If you didn't know, there are 4,410,000 apps in the Google and Apple app stores. That is ALOT of apps. I have maybe 300 currently installed on my iPhone at the moment and spend maybe 75% of my time on 20 of them. In the 12 year history of the app store, competition among mobile apps is at an all-time high. There are millions of mobile apps, but few will be as widely adopted as WhatsApp, Uber, and Facebook. If you want your app to be more than a flash in the pan, you need more than coding skills.
There are six steps for taking your app from idea to having a thriving business.
- Create a business strategy
- Hire app developers
- Budgeting & planning
- App development
- Marketing
- Support & maintenance
While this article focuses more on the mobile app development, it can still be a good read if you are creating web applications as the overall development process is somewhat similar.
1. Create A Business Strategy
Creating an app without a strategy is like building a house without a blueprint. It is possible, but you won’t be happy with the end result.
Define Your Business Needs
Your app should solve a problem or offer unique value to consumers. Billion dollar apps solve big problems that affect a lot of people. Every successful app has a defined purpose. Google Drive allows you to quickly and efficiently access, create, and store files. Uber offers you ride sharing services at your doorstep. Your big idea should be something you see consumers using frequently.
Conduct competitive research
An app idea alone doesn't make it unique. Through research, you may discover similar app ideas attempting to solve the same problem. A competitive analysis will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of these mobile apps. Does their app solve your problem? Is there a way you can improve upon that solution? How successful is their app? Is there really a market for another app with a similar idea? Do they have a mobility strategy?
Read: How to develop a successful mobility strategy
2. Hire App Developers
Once you have a business strategy in place, it is time to build your app. If you have the skills to develop the app yourself, go for it! However, quality mobile apps require different skillsets such as UI design, programming, QA testing, and project management. It is more likely that you have a team of specialists building out your app idea. You have a few hiring options.
Hire In-house Developers
In-house developers can be a great choice in certain situations. You can hire exactly what you need and keep everything internal. However, the process of building a team can be time-consuming. What if you are in a region that has a small talent pool? Hiring the best talent is near impossible or could take months to fill the roles. Hiring in-house developers can also add fixed costs to your payroll.
Hire Freelancers
Hiring freelancers can provide you flexibility as you are not committing to them long term. Though, most app development projects will require the skills of multiple freelancers. This can present project management challenges. You will also be dependent on the availability of freelancers as many work on multiple projects at the same time. Most companies hire freelancers for a specialized skill and short term assignments.
Hire app development agency
An app development agency eliminates the fixed costs associated with in-house developers. It also eliminates project management overheads and challenges associated with hiring a group of freelancers. Most app development agencies provide end-to-end services taking your project from idea through launch. It is important to note that sourcing the right app development agency has its own caveats. Google is an incredible tool, but it isn’t perfect. Sometimes, you may notice that your local search results include overseas companies. We recommend extending your research to LinkedIn or Apps Inc, a business directory exclusive to US-based agencies.
Who you hire to create your app can make a huge difference in the outcome. This is the most critical decision you will have to make.
Budgeting
According to Gartner, less than one percent of mobile apps are successful. Insufficient funding is one of the main reasons why apps fail. So how do you estimate and budget your app project? If you have in-house developers or if you are hiring freelance developers then you should seek estimates from them. If you are considering hiring an app development company then you should seek estimates from at least three different companies. In addition, you can also try an app cost calculator to get a ballpark estimate.
As part of your estimation and budgeting process, you will have to make technology decisions. Do you want to build a native app or do you want to build a mobile-friendly / responsive web app? What you choose will influence pricing and timing.
If you are trying to budget for a startup app business, keep in mind that technology / app development is typically 40% of your overall investments. When you budget, you need to consider both external and internal costs. You will require funds to invest into marketing, support, and administrative functions. You might also incur hosting fees if your app requires a back-end program running from a server. So for example, if the cost of app development is $100,000 and if your app is not going to start generating substantial revenues soon after the launch then you should have at least $250,000 available to create a successful app business.
If you don't have sufficient funding available rather than giving up on your app idea, we recommend creating a minimum viable product (MVP) or starting with wireframes / prototypes. This can help you demonstrate your idea to potential investors to get additional funding.
App Development
There are five stages in the mobile app development cycle - define, design, develop, test, and deploy.
