Ever since the world moved to smart devices in the early 2000s, the app industry has exploded. Nowadays, everyone owns at least a mobile device of some type and the average amount of apps on each device is more than eighty! The app industry is expected to reach the $500 billion mark by 2030, but In such a competitive market where there are so many companies looking to capitalize, there is no easy way to guarantee that your app will be successful. While there are a ton of opportunities for app builders, you need to be willing to invest the necessary time, effort and resources to succeed and make sure to use recommended freelance developers.
To set you on the right track to success, here is everything you need to make a fantastic app in 2021 and the true app development cost.
1. Conduct Thorough Market Research
As promising as your initial idea and vision about the app might be, this will not guarantee success. What you need to do is further clarify your niche based on 2 criteria:
- Focus on what inspires or irritates your potential users and their specific needs. Smaller niches will not bring a ton of traffic, but will result in high conversions. Larger niches might be appealing to more potential users, but there will also be more competitors in the pool.
- Research your potential competitors and evaluate what they have to offer based on a variety of online and offline resources.
From there, you can narrow down multiple ideas for your app to a few that have true potential.
2. Finalize Your Concept
From your market research, you should be able to finalize your concept. The tech gurus at Binarapps explain that this process requires a good understanding of the value proposition (VP) of the app, as well as its unique selling points (USPs). Start from the core value of your idea and draw out your visions about what your customers would do with your app. Based on this information, you will be able to build a fundamental prototype, which will:
- Include a list of core features.
- Be used for beta-testing.
- Be used to present the idea to potential investors.
3. Define a Successful App Strategy
Building an outstanding app that receives a lot of positive feedback and takes your presence to the next level requires a well-thought-out plan that comprises of the following details:
- Your specific goals that you want to accomplish with this app (on a daily or monthly basis), and further content (interactions and messages) that needs to be developed.
- Your technological approach and the technical knowledge that you might need to acquire, your resources, requirements, the number of people involved, business context, technologies and constraints. Along with that, you need to figure out the development cost for your app and set up a schedule to use that budget effectively.
- Your marketing plan to promote the app and the ways to make money out of it.
4. Design Your App
This is the technical aspect of the app that you need to get right, which consists of functional specification documentation, design and coding. Here is what you should do in this process:
- Adhere to the design guidelines of your platforms.
- Use responsive design to save cost and make the user experience more transparent.
- Pay attention to little details to provide maximum value.
- Choose logical and simple design elements based on your idea, goal and budget.
- Follow certain app design rules and recommendations that make your app more user-friendly.
5. Develop Your App
The development phase transforms the design into a high-performing and stable app, and it consists of the following tasks:
- Building a core function for the app.
- Simplifying the registering process.
- Keeping user information safe and secured.
- Offering relevant and customized notifications.
- Integrating communicating channels with users.
- Developing the app for multiple platforms, including web application, iOS and Android.
- Providing offline functions.
- Maintaining high and consistent app performance.
- Eliminating any upfront cost and saving that for later, more advanced functions.
- Incorporating social sharing function.
6. Launch Your App
The launch must be done on a production level with proper pre-release testing. Before that, make sure that you took care of the following tasks:
- Integrating analytics tools to get insights into potential users.
- Conduct beta-testing to define targeted users, eliminate any leftover bugs and analyze your strategy and goal.
- Collect app metrics and data to get further details about users and their behaviors.
7. Optimize its Place in the App Store
App Store and Google Play are 2 main app distribution channels, and you can bring your app to the top position, attract potential users and attain healthy growth using:
- Top charts, through paid media campaigns.
- Curated content that is aligned with current trends.
- The app’s category, title, description and related keywords that have been optimized.
8. Promote Your App
There are numerous channels that you can use to promote your app to the target users, including:
- Social media: the most obvious means to promote your apps and encourage people to download it, especially if you include gifts or prizes.
- Press and media: news portals and app review sites are fantastic PR mediums if you want to inform your potential users about your app and convince them to use it.
- Influencers: great partners to work with, particularly if you want to generate interest among potential users and promote your app long-term.
- Your own landing page: a mailing list of potentially interested users that should include information about the app, sign-up forms and download links.
- PreApps: allows you to generate interest for the pre-release and look for testers, early adopters and eventual subscribers.
- Alternative app stores and marketplaces such as those from Amazon and Opera.
- Your app’s website: can also be optimized for search engine results using certain keywords from your previous analysis.
Developing an app is a fantastic way to extend your reach and generate revenues based on online presence; and the great thing about creating one in 2021 is that you do not have to be a tech expert to get started. Designers, innovative businessmen and creative marketers are a breath of fresh air in the mobile and web application segment, and they all start with good ideas and in-depth market research before moving on to great execution. Commit to your initial idea and vision, create a detailed plan, and see where it takes you!
