and encourage them to continue using your app.
Additionally, offering user support can help you gather feedback from your users. When you communicate with your users about their problems and issues, you can gain valuable insights into how they use your app, what they like and dislike about it, and what improvements they would like to see. This information can help you make data-driven decisions about how to improve your app and tailor it to your users’ needs.
Built-in Integrations
Built-in integration refers to the ability of a mobile app to seamlessly interact with other apps or services. This is essential when developing a successful mobile application because it enables the app to provide a better user experience and offer more value to users.
For example, a mobile banking app that can integrate with a user’s financial accounts, like credit cards or investment accounts, can provide users with a comprehensive view of their finances in one place. This integration improves the app’s user experience and provides more value to the user.
App Analytics
App analytics is essential when developing a successful mobile application because it provides valuable insights into how users interact with the app. By analyzing user behavior, developers can identify what features are most popular, where users drop off in the funnel, and which parts of the app are causing frustration or confusion.
Conclusion
Developing a successful mobile app isn’t limited to a group of experienced engineers anymore. Many marketers, designers, individuals, and entrepreneurs are now leading the conceptualization and creation of mobile apps. If you have a great app idea but lack software development skills or an in-house development team, find a mobile app development partner to work with.
Hoff & Mazor is a reliable, professional, and experienced mobile app and web development agency that can help you create and launch stellar mobile applications for your business.
Contact us today for more details!
