Mobile App Success — Marketing Is Crucial
A marketing strategy can longer be an afterthought, it needs to be in place at the very start of app development, a long time before the app is expected to reach the market.
The mobile app development market is extremely competitive with an annual revenue expected to hit around $189 billion globally by 2020. With such rapid growth it becomes harder to stand out in the crowd, therefore a business needs a good, solid marketing plan in order to attract users inundated with similar products.
Once live the app should be updated regularly, bugs fixed and new features added with a specific view to meeting the needs of the consumer. Experimenting with new features can maintain interest in the app, and using marketing to get customer feedback is essential to keep the app functioning well and promote it to larger numbers of potential customers.
Always give the customer time to respond to the product before making any changes. A period of 1-3 months gives the developer the chance to collect lots of useful data to incorporate in new updates and additional features. Initial user responses must be backed up with data — often people are reluctant to embrace a change only to applaud it later.
A Good Marketing Budget Is Essential
Allocating 100% of funds to an app if no one can find it is not good business sense so setting aside between 30 and 50% of the overall budget to market the app makes sense. This may seem a lot but there is a lot more competition: On the Android App store alone there are 3.8million individual apps all competing for their share of the customer base. If a product cannot stand out it is unlikely to gain traction on the platform.
Of course, budgets will change over time and the amount of money allocated can change according to customer responses. Focusing on relevant audiences rather than everyone out there, for example, may mean that the budget reduces over time.
Defining Success
The idea has been built and sent to market — but is it a successful app? Measuring this can be difficult but metrics like downloads and active users are a good start. It seems that there is no one way of defining success when it comes to apps — with each company having its own goals. To be a success an app must make a profit and 87% of companies have indicated that this is the case.
Another benefit of mobile app development for B2B companies is expanding the business’ knowledge of their market, products and the process of development, marketing and sales. An app can be deemed successful if it generates leads, increases brand visibility and so on, especially for B2B companies who can use the apps to show their products or to sign contracts online meaning they close deals much faster. Conversion rates are then used to indicate the profitability of their app.
Grow Your Business as You Build Your App
Most apps are used as tools to build a company and enhance the organization as a whole rather than as an end product and this is an important factor when looking at the viability of the app. Marketing the app to the customer base is important, but it must also provide a way of turning that base into revenue.
A comprehensive app development strategy must put marketing to the fore — failure to do this means that a company could end up with an App that costs them money
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