Category: Marketing

Startups. Startups all around. Everybody is coming up with killer ideas and rush to find their target audiences to turn these concepts into beneficial businesses. As people become more and more open to new exciting experiences, a lot of projects really shoot up in quite a short term.

There always is another side of the coin, which is financing the whole venture. Here we come to an important decision because not everybody is able to support a business project independently.

Happily, nowadays freedom of communication and all these cosmopolitan trends in business present a lot more opportunities to young and creative people than back in the day. So in fact, you are not limited by only going to a bank and ask for a loan, you can find a lot of alternative funding options online.

Joining a startup accelerator, for instance, will ensure you not only with free office facilities or consulting services but also seed fund you. You can also barter your skills and this way get some service or facility for free or find an investor – angel or venture capitalist ones. You can even pre-sell your product before it’s actually done. Finally, you are able to apply to some business grants, which spring up like mushrooms overnight.

The objective of our today’s talk is two antipodal ways to fund your business:

• Bootstrapping – which is basically doing your best at crafting business with own resources;
• Investment funding – this is all about selling your idea to an investor, get your money, and give ownership equity to your creditor in return.

After reading the article, you’ll know exactly what do these financing methods mean and in what way they are different; what questions should be asked before committing to any of these models and which way can be more beneficial to pick.

First things first: explaining bootstrapping and investment funding

Bootstrapping

It’s essentially a way discovered by every entrepreneur at least once in their business journey. So anyone who’s started his or her business, tried to stretch any sort of available recourses as much as possible, right? And I don’t only mean startup thing, it can be a to-go strategy at various stages of business life.

The term bootstrapping comes from that very famous legend of Baron Münchhausen who pulled himself out of the water with the help of his own bootstraps.

The vital idea behind bootstrapping in commercial means is to borrow as minimal finance as possible. In two words, you only rely on either on your own budget and savings, on some crowdfunded amount, or simply on loans from friends and family. That’s totally the opposite of, for instance, selling your business idea to investors.

Bootstrap financing is also considered to be one of the most effective ways to assure a positive cash flow for your business and for a good reason. This scenario urges you to borrow insignificant amounts of money and this way keep interest costs minimal. You are turning your home into an office, follow a strict diet, and manage every penny of the budget narrowly for the sake of the flourishing future.

What does bootstrapping mean in business? In fact, this strategy doesn’t seem to be a huge trend internationally, but there is a list of really big brands, whose creators eventually bootstrapped them. And they nailed it.

I will just leave these names down below:

• Apple;
• Microsoft;
• Dell Computers;
• Hewlett-Packard;
• Coca-cola.

Investment funding

It is another alternative to arranging your business. And this strategy is different in all ways.

To make a long story short, this is a way to sell your idea to investors, who are interested in getting profit out of your one-of-a-kind idea in the future. So they finance your project for some ownership equity in return, evaluating closely the business potential beforehand. The most popular ones recently are an angel investing and venture capital investment funds.

Angel investors

These are usually wealthy businessmen, who are passing their funds onto well-selected businesses and promising start-ups. These guys are usually very cautious in making decisions because these are their private money. What’s more, angels also expect really high returns from their investments, as high as 15 to 30% of the company’s ownership. On the other hand, angel investors share not only funds but also knowledge, experience, and advice with us, fresh entrepreneurs. To get these guys’ attention, you should be well-prepared, competent, and have a thought-out strategy.

Venture capital investors

This option makes your contributors the decision-makers in a venture, not you. At the same time, getting under some high profile investor’s wing can give a rapid start and some extra credibility to your business. Without a doubt, they will also ask for the ownership equity of your company – that is a common scheme of such funding. You’ll also agree to various restrictions on your salary, cooperation with other companies, etc.

According to recent studies, the venture capital funding field is expanding and there is a growing number of start-up accelerators detected. The overall number of these funds also increases and stockholders become more and more open to smaller companies.

Described ways of financing your business are totally contrasting and offer various approaches to managing recourses and building overall commercial strategy. Both of them have proved to be realistic to implement. The decision is only on you – which one to pick. You are the creator of your success after all. Let’s just dive into the details and find out what details and questions should be considered before adopting any of these concepts.

4 major questions to ask yourself before picking a strategy

Apparently, you’ve already passed the stage of asking yourself a question “To be or not to be?”. Now it’s time to ask further, more complex, questions.

In the context of selecting one of the above-mentioned ways to go, let me outline and systematize topics for you to study in order to make a wise decision.

First and foremost: what is the focus of your [future] business?

If your ultimate priority is steady growth, then you better fix an investor’s support. With funders, it will be much easier to achieve. In this case, you want to clarify if the speed is important for you and in general throughout the market and if you’re able to keep up with it.

For example, if your startup is tech-oriented, here the tempo is quite high and it’s an inevitable part of the market. Technologies develop real quick and you have no chance but move with them, and even be a step ahead.

Otherwise, if you decide to concentrate on taking your product to a new quality level instead of spending time in meetings with investors, you should certainly try and bootstrap your biz. Besides, more money can solve a lot of problems and bring real decisions, but not always. For instance, if you’re limited on budget, you’re forced to make creative decisions and it will ultimately play into your hands.

Second important question: how much control do you want to have over your venture?

If that is one of the major principles for you, then cut off the idea of calling external funding in and look at bootstrapping or alternative self-funding schemes. You appear to be the only decision-maker and free to pivot from one corner of the market to an absolutely different one.

Unlike any venture investing scheme, which works approximately the same: you are expected to provide some ownership equity to your investor and they gonna rebuild your strategy and advise you what actions to take and decisions to make. In other words, many opinions are about to meet, a lot of meetings and discussions to handle.

Questions #3: what returns are you expecting from this enterprise?

Now we all know what does bootstrap means and obviously, you cannot expect some fixed income or salary to come to your pocket with this approach, right? Most of your cash flow from this project is going to be injected back into it – that is how companies with limited budgets develop and grow.

In the case of investors’ involvement, it’s easier. Even though a salary will be somehow limited at early stages and fixed in the contract, you are still guaranteed a monthly payment, which sounds secure, doesn’t it?

And last, but not least: what knowledge pool is required for growing your biz?

Are your skillset and knowledge base enough to craft a successful venture from the scratch?

What I mean is if your product or niche particulars require specific experience, knowledge, or access to any resources. And if you are able to fix it independently. Because investors bring in not only extra money, they own and share their widescale experience and professionals, who really know what they do and how to make things work the best they can.

Differently, if you rely on your own knowledge, connections, and potency, then it’s easier to go for the bootstrapping option.

