Mobile app development can often seem like a daunting field. After all, you may have a great idea for a mobile app that could fly off the shelves of the Google Play and Apple Stores, or you could have an idea that seems to crash for no particular reason. In reality however, the reasons behind why apps succeed or fail are not entirely arbitrary.
You can significantly shore up your app and its chances for success by conducting proper market research once you’ve crafted an idea for a mobile app. With careful planning and exploration, you will unlock the mobile app secrets that seem just out of reach. Let’s read ahead to take a look at the various ways that you can conduct research and examples of how to do so.
Determine Your Target Market
The first step in conducting market research for your new app should be to define your target market or target audience. Realistically speaking, your app is not going to appeal to everyone, nor should you want it to. You will certainly see more success if your focus is on a smaller, specific group of users such as yoga lovers or gamers between the ages of 18-35. Some categories to consider include:
- Age
- Location
- Lifestyle
- Habits
- Hobbies
You can also take a page from the books of market research companies and conduct some target customer research once you’ve determined your ideal customer. You can engage focus groups and ask them questions about things like what features are most important to them in an app, what UX aspects are deal breakers for them, and questions that help you to narrow down aspects such as their lifestyle habits.
This can be very helpful because it’s one thing to know what the most popular apps are for Gen Z, but you still want to know if your app will appeal to Gen Z users who are located in a particular city or who engage in a certain sport regularly, for example. This crucial research will ensure that you don’t develop and release an app that doesn’t appeal to the market it falls in.
Research Existing App Ideas
The next piece of the puzzle when it comes to market research is to comb through the existing app market through competitor research. Why is this important? Well, try to recall the last time you opened up the App Store or Google Play Store looking for an app to add emojis to your keyboard. You can probably remember seeing somewhere around 10 different apps that appeared to offer the same exact thing.
If you are developing an app, you want to avoid being just another in a sea of multiple apps that seem like carbon copies. Competitor analysis will help you know if the genre of your app is likely to succeed, but it also offers you a valuable opportunity to find areas in which your app can stand out. Through competitor research, you can determine what will make your app different from the ones already in existence, and how that difference will cause your app to shoot to the top of the list when it comes to apps that people want to download.
Engage in SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is another form of research that will serve to strengthen your app moving forward. SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The SWOT analysis is a framework that allows you to break down the different aspects of any idea or plan, including the one you have for your dream app. Let’s take a look into each individual aspect of the SWOT analysis here:
Strengths – Strengths will describe what is best about your app and what sets it above the rest. For your app, this could be a specific software integrated within it, a specific feature that others don’t have, or a niche target market that is just the one in need of your app.
Weaknesses – Weaknesses are the points where your app could be undermined. Examples of weaknesses for an app could be things like a lack of brand identity or a confusing interface for user experience.
Opportunities – Opportunities are outside factors that can contribute to the overall success of your app. An increased interest in cryptocurrency could be an opportunity for your app centered on cryptocurrency investing to thrive. Or, news about the negative impacts of climate change might provide a boost of interest for your app created to help users find recycling and composting centers nearby.
Threats – Threats are outside forces that could possibly be detrimental to the success of your app. Examples of this include a lack of market need or struggles obtaining funding.
By going in-depth with your app analysis from the very beginning, you can go through the process of development and marketing with a stronger foundation, thereby setting you up for the best chance at success moving forward.
Build an App Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve completed all of the pre-launch stages of research, you can turn to thinking about how you will want to market your app in order to secure a strong user base. App marketing is no small feat, so it would be wise to invest in working with an app marketing company. This gives you access to professional advice and guidance in order to help you achieve the goals you have set for yourself and your app.
The company can take a look at your SWOT analysis and see if there are any blind spots you and/or your team may have missed. An app marketing agency can also dive into the demographics and psychographics of your chosen target audience in order to help you develop a paid and organic ads strategy to reach them. Overall, the company can build on the wise work you’ve already done in order to help your app reach and please more users. Armed with these steps, you will be well on your way to building and marketing the app of your dreams!