Today, people rely on their mobile apps for almost everything that they do every day. From communicating and networking to managing their finances, handling businesses, and making purchases. This is basically one of the biggest reasons why businesses find it crucial to build their brand value and a loyal audience.
And if you think, that mobile apps are for big-name brands like Amazon and Walmart, you are wrong. more and more small and medium-sized businesses are adopting new mobile trends. In fact, you will notice a lot of small businesses you daily interact with, have their own specialized mobile app. Businesses with this mindset are always ahead of their game when it comes to marketing.
How does a mobile app help your business?
Purchasing goods and services online have become a normal daily practice for millions of people all around the world. According to a recent study, it has been projected that around 65% of internet users will are expected to make at least one purchase online during the calendar year 2021.
When you have such a huge part of the market making purchases online, you can’t afford to miss out on a mobile application, or even a mobile website. Nowadays, everybody has their personal computers in their pockets. So allowing the users to access the essential services from their phones should be a high priority.
Mobile apps give your business a constant presence on the customer’s phone. Apps also increase sales by offering your customers a more convenient way to browse and shop, allowing them to make purchases from wherever they are. Businesses can even use their apps to alert their customers to new deals, products, and events.
Planning is the key
We can go on and on about how mobile apps are important and how can they boost our businesses and skyrocketing sales and whatnot. But unfortunately, it’s not that easy because, despite the considerable market potential, your app will not automatically be a success. Since an app is basically nothing more than a marketing measure, you should also plan in a similar way. You need to think and plan in advance what are you going to achieve from this app. Set goals to be targeted in a channelized manner. Very different objectives are conceivable, including:
- – Improvement of customer loyalty
- – Building a new distribution channel
- – Increase brand awareness
- – Capturing customer data
- – Providing new services to customers
So an app can be a very versatile marketing tool, but it also needs to be targeted to make it work. So, define how you want to measure your goals in order to put your app on the front foot.
Aspects to consider in app development for your business
When it all boils down to the actual development of the app, most of the startups/companies rely on external service providers or app development agencies such as app development companies, either because they lack the necessary know-how or the internal IT department would be overloaded with such a project. You are not just hiring a development company, you are choosing a technological partner for the success of your business. So, be sure to partner with companies that understand your vision of the app and what value it has to add in your customers’ daily life. Of course, they should meet all the necessary technical and analytical requirements for developing the app. Ideally, they should have experience in developing apps for your industry, and be able to develop apps for the popular iOS and Android operating systems. In addition, the app development companies should bring design and graphics expertise and experience in marketing.
It’s never only about having an app. The app should have a contemporary design that fits the CI / CD of the company and therefore come in a user-friendly layout. Thus, the user recognizes the brand in the app again and sees the app as a modern development step. The app should bring an advantage to the user and be intuitive. Otherwise, if the benefits and functionality are not immediately obvious, the users will be disappointed.
Also, keep in mind that developing an app can be a complex and sometimes lengthy affair, depending on how complex the features or specification are a part of your app. As a result, the costs cannot always be determined exactly in advance — because of unexpected development problems, these could also be higher than planned.
Also, be careful to never get stuck on something. App development is a continuous learning process for an entrepreneur. You may come up with new ideas.
Understand your cost of development
Alright, we’ve established that companies do succeed from launching and app. But we can’t throw away the basic business principles. If the cost of developing the app is too much to generate a return on the investment, then it’s probably not worth it for you. And you don’t also want to cut too much budget and develop an app which doesn’t serve the purpose
There are many ways you can develop the app, two of those are by hiring freelancers or by hiring a software development agency/company. A freelancer usually will work on one particular part of your app, so hiring multiple freelancers will end up costing too much.
On the other hand, a software development agency is one common ground for all your needs in the app and are easier to hold accountable and is more reliable. Therefore, paying more will generally yield better results.
No matter what you choose, here is a breakdown of the mobile app development cost, so you could understand what you are paying for.
:: UX Design
User experience is the most important aspect of your app and there are no doubts about it. It defines everything that the user sees, how they interact with the app. Given that there are millions of apps, the design has to be the greatest way for your app to stand out, especially if your competitors also have their own apps.
Since UX design is such an important part of your app, it’s understandable why it’s also the main part of the mobile app development cost. All of this to ensure that users actually like what they see and will come back. 90% of the businesses who have got success using the mobile app, happened because of the successful design.
:: Back-End
UX design and everything else a user interacts with is called the front-end. The back-end is the exact opposite, i.e. everything that happens behind when a customer interacts with the app. This is something that the customer doesn’t see.
The back-end includes the application itself, the database, and the server which hosts the database. Once you interact with the app, it sends data to the database and it can be retrieved later if necessary.
:: Security
Security is also part of the back-end, but it’s an important one, therefore it might have a big impact on the mobile app development cost. Your app may require users to register and log in to access different services. Therefore it’s important to keep this information secure. Customer’s data is the backbone of any company and getting it stolen can put a big strain on a company’s finances. That’s why it’s very important to consider investing in some additional security layers.
:: Maintenance
Developing and deploying the app is not everything. Times keep changing and so does the customer’s needs and requirements. Post-deployment maintenance is very important for the continuous growth of the app. From fixing the bugs and updating new features and functionalities, everything comes under the cost of maintenance.
Lastly…
Is the app worth it for your business? to be honest there’s no right or wrong answer to this question. Just like every company’s executive decisions, this too depends on company to company.
With that being said, I personally think that most of you would benefit a lot from developing the app from your business. Just make sure you have a relevant and well thought reason and goals behind getting your app developed.
If you are also planning to have your own mobile application, website, custom web app designed by a professional design team, or have any type of query or concern regarding its concept, technical know-how, the best way to get it done then don’t hesitate.
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