There are things you can do to prepare yourself ahead of time to give your app the best shot at success, here's a quick run down of 5 ways you can help yourself get the right start.
As the world becomes more tech reliant and markets become more digital, there is a trend toward new businesses springing up that offer mobile and internet based goods and services. With over 4.5 billion people connected online and over 3.2 billion smartphone users worldwide, naturally a lot of these businesses are built around apps.
When reaching out to any digital agency to begin planning your idea though, you should be appropriately prepared ahead of time to start off on the right foot.
If you’re looking into app development with PixelForce or another digital agency, we can design your product and give you some pointers, but there are a few things you should keep in mind when planning your product before reaching out to us to help make your journey smoother.
Before you commit to designing a product or entering any market, you should have a good understanding of who it is that you plan to target. You may have a great idea, but if you don’t know who it is that actually NEEDS it then you’re only going to waste your time and money by chasing everyone and failing to impress any one particular section of the market.
A good example of this is the abundance of social media - each of which targets a different subsection of the community. Facebook is great for family and social connection, LinkedIn is great for business and corporate connection, Twitter is great for quick and casual connection, and there are more. The point is that each of them offers something similar (social connection), but servicing a different portion of the market with different wants and needs.
Similarly to knowing your target market, you need to know who your competitors are and what part of the market they occupy.
If you enter a saturated market with an app that offers little incentive over using a competing app, you’re going to fall flat on your face. The best way help you stand out from the crowd is to… know the crowd (and how to differ from them)! That means researching your competition, seeing what they offer and what works and doesn’t work, looking at who their typical user is, and having an idea of what the purpose of their product or service is.
One of the pitfalls that many people have is wanting to have a million fancy “bells and whistles” to attract everyone - but that’s not going to work very well. There’s a very undesirable term called “bloatware” that pops up regularly for programs that try to do too much, and it refers to software that crams so many unnecessary features in that the program ends up running slowly and poorly, and lacks the focus to do any one function particularly well.
When designing your product, you should AVOID THIS at all costs. Stick to a few features and do them well, your customers will love you for it when they end up using your product because nobody else can hold a candle to what you offer.
Is there something that you or your business are great at? What about something you or your business are terrible at? Stick to the former, avoid the latter. You don’t want to risk damaging your own brand by putting forward a product that attempts to do something it ultimately cannot.
For a bit of an analogy, you would see your GP for medical issues because they have a medical degree, but you probably wouldn’t see them about your pet which has different physiology and biology - you would see a vet instead.
When you identify your strengths and weaknesses and design your product with them in mind, you can create a better product that satisfies more of your customers.
You should have a clear idea of what it is exactly that you want to get out of your product so you have some form of measurement for success.
Is your app designed to generate revenue? Raise awareness? Facilitate communication? Or something else?
If you have quantifiable metrics that can be compared against a SMART goal (Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic. Time-based.), then you will be able to track how your app is going after launching it. This will help you identify and resolve any issues early on and give you a better chance at getting the most out of your spend.