Which path to take: the pros and cons of bootstrapping and investment funding

Now it’s time to only shortlist all the advantages and drawbacks of both financing strategies for your startup idea or any other business. Afterward, I will leave you with this food for thought and study so that you make up your mind and definitely go for your dream!

Best of luck and happy crafting new businesses, guys!

Whether you are an app marketer, business leader, or client, you must understand mobile business basics. You must know that your app falls into a certain niche and is suited for a specific customer pool with exact requirements. Chances are, you already know that every business undertaking takes money, and if done wrong, may cost you users in the long run.

However, creating an economically sound app for companies is a challenging undertaking. You’d be surprised to know that the hit ratio of building creditworthy mobile apps is pathetically low – around 0.01%

Now the heart-balm.

You can dodge app failure by studying meticulously your brand insides – strengths and weaknesses. This is where a free SWOT application mobile analysis comes onboard.

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You shouldn’t underrate the importance of creating your mobile app project plan of action on a solid foundation. This refers to thorough management and addressing the ongoing operational tasks. Only after obtaining extensive data are you ready for decision-making. 

Therefore, a SWOT analysis is the best tool to transform your brilliant app idea into a tangible app. Otherwise, there is no point bothering developers and going for app development in general.

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS VS. MACHINE LEARNING: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

What is SWOT?

A SWOT analysis is a core element of any business and strategic planning that every company should add to their toolbox. The abbreviation stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or free project planning. 

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While strengths and weaknesses are deemed internal factors, opportunities and threats are considered to be external factors. 

A SWOT diagram analyzes an application or business undertaking by concentrating on each of these aspects, and makes analysis easy and accessible. The analysis usually consists of four boxes, each box describes a certain factor. However, the exact shape may vary depending on the design. It can be a box, circle, or any other convenient way that will help you conduct the analysis.

DATA MINING VS. PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS: KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

A free SWOT analysis comes in useful when trying to decide whether or not to engage in a certain project or strategy by picturing the for and against and pinpointing all the good, bad and ugly sides of a project. A SWOT analysis also facilitates decision-making regarding further moves.

This analysis will allow you to determine the aspects of your business that are doing great. These are the key success factors of your business that are strong and provide a head start. Outlining these assets will help you remain at a high ranking, and you will also need to find ways to leverage and build upon these strengths to expand your business.

Next, you’ll want to identify ways to eliminate or recuperate your weaknesses. Weaknesses are the features that put you in a less favored position to your competitors. Figuring out what these weaknesses are, and taking measures to lessen them before they hurt your business, is vital. This stage calls for an elaborate and straightforward analysis of what is going wrong within your organization. 

Once you are done with internal factors, you can proceed by identifying your external impacts. By recognizing your weaknesses, you can overcome and escape threats.

But what’s in it for a mobile app development agency?

Well, it’s simple. Being a standard process, a SWOT analysis gives a closer look at mobile application development technology. Additionally, this method allows businesses to analyze and test the related potential and worthiness of their app ideas, targets, and app purposes, to find and assess challenges and experiences that may be influencing their company. 

DOES YOUR BUSINESS REALLY NEED AN ENTERPRISE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Last but not least, it allows any app ideas to prove more successful for the end-customer and market needs. Gaining this insight can help deliver greater results and overcome threats for your mobile app project.

This was a quick walk through the process of carrying out SWOT analysis. Now let’s move onto the benefits this analysis entails for you and your business.

Benefits & Limitations

Before we dwell on the benefits, you must understand that a SWOT analysis does not give a ready-made solution. Instead, it facilitates analyzing the issues that impact your company or idea. A SWOT analysis is not a one-size-fits-all option for any application. Therefore, it is crucial to understand its main advantages and restrictions before you perform it.

SWOT Benefits

There is one thing that you should know – this type of analysis comes at no cost. However, if you cannot see the backside of your idea or business, it’s better to contact a professional analyst. We usually offer such a service to our clients.

Here is a quick overview of what benefits this analysis entails:

• It allows better divergent thinking and an enhanced vision of your business;
• By understanding weaknesses one can overcome and escape threats;
• Its framework gives you a competitive edge and more opportunities. 

SWOT Limitations

SWOT analysis is not the panacea for your brand, it’s just one imperative stage of your strategic planning. Therefore, it only encompasses what its name implies – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

SWOT is not suitable for complex and intricate issues or aspects. For example, this technique doesn’t have a priority ranking and doesn’t bring you to the final action. SWOT analysis is an idea-generator, it doesn’t steer you toward the best option.

GOOGLE CLOUD SERVICES FOR BIG DATA PROJECTS

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Conducting a SWOT Analysis of a Mobile App Idea

Before taking the first steps, you need to outline the objective of your analysis. You can use SWOT on your companies, brands, mobile app ideas, minimum viable products, or any important features.

After this, you need to conduct profound research on your industry and the market. The data can be retrieved from both the online space and your team, business partners, or users.

Strengths

As an initial step, study all features of your future app. There is a good chance that most of them will fall into the strengths category. Additionally, do some competitive research to define your competitors’ strengths. If you find some similarities, your business idea must adopt these strengths as indispensable elements.

Also, it is necessary to go through your advantages, unique selling proposition, unique resources, and the final goal regarding your sales.

Weaknesses

This step requires a bold and honest look at your business idea. As there is always room for improvement, you will likely find some weak points.

Again, some competitive research allows you to compare your weaknesses to those of your competitors and get some answers.

Consider the following points:

1. What new enhancements would you offer?
2. Is there something you could discard?
3. What weak sides do your customers point out?
4. What product features hinder your brand success?

OUTSTAFFING VS. OUTSOURCING VS. MANAGED SERVICES: DIFFERENCES AND BENEFITS

Opportunities

The top tip while assessing your opportunities is to take a hard look at your strengths. You need to think about how you can transform your strengths into new opportunities. 

Cutting-edge technologies and different trending patterns can allow you to do that.

Also, remember that federal police monitoring and behavioral models of your target audience can create new opportunities as well. 

Threats

If we are talking about threats and opportunities, there is one tool that helps identify the big picture. This tool is not new and is known as the PEST or PESTLE analysis. It helps analyze the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, and Technological shifts in your business environment.

Let’s go over the best questions that will allow you to find your threats:

1. What new challenges may you come across?
2. What anti-threat techniques and tools do your competitors use?
3. How do quality standards impact your product?
4. Is your product ready for evolving technologies?
5. Are you sure you won’t have any financing constraints?

However, when you use the SWOT technique it is crucial to use only credible information and explicit statements. In this way, you will get rid of the apparent new facts and prioritize the rest.