Define
For the apps with a limited scope and low complexity you can create an app in iteration following agile processes without gathering a lot of details upfront. However, more complex apps will need use cases / user stories to capture detailed requirements for each function. All stakeholders should contribute to defining project scope. This process can help clarify the project scope for the development team.
Design
In 2020, app design cannot be an afterthought. Consumers prefer products that offer an intuitive user experience, polished UI design, and good performance. The design phase focuses on visual design and solution design. To create visual designs, the app designer can translate the app requirements into wireframes using design tools like Invision, Sketch, or Adobe XD. For solution design, your app development team will identify an app’s architecture, technology stack, database structure, and API design.
Develop
Now that you have your app designs, it is time to develop your app. Most app development projects involve front-end development, API development, and back-end development. Don’t just jump into programming. Prioritize the requirements and create a milestone based development plan. As your team completes each milestone, you should review it to ensure it meets your expectations. In addition, you will want to include a process for handling project changes. In many projects, stakeholders may make suggestions that change the project scope. Having a change control system will help manage, evaluate, and prioritize changes.
Test
Quality assurance (QA) testing ensures you provide a stable, secure, and functional app. Best practices suggest that you should conduct multiple tests across each aspect of your application. User experience testing will validate your app with app designs. Functional testing will verify that each feature within the app works. Performance testing ensures the app loads quickly, there are no memory leaks, and the app doesn’t drain the device battery. Security testing looks for vulnerabilities that could put user data at risk. Device testing ensures the app functions with each annual device release. Many modern applications rely on automation testing to reduce manual testing efforts. Automation testing can also simulate multi-user and load testing scenarios during testing. We encourage you to involve all stakeholders to participate in the testing stage. Any feedback you receive in the test phase should be tracked, reviewed, and prioritized.
Deploy
iOS app should be submitted on the Apple App Store. Android app should be submitted on Google Play. Once you submit the app, it goes through a review process. Google needs a few hours to review and approve your app. Apple takes about a week due to its stringent review process. The app store will notify you if your app doesn’t meet its guidelines. In which case, you’ll have to address those issues and resubmit your app. The app will be available for download when the app store approves it.
If app development includes database and back-end work, you will have to deploy these separately. Many companies rely on cloud service providers such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure to host their web applications and databases.
Find out: How Long Does It Take To Create An App?
App Marketing
Each app store has millions of apps. Discovering apps in the app store is not as straightforward as searching for a website in your browser. If your app isn't a high-ranking "featured app", your app will be difficult to discover organically. Implementing a marketing strategy will help your audience discover your app through other marketing channels.
Just as you have hiring options for your development team, you also have options for your marketing team. You can hire in-house marketers, you can hire freelance marketers, or you can hire a marketing agency that specializes in marketing apps. Whatever you choose, make sure the marketers have a firm understanding of mobile app marketing. They should understand the app development process, tech trends, app stores, and app promotions. Most marketing agencies will work on a retainer-basis with monthly fees ranging from $5000 to over $20,000.
Support & Maintenance
Mobile app development is an ongoing process. The truth is no matter how perfect the original app is, there is always room for improvement. You must consider user feedback, market demands, new competitors, and advancements in technology.
Application maintenance will include any updates related to app performance. Platforms like Google Firebase help app owners monitor performance metrics. Firebase offers performance monitoring, crash reports, user analytics, and much more. In addition to maintenance updates, you may want to consider enhancing your app with new features. This will help you earn new app users and retain existing users.
Conclusion
There is a lot that goes into creating an app but with the right strategy and the right team, you can turn your app idea into a successful business.
At Invonto, we’ve been making mobile apps since 2008. We’ve created many successful apps for companies across the USA from finance, construction, healthcare, industrial engineering, entertainment, retail, travel, and consumer products industries. Some of our success stories include voting app for America’s Got Talent, personal finance management app for Transamerica, construction scheduling app for D. R. Horton, Telehealth app for ReconSTAT, and enterprise apps for Sealed Air. We guide our clients from the idea stage through successful launch, providing our consultation for each stage of the process. We provide turn-key projects so that our clients can remain focused on the frontline of their business. Please feel free to reach out to us to say hello, to learn more about what we do, or to discuss what we can do for your business.
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