It’s High Time to Launch Your Own Apps for Business
Stop Losing Money - the Whole World Is Loading Your Competitor’s Apps!
In this post we explain, based on examples of our best projects, how to develop a successful app. We also discuss the design issues and monetisation strategies and offer tips on how to make your first business app. Read this article and learn all the advantages of developing mobile apps for business.
Business app classification
In general, mobile apps for business can be divided into software for the company's internal and external needs, the latter category here referring to software solutions created for customers and partners.
The most popular types of internal business app are:
- Apps for business automation (cargo ship maintenance monitoring, railway fault detection, product quality control).
- Apps for increasing productivity and improving collaboration (sharing files and working with them; internal communication, messengers, trackers; mobile versions of services; project and task management systems.
External client-targeted mobile applications include:
- Apps that complement a company’s existing online services (mobile storefronts, online catalogues and stores; food delivery; Internet banking; etc.)
- Mobile loyalty programs. Recently, applications have increasingly been replacing regular customer cards.
To figure out what functionality you need, have a look at our app cost calculator (there we’ve compiled some visualisations of standard features) or, for a rush estimate, jump to the post on how much it costs to develop an app.
- Developing a mobile application is much more expensive than developing a website or a web application for business. However, direct return on investment is often high. Moreover, you can save up to 50% on mobile app development costs with the right strategy and a good developer. Try our app development calculator to get a rough idea of the cost.
- Mobile applications are long-term investments. Even if today you think your business doesn’t need a mobile presence, you should remember that this market is actively growing and even small companies can benefit from software development, occupy their market niche and gain a foothold in it. If you need someone to critique your business model, contact our business consultant Dmitry +44 20 3393 1772 - he will explain the five most common mistakes of small business app development projects.
More than Just Optimisation
Business optimisation is just one option - you can go further and create your own digital business following the example of an existing service or implement an original idea.
If there are similar services on the market, you need to increase or qualitatively change the functionality of the application in order to make it competitive. And most importantly, you must be prepared for the fact that the more analogues exist on the market, the more time it will take to build up a client base and the more money will need to be put into the advertising budget.
In the case of an original idea, there are also pitfalls:
- The idea is worth checking for originality.
- It must be logically complete - perhaps without binding to the platform and technical subtleties, but the general logic and architecture should be transparent.
- You’ll also need a feasibility check. This will increase the cost of the project, but can save you wasting money even during the initial stages of the project.
The general principle of success in a rapidly developing mobile market is to be faster, simpler and more convenient. To achieve this, first choose a reliable IT partner and pay attention to the main features of modern mobile platforms and their audience, as well as mobile app monetisation strategies.
How to Make a Good App for Business
If you want to win loyal customers, you should view your application as a new, user-friendly, high-performance tool. This means paying special attention to user interface (UI) design.
UI design helps organise user interaction with your app. This is what a user encounters when looking at the screen: the location of graphical interface elements, buttons and navigation. Loyalty of users largely depends on the convenience and attractiveness of the interface. Bright design attracts people and makes them use your app. Thus, it’s important to make the UI design pixel-perfect and intuitive.
As for app performance indicators, in addition to the absence of failures, one of the most important indicators is retention. It shows how many users who installed the application will use it again in a week, a month, a quarter, etc. Achieving high indexes is not so easy. On average, about 26% of users delete the app after the first run. Retaining at least half of your users within the first month of launching the application is already a good result.
What to do to increase the popularity of your app following launch in the App Store or Google Play:
- Create a unique and attractive icon for your app - your program will be easy to remember and quicker to recognise on the user’s dashboard;
- Add description - not only informative and motivated, but covering all the space provided. This will help you rank higher in the stores.
- Add tags and keywords - this sometimes still means better search results.
- Check overall app efficiency and loading speed - this issue can decrease the user’s loyalty even when everything else is good.
If you want to make your business’s mobile presence successful, don’t forget that you’re here to provide users with a convenient problem-solving tool, not to get all the money from their pockets. If you’ve created an app your target audience had been dreaming of - functional, stable, convenient and user-friendly - you’re very close to global success.
Not sure what should be improved? Get in touch to discuss all the strengths and weaknesses of your idea.
Director of Operations and Business Development
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