In this age of digitization, mobile apps are a requirement and have become necessary for every business, be it big or small. With over 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide in 2020, the global mobile app market is growing at an astonishing rate without leaving any signs of slowing down in the coming days. Therefore, it is crunch time for entrepreneurs to invest in custom mobile app development to stay ahead in the game in this highly competitive era. This blog sheds light on the process of building a custom mobile application for your business. But before delving more profound, it’s crucial to understand the business benefits of investing in custom mobile app development.
Business Benefits of Building a Custom Mobile App
Improves Customer Loyalty
Mobile apps could help businesses to build strong customer relationships. You can send real-time personalized updates to your customers and inform them about your new services, products, upcoming offers, or discounts with mobile apps. Customers can directly share their suggestions about your products and services. The feedback received could help you build future strategies and make informed decisions for your business. Moreover, you can provide your customers with 24×7 customer support and solve their queries in a time-efficient manner.
Boosts Business Revenue
Mobile apps help businesses improve customer engagement and work as a source to boost business revenue. Having a custom mobile app could help your organization to get more visibility. You can upload your app to the play store or app store to expand your market reach. A broader market reach will help you gain more leads, which will play a vital role in improving your business revenue and building a solid brand presence.
A Step-by-Step Process to Build a Custom Mobile App
Step 1- Identify Your Business Goal
Whether you’re building a mobile app or a website, every project must begin with a clearly defined business goal. Identifying the goal and planning your entire development process is the key to creating a successful custom mobile app. Here are some questions that one must answer before setting a business goal:
- What are your business requirements?
- Does your app idea have a unique value proposition?
- Is your app fulfilling the end-user needs?
- What problems are you willing to solve with your app?
- What is the current mobile app market scenario?
Step 2: Conduct a Market Research
Once you’re done with identifying your business goal, the next step is to conduct market research. Without conducting an in-depth market survey, starting with app development could waste your valuable resources, time, and money. So it’s crucial to examine who your target audience is, what’s trending in the market, who your competitors are, which types of mobile apps they are working on, their pricing plans, and more. It’s recommended to attend hackathons, meetups, and tech events to analyze the current market scenario and understand the basic user needs.
Step 3: Create a Wireframe
After conducting thorough market research, creating a rough layout of your custom mobile app is necessary. The purpose of creating a digital wireframe is to represent the layout schemes and core components of an app to understand the whole app idea. A wireframe keeps developers on the same page and gives them an idea of how the app will work and look.
Step 4: Choose a Development Method
Selecting the right development method to build a robust custom mobile app depends on many factors like budget, app type, timeframe, and more. However, it’s crucial to pick the development method that suits your business requirements. Below listed are some different ways to build a custom mobile app:
- Native App Development
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Native app development is the method of creating an app for a particular operating system. If you are willing to launch your app on both the play store and app store, you must hire a developer with a profound knowledge of android and iOS platforms.
- Hybrid App Development
It is a cost-effective and time-saving alternative to native app development. In this method, developers don’t need to develop separate apps for both android and iOS platforms. PhoneGap, Framework7, and React Native are some popular frameworks that allow developers to create a single app and then deploy it on both the app store and play store as per their convenience.
- Existing App Builder
If your budget is extremely low and you’re not comfortable with the above two methods, it is recommended to use an existing mobile app builder. Try to find a reliable app development solution with extensive drag & drop functionality, and your app will be ready in no time. You can also buy a ready-made app development solution from a custom mobile app development company.
Step 5: Test Your App
After the development is finished, you need to test your mobile to fix bugs and user interface errors. There are two basic methods of testing your mobile app:
- White Box Testing: It is a software testing method that tests an app’s internal structure and design. Software developers mainly perform white box testing.
- Black Box Testing: This testing method tests the app functionality without viewing the internal app structure. Black box testing is performed by software testers or QA(Quality Assurance) specialists.
Step 6: Launch Your App
The last step of a custom app development process is to deploy your app on different app stores. To avoid any consequences, it’s necessary to understand the submission guidelines of the app store to which you’re going to deploy your app.
Post Launch Process: What to do After Developing Your App?
Market Your App
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Once the app has been deployed, it’s time to launch a marketing campaign to attract new users.
- Market your app on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more.
- Use SEO tactics and run PPC campaigns to drive app traffic via search engines.
- Follow ASO(App Store Optimization) strategies to increase your app reach on app stores.
Track KPIs and Gather User Feedback
Tracking KPIs regularly and gathering user feedback will help you to analyze your app’s performance.
- Check user reviews and comments on app stores and other promotional platforms.
- Track KPIs to determine the app areas that need further improvements.
Wrap Up
This blog shared information on business benefits, the app development process, and marketing strategies. However, developing a custom mobile app from scratch could be challenging for entrepreneurs. It is advisable to seek consultation from a reliable custom mobile app development company in such a case.