FEATURE PRIORITIZATION FOR THE PROJECT’S MVP

Another tip is to use the categories at the same level and not to mingle the points. Thus, you cannot use the idea’s weaknesses in SWOT on UX, etc. As we have stated above, to get a more extensive feature try other analytic tools like PEST Analysis, USP Analysis, Core Competence Analysis, and so on.

Example of SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is the ultimate tool. You can use this technique for both your business idea or app and for your brand in general. It is also relevant for different categories like user experience. 

User experience cannot be crafted based on your friends’ or relatives’ feedback (well, it can, but we rather you didn’t). UX calls for better and direct feedback from genuine end-users.

Now let’s have a look at how you can use this analysis on UX:

Read also: How Does Business Analysis Work and What Are Its Benefits

Takeaway

A SWOT analysis is an unbelievably straightforward yet robust technique to help you build your new game plan.

It also outlines your objectives whether you’re building a startup or mentoring an existing company. One cannot underestimate the power of analysis and planning. SWOT analysis is among those useful tools that can get your product potential to a new level. It improves the performance and given resources at any phase of your SDLC.

This system also enables you to come up with the best tactic, define your challenges, and evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

You can also reach out for our assistance. Our BA will be glad to carry out a profound analysis and decide on further moves. Please, liaise with our manager to schedule a meeting.

One of a trend that has shaped a previous year and definitely is going to influence the year 2017 is the increasing popularity of chatbots.
Chatbots is a program that simulates a real conversation with users by using artificial intelligence.

To understand this technology and find use cases that will fit your business and your customers` needs, let’s analyze the background that drives this trend.

Factors Influencing the Rise of Chatbots

1. The exploding popularity of messaging apps is hard to deny. The GlobalWebIndex Statistics says that 75% of Internet users are adopters of one or few messengers. Also, take a look at the Business Insider statistics that shows how quickly growth the popularity of messengers:READ ALSO: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO DEVELOP A MESSAGING APP LIKE WHATSAPP?
2. The rise of artificial intelligence technologies brings chatbots to a new level. Together with natural language processing AI brings up to 90% the accuracy of machine parsing and understanding of requests. Another significant factor here is sophistication notifications that take into account the context of the situation and are always on across devices.
3. The accelerated development of all kinds of sensors and wearables in addition to analytics and data science boosted the personalization of virtual communication and the capabilities of predictive assistance.
4. Payment integration to third parties via APIs brings, even more, options to the chatbot functionality.

Adopting Chatbots for business

There is one interesting nuance you probably haven’t ever realized. In-app stores, you can find millions of different apps available. However, Forrester Research shows us, that users use about 24 apps per month wherein 80 percent of the time is on just five apps. Without any doubt among them are Facebook, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. That means that you hardly can shoot ahead with a new app for your business, but you still have high chances to integrate your chatbot into one of the platforms from your user’s everyday routine.

Of course, bots have not appeared just now, but at the Annual F8 Conference in April 2016 Facebook has announced its platform. That gave a massive impulse for the implementation of this technology for business needs.

Chatbot app development has all chances to be one of the hottest trends and a new challenge for companies and software vendors.

When Building a Chatbot Makes Sense

1. You receive many requests that are similar to each other
   For every business, there is always a set of typical questions that your employees have to answer over and over again. You can gather all these matters in the FAQ form on the website or Facebook page, or you can create a chatbot for that. Also, chatbots are essential when customers need to get a consultation ASAP.
2. Products you sell are low involvement
   Low involvement goods and services mean that the clients do not spend much time making a decision to buy or not to buy. Emotions dictate such purchases, and I bet you do not want to miss such a customer`s impulse by not providing info in time. By one single request bots immediately understand what the customer wants and offer it without human interaction.
3. Your customers need information that is easy to provide
   Everything is simple. The more you can give to your client conditionally for free, the more loyalty you get. That is how your chatbot actually can become another channel of winning sympathy. From another hand, by providing info automatically also you save some money for human recourses. Also, take note that this information can be easily personalized.
4. You work in a highly competitive niche
   Working in a field where products, services, and prices for them are mostly the same, it is hard to compete. Most likely that your customer will choose the vendor that requires spending fewer efforts to get a product. Moreover, again your chatbot is a winning strategy! First of all, your customer will get information regardless of the day of the week, time, holiday, etc. Secondly, no one likes to speak by phone nowadays.

5 Inspiring Chatbot Use Cases

Chatbots change the form of communication between the brand and the consumer. Of course, some of them will stay with us longer, and others are going to evolve further. Anyway, there is no doubt that both users and brands can get benefits from this technology. We have gathered five inspiring chatbot use cases.

1. Shopping

The percentage of consumers who prefer to buy online is inexorably increasing every year. Today this number tends up to 45%. At the same moment, there is another curious fact. 64% of consumers search online before making a purchase, which means that even those who prefer offline shopping spend some time looking online before this.

That is why chatbots can become one of the most important channels for your retail business. As it is written above, this model will better work for the products with little involvement like clothes or accessories. Furthermore, the chatbot helps you to ensure your customer with a personalized experience.

A good example of a retail chatbot is Shop Spring. You do not need to chat with it, only to pick up some answers from the list of questions to narrow down the options for the final choice. The main advantage of the bot before the marketplace is that it minimizes the number of actions and clicks that the user needs to do.

2. Payments

With the help of a chatbot, you can not only choose the product or service but also and buy it. At the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2016, the Head of Messenger David Marcus has announced that bots are going to accept payments. So indeed, from late September 2016, Facebook Messenger users can not only initiate orders but complete them through payment systems like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree.

Of course, every financial operation requires a high level of privacy and security. At The App Solutions, we do know all actual threats and provide reliable fraud protection.

3. Restaurants & Delivery

The main point of any fast food is quick. Your chatbot here will win on all counts. It`s always online and ready to take an order in a few steps. A good example is Pizza Hut. “We are committed to our servicing our customers in the most convenient way and meeting them in the channels they already prefer,” said Baron Concors, Pizza Hut’s Chief Digital Officer.

Another great example is Domino. The system is more sophisticated. After the sign-up, the system saves contacts and a so-called favorite basket that the user can request later. This bot also has an excellent sense of humor 🙂

4. Healthcare

Same as in the financial sphere, any healthcare or hospital app requires a high level of security standards. The confidentiality of patient`s private data and HIPAA compliance are crucial.

Healthcare chatbot patients can book an appointment with doctors, pay invoices for services, store and track all payments and medical care. Also, such a chatbot can perform as an instrument of patient education. Such a strategy helps healthcare providers to build stable and value-rich relations.

A great example of a medical bot is a HealthTap that instantly connects users to doctors. The database of medical staff includes 100,000 physicians from over 140 specialties.

