So you have a brilliant app idea. Does that mean you’re ready to take it to the development team?
Ask these questions to yourself first: Do you know who your target audience is? Do you understand your customers? Do you have a plan on how your app will reach your audience? How much do you know about your competitions? All in all, do you have a Marketing Strategy?
If the answer is no, then it might be a good idea to have a thorough understanding before developing the app. Developing an app without a marketing plan can lead to frustration and headaches down the road, not to mention significant rework – which can equal to big $$$.
In fact, the most common reason for mobile app failure lies in the lack of understanding of the businesses target market and brand. Below are 3 aspects of marketing that need to be considered when developing an app:
Understanding Your Audience
To launch a successful app, you must have a clear idea of the target demographic of your app. Your app needs to create values for its users by solving an identified problem. By identifying who your target audience is, you can decide how you will solve the problem.
For instance, a grocery app with a target of millennials vs. retirement homes would be very different. A variety of features, detailed categorizations and vibrant colours might appeal to millennials, but the colorful buttons would likely be considered “not practical” by seniors seeking a clear and simple way to get their groceries delivered.
Understanding your target market from the get-go allows you to design your app with your users in mind instead of trying to make a generic app to work for a specific audience later.
Mobile App Branding
The brand of your app refers to the overall image that your mobile app creates through an identifying symbol, mark, logo, name, word, sentence, and in any other forms. It goes without saying that having a branding strategy before starting to develop your app is important, so that the end product will be in alignment with your brand. Your branding needs to be appealing to your target audience and consistent with the products or services provided by the app. For example, a fitness app might consider using colours like orange, which communicates activity and energy and avoid light blue, which is calming and promotes sleep.
So what would happen if I decide to do my branding after I have the app? Unfortunately, reskinning is going to be expensive. The process is likely to involve all interfaces of your app and is going to take time for the development team. All in all, you do not want to waste your time and money on doing branding of your app after it is developed. By having brand standards from the beginning, UX designers can clearly identify your vision and develop an app that is aligned with your brand.
Customer-Centric Design
The digital experience of your customers plays an integral role in the branding of your organization. Customer centricity is essential to drive customer loyalty and recurring business.
Customer-centric design means building your app based on the wants, needs and challenges of your customers.
To build an app that is truly what your customers want, integrating customer centricity throughout the development and post-development process is required. Building an app that “works” is simply not enough. If the app fails to meet the users’ expectations or does not fulfill the needs of users, they will choose to stop using the app. For example, if your marketing plan is to sell your app to those who are very busy and are looking for a simple way to manage information, instead of developing a lot of complex features, focus on making the app effortless to use is more important. Otherwise, you might find yourself failing to retain your users. As a result, it is important to have a customer-centric marketing strategy from the get-go and align the development process with the strategy.
As app developers, we recognize the importance of integrating marketing strategies into your development plans. After all, what’s the point of developing an app when no one will use it? To ensure the success of your app idea, the Vog team not only is well equipped with our development expertise but we also offer marketing services. With the Vog team, your marketing strategies are always kept in mind throughout the development to ensure the success of both your app and your business!
