How to Develop a Perfect Mobile App Strategy for Your Business?

Having an App is no guarantee, but if you have the right mobile App strategy in place, you customer and business will benefit.

Mobile App Strategy

Are you still ignoring cell phones as part of your marketing strategy?

With mobile users spending more than 69% of their media time on smartphones, it’s no only a viable tool, but an essential tool for marketers to pitch their brand USP.

To have legitimate online business, and also to garner any amount of credibility, businesses need to have an app that shows they are at par with the changing times.

Considering the massive impact an app can have on you business, it’s not really a question of having an app, but more of how to develop the right mobile App strategy for your business.

Mobile – the sensible user acquisition choice for businesses

Entrepreneurs would agree to the fact that a mobile phone has become the easiest portal to engage your customers.

Mobile phones support mobile apps, which serve as a single platform from where your users can perform a variety of functions.

You as an e-commerce brand can also attract audiences by offering benefits like discounts, vouchers, coupon codes, etc.

If you have a small or a medium sized business, an online presence becomes all the more important.

Having a mobile app leverages your business and helps spread the word faster.

With a stunning 80% of internet users accessing the World Wide Web from their phones, you can easily determine the medium your target audiences go to when they need to search information or make a buying decision.

The need for a strategic mobile presence

If you want to reap the benefits of going mobile, you need to have a strong and effective mobile app strategy in place that will allow you to oversee the process from beginning to end.

This comes only with thorough research and following proper methodology.

The sign of a good e-commerce strategy is its alignment with the company’s mission, vision and objectives. It should encourage the audiences into buying, and should inform the audiences how different your services are than that of the competition; and that why is it that what you offer is better.

Tips for effective mobile app strategy

In order for you to create an accurate blueprint to work from, here are 10 mobile app strategy steps that never fail.

 

  1. Highlight your company’s strategy:

 

As mentioned earlier, your company’s vision, mission and objectives should resonate in your strategy. You do not make a mobile app for your company every day. Hence, you need to look at things in terms of the big picture.

You need to have a foresight regarding how your app would be helpful even 5-7 years down the line, for your company.

Your mobile app needs to estimate your audiences’ mindset and accordingly add value for your customers, as that is the only way you can get your audience to use it after all.

 

  1. Know the user end:

 

Never base your app’s performance on assumptions.

Your app needs to be able to distinguish between a wide foray of customers, who can be differentiated on the basis of age, business, gender, etc.

An excellent app would not make assumptions and therefore not suggest things which may not suit the user’s taste and preferences.

 

  1. You need to run the SWOT analysis:

 

SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat.

This analysis helps decision making. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors such as cash inflow, expertise of the workforce, etc.

Opportunity and threat on the other hand are external factors like competition, demand for your services, etc. You need to analyze your resources on the basis of this, and you can function your system effectively.

 

  1. Know what you are up against:

 

Knowing your competition is essential.

You need to run thorough research on your competition so that you can understand why they have their apps in place, and for what.

You will not only know what your competition is doing, but you will know what seems to work well for them, and consequently find a way to outdo it.

 

  1. Centralize your app’s purpose:

 

Your mobile app development framework needs to encircle a main core.

Just like BookMyShow focuses on movie tickets and Grofers focus on groceries, your app too needs to have one singular purpose.

BookMyShow2016-Android-Redesigned-App-

Once you have the purpose in mind, you need to pitch it well.

When you are calling out to your audiences to download your app, you are asking the customer to allow you some space on their phones. So you have to make sure that you offer a compelling reason for them to do that.

 

  1. What type of app would you desire?

 

Having a clear understanding of the app you would need is a must.

It gives you an idea of the kind of app you would want. Based on the interests of your audiences, you can choose if you would want a native app or a hybrid app.

While native apps support only one platform, so your audience will need to down a separate app for each platform (example Facebook, Facebook Messenger, etc.), hybrid apps uses a single build code to work on different platforms all alike.

 

  1. Fix on a methodology:

 

Based on your understanding of your user base, you can either choose the Agile methodology, or the Waterfall methodology.

In waterfall methodology, you get to decide the parameters of your mobile app development. In Agile methodology however, work is done simultaneously across different sections of the app.

 

  1. Where to place development?

 

Having an IT team is great as it helps build your e-commerce mobile app from scratch. But if you don’t have one, it is wiser to outsource. Building a team could cost you more and offer you less efficiency.

Young entrepreneurs need to know that it is beneficial to invest in what is per-established than to go for it from scratch.

 

  1. Your go-to marketing strategy:

Once you have your business app, you need to launch it properly.

You need to hit the nails hard, in the sense that you need to put out your USPs in the best manner possible. To garner visibility for your site, try app advertisements and banner ads.

 

You can streamline your marketing efforts using tools that aid app analytics and target the number of downloads and app installations, etc.

 

10. Testing phase:

 

The curse of an app, no matter how well made, are the bugs. Even one little bug could make your customer’s app experience bad.

You need to eradicate bugs from your apps so that your customers have a great time on the app and get an incredible purchase experience. Fail-proofing goes a long way in gaining your audiences’ trust.

 

To wrap up

 

Businesses are increasingly vying for the mobile users’ attention. With these strategies you can develop an unmatched mobile app strategy. In turn, your e-commerce business can benefit from its app presence online, acquire more users online, and generate whopping revenue.