You had what you modestly call a flash of genius; you were truly inspired when you came up with a killer idea for an app. Go, you. But now comes the hard part: getting an app idea off the ground requires strategy, perseverance, and the right time behind you.
1. Conduct Market Research
Is your app idea ready for the market? Will it have a place – and will it stand out? Is there an app (or ten) that solves the same problem/challenge? Does it do what yours is going to do? If not, great. If so, it is essential that yours is better, different, and/or offers unique features.
2. Clarify Your Audience
Create customer personas to fully flesh out the folks in your target audience. Where are they from? In which industry do they work? Are they primarily men? Women? Teens? Tweens? Affluent? Working class? Gather demographic data so you can strategize about how best to engage them.
3. Analyze the Competition
You already know there are likely apps out there that solve, or attempt to solve, the same problem you are targeting with your app. Find out everything you can about them. What keywords do they target? What types of features do they offer? How are their ratings and reviews?
4. Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition
Given the crowd of apps, it is essential that yours stand out. How can you surpass the competition and grab the attention – and perhaps wallet share – of your target audience? This is your unique selling proposition; it’s the feature or functionality that sets you apart.
5. Do Better!
So, you have a terrific, competition-killing feature. Wonderful! Now, take a look at your app’s functionality in totality. What functions does it perform? What functions does it need to perform? What functions could it perform? Discover ways to do what you do – even better.
6. Flesh Out Your App Idea
What OS will you develop for (Android? iOS?)? Your demographic data will come in handy here too: you will be able to determine on which types of devices your audience is most likely to spend their digital time. This should influence your decisions at this point. Now dig in: what is the app going to look like? What about the user interface (UI)? Which features are most important? Get detailed when answering these questions; this will help you communicate more effectively with your app designer or developer down the road.
7. Connect with a Startup App Development Company
Before you get too far ahead of yourself, connect with an experienced startup app development company. Their team will have the skills you need to bring your ideas to life. At MVP.dev, our mission is to leverage our business technology expertise to help you achieve your goals. Our team includes 45 business analysts, developers, designers, and quality assurance analysts – and we become your team. If there are glitches or flaws, we’ll work them out. If there are areas for improvement, we’ll improve them. Our process takes you from idea to design to development to delivery, and we’re happy to walk you through each step. You don’t have to be a coder or programmer. We do app development for non-technical founders, too!
8. Think About Marketing
How are you going to promote your app? A sound marketing strategy is a must. Again, because the app market is so saturated, it is critical that you take every step possible to ensure customers can find you. Think about:
- Pre-marketing: Before you launch your app, how can you generate buzz?
- Advertising landing page: Create a landing page that describes your app, its features and functions, its benefits, and a compelling call to action.
- SEO and paid ads: You can increase awareness and recognition, as well as drive traffic.
- Social networks: Post, share, and put Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social sharing buttons on your landing page so it’s easy for people to talk about your app – and spread the word!
- Ongoing promotion: How will you sustain interest after launch?
9. Secure Funding
Now, how are you going to pay for all this? Funding, of course, makes or breaks your app! The complexity of your app will influence the price, so talk to your developer about a reasonable budget. Potential funding sources include a co-founder, VC firms, crowdsourcing, personal savings, and more.
10. Contact MVP.dev
If your idea has survived the evaluation stage, it’s go time. Contact the MVP.dev team to take the first steps toward a viable app. As an experienced startup app development company, we will guide you through the process and use our expertise to make your initiative a success.
Check our courses to learn more about building your app. Give us a call today!
