Digital media plays a significant role in our lives today. Small business owners are starting to realize that having a website or social media page alone is not enough to attract potential clients and retain them. Mobile business apps are essential marketing tools for all business types. They make it easier to promote products or services and make better impressions on customers.
Mobile apps also allow business owners to contact and interact with their customers in real-time and let customers leave product reviews and suggestions. Such feedback can enable business owners to understand their clients’ needs to figure out ways to serve them better. In addition, mobile apps make it easier to get analytics data such as the level of user engagement with each product to guide other business decisions.
Entrepreneurs develop mobile apps for different reasons, but the ultimate goal is to realize a profit from them. This article will show you the necessary steps for creating your first business mobile app and ways to ensure its profitability.
1. Develop Your Business Strategy
Before getting to the technical aspect of mobile app creation, you’ll need to create a business strategy. Your business strategy should outline your goals, needs, and methodology for creating the app. Ask yourself why you intend to create an app and write down your reasons. Your app should offer a unique value to customers or solve a specific problem. Instead of duplicating an existing idea, develop an original concept to give you a better chance of success.
Next, conduct a competitive analysis and market research. Through market research, you can discover similar business app ideas to yours and evaluate their features and benefits. This can help you figure out better ways to solve similar problems for your target market.
2. Get Your Team
To build a quality business application, you need to have the right team. Your team should have a project manager, a UI designer, an iOS/ Android developer, and a backend developer. You can hire freelancers or contact an app development agency for your project.
Freelancers provide you flexibility, but locating those in your geographical location or time zone and managing them can be challenging. Nevertheless, it is possible. You could check platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn for talented freelancers. On the other hand, you can find an app development agency for your project through Google search. Diligently research prospective agencies and look at their portfolios and client reviews before choosing.
You should also look at your prospective app developer’s usage of technologies. App
developers use different kinds of software, like Apple Pie, AppSheet, and Zoho Creator. They also use technology like Kubernetes Docker registries to manage app deployment. According to JFrog, a software DevOps platform, ‘’You get to collect and manage the artifacts for your containerized app, trace the content, dependencies and relationships with other Docker images which cannot be done using a simple Docker registry.’’ Having a basic knowledge of these software and their usefulness can help inform your decision about an app developer for your project.
3. Plan Your Budget
Drawing a budget for your app gives you a picture of the financial requirement for your project to avoid failure due to insufficient funding. If you’re considering hiring an app development company, look at the price offerings by other companies and the quality of service you stand to get from each one.
In the process of drawing your budget, you’ll need to make some tech decisions. For instance, you’ll have to decide if you want to build a native app or a responsive one. You’d also determine whether you want to develop your business app for Android, IOS, or both. Your choices influence the price of your app.
4. Develop Your App
To develop your application, you need to define the scope of your project and use cases or stories to capture the requirements for each app function in detail. Ensure you involve all stakeholders from your business when defining the scope of the app to avoid unnecessary reworking when the app is launched.
In addition, you need to create visuals for the mobile app. Your app designer can break down complex features into wireframes using tools like Sketch, Adobe XD, or Invision. This will allow your stakeholders to provide feedback on the designs early on. Once your app is designed, tested for quality, and deployed, you should implement a marketing strategy to help your target audience discover it through other marketing channels.
You could promote your app through social media, paid campaigns, content marketing, and website SEO. Your app needs constant maintenance. This is crucial because business app development is an ongoing process, and there’s always room for improvement.
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