Posted by Paul Anderson
How to plan and execute your Mobile Strategy?
Industry report suggests that a very large percentage of small and mid-size businesses have not yet built a mobile application for their customers.
If you are one of them, how do you plan to survive in the upcoming years?
Mobile trend is set to explode further and mobile apps are constantly growing all over the world. To add to this, mobile devices have become the favorite device for consumers to interact with businesses 24/7.
Aren’t all these factors together an alarming sign for your business?
You need to realize the fact that MOBILE TREND is dominant and is here to stay for long. If you wish to run your business successfully in the approaching time – you need to get on with your mobile strategy NOW. Once done, you can use mobile app to improve your marketing, sales and customer service.
Unlike what you might think – planning and developing mobile application is not expensive and time-consuming process. You just need to follow a step-by-step approach from start-to-end to develop and implement your Mobile Strategy.
6 steps to your Mobile Strategy
1. Understand your Customer Needs
Just like any desktop-based custom application development, there is no one-size-fits-all development strategy for mobile application too. So do not even think of blindly copying other mobile apps. Instead, don your research cap and get on with your survey.
Ask your customers what they would appreciate in your mobile application. Analyze your business process and jot down the features that your app should have.
Example: If you run a restaurant, you can think of including features in your mobile app that provide customers an exact idea of the tables available, the special menu for the day and live performances if any.
2. Gather Social Media Intelligence
Go over to social media to study your target audience’s mobile app preferences. Focus on your industry-related social media forums where you can find maximum of your target audience. Once you are inside any of these groups, gain knowledge about the mobile app that your competitors are offering. Find out what’s working and what’s not for the audience.
This social media intelligence will be a great insight for you, where you will exactly come to know what features to emphasize and what to avoid in the app.
Example: If the audience is complaining about the poor experience of the mobile apps – you will know that your app needs to be highly intuitive and should provide a personalized user experience. Doing this will not only make your app popular, but also persuade your potential customers to use it.
3. Find the right ‘Mobile Application Development Team’
There are several cases where it has been seen that mobile projects have been assigned to inexperienced developers and the work has got stuck in between or not delivered as per the client expectations. The failure of these projects highlight an important fact – the success of a mobile strategy largely depends on the skill of the developers working on it.
So exhaustively search for different business application development service providers and choose the best one. Make sure the team you choose has the skills, expertise and experience to understand your requirements and bring it out perfectly through the app.
4. Ensure exhaustive Testing
According to experts, testing is an area where even the best of development companies falter. So before your app hits the app store, ensure that it is checked thoroughly by your developers.
Keep a track of the fact that your hired development team uses different testing tools such as, focus groups, 1:1 interviews, and innovative digital platforms. Right from the icons, buttons and clicks to the overall user experience – make sure everything is as per the standard.
Tip: Allow some of your business associates to use the app initially. In case of glitches anywhere, document it and get it refined by the development team. Once done, give the green signal to get your app live on the App Store.
5. Improve App Store Ratings
There are innumerable apps out in the app store. To make your one stand out from the clutter – focus to increase your app rating. Interact with your customers and gather their opinions on the app. Improve the app loopholes if any and get back to your customers with the improved app functionality. This will help you develop meaningful relationships with customers and turn them into your app evangelists. Once your app acquires a good rating, automatically it will get downloaded and used more.
Conclusion
Convinced about the easiness of developing and implementing a mobile strategy? So now without any further ado, get on with these steps.
Allot a time frame for each activity. And while you do this, devote the maximum time to third point – Find the right ‘Mobile Application Development Team’.
For the ones, who still harbor doubts about any of the above-mentioned steps – sound off your queries below. We will answer them in more detail.
