5 Strategies to increase your ROI when Developing a Mobile App

The first thing we notice when our prospective clients start developing a mobile app, is that they have no idea where to start the process.  They don't know what to expect from the mobile app development process or what to expect after the app is completed.

As we explained in a previous article,  "Mobile App Development:  Expectations vs Reality,"  the mobile app development process isn't what many people expect.  We talked about which expectations are actually fulfilled in software development companies, and how to avoid wasting time and money.  Mobile app development is not cheap, so the return on investment (ROI) should be clear from the beginning.

The mobile app development process should start with a strategy that is best adapted to capitalize on your app once it is ready.  Are you looking for an app to boost your company sales and have more contact with your customers? A game app or a sales app? Whatever the case, the return on investment will depend on the type of mobile app and the marketing strategy.

Are you conscious of what you need?

Usually, the development of a mobile app starts with abstract ideas of what we want. Rarely, however, do we have exactly well-defined business rules that we are going to apply within the app. 

A further point when developing a mobile app is to resolve the problems that we currently have and automate internal processes when possible. Mainly, we must be clear and conscious about the solution we offer our customers, Although we do not always know the fine details of what we need as far as business rules at the beginning, we can be clear on the solutions we offer.  

For example, many times our potential clients know they want a reservation and cancellation module.  They want to charge clients for cancellation at the time they request it, so we must know what percentage you will charge for the cancellation before starting the mobile app programming.

Do you have a marketing strategy?

Along the same lines, we must also prepare a good marketing strategy ready to launch as soon as the mobile app completed. Usually, clients download a campaign on Facebook Ads or Google Adwords so these platforms display our app to our potential consumers. 

The first step of a marketing strategy needs to be identifying our ideal client or target market.  For example, women between 25 and 35 years old who like to go to the spa and have healthy skin.

Furthermore, the app must resolve some problems the target customer has which can be linked to our business.  Most likely, through marketing strategy, we can distribute the promotions within a certain spa so that offers arrive within the mobile app as Push Notifications.

Do your products or services have a lot of demand?

When we already have a demand for our products or services, even the business must work without the app, but our clients ask us for an easier way to remember their appointments, change or cancel them, make payments, etc ... and that we are going to resolve their lives and we are going to give you a better experience by attending our business through the mobile app. 

Therefore, we cannot offer services that we do not handle if we do not have the public that needs them since marketing efforts will take more time to try to promote a service from scratch, and it will lengthen the time to achieve our ROI. 

What problems do you want to resolve?

As we mentioned before, the main goal of an app should be to solve your customer's problems. From the programming side, we must consider something called use cases where we put ourselves on the user's side and think about all the possible scenarios that a user may find when using the app:

• How will you register?
• What are the first screens we should make?
• What method of payment is preferred? 
• Can I postpone an appointment or make the payment.

We do not want to have an application that instead of solving problems creates them. Therefore, we must be very careful during the mobile app developing. We need to ensure the requirements and business rules are clearly defined and integrated into the process. We need to ensure that customers want to use the app instead of prefer a phone call

Is it a tool or a sales strategy?

One of the most common mistakes our clients make is that they want to create a mobile app instead of making a web page first.  Since they are just starting out,  their business doesn't have much demand yet.  After seeing this so many times,  we identified the main problem (mainly in distribution).   From our experiences,  we recommend clients that are going to start a business, do not make an app.

There is a baffling myth that it's better to have an app than a web page, but we completely disagree.  Unless you have a very good marketing strategy that supports your plan, the first step of a business exploring the digital world must be a website or a Facebook fan page.  The development of a mobile app must come as a consequence of the great demand generated through Facebook or website.   There is already demand for that the development of the mobile app does not become a critical point for the business and helped improve the experience of current customers to continue buying our products or services.

Remember, the last thing we want our mobile app to do is become an expense and negatively impact the finances of the business. In summary, the development process of a mobile app and its return on investment will depend on the strategy that we initially define. 

Working as a team with a software development company that understands your project and helps you achieve your goals is a process of trust and communication.

At Strappberry, we are experts in mobile app development and we have extensive experience with different projects helping to generate profitability and a return on investment (ROI) based on a strategy for each type of app, while in the same way developing a great user experience that requires quite complex modules.

If you are interested in having a mobile app or have many doubts please contact us to see if we can help you with the development. Don't forget to follow us on our social networks to learn more about the solutions we can create for you.