5. Customer Support

Customer support and technical assistance are quite a resource-consuming part of any business. This process can also be improved with the help of chatbots. Once you analyze incoming requests, you will see that most of them are identical.

By creating a chatbot for business, you can automate repetitive requests. Your customer will appreciate the direct communication that avoids holding on the line and talking to strangers from support service.

Takeaway

Chatbots are a powerful tool for brand-to-customer communication that also helps to reduce costs and resources. The reason for such exploding popularity is the rise of mobile messengers and extension technology of artificial intelligence.

Vendors and retailers need to rethink their communication strategies to strengthen their presence in the channels where their customers prefer to be. For now, it is messenger apps.

It usually requires a lot of hard work to create an app, but nobody can say if it will be successful or not. Even with ample money and time invested, app developers cannot guarantee a successful mobile app. The reason is that app developers just can’t know exactly what their potential clients want to have in their mobile app.

Don’t try to create something you think people will like to use, you need to create an app you know people will like and use for sure. Actually, your idea doesn’t have to be perfect from the very beginning, but you have to be open to any further improvements and fixes in your app, if necessary.

But how to know what to improve and what has to be fixed or what do your customers want now? The only answer here is getting feedback.

Feedback is crucial. It will help you build an outstanding mobile app.

Why Feedback is Important?

It might be challenging to know what your customers will need from a mobile app. But no matter what your customers need now, the only way to know it for sure is to listen to their personal opinion.

And that’s true: only an active user can tell you what doesn’t work and what could be better in the app. Companies that ignore their customers’ feedbacks usually lose. Feedbacks left by your customers help drive your product roadmap to apply changes that are the most important for your customers. Everything related to mobile moves fasts and limiting the number of guesses you benefit from into a better product’s development.

Asking and replying to feedback is another great way to build a strong relationship between you and your app’s users and develop a community. When users see that their feedback is taken seriously, they are more interested in providing it and feeling more connected to your app.

Finally, always try to provide value. Show your customers that you’re listening to them. They should realize that you are attuned to their requirements and needs and will do your best for them.

How to Get Feedback for your Mobile App

There are various tools and ways you can use them for feedback inside your app. The first one is to include an easily accessible function inside the app that users can find and use anytime.

Another awesome way to ask your customers to leave feedback for you is to let them know that you want to hear it. Those guys who are really interested in your app will definitely read the release notes of each version. Include a message in your release notes that encourages the users to reach out and talk to you.

Your customers should know where they can leave feedback for you. You may consider the pointing method inside your app if you have it available. If not, point them to all the places where you are ready and listen.

Both of the above tips are great but they are more likely to work for a small group of your customer base, which is actively searching for release notes or just like to get in touch. Whether your option is to reach a bigger part of your users’ base, you should become really proactive and encourage your clients for leaving feedback.

But before discussing the best tools for reaching out to your clients, you should remember that there are places and times that are always better than others when it comes to asking for feedback for your application. Understanding the right time and place for promotion will help you to avoid the bad experience of using the app for any niche (community app, for instance).

You should realize that it’s not a good idea to prompt a new user to leave feedback after he’s just launched the app or he is in the middle of using it (i.e. checking out, playing level, writing a message). Otherwise, finding moments of possible confusion or moments of success can be the best times to encourage your customers to share their thoughts with you.

Once you’ve found the confusing moments, you can promptly fix them and if your customers are already happy with the product, you can enjoy more positive reviews in the app store as well. A win-win situation, isn’t it?
Asking general feedback is good, but sometimes you might need your clients to answer specific questions, which can build more structured feedback for you. Explore surveys, as this is the best tool for getting structured feedback.

Surveys are very popular because they help you to analyze the market as well as drive customers’ insight. Have ever noticed that many auto shops and restaurants have such surveys as “Did you find everything you were looking for?” or “How did we do today?”

These questions may seem very simple for a consumer, but for businesses, they are extremely important for understanding what to do to improve.

Speaking about mobile apps, the possible questions are:

1. What’s your opinion about the new feature we’ve just released? (include a few possible answers).
2. What new feature would you like us to include in the next update? (include a few possible answers).
3. How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend? (include a few possible answers).

The above suggestions can become a super way to receive reviews for your app, but that’s just the beginning. Think about going further by replying to the feedback and adding it to your product roadmap.

Responding to Feedback

Remember that all customers who leave a review drive your business forward and you should value any feedback, even if it’s full of criticism. It’s crucial to let your users know that they’ve been heard and their time and suggestion have been appreciated. Aim for turning your customers into loving fans.

When there are any changes or updates made in your app, give a credit. A credit may be thanking your clients in the update notes. You can even go further by reaching out to those who shared their opinion and thank them privately. Always leave your conversation open and encourage your users to share feedback at any time.

The main difference between successful and mediocre mobile app marketing is the correct goal setting. If your aim is getting downloads, you will hardly enjoy significant success. On the other hand, if you are looking for returning users, you are on the right path.

Experts say that notifications boost retention by several times. In this article, we are going to provide a few tips on how to make your push notifications amazing.

Push Notifications Best Practices

1. Permissions

If you ask your users for permission to send them to push notifications, you are trying to manipulate them. However, most apps fail here. Most users do not want to allow any apps to get access to their personal data. For example, Android’s permission system has some permission requests and clients feel uncomfortable about confirming personal data sharing.

How it works: to make privacy concerns less problematic, marketers should address the value of notifications they send making their push notification mobile strategy more user friendly. Ask your users what updates they are interested in to send them only relevant information and ensure their compelling experience.

Some marketers decide to send a request later. For example, if you have a messaging application, ask your users whether they want to receive notifications when their friends respond.

2. Clear Marketing Strategy

A marketing effort without a clear strategy is going around in circles. Mobile is the most performance-based platform, so you don’t have to speculate, but everything starts with creating a good plan. Mobile app marketers know that, but more often they fail to create a thoughtful push notification strategy for your app and, therefore, miss an opportunity to boost retention.

How it works:

• think about various push triggers
• user-behavior types you are looking for
• the goal you aim to achieve with push notification marketing and more

The smarter triggers you create, the more chances you get to receive user’s responsibility.

For example, if your app helps users register for contests and events, make a notification that reminds a user when the registration period is nearly over to let him/her have a chance to be on time.

3. Types of Push Notifications

Text notifications are things of the past because you can get to a brand new level today. Modern technology allows you to use more eye-catching messages including images to view in one single tap. It is a great possibility to turn a call-to-action into an action using interactive notifications that attract attention to what are willing to say, and the retention level will grow. Isn’t it great to create interactive and funny apps to ensure entertainment for users?

How it works: you can produce a stronger social aspect and increase user engagement by informing users that their friends use the application. A push notification that informs users of their friends’ moves and offers a further action such as “like” or “share.” It gives your push notification more value and creates a better engagement.

