Mobile app development services was a lot different and complicated in complete contrast to the business app development scenario just half a decade ago. Yes, custom software application development services are increasingly getting complex, quality-conscious, and user-focused. Since everything has an app now, developers need to focus on creating value to stand out from the rest and remain profitable.
The biggest challenge for any business app development is also the most elementary one. To remain profitable is not just an objective but the principal goal of an app. However, the excellent user experience you provide for the users and yet innovative a solution you provide for any user problem through your app, the principal focus should not deviate from running the app like a profitable business.
But the question is how you can ensure building a profitable application. Well, based upon the time tested principles here, we are going to figure out the most effective principles that make an app consistently profitable.
Make a Target Audience Based on In-Depth Research
The first and invaluable thing is to know your target users and accordingly deliver a solution that caters to their demands or the problems they are facing. This needs beginning with extensive and in-depth user research. Some of the critical things that market research should focus on discovering include the following.
Which apps in your niche are your immediate competitors?
Which apps in and around your niche still offer some competition?
What business strategy successful competitors mostly follow?
What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the competitor apps?
What are the fundamental shortcomings and pain points that your competitors failed to address
What do most of their users say while reviewing their apps on social platforms?
What is the unique selling point offered by the competitor apps?
Now that you have figured out the value proposition of your competitor apps and their shortcomings, you need to decide about pitching the app solution for a specific target audience. Let’s have a quick look at different aspects of pitching the app to your target audience.
What is the solution that your app provides to the user problems and how it differs from that of competitors?
Can you explain your unique solution with specific use cases?
What is the critical functionality of the app?
What is the key reason for people to use the app?
What additional value does the app provide compared to that of competitors?
What business goals can you achieve through the app besides revenue?
Who is the ideal audience who will be most benefited by the app?
What features and functionalities is his audience most fascinated about?
While pitching your app to the audience, you need to have detailed answers to all these questions.
Business Model and Monetization
Your app must run like a business, and it should generate revenues consistently. This requires a well-documented business model along with monetization methods. Well, there are several monetization models, and the choice largely depends on the type of your app, your target audience, the target demographics, and some similar factors.
Let’s have a look at some essential monetization methods for mobile apps.
Freemium: The free to download apps with some key features and app content remaining locked can be categorized under this business model.
Premium: The apps that require purchasing from the app store come under this category, and they are likely to offer better value compared to the free apps.
In-app purchase: The apps that allow users to make purchases of different kinds of digital or actual products come under this category.
Subscriptions: This type of app requires users to purchase a subscription plan for using the app for a limited period of time.
In-app ads: This type of app without incurring any cost on the user earns revenue by displaying relevant ads.
Sponsorships: This monetization model only works great when you achieve a certain user base. When you partner with another brand, they pay for having access to your users’ base for the marketing of their products or services.
A Perfect UI/UX Design
Finally, to make your app profitable, you need to build it with an engaging user interface excellent user experience. From the very first moment of onboarding a custom mobile application development to browsing the content to take specific in-app actions, the UI/UX design should facilitate effortless and easy engagement and seamless interactions.
Here are some of the fundamental design principles that the UI/UX of the app should achieve.
The design should be minimalistic and free of visual clutter. By minimizing the cognitive load, you can help users take actions that fetch your business.
A superb onboarding experience with a precise value proposition and effortless navigation for getting this done can keep users engaged.
Facilitate a conversational flow to synchronize user activities in a smooth flow.
Use custom push notifications with the user’s freedom to accept in-app messages and notifications as per his preferences.
Make the App Future-Proof
You may have built a great app with superb user experience and an attractive user interface. But within a year or so, your app may look commonplace when other competitor apps appear with better user experience and user interface attributes. Competition in the mobile app development space is so rigorous that you always need to be on your toe to meet the demands of competition. This is why it is important to use future-proof design principles and technologies to stay ahead of the competition.
Let’s provide here with some tips to stay future proof.
Use future-ready technologies that help apps stay on top in terms of performance and speed.
Go for a design convention that has a higher shelf life than the so-called trending ones.
Make way for constant iteration to add more value in respect of design and features with every new update.
Conclusion
For profitable app development, you also should go for faster release of the app product. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach of development has been a great approach to ensure faster app launching, minimum initial cost, and scope of constant iteration based on user feedback. This is something a mobile app development company needs to take care of.
Nathan McKinley is Business Development Manager at Cerdonis Technologies LLC thorough and comprehends app development for various devices and technologies. He has extensive knowledge of vulnerable prospects of mobile/web and software technologies and likes to share his opinions on new tech updates with informative insights.
