In today’s tech-loving world, there’s literally an app for everything. And, chances are, if you’re trying to create an app, there’s probably already a hundred competitors that have beat you to it. This harsh reality is not meant to crush your dreams of becoming the next viral app, it’s a cautionary tale to help you overcome the competition, blaze your own trail, and to create a successful app that you can make money off of. Here’s some simple, yet powerful tips on how to build a successful app that will make you money. Let’s get started.
Make it Useful
Odds are that you won’t be recreating the wheel here. So, you must really hit a homerun with how useful and practical your app is. There needs to be a clearly defined purpose for this app and it needs to be one that’s useful for the customers. For example, a grocery list app is useful and practical for individuals who do a lot of grocery shopping and don’t want to forget anything that they need to buy.
Identify Target Audience
Creating an app with the blind hope that someone will download it is just foolish. You need to identify who the target audience is for your app. When creating a fitness app, you aren’t going to target teenagers or stay-at-home moms. You will be targeting the fitness fanatics, gym-goers, people trying to lose weight, and so forth. Identifying your target audience can help you to better market your app and whatever features or in-app purchases that you offer within the app.
Rise Above the Competition
If you’re creating an app that has a large number of competitors, or has very popular apps that are already dominating the landscape, then you need to really create something that will stand out from the pack and rise above the competition. This typically involves things like usefulness, ease of use, user interface, navigation and other factors that are on this list. And, if you can find a feature that nobody else offers, then you’re really standing out from the masses. In other words, in order to help rise above your competition, take a look at what they’re offering and think to yourself, can you offer something better?
Clean, Friendly User Interface
As mentioned, a clean and friendly User Interface is one of the most popular attributes for any app. Customers need to be able to navigate through your app, input or access information, use the various features and do all of this as quickly as they desire. So, if your app is difficult to use then customers will search for friendlier alternatives. Don’t forget if you’re developing an app for a mobile phone, it needs to be friendly for thumb use and small screens.
Minimize Registrations
Nothing makes a user delete an app faster than being hit with numerous registrations upon installation. Keep this process simple. Let them create an account or log-in via one of their many Social Media accounts. Patience is not your friend when dealing with customers so you’re app needs to offer quick and easy signup and access otherwise you’ll lose user interest very quickly.
Help Sections
A lack of help sections or tutorials, screams that you don’t care about the customer. You can’t assume that a customer will fully understand how to use your app and all of its features or functions. Instead, the safe and smart strategy is to assume that the customer has no idea how to fully use your app. Some features may be too technical, some functions may be unfamiliar and some apps just might be too advanced for users. Help sections or tutorials allows customers to learn about the app outside of trial and error. It also affords them the luxury of always looking back on the help section just in case they forget how to perform one of the app’s tasks. Make it easy for the customer to always understand how to use your app.
Offer a Free Trial
If you’re charging customers a fee to download your app, or paid in-app subscriptions, then you need to give them the chance to take your app for a test spin. Many customers shy away from premium apps for free alternatives. But, if you can give them a free trial then they might just fall in love with your app and pay the associated fees.
Listen to Customer Feedback
Always listen to customer feedback. This is the backbone to any successful business venture and it’s no different for apps. A customer’s opinion is like gold. If they provide reasonable feedback on current and new features, then you can take that into consideration for future updates. Customers will also become more loyal when they know that you take their opinions seriously.
Revenue Model
Last, but not least, it’s your decision on how to generate revenue with your app. There are a few approaches: upfront fee to download, free download with in-app purchases or advertisements. In today’s world, in-app advertisements are slowly turning users off apps due to the intrusiveness and disruption. A premium app with an upfront download fee is still the prominent way to go as it’s just a one-time fee where customers aren’t required to pay more money in the future. However, free downloads with in-app purchases has almost caught up to premium apps in terms of success. This approach allows users to try out the app and decide whether or not to make the in-app purchases. Are you ready to create a powerful and successful app?
Author Bio
With over 30 years in the IT industry, Peter Pane has helped many people overcome their IT problems by providing effective problem solving solutions. Peter is an IT consultant who initially started out as a computer programmer within the finance industry maintaining and developing large applications. Across his time working in these industries, Peter began to devise new ways to get better results for his customers. This lead him to become fully qualified in IT Service Management. He currently holds an ITIL Expert (V3) qualification. Today Peter is the owner of a Jim’s Computer Services franchise in Drouin. He works with small to medium businesses so they can get the most out of their technology, what they want to achieve, and what they own in today’s world. His aim is to help all businesses gain value from all technologies that are available to them for maximum results.
