What You Need To Do Before Starting Mobile App Development

No matter what goals you want to achieve, coming up with a unique app idea is simply not enough anymore. The app market has become very competitive, and it is getting harder as time progresses. Besides, the investment that goes into it can be large, both financially and timewise. It can cost you a lot if you enter the field of mobile app development without adequate preparation— it can result to damaging and frustrating mistakes.

However, you will have an easier app development process if you invest your time to piece these building blocks together. Besides, you will have a competitive advantage over others. This article discusses what you need to do before starting mobile app development.

Research the Market Thoroughly

The one thing that will guide everything you do at the onset of development is market research. You need to know what is currently on demand and use the knowledge to find a target market that your app will attract. Let your app be a fresh, complete solution to the challenges your target market is currently experiencing. With extensive market research, you will discover:

• Those in competition with you
• The strategy they are using
• Their strengths and weaknesses
• What their users are saying on social media or online reviews
• Their unique selling point

Getting such vital information will work in your favor. You will be able to double up on the working strategies, avoid the competitor’s mistakes, and come up with an app that ticks all the user’s boxes. Given the millions of apps in existence today, your app should be unique and stand out.

Define your Target Audience and Elevator Pitch

Do you know your app’s main purpose? Are their differences between the app and your website or online platforms? When developing an app, this could easily be the trickiest part. Narrowing your ideas down into one or two sentences of clear intent can be very challenging, but it plays a crucial role for the success of your app. During this process, you will define:

• The app’s key functionality
• Why anyone would want to use it
• What business goals can it realize?
• What value does it in comparison to the mobile web?
• What will excite the audience about your app?
• How will the app benefit the audience?

Having a critical approach when answering these questions plays an essential role in ensuring that you don’t waste resources. You won’t waste vital app features by targeting the wrong audience. At this time, you need to have extensive confidence in your elevator pitch. Ask yourself how you would convey your mission if you accidentally came across a potential investor who is interested in your project. You need to put it in very few sentences that take less than a minute to say. Keep in mind that strong focus and clarity in this early stage of development can amplify your success. Therefore, never miss out on an opportunity to be clear and precise about the purpose of your app.

Choose Between Hybrid, Web and Native App

In mobile app development, there are several technical decisions you need to make—and they are very crucial. Chosing between hybrid, native, or web app has significant impact on your subsequent maintenance and development. This makes it important to leverage the market research and core purpose you defined earlier. It will help you make the right decision. There are three types of mobile apps. To begin with, native apps are ideal for heavy duty functions like gaming or video/picture editing.

Web apps, on the other hand, are ideal for solutions that need easy updates but don’t require access to the phone’s abilities. From a developer’s perspective, these two types of app are directly opposite. Generally, native apps are the most expensive to develop and can be found on app stores. On the other hand, web apps are low-cost and quite quick to develop. However, such apps cannot be amplified through app stores. Besides, users cannot download it to their devices.

This makes hybrid apps the best of both worlds: the same code base is used for both platforms, they have access to the device’s features and can be found on both app stores. One of the most common type of hybrid apps are the betting apps. Betting apps are extremely popular due to the high number of people that engage in sports betting. Hybrid apps are an excellent choice for most most app purposes and goals, including enterprise, utility, and productivity apps. Once you have made a decision on your app type and design, it will be easy to allocate resources and start working on the entire project.

Know the Available Monetization Options

Any mobile app plays various roles for a business or your personal goals. One of the motives behind many apps is generating revenue from it. However, others create apps mainly to serve as a resource for their audience. They also use them as aiding methods in sales and as a way of increasing the brand’s reach. What is the purpose of your app in the business model? If generating revenue from it is one of the reasons, then it is time to research different app monetization models. Just like any other choice, each model has its own pros and cons. Even though you might change your decision later on, it is crucial that you have a solid understanding of all the available models. Then, proceed with your mobile app development basing on the monetization model.

Have a Marketing Strategy

If there is anything that heavily affects the success of your app, it your marketing strategy. You need to have a proper plan to amplify and market your app. You can do so through PR, branding, outreach, pre-launch efforts, and general web presence. During the early stages of app development, you might think it is too early to start working on a marketing plan. Your efforts will pay off in the long run if you start marketing your app early enough. Many people will already know about it before it is released.