A Behind the Scenes Look at Launching Your First Mobile App

8 factors to consider when investing in your first mobile app

From a marketing and branding perspective, launching a mobile app can yield very positive results. However, you’ll also notice that many businesses launch an app, only to see it flop. How can you ensure that your investment in a mobile app is high returning and not wasteful? Well, you need a firm understanding of the process.

The Value of Mobile Apps 

It’s challenging to hone in on the specific and tangible value of mobile apps. The trouble is that apps are valued differently in certain industries. Furthermore, an app may work for one business but flop for the closest competitor. Since a mobile app can be such a costly and time-intensive investment for a business, it’s imperative that you understand the value and risks in advance.

You should only consider a mobile app if you know the penetration of smartphones within your target market is substantial (which it almost always is in today’s marketplace), and are convinced that customers would benefit from having information delivered directly to their fingertips.

If you’re confident in these two things, then a mobile app could be right for your business. It will allow your business to add an additional touch point that will ultimately enhance the perceived value of the brand by offering additional opportunities for engagement.

“I’m not saying a mobile app is going to save your business, but it can be a way of staying closer to your customers, and being just a ‘fingertip’ away at all times,” says Melanie Haselmayr, CEO of Mevvy.

The Mobile App Development Process

Once you’ve made up your mind that a mobile app is right for your business, it’s time to shift your attention towards the development process. While we’re going to provide you with an overview, it’s crucial that you take it step by step. Remain patient, handle issues as they arise, and keep the end goal in mind.

1. Set Your Goals

As is the case with any major business undertaking, designing and launching a mobile application must begin with goal setting. We’re not talking about goal setting for the sake of simply saying you set a goal. We’re talking about actually brainstorming, arguing, and defining specific outcomes you want to experience as a result of this process.

If you scroll through your favorite app store, you’ll notice that for every successful app, there are a dozen underwhelming and overlooked ones. Why is this? Well, in most cases it’s a direct result of a failure to set goals. Businesses think they can release an app under their brand and success will automatically follow. This isn’t true. Even big brands struggle to produce quality apps because they fail to set goals.

Set goals from start to finish and make sure you’re pursuing a mobile app for the right reasons. You can save yourself a lot of trouble down the road if you get this step right.

2. Start Sketching

Once you’ve set your goals and developed some ideas, it’s time to hit the drawing board. Develop some sketches of the interface of your app, the main features, structure, and layout. These rudimentary sketches may not resemble the final product, but they are the first step in transitioning from an idea to a tangible design.

3. Develop a Functional Prototype

Here’s where things get fun. Once you’ve developed a handful of sketches, it becomes time to turn those paper drawings into a functional prototype. Some call this a wireframe or mockup, but the idea is the same. You want to develop a model of your app that can be interacted with and tested, prior to investing in coding.

According to Margaret Kelsey of InVision, a tool that allows companies to build working prototypes without code, “Ultimately, functional prototyping brings the user to the aha moment quicker.”

In many cases, people learn that the version they drew on a sketchpad isn’t a workable version. The beauty of functional prototyping is that you can create a product that looks and feels like the end-version, but doesn’t require the time and money to produce. It curbs some of the risk and allows you to make changes that you didn’t know were necessary when the design was purely two-dimensional. 

4. Focus on User Experience

As you work with your functional prototype and begin actually coding the app, you need to focus all of your energy on the user experience. The biggest turnoff for consumers is downloading an app that doesn’t look good or function properly. It’s important that you make the app smooth, sleek, and error-free.

As you move through the design and development process, you’ll encounter glitches and issues. Fix them as they come. Don’t wait until you’re done to take care of them.

5. Build Out the Back End

Now that you’ve defined your app and seen it in action, it’s time to develop the back end of your system. This is where it becomes necessary to hire a professional developer who can set up servers, APIs, databases, and modern storage solutions.

During this phase, you should also go ahead and sign up for developer accounts for all of the app marketplaces you’ll be publishing through. This process can take a few days or weeks, so don’t wait until the night before the release to do this.

6. Invest in Thorough Testing

At this stage of the process, the key to a successful release is rooted in your dedication to thorough testing. You cannot over-test your app. However, it’s very easy to skimp on testing.

Thorough testing doesn’t mean simply passing the app around the office and asking for input from employees. You should actually go out and engage with your target market.

If you’re a supermarket developing an app to help customers organize and store digital coupons, walk down the aisles and ask users to test the app for themselves. If you’re an accounting firm designing an app that helps clients send secure documents, then meet with your most loyal clients and ask them what they think.

This is what some in the industry would call the “make or break” aspect of app development. If you can iron out flaws and highlight strengths prior to the release, you’re much more apt to see positive results.

7. Release

The release of the app is the fun part. If you’ve followed protocol, paid attention to each individual step, and invested in thorough testing, the release should go smoothly. The biggest thing about the release is making sure you understand how each marketplace is structured.

For example, Android doesn’t review new apps right away. You’re free to upload your app to the Google Play store and they’ll eventually check it out. On the other hand, iOS has a stricter policy. They reserve the right to review and approve any app prior to letting it go live. While there’s no timetable, you can wait as long as a week to hear back from Apple.

8. Market and Test

Once the app goes live, it’s time to market the app, push downloads, and encourage positive reviews. While designing and developing a quality app is certainly demands your attention in the early stages, marketing is half the battle. If you don’t commit to effective pre and post launch marketing, you aren’t going to experience the results you want. Here are some tangible marketing tips to keep in mind:

• App store optimization. Much like search engine results, app stores rely on a number of factors when prioritizing which apps get listed higher than others. You need to be aware of how things like ratings, screenshots, keywords, reviews, and download data play into this. This is called app store optimization – or ASO – and successful app marketing relies heavily on this tweaking process.

• Incentivize reviews. Your best marketing and exposure comes from third party reviews. That’s just the nature of social proof in today’s marketing world. This means you need to encourage reviews from early adopters. The best way to do this is by incentivizing reviews with free downloads, credits, or prizes.

• Content marketing. While marketing within app stores is important, most of your marketing will actually take place externally. This means content marketing, blogging, and video marketing play a huge role in enhancing exposure and drumming up excitement. Develop relationships with content marketers in your industry and try to build awareness this way.

The important takeaway here is to remember that testing goes hand in hand with marketing. You must continually comb reviews for issues, talk with customers about the design, and optimize the app to account for a positive user experience. This happens while you’re marketing. There’s no time to push your app, pull it back, and repeat. You must be ready to gather insights, make tweaks, and keep marketing - all at the same time.

Putting it All Together

As you can see, there’s nothing simple about designing, building, and launching an app. It takes weeks and months, and you’ll need to be as patient as possible. It’s almost always wise to spend a few extra weeks in the development stage to produce a flawless app than it is to rush to market and overlook issues.

While these eight steps could be broken down into dozens of sub-steps and stages, this article provides you with a concise overview of what it looks like to launch your first mobile app. With a conscious and determined effort, you can enjoy the value of mobile applications in the modern marketplace.