Top Tips for Creating an App for Your Business

 With the huge increase in consumer mobile usage over recent years, and the fact that shoppers are spending more and more time on their smartphones rather than desktop or even laptop computers, it’s easy to see how beneficial business app creation can be. Mobile apps enable ventures to promote their products, engage customers, reduce staff work hours, earn revenue, provide deals and coupons, increase productivity, receive customer testimonials, and more. However, while there are lots of great resources out there to make use of when it comes time to develop your own app, you don’t want to rush the process and deliver a product that is sub-par and ends up being a waste of your money and energy. Creating an app that gets the results you’re after requires plenty of analytical thought and planning first. Read on for some tips you can follow today to ensure your mobile application is a success.  

Be Clear about the Purpose of the App and its Results

The first step to take when you want to create an app is to work out what the purpose of the endeavor is. You need to know what results you’d like the tech to create for your business, as this is the only way to determine later on if it is successful or not. For example, consider if:

• You’re looking to draw in new people to your business through viral content or app recommendations
• You want to increase sales, your database, or customer happiness levels
• You want to increase productivity for your team
• You want to increase brand engagement

 It's also necessary to understand what problem the application will solve for users, or which benefits it will provide for them. Understanding what will make customers download the app is a large part of knowing how to design it. To do this, you need to be very clear about who the target market is for the application. You can’t, after all, develop tech to suit individuals’ or firms’ needs and wants if you don’t know who those end users will actually be. It pays to ask your current customers for feedback on their preferences, and to analyze the data you have on both current and potential clients. Work out if the users of the app will be more likely to be Android or iOS users, and how and when they will typically use the program. You can also conduct surveys and organize focus groups to get ideas about what customers would be looking for in an app. This will help you to test the demand for the tech as well, before you go spending potentially thousands of dollars on its development. Before you start on your app design it is important that you know things such as:

• What you’ll be selling or providing through the app
• The look and feel you want it to have
• The type of content you’re planning to include
• If it will need to integrate with your blog, website, or social media channels

Ensure the App Has a Point of Difference

Another step that’s important is ensuring that your app has a point of difference to others on the market. What makes yours stand out from the rest? It's essential to the success of your app that whatever you create is original and improves on other apps in the way that it entertains, solves a problem, or otherwise benefits users. To help you create an app with a unique selling proposition (USP), first check out the apps of your competitors to see what is and isn’t included in their products, and how each one is designed and used. As well, examine your business model to determine what it is that your venture does differently, and where your strengths lie. It then pays to try to incorporate this USP into the app and its marketing.   

Hire a Specialist to Create the App

Lastly, consider hiring a specialist app creation firm like Worry Free Labs to develop the software for you. If you have tech skills yourself you might consider creating the program in-house, but keep in mind that companies that specialize in the area will tend to do it much more quickly, and stay up-to-date on all the latest trends and designs too, which can be of great benefit to you. If you don’t have the skills to create your own app, it is obviously necessary to outsource the work. While you might worry that you don’t have the funds to hire a mobile app development team, keep in mind that costs have come down noticeably in this area over recent years, as the growth in the market has skyrocketed. Sometimes trying to create your own product when you’re not an expert can cost more than you anticipated. If you wind up having to hire a firm to do the work for you later, you may wind up costing yourself more in the long run. It'll also save you a lot of stress and time along the way.  

Do you have an app for your business? Share it in the comments!