4. Timing

Time is everything. The right timing of your push ensures your app to have delighted users and less annoyed ones. Choose the most comfortable time for your notifications. That is, you have to avoid sending notifications at times when your users are probably busy or asleep.

Avoid disturbing your users, but also chooses the best time to connect them. To do that, you have to know who your audience is and what you are going to send them.

How it works: some experts say that the best time to send notifications is the afternoon. Thus, as has been mentioned above, the effectiveness of your push timing depends on your goal, the industry you are in, and your target audience.

5. A/B Testing

In the mobile app world, you have to test out and develop some options to every parameter described in this article. Obviously, to learn which method is the most effective, you should experiment and measure results. It is a never-ending process to become a regular part of your notification strategy.

How it works: it is crucial to test different approaches to push notifications and try different content, tones, and timing to understand what interests your audience the most. Realizing what makes your users respond to your offers may help you to develop the most effective communication strategy.

6. Content. How to write best push notifications texts

A simple fact is that the content of your notification should be engaging and very specific.

Follow this advice:

• Make sure to keep your text short and informative
• Include a clear call to action in your push messages
• Try to spark the interest of your users with a catchy joke or phrase.
• Use an element of entertainment, it holds the attention and remains in the memory.

In addition, one of the most important things to include in the message is personalization. Send personal messages that catch attention.

How it works: take a personal approach by using names and including details about the last activity user performed in the application. If you sell merchandise, and your audience is interested in specific items, note when they are going on sale.

For instance, the text of your notification can say the following: “Hi, Susan! The bag you have added to your wish list is on sale! Buy it now at a discount!” It is important to be soft. Be personal, but avoid treating them with scant courtesy.

7. Push Notification Segmentation

If you are going to provide personalized communication to your users, this is where you should start. Dividing your audience into groups, focus on certain characteristics and types of people you are appealing to groups can be focused on gender, age, interests, location, and any other personal data.

If you are going to take it to a higher level, you should address user behavior. Specific push notifications are used to learn the way users react, interact, and respond to them to find out how frequently and actively they use your application.

How it works: inert and engaged users should receive different messages. If you want to draw the attention of the inert users to your app again, you should send them notifications that include special deals to evoke their interest.

8. Frequency

Some marketers find push notifications very effective and, therefore, become too enthusiastic. Sometimes, it leads to sending an oversize amount of notifications in a short span of time. Unfortunately, this may irritate users and bring negative results.

A good strategy helps you to discover a perfect balance that will allow you to connect users without becoming an “overly attached girlfriend.”

How it works: you have to divide push notifications into 2 groups. The first group should contain messages that inform users about the action of other users (“Your friend Judy liked your photo”).

The second group should contain messages that information directly about the deals within the app (“Check out the new special offer!”). Users like to receive the messages of the first type, so you should be careful about how often you send the messages of the second type.

9. Prioritizing

If you have too many similar push notifications you want to send to the same user in a short period of time, and you try to avoid over-spamming your user, make sure to prioritize them and choose the most important ones. When creating a push strategy, a segmentation process could help you in this process and detect the issue in advance.

How it works: begin with separating specific notifications from the general ones and choose those messages that adhere to the users’ needs to the maximum extent. In case if you cannot decide which of them are of higher priority, try creating several seasonal versions of the general strategy.

10. Creativity

Obviously, the main aim of sending notifications is to get maximum users’ attention and engagement. For that reason, it makes sense to take your time and produce some creative and entertaining content. Come up with something unique and you will be more likely to amaze your audience. Don’t make your message very long, but try to make it memorable.

How it works: the ideas are endless. Make your content funny or rhyme to generate retention and communication.

This list is a checklist for beginners in the world of push notifications. To make sure that you are on the right way, we recommend you review this article from time to time. Keep on adjusting, testing, and measuring your results!

In conclusion

Push notification marketing is still growing and can bring significant benefits to your business. Try our best practices to gain the desired results!

If, in your opinion, mobile applications are exclusively for worldwide corporations and big-name brands such as Bank of America or Walmart, you’re totally mistaken. Nowadays, more and more midsize, and even small, companies are following mobile application development trends. Market conditions make the businesses think that an efficient mobile strategy requires more than just a user-friendly website.

Today you can mark that the biggest part of small companies you cooperate with in your day-to-day routine and have their personal mobile application. Be it a beauty salon downtown or a cozy corner coffee shop. These businesses hold leading positions in a particular field when it comes to getting their marketing strategy to the next level.

If you’re still confused about why building your own mobile platforms for business became so popular, here’re TOP 9 benefits of joining this club sooner rather than later.

1. Be visible to the clients constantly

Recent statistics say that the average American spends more than 2 hours using his/ her mobile device every day. In fact, only a handful of all mobile apps constitutes the main part of total usage. On the other hand, to find the application the user is looking for, he/she still needs to unlock, scroll, and glance over the device.

As humans mind record unconsciously every text, image, or catchy app icon, such simple scrolling down and up can be an advantage for your business. It works – even if this process happens unnoticed.

2. It provides you with a more direct connection

It’s simple. The application always displays on the device desktop. Moreover, in contrast with the website, the app can be opened with one easy tap. To find your page in the net, the user needs to open the browser and find the appropriate URL to bookmark it.

READ ALSO: How much does it cost to develop an app

The app makes it much easier for clients to leave feedback or call you. Furthermore, all negative comments left on the site are visible to everyone. What about negative feedbacks submitted with the help of an app, they give you a chance to deal with client dissatisfaction before his/her opinion goes public.

3. Connect with on-the-go clients

The smartphone is one of the most personal technology tools we can have. Sometimes we keep it close to ourselves twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Statistics show that approximately 80% of the time spent on the phone is spent using applications.

4. Create a useful marketing channel

An application wears many hats: it can give general information about your company, show prices, provide users with booking forms, personal accounts, search features, news feeds, messengers, etc. And, what is the biggest benefit of creating an app, all this info is right at clients’ fingertips. With the help of push notifications, you have an opportunity to advance even closer to direct cooperation by reminding customers about your special sales, new products, and services.

5. Show customers that you appreciate them

When it comes to on-hand data and digitalization, in place of old-fashioned point-collection cards, provide your clients with the possibility to collect loyalty program bonuses via the mobile app. The result won’t take long, and you’ll get more downloads and more regular clients.

6. Increase your brand recognition

A device application for your company can contribute to your brand recognition. A created app is like a billboard sign: you can do with it everything that you want. You have all the needed tools to make it functional, user-friendly, stylish, and informative. But what your primary goal should be is to build an application that has all the necessary features your client will love. At the same time, it has to be well-designed and branded.

