The smartphone generation has an app for every need and mood. But does it have the mood for every app out there in the various app markets? Not really.
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Of the thousands of new apps that see light of day each year, the vast majority — about 67% — never make money according to a 2013 study by VisionMobile. Another older study by Canalys meanwhile showed that 50% of app revenues in the US came from just 25 developers.
So if you are embarking on your own journey to build the next app market success story, what should you do to ensure success? Here’s a sneak peek.
1. Minimise friction in your UX, eliminate unnecessary customer inputs
Some of the best inventions and discoveries feed into the inherent laziness of the human race. The remote control, the dishwasher, the washing machine and innumerable other everyday appliances that we use stand testimony to this basic fact.
Put this insight into use in your next app. Don’t make your customer take certain actions inside your app environment unless really necessary. Endless clicks and waiting to move on to the next screen can be frustrating for most users. Too many unnecessary choices can be daunting and confusing.
Keep it simple to use, reduce or better yet; eliminate any friction between the user and the app interface, design an intuitive and clear UI with easy navigation that enable convenient browsing and cater to short attention spans of users.
2. Leverage the advantages of mobile, downplay its limitations
Mobile as a platform comes with some inherent advantages that have contributed to its meteoric rise in user popularity. Factors like anytime, anywhere accessibility, portability, the presence of high-end cameras on most smartphones, crystal clear displays, being connected to the internet by data plans or WiFi 24 X7 are some key mobile features that can be smartly integrated to give your app that extra edge. So you have a couponing app? Use the geo-location option available in most smartphones to push out coupons based on the user’s current location.
Reduce the disadvantages or limitations of mobile by eliminating or limiting their use in your app environment. Most mobile phones — however large their screens — have keyboards that can’t hold a candle to desktop keyboards in terms of precision and user friendliness. Try to use large buttons, icons or speech commands in your app and reduce the dependence on keyboards to improve user experience.
3. Make it social
Sharing great ideas makes you renowned as a thinker. Sharing great discount codes makes you the shopping diva to follow. Sharing funny jokes makes you the clown of the group. Everybody loves being an authority in their own right. Social media enables this like nothing else can.
Use the magic of social media to make your users feel special and to increase your app downloads. Build in the ability to share socially on major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram and ride the social media wave. Reward your customer for specific actions. Try and earn visibility for your app among their circles each time your user completes an action by encouraging them to (or letting you) publish it on social media. Your downloads will grow thanks to the extra visibility you just earned!
4. Focus on your core strength
Imagine Shaquille O’Neal trying to master figure skating. While the Shaq probably might be a natural at every imaginable sport, it pays to get a professional to do the job if you want it done well. Getting an expert on board also frees up your time to do more important things that would flounder without your personal attention.
If you are primarily a design wiz, leave marketing in the hands of the pros. If you are a coder at heart, leave the interface design of your app to a real professional. Similarly, use ready-made plugins or custom codes to make your life easier. For example, while integrating your mobile app with the APIs of regular websites, it’s smarter and quicker to depend on custom-made wrapper codes like AppWrapper instead of building one from scratch yourself.
5. Make security a priority, not an optional feature
In this age of internet bugs, government surveillance and large-scale data breaches, security has never been more important.
You need to consider security from various angles – security of data that your app syncs across multiple devices, security of data streamed through mobile carrier networks, security of the data stored on the mobile device itself. Take every possible measure to make your app’s security as tight as possible. Avoid asking for access to unnecessary information from your user’s handset – you become automatically responsible if anything gets messed up with that data. If your app needs your user’s credit card or other payment information, make sure that your app uses the appropriate security levels to prevent data theft by digital miscreants.
6. Live up to expectations consistently
You may have a great app concept – unique, useful and extremely viral. But if shoddy coding results in frequent crashes or your app hanging the mobile device itself, guess who’s going to join the list of apps that sank without a trace?
Test your app rigorously, under every imaginable stressful situation. You goal is to develop an app that works with the same fluency in any environment, at any point in its usage life cycle, irrespective of handset limitations and conserves battery and processing power for the user.
7. Strong marketing improves app success rates
A great app may never reach the top of app market storefronts unless it has enough buzz surrounding it and is marketed strongly in the first few months of launch.
Leverage online and offline platforms to drive traffic to your app. Press releases, ads in relevant publications, direct marketing and couponing at a local level, all add to the chances of your app being more visible in app markets and improve the chances of its eventual success.
Most new apps are discovered by users based on direct keyword searches in app markets. Use relevant keywords in your app name, description and other areas inside your app to optimize it for searches. Use tools like Flurry Analytics and MobileDevHQ to analyze which keywords will work best for your app. Mobile advertising platforms such as AdMob and iAd are possible routes to market to increase app visibility in relevant environments.
8. Keep it fresh, evolve with time
Changes happen every single day in the app world. Your app either keeps up with the changes or gets left behind in the dust.
When you create an app, keep it flexible for editing, addition and growth into related areas that can be added on once the app achieves a certain critical mass of users.
Another aspect you need to tackle is fickleness of the users’ mindsets. Keep adding functionality, freshen the looks, make the UI a tad more responsive, update the app to go with the latest Android or iOS versions released, keep up with changing rules and guidelines, and build plugins to keep your users constantly engaged with your app.
It’s an app eat app world out there. Implement these basic rules while developing yours, and give your baby the edge to make it into the Ivy League of smash hit apps.
Have more ideas on what prerequisites you need to cover to ensure mobile app success? Share your thoughts and spread the love!
