Steps Towards Success: A guide to successful App Development for Startups

Everyone wants a successful business. For a successful business, you should have a successful app. Before developing an app, you should know the requirements. For example, correct market trends, geographic location, operating system, etc. Without proper planning, you cannot develop a successful app.

How to make a thriving app in this competitive market is what the topic of this article. Everyone has some budget. You have to develop an app under your budget.

This article will help you develop a quality app under your budget. Here, we have listed the crucial steps that help you make your app successful.

Step 1. Idea

An app idea lays the foundation stones for your app. It is the first step towards the successful app development. Ask yourself the following questions:

What is the goal to develop an app?
What do you expect from your app?
Why do customers prefer your app from the others?
What problem of the customers will your app solve?
What makes your app unique?

Note down these points in a notebook and research these points. Remember, you are developing the app for the customers, not for yourself.

Step 2. Market Research and target audience

Before developing an app, you should do proper market research. It is the only way to know about the current market trends. Spend your time on the internet and study the analytics of the app market. Also, do not forget to look into the similar apps. Analyzing the same apps, you will know the features that are necessary for a particular app. Make a list of these essential features. This list will help you during the developing process.

You can do market research by the following ways:

By using a tool. The best tool to analyze the market trends is the Google Trends. You can find here the search volumes. These search volumes are vital as they can modify your app idea.
You can conduct small surveys. Take advantage of the social media in this context. You can do a voting survey on the Facebook by posting some questions. For example, which features should an app has? What should be the redundant features? Polls are very helpful. These will help you enter the customers’ minds. By conducting the surveys, you can easily know about the customers’ choices.
Competition analysis. It is the central part of the market analysis. Hence, do not ignore this point. Identify your competitors and analyze their apps. Try to find out why users like their apps. For example, if you are developing an e-commerce app, first examine the apps of the famous giants like Flipkart, Amazon, etc.

Step 3. Operating System

The main aim of developing an app is to generate revenue. Hence, select the operating system for your app wisely. Do internet research to identify which operating system suits you the best. You can choose any of the operating systems such as Android, iOS, Windows, etc. Select an operating system which is most popular among the users. Today, only two giants hold the most significant market share, Android of Google and iOS of Apple. Hence, selecting any of these two operating systems is a good step towards success.

The following factors affect the selection of an operating system:

App downloads. Among these two OS, Android enjoys more downloads. If we talk about the statistics, Google Play store has recorded about 114 billion app downloads in 2017. While on the other hand, iOS has recorded around 30 billion app downloads in the same year.
Annual revenue. If we talk about the yearly income, Apple wins the battle. Google Play store generated around $20 billion in 2017. Whereas, the App Store generated approximately $40 billion in the same year.
The geographical factors also affect the selection of an OS. Android operating system enjoys the most significant share across the globe. The developing countries like India, Africa, etc. have a higher number of Android users as compared to the iOS users. While the data is opposite in the developed countries like America, Australia, etc.

Apart from this, do not forget to read the store guidelines.

Step 4. Select the type of app

The fourth step is to select the type of app. There are three types of apps:

Native app
Hybrid app
Progressive Web apps

Before selecting any of these apps, you should know what they are and what their pros and cons are.

Apart from these, you can also select cross-platform app development. The cross-platform apps can run on multiple platforms. Hence, these apps result in the highest revenue.

Step 5. Development

After selecting an operating system and the type of app, you can proceed with its development. If you know how to develop an app, it is an added advantage. Otherwise, you have to look for the app development services. Let’s see:

You can handle your project to a company which provides the app development services. For this, you have to do research on the internet and find the best app development companies. Make a list of such companies. Also, write their rates. Select the company which provides the best services in low budget.
You can also hire an app developer. For native apps, you have to look for a particular app developer. For example, you have to hire Android app developer if you select the Android OS.

Step 6. Marketing

Get ready for marketing of your app. Once your app is ready, you have to promote it. App promotion is necessary. By supporting your app, you aware the people about your app. Various ways for the app promotion are available. Let’s see:

Social media: Social media is one of the best tools to promote a business. Take advantage of social media to support your app. According to research, most of the people like to spend their leisure time on their smartphones. They do various activities on their phones, like internet surfing, social media conversation, etc. A single post on the social media will make your app reach to the hundreds to thousands of people.
SEO: SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization. It is the technique which helps in improving the ranking of the websites. If you want your app to be visible in the stores, you should have good content in the apps’ description.

Conclusion

Apps are a great tool to promote one’s business. They are the excellent source of revenue. You should do proper market research and know your competitors well.

Remember, customers only download your app, if the features it contains are unique and better than the apps they are using. Besides this, you should select an operating system wisely.

If you want a successful app, you should follow the steps discussed in this article.