The more often users get involved with your application, the sooner they will decide to order your service. It’s called “effective frequency” in the advertising field: hearing and seeing your business brand about 20 times is what will get you really notable.

7. Improve your connection with clients

All the same, whether you’re selling a spa service or flowers, your customers need a resource to reach you without effort. Having a help desk or messenger in the application can change the way you communicate with the clients. For example, if you create a mobile app for your restaurant, the users have a chance to book the table with 5 clicks on your platform. No doubt, instead of phone connection the majority will choose communication via text. Building your business model around this principle – your key to success.

8. Win the market competition

It’s hard to believe, but today device applications at the small business level are still infrequent. Because of this, you can stay one jump ahead of your competitors. Be one of the first in your area to offer an application to your clients. Be sure, they’ll be amazed by your wise and farsighted approach.

9. Cultivate loyalty of customers

One more significant reason to create your own mobile application is customer loyalty. With all this information noise around like billboards, roadside banners, magazines ads, flashing signs, coupons, flyers, website banners, email marketing, and Facebook advertising we, as businessmen, slowly lose our influence on clients because there is a huge amount of commercial on every corner. On the other hand, it’s an auspicious time to make a true connection with customers. It leads them to become loyal users of your service.

And last, but not least, I don’t mean that a device application will save your company. However, it can be an excellent tool that helps you stay close to the users and be a “fingertip” away all along. I hope, with all these weighty reasons, you’ll look at your phone as a perspective for successful business management and effective client experience.

Not so long ago, app developers were all about deciding the success of apps based on analytics. The statistics were assessed to determine just how good an app was doing in terms of user appeal and feedback. At one time, developers measured the app’s overall success based on its ratings and the download count (or sales). These were key mobile marketing metrics.

However, these days there are better ways to assess the overall success of any mobile application. These marketing metrics are something every developer needs to know about if they are to decide the success of an application.

Every measurement shared here consists of a formula or a way of getting information that you can use to draw insights about the app and how well it is doing. You can figure out how much revenue an app is generating per user, the costs per loyal user, and the costs per install and compare it with mobile application development costs. 

The latter figures will reveal how successful you’re marketing is and if users are finding your app useful or enjoyable. You can also find out how people are engaging with the app, the parts of the app that are most enticing, and if your application requires changes or improvements.

1. Know Your ARPU

ARPU is an acronym for Average Revenue per User. The ARPU is broken down into a formula consisting of the amount of money the app generates within the framework of a set period over the number of active app users within the same timeframe.

Bear in mind that ARPU will be different for every mobile app category as well as for every revenue model. However, there are some comparisons that can be made that can prove useful in determining app success. ARPU by revenue model can help you take another look at the revenue brought in through advertising; fee-based downloads in-app purchases, freemium apps, and subscriptions for ease of comparison.

The ARPU can help you in finding out the average revenue the app is generating per user. The latter figure is important because you can use it in other metrics. First, in CPLU (Cost per Loyal User), you can compare the ARPU to the CPLU and if the latter is less than the former, you’re using your marketing methods correctly.

Essentially, it reveals you are generating more income than it costs to acquire the attention of the consumer. Next, in the Retention metric, the ARPU is part of finding out the lifetime value of those consumers you have as loyal users. Therefore, if you have an app that makes $0.50 a month and you retain a consumer for about 5 months on average, the lifetime value is $2.50.

2. Know Your CPLU & CPI

CPI is an acronym for Cost per Install. CPLU is also an acronym standing for Cost per Loyal User. The CPI is a formula that equals the advertising dollars you spend divided by the number of new installations you get within a given advertising campaign. The CPLU however, is the number of advertising dollars you spend divided by the amount of new and loyal application uses you get from the ad campaign.

These two figures can be used along with your ARPU to find out the return on investment you are getting from all of your advertising and marketing. For your marketing to prove successful, your CPLU needs to be less than your ARPU.

3. How Are Your Users Engaging?

Engagement is not something you can figure out by a formula, and it requires an assessment of how your users are making use of the mobile app in question. In understanding a user’s behaviors, you can get an inside view of what is most appealing to your users and what features may be unnecessary.

Engagement is an umbrella term covering a variety of user actions including an assessment of app screens viewed per session, the conversion rates, interactions, opt-ins, opt-outs, and session intervals and lengths. Let’s look at each of these analytics a bit more in-depth.

Customer loyalty measures how often your users return to the app and use it. Your customer’s engagement is vital to the success of the app, as engaged users are being called the bread and butter of an application’s overall success. If you have users that are remaining engaged with the app, it means they like what the app has to offer and are therefore more likely to spread the good word about the app to others – word of mouth advertising goes a long way in the mobile app industry.

What’s more, you can track the usage of loyal users over a longer time to see if trends in application development crop up or if the users repeat actions that may offer insight into how you can improve the application or enhance user engagement.

4. Know Your Love Ratio

The love ratio is a mobile marketing metric that’s been in use for a while and a broad assessment of statistics reveal that the answer is yes, just over 57.70% of the time. The measurement gives you a good idea just how much your users are enjoying the app and if the numbers are low it suggests you’ll need to make some changes to the app to make it more loveable.

Bear in mind, this figure can also vary if a person is not giving an honest answer to the survey and is just clicking on whatever answer will dismiss the survey question quickly. Despite potential biased answers and incomplete assessment values due to lack of user response, the Love Ratio formula still reveals vital information to the app developer, especially over the course of version histories and time.

5. Monitoring Retention Rate

There’s a formula for determining your retention rate, which is a metric marking the number of users you have returning to your mobile app on a weekly basis. Aggregate retention is the number of actives you have during a month divided by the install amounts during the same period. To determine what the retention rate for a specified time is, you need to note the number of app users you’ve retained by the end of a specified time and divide it by the installs during that period.

Broad statistics suggest that as many as 40% of mobile UX apps continue to use the app following the first 30 after the installation, but this number dramatically declines to a little as 4% within the year following the date of install.

The retention rate will allow you to define, not just how many downloads you have, but how many users you have. Even better, you can figure out active users over the course of time. Even if you have 100,000 downloads, 50% of that may have retained users over the course of time, and only by knowing your retention will you know how many downloaders actually remained active users.

When you know the monthly active users, you can use the figure to multiply it against the monthly average revenue you’re making per user to determine your overall revenue.

In essence, there are plenty of ways to measure what is happening with your mobile app. There are formulas you can use to find out user behavior, actions, and if they like using the application you‘ve created. A developer can then use the insights gained to improve the application and subsequently increase revenue.

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Do you have some troubles with sales in the iOS and Android App stores? Other sellers just get their success right away from the very start, but you still sold a minimum after a year of business? Well, you came to the right place to solve the problem. We have some interesting and helpful tips for you to help. These are the 5 main reasons why you have poor app sales.

1. No app marketing

The common and very often mistaken for fresh app producers is the conviction that their app is fantastic, and people will find it immediately after sharing it online. However, in a real-life everything is much more complicated. You should realize that there are billions of new apps and other stuff rolling in every new day.

Thus, the customer will never find, like, and pick up your app among thousands of others. Without a marketing strategy, you are just a drop in the ocean. So, you should find some effective way to present your product to the world and get the needed attention. For example, you can cooperate with other companies to start promoting your product and let people know and talk about it. Then, you can start a big sale to bring heat to the sales.

Not using proper mobile analytics tools is also a big mistake.

2. Not enough social media promotion for your app

Nowadays social media is a huge part of our everyday life. Everyone knows that Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and dozens of other social networks can hit big when it comes to your business promotion. They can be also a perfect way to build your communion with customers all over the world. You can find here some new clients, devoted fans, and regular clients too.

So, try to build some serious community with your social network page to turn these people into your regular customers and fans. Do not forget that these guys will bring their friends to your app shop too. Using Twitter, for example, you will learn how to communicate with modern customers and make your business grow like mushrooms after the rain.

READ ALSO:  Android app stores

3. No reviews for the app

So, if you know something about the world of the app business, you as an IOS developer, probably, dream about featuring your app by Apple. While you are looking for some special magic formula to make it happen, we should tell you that there is no formula. You should realize that Apple will get interested in your product only if there are a lot of positive reviews and feedback on your app.

No magic, business only. You can find a lot of various websites that can write great reviews on your product.  Even if their review is not very positive, you will get the attention you desire and it is the most important thing.

4. No design attention

You might invent a really great and useful app that can be very popular around the world. However, what’s about its design and usability? If your app is difficult to navigate with the pale interface, it is likely to be a flop. People don’t want to use programs that are not clear and simple enough. Everything should be done fast and easily.

Moreover, the look of the app should be really beautiful, stylish, and useful. If your design skills are too poor to make your app perfect, you should hire an expert. A professional designer or even a team of designers is the solution to your problem. Do not try to save your money with that, just make everything possible for your app to start selling as quickly as it is possible.

5. Your app is simply a bad app

There is no guarantee that your app is perfect and useful. You could spend weeks or months to develop it. However, it can turn out to be a failure. Yes, there are thousands of apps released every day. Most of them are just nothing special. And a typical customer will always see that something is wrong.

So, to avoid such situations, you should ask yourself a few important questions. Ask yourself about the problem your app is designed to solve. Are there any other apps that can do the same job? Is your app better than others? For example, you can invent a cool calculator. It is great. However, there are thousands of such apps on the market. Thus, your app needs to be unique to be a success. You should make something really revolutionary new in this field to get the deal. 

“How much does it cost to make an app?” is the first question the development team gets from startups and established businesses willing to build mobile projects. Knowing the cost of app development is essential for estimating an adequate budget and planning to spend. 

Mobile application development costs may vary from $30,000 to $500,000, depending on the business functionality. But functionality is not the only price-forming factor. 

This article will explain what mobile app development costs consist of and how you can impact your app costs. We’ll also explain the difference between Managed Services, Dedicated and Extended Team, and the concept of project management triangle, which is essential to understand what lies behind the estimation of mobile app development costs.

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How Much Does It Cost to Make an App?

Some people think that mobile app development costs equal the number of hours one developer spends on coding. Such an approach is far from reality. 

Apart from code, mobile app development project requires the following specialists: 

• Business analysts and project managers create the project backlog with tasks
• Solution architect designs the overall architecture of the project’s back end components
• Quality assurance managers make the checklists for the project functionality to ensure the functionality works without error
• Designers work on the project layout, prototype, and complete design

All of the described roles require qualified specialists who charge a reasonable price for their work. Moreover, your project might require more than one developer. Therefore, work hours constitute a big part of your mobile app cost.

One example is in developing a logistics mobile app with several integrations, such as a warehouse database, online payment gateway, and booking functionality. Let’s imagine your development team has two months to complete a working project’s functionality. 

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To meet your deadlines, the project manager will dedicate a team of three back-end developers and two front-end developers to your project under a managed service model, which will increase the cost of your project. Thus, the cooperation model is another factor that impacts the final project app costs. 

Let’s look at the three cooperation models we use at The APP Solutions and try to find out which of them will suit your project and bode well for future app costs.

What Affects Mobile Application Costs: The Cooperation Model

The cooperation model in software development defines the client and the team’s responsibilities. At The APP Solutions, we cooperate with the client under the following models: 

Extended Team

An extended team means we provide you with professionals while you manage all processes. This will suit when you need to augment your existing team with our professionals. This working model works best for projects with established management and app development process. 

The extended team will inherit the existing structure and report directly to you or your responsible manager. 

Dedicated Team 

A dedicated team business model includes shared responsibilities between the client and the development team. It works best for outsourcing business functions such as Development and Quality Assurance. 

The dedicated team includes a Project Manager who is taking care of the Systems development life cycle (SDLC) Methodology and process, facilitating the dedicated team’s integration with your in-house development teams.

Managed Services

Under this model, The APP Solutions team manages all product development processes while giving you the freedom to develop your business. We are responsible for hiring extra specialists for creating complex projects and providing technical support after the product launch. 

Apart from a Development and QA specialist, your project may require a Product Manager, UI/UX designers, Business Analytics, and System Analytics. 

But how do cooperation models impact app development costs?

The more responsibilities you give to your developers and the more extensive the project scope you need to implement, the more developers will work on your project. Thus, the higher the app cost to create your app. 

The app development cost also depends on three constraints that form a project management triangle. Let’s see what those constraints are. 

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What Affects Mobile Application Costs: Project management triangle 

The project management triangle is a model of the constraints of project management, known as the time, finance, and project scope. 

Let’s take a look at them one by one. 

• Time constraint refers to the amount of time available to complete a project
• Cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project
• Scope constraint refers to what must be done to produce the project’s result

How do those constraints impact the project costs?

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The three constraints are often competing constraints:

• Increased scope typically means increased time and increased cost
• A tight time constraint could mean increased costs and reduced scope
• A tight budget could mean high time and reduced size

Another approach to project management is considering the three constraints as finance, time, and human resources.

If you need to finish a job in a shorter time you can throw more people at the problem, which will raise the project’s cost, unless by doing this task quicker, we will reduce costs elsewhere in the project by an equal amount.

