Many people have lots of ideas but only a few are able to execute. Everyone can come up with lots of ideas. Executing on those ideas is the hardest. And that puts off aspiring entrepreneurs. But, remember, your idea doesn’t have to be the next Instagram or Pokemon Go to get a shot at success. If you strongly believe you have a solution to problem or can make an existing app better, don’t hesitate to give it a go.
If you are not sure what to do with your killer idea just yet, these tips will help you. If you don’t have the technical skills to build your own app, you can easily get help. You always have options. Submitting app ideas for consideration and development is a great option for aspiring entrepreneurs.
What you need to know!
App development is a business. And like any other business, you need a set of skills, from design and product to support, planning, marketing, finance, and so forth. You don’t have to have all the skills to successfully launch a business. But you need a good start.
Many entrepreneurs get others on board to take care of the different stages of the app development and launch process. Hands on programming is ideal if plan on launching a mobile app, and learning to code is a very useful and healthy life skill but you don’t have to be capable of writing your own code to create an app. You can team up with other developers to get you started.
What kind of app do you want to build?
Do you want to build an Android or an iPhone app? Your market demographic has a lot of influence on your choice of platform. Your ultimate goal may be to create for both Android and iOS platforms, but that’s too much to handle in the beginning. Focus on building a quality and working prototype for a single platform and iterate as much as possible to make it even better. Make improvement a priority once you launch.
Idea evaluation and risks
Once you a great idea for an app, it pays to test and evaluate its potential before you waste time and resources on an app that may not be useful to your target audience. Ask potential users for constructive and objective criticisms. Find out how many apps are similar to what you want to do.
Search thoroughly for related apps on the each of the apps market and find out everything you need to know. Do any of the apps rank in the top 200 for their respective categories?
Even better, the app stores have public ratings and reviews that can be relevant to your research. You may be able to deliver what users are looking for from other apps if you know exactly what users expect.
Plan to get noticed. You success depends on it!
What’s your unique selling proposition? Plan to stand out. You must be doing something very useful to get the right attention. There millions of apps on both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. Competition is fierce. You should have a strategic plan to get your app to the right audience.
Unless you have an already existing targeted email list or hundreds of thousands of unique audience you can market to, you have to explore every avenue to get attention. App development success is dependant on people actually finding, installing and using it.
The most important channels you should explore for marketing purposes are app store optimisation, search traffic (via content marketing, and traditional SEO), marketing to your existing email lists (if you have one), submitting to the right app directories, promoting it to an existing social media base and paid advertising when you have the resources.
How do you intent to make money?
The three things to keep in mind when planning to launch an app:
- Will your app be free or paid?
- Will the app have in-app items?
- Will you show ads and what type and how often?
Most developers consider different scenarios and factors when making a decision about making money from their apps. You could make it free and sell products or service through a website with the app serving as a channel. You can also focus on a minimal upfront price. Or even make it free and show in-app ads.
The best way to make money from your app is find out whether there is demand for your app before you even start to build it.
One important thing to consider is whether your overall monetization strategy affect the user experience and what to do about it.
Sounds like a lot of hard work. Yes, app development takes time and a lot of work. If you get it right, it is definitely worth your time.