In the digital age through which we’re living, no business is more successful, more cost-effective, and more potentially global than one which sells apps. Not only are the overheads for maintaining an app incredibly low, but the potential to see your app climb up the app store rankings and downloaded by hundreds of millions of people across the world, means that the right app can earn millions, sometimes billions of dollars in revenue. Here’s how you’ll create your successful app, learning from the best in the industry in the present day.
What’s Successful?
The first step, and something that you’re going to be concentrating on throughout, is understanding what’s currently successful on the market today – and how you can emulate their success. We’re not talking about copying companies wholesale here; we’re talking about noticing the trends that make some apps perform better than others. There are several reasons why certain apps succeed or fail. There’s an element of luck involved, but great apps deliver:
- A simple interface that can be used by experts and novices in the world of tech.
- A world-class design that feels professional, sleek, and built by experts in the field.
- Something unique – something that consumers will want to play, enjoy, create upon, or use.
- Simple marketing in which the app can be easily explained within a ten-second elevator pitch.
All of these sessions should inform the app creation journey that we’ll go into further detail upon below.
Your Team
Next up, you’re going to want to build your team. When you have an idea for an app, you’re going to want some help in building it. Even if you consider yourself the right person to build the app, with the right skills to do so, you’re still going to need business partners to help you market the app, design the company behind it, and cover other aspects of your business like finance and marketplace business models.
As such, one of your first tasks when you’re building a successful app is to gather a team of motivated and talented people around you – people you can trust to deliver in order to improve your business and to make it successful in the marketplace to which you are soon to launch. You’re looking, most of all, for dedication. Sometimes you’ll need your staff to work extra hours, and over weekends, to deliver for your budding new app.
App Design
Without going into the technicalities of app design, you should bear in mind a number of principles which you’ll see repeated again and again across app-building forums and web tips sites. For instance, the importance of UX (User Experience) should never be overlooked when you’re building an app that’s consumer-facing. You want your users to feel great when they use your new tech product and to enjoy interacting with the interface that you’ve created.
You always want to err towards simplicity, too. Don’t over-build your app, and refrain from adding all the features that you’ve thought up from the get-go. It’s far more effective to simply design a stripped-back app, with just the central features that make your app special, to launch into the beta mode. You’ll be able to add the other app features at a later date, once your first users have become used to your base design and interface.
Target Market
When you’re building your app, one of your eyes should be on your target market. Who will you expect to enjoy your product the most? Who needs your product, and what benefits will your new app bring to their lives that they’re not already able to source from other apps on the internet and across app stores? This is about locating your USP, and deciding which consumers are most likely to enjoy the app that you’re soon to bring to the market.
This line of thinking should directly influence your app design, as the user of your app will demand that your app is built in a certain way, looks and feels a certain way, and can be used for a certain set of functions. For instance, if you’re building a personal finance app for young adults, you want to blend a modern aesthetic with easy-to-use features. A gaming app will want to be loud, bold and energetic, to capture the youth market. Bear in mind your target market to inform the design of your app.
Name and Branding
Next up, you and your team will need to take a little time away from the code and spend time on the name and the brand behind your wonderful new tech product. It’s likely that you’ve already decided on a name – but have you discussed alternatives? Are you sure that your app name is the optimal choice to help you capture the largest possible market share on the internet? Remember that keywords are important here, as are unique names that aren’t similar to other existing brands or products.
Meanwhile, the other side of your branding is the visual side – how you create a logo that will sum up your brand in a simple graphic that can be shrunk down to the size of a thumbnail. Here, it’s worth looking over your favorite apps for inspiration about how you can draw in customers through simple, elegant design. Examine good logos from across the world in order to build your understanding of apps and businesses, and how they’ve built their empires upon the most recognizable brand images in the world. Hiring a logo design company can help you with your branding.
Final Testing
Back to the app itself – do you feel it’s ready to hit the market? Have you built in the essential features, and will you be able to make small changes to the interface following feedback from consumers? Have you tested the app, in beta, to ensure that there are no niggling issues and potential mishaps that could hamper your brand’s growth if they prevent consumers from properly using your app?
If you can answer in the affirmative to all of the above questions, then you’re ready to launch your tech product on app stores across the world. Remember that the first few hundred downloads are incredibly important for your brand and your reputation – and each ‘rating’ of your app on app stores will have a huge impact on your traction into the future. So make sure you’re launching the best app you can when you do eventually publish it on app stores.
Marketing Your App
Your app can disappear into nothingness if launched without an iota of marketing. You need your app to be seen, found, downloaded, and shared from the moment you’re sure it’s finished and ready to hit the market. To achieve this, you need to ramp up your marketing output to find consumers to download your new app.
Use all the tools available to you to market your new app. You’ll be able to use social media channels to share it with friends and contacts, and online targeted adverts to get seen by the consumers you feel are within your target demographic. Pay, too, to have your product promoted on app stores themselves, so that you’re easily locatable when consumers search for your brand new, sparkling and exciting app.
This guide is an expansive and industry-led set of tips to help you organize the creation of an app and a brand that’ll deliver you huge profits in the future, downloaded all across the world onto mobiles, tablets and laptops.