Developers can complete a project faster if you increase the app development budget or cut scope. Similarly, if you increase the scope, the development team will require equivalent increases in funding and schedule. 

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In this way, if you cut the budget without adjusting the schedule or scope it will lead to lower quality, illustrating the proverb “Good, fast, cheap. Choose two.”

But if you need to launch a project within tight deadlines and minimal

app development

budget, consider building its MVP, which means Minimum Viable Project. The project’s MVP comes with minimum functionality to validate your business idea without ballooning app development costs.

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What is the Average Cost to Create an App’s MVP

To receive a precise cost estimate for your mobile project, you need to follow these steps: 

Step 1. Ask a mobile app development team for a quote

Get in touch with the mobile app development team, describe the app idea, its functionality, and your business goal. 

Step 2. Select the number of mobile platforms

Choose the mobile platform you want to target. Remember that developing a separate app for iOS and Android will double the app development cost. Thus, target one platform for MVP.  

Step 3. Create the list with app functionality 

Build up a list of your mobile app’s functionality that would be enough to validate your business idea.  

Step 4. Prioritize mobile app features to implement in MVP

Send the list to your development team, so a business analyst can add other features if needed and prioritize functions for the first project scope. 

Step 5. Ask the mobile app development team to estimate your main app features 

Ask mobile app developers to evaluate the list with must-have features they will implement first, and get a precise mobile app development estimated cost. 

But how much time do developers need to implement core functionality for the app’s MVP? 

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What Affects Mobile Application Costs: Core Features

A table with mobile app essential features, tech stack, and estimated number of hours will give you an idea about the time and money required to develop a fully-fledged mobile application: 

User login

Most mobile apps provide users with registration via email or phone number to identify the user. But the most convenient way to access an app automatically creates a user profile and collects all public data about a person is through sign-in social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Tech stack	Number of hours
Facebook SDK Log In with Twitter  Instagram Basic Display API	4+ hours for UI/UX design 8+ hours to develop the app back-end using NodeJS 8+ hours for feature integration per each platform (iOS, Android)

Push notification

Mobile apps use push notifications to inform users about the real-time updates in the app, such as changes in order status, new content, new messages received, etc.

Tech stack	Number of hours
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for Android mobile apps  Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) for iOS	24+ hours for iOS 24+ hours for Android

Navigation bar

In order to allow the user to flow through your app features and content, you will need a navigation bar. This feature also defines how the user switches from one screen to another, returns to the main menu, closes an app, takes actions, etc. Thus, your app must include swiping and scrolling features, icons, buttons, arrows, and other UI architecture. 

Tech stack	Number of hours
Human Interface Guidelines	24+ hours for the app back-end  16+ hours for Android or iOS development

Media content sharing

If you develop a social media app like Tik-Tok, or messaging app like WhatsApp, you need to allow users to share media files such as images, short videos, or audio files. You may also need to empower your app with editing capabilities, including adding emoticons, filters, effects, or even animated masks. 

Tech stack	Number of hours
Android NDK Native APIs for Android apps  Core Audio Kit for audio exchange, PhotoKit for photo editing, and AVKit for media playback on iOS devices	8+ hours for the design 16+ hours for the front-end 40+ hours for the back-end  40+ to develop this function on each mobile platform

Geolocation 

This mobile app feature might be handy for geolocation or navigation apps and food delivery mobile applications, taxi, dating, or even travel apps.

Tech stack	Number of hours
Google Maps API	8+ hours for the design 8+ hours for back-end 8+ hours for Android  8+ hours iOS

In-app messaging

If you consider developing an online retail marketplace, social media, real estate, or accommodation booking app, you need a built-in messaging platform. 

Tech stack	Number of hours
Facebook API Telegram API	40+ hours to develop the messaging platform back-end 20+ hours for Android app 20+ hours for iOS app

Apart from core functionality, the cost of a mobile project (iOS and Android) also depends on the app’s complexity. 

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What Affects Mobile Application Costs: App Complexity

To show you how mobile app features and app development costs vary regarding app complexity, we split mobile apps into the following categories and added the estimated time in hours to evaluate the cost to make a solution.

Type	Simple apps	Moderate apps	Complex apps
Description	No API integration No back-end Basic UI components Simple features (email subscription, social login, calendar, etc.)	Custom UI/UX features Build-in payment gateway API integration Back-end server	Multi-language support  3rd-party integrations Custom animations  Complicated back-end Custom UI/UX design Real-time features via database integration
Time	400+ hours	500-800+ hours	800-1500+ hours

What is not included in app development services?

A development team with a solid approach for product development does not mean your application will be famous among users. But what can you give such guarantees? 

A good marketing plan, financial models, and a pitch deck: 

• Marketing plan. A marketing plan is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan to achieve your business goals. 
• Financial model. Financial modeling is the process of creating a summary of a company’s expenses and earnings in the form of a spreadsheet that you can use to calculate the impact of a future event or decision.
• Pitch deck. A pitch deck is a brief presentation you can use to provide your investors or potential partners with a quick overview of your business plan. 

While the team develops your project’s MVP, you need to spend two or three months on marketing activities, such as app store optimization, with your app marketing team. 

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What happens after the MVP launch?

After the team launches your mobile app, it is vital to continue your cooperation because the app’s code can perform unstable in a live environment with real users. Such conditions may cause downtime and errors, which developers must fix as soon as possible. To make this possible, at The APP Solutions we provide IT support services for recently launched projects. 

While the tech support team will fix errors, the development team creates and implements new business functionality to your app to make a fully-fledged product. 

In this way, for the first two months after the app’s release, the development team will be busy with your mobile app development. 

How Much Does It Cost to Create an App: Total Cost

So, how much does it cost to make an app? When hiring a team for mobile app development you do not pay for features implemented, nor for technologies used. Your app development budget cover project development services the app development company provides and responsibilities you share with the team of developers: 

• When working under a managed service model, you receive the freedom to develop your business and get in touch with the team to see the team’s progress. 
• A dedicated team costs less than a Managed service model, but you’ll need to face more responsibilities for a project’s success. 
• An extended team will suit you only if you have established management and processes and need to augment your in-house development team with developers to build an app. 

The app development cost also depends on the number of functions, the app’s overall complexity, and the team composition your project requires. Don’t forget about the Project Management Triangle and its contrast – time, cost, and scope.

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What our clients say 

Customers always wonder how much does it cost to create an app. Some vendors say $50 000. The others say $500 000. 

Indeed, many companies claim: “We are the best application developers. Work with us.” That’s why choosing an outsourcing app development company may be challenging for you.

In fact, an expensive service is not a guarantee that your app will be great. High prices do not always mean good quality. At the same time, lower costs don’t always mean poor results.       

