Amid rapid technological advancements, intense market competition and changing user expectations, mobile app development can be a daunting task for entrepreneurs and new age founders. These are also times of economic uncertainties where investments in innovative business ideas involving mobile applications have to be wiser and ensure a growth potential in the long run.
The investments in developing a mobile application, depending on the technology and the complexity of the application can be anywhere in the range of $3000 – $150000. In developing a mobile application, the critical processes involved are securing the capital for the business, ensuring the capital is prudently spent in implementing the application, and marketing the application effectively. Let us explore how to overcome the common set of challenges entrepreneurs face in the process.
Checklist to secure capital or funding for your mobile app development
This is the first challenge in the journey, generating capital or funds for mobile application development. In order to secure capital, the business needs to have a compelling business plan, clarity on revenue generation strategies. a minimum viable product (MVP), a convincing sales pitch and most importantly a superb team that supports you all the way. Here is a checklist you could follow to convince venture capitalists and angel investors to invest in your big idea.
1. Is your business idea or solution compelling?
A compelling idea that captures the imagination of an investor needs to be a solution that solves a specific problem or a solution that bridges a gap that exists in the real world. The problem or the gap would have carefully analyzed for the pain points, end user behaviors and environment of use, to arrive at a set of potential solutions. The solution that gives you an edge in the market in terms practicality of implementation, ease and effectiveness of use, meets customer preferences and purchasing behaviour, and validates with the demand must be selected and backed for the next stage.
2. Validate your business idea or solution
Conduct market research to understand your potential customers, competitors, market demands, and emerging trends to improvise and develop your product/service strategy. Involve experts in areas you lack expertise to iterate and improve your business idea.
3. Figure out revenue generation models
For your solution to be profitable you need to have clarity on the revenue generation approach you are taking to achieve Return on Investments (ROI). Freemium, subscription, one time payment, in-app advertisement, in-app purchases, sponsorship and partnership, transaction fee, data monetization, licensing and white labelling, etc., are some of the revenue generation models. Evaluate and choose the right model that gives confidence for potential investors.
4. A business plan
A sound business plan covering your vision, strategy and goals demonstrates your professionalism and planning that increases investor confidence in your idea. Typical business plans include an executive summary, detailed profile of your company or start up, market analysis, product or service details, marketing and sales strategy, financial projections, risk analysis and funding request.
5. Sales pitch for presenting your idea
Sales pitch and deck are essential to communicate your business solution and its value proposition to potential investors and partners. A strong sales pitch and deck captures the interest of the audience, builds trust and credibility, simplifies understanding process, guides conversation, address queries preemptively, provides lasting impression and calls for a desired action.
6. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
MVPs demonstrate the proof of concept, its business potential and play a critical role in securing investments for your application. The MVPs help in the market validation of the idea, collecting data driven insights on the usability of the application, gathering feedback to plan for iterations, demonstrating capability in building the application, assist in generate initials sales and end user engagement.
Ideas for developing a successful mobile application
Once you secure the investment, the next step is to prudently use the investment in developing the application. The challenges in this stage include ensuring compatibility of the app across multiple platforms, creating an intuitive user-friendly design, smooth performance of the application, protection of user data, strategies for continuous improvement and constant updates along with strong customer support. Ideas and approaches in developing a successful mobile application are as follows:
1. Prioritization of core features
Adding too many features early on can be an overwhelming experience in terms of investment, and maintenance of the codebase. Prioritizing the features for a minimum viable product with core essential features at each stage keeps the investment to a minimum, the product leaner and easier to maintain, and helps to go live earlier than planned. This would also help to gather end user feedback, align with the demands of the market and achieve strategic goals set for the product.
2. Leveraging of cross platform development
Cross-platform frameworks like Flutter or React Native could be used instead of building separate native apps for iOS or Android. This can reduce timelines to launch the product, and the cost associated development & maintenance by around 50%.
3. Outsourcing of work
Outsourcing mobile app development can be advantageous in reducing the cost of maintaining an in-house team. Other benefits include leveraging the expertise of multi skilled resources, flexibility in scaling the team and reduction of compliancy related risks which allows you to focus on core business activities. Risks involved in outsourcing can be mitigated by having strong contractual terms, sprint level management, and collaborative efforts.
4. Adoption of Agile methodologies
Agile methodology in application development helps in planning small sprints allowing faster delivery of functional versions of the application for quick evaluation, prioritizing adaptability in product development process.
5. Utilization of open-source tools, libraries and frameworks
Use of open-source tools, libraries and frameworks enables quick start of projects and reduces lead time in development due to the availability of pre-built functions. It also improves security with transparent code, reduces vendor lock-in dependencies and also lowers the cost of developing the application significantly.
6. Partnerships
Partnerships could be established for leveraging complementary skills and expertise, technology sharing, mentorships and guidance, networking, connections and investments. Partnerships help the product to build a strong foundation, customer base which increases its chances of success.
Six steps to market your mobile app
1. Draw out a marketing strategy
In this step identify the target audience, market and develop a marketing strategy to suit the preferences of the audience, driving the engagement process.
2. Optimize the mobile app for play store and app store
Develop engaging descriptions, visuals, keywords and visuals for the app in the stores to improve the app’s visibility and downloads. Responding to user reviews constructively can improve the ratings and trust for the application.
3. Leverage the social media, digital & traditional approaches in marketing
Use social media, email marketing, paid advertisements, influencer promotions and print media to generate product awareness and new customer acquisitions.
4. Establish a strong online presence
Develop a website showcasing information about the application and its benefits that encourage application downloads. The website can also feature case studies, customer testimonials, blogs, FAQs etc., to increase search engine rankings and traffic.
5. Referral programs and promotions
Loyalty programs, rewards for referrals and exclusive incentives encourage user engagement and turn them into evangelists for the product.
6. Monitor performance, optimize and iterate
The marketing performance can be tracked and analyzed from the analytics data, customer reviews and satisfaction surveys. The performance reports can be used to further optimize and realign with performance goals set for the subsequent iterations.
Amid economic challenges, strategically approaching the mobile application development to bring your big idea to life is important. The process starts with securing the funding, then by developing the application in an optimal way, following up with marketing it effectively to acquire customers and continues with retaining the customer base with strong customer engagement measures.
Each stage in the process poses different challenges and requires different management strategies to overcome them. This article provides detailed insights into the challenges and strategies to overcome the challenges. If you think that you need support with a specific challenge or need support to getting your mobile application off the ground, feel free to reach out to us for a discussion. We will be happy to be of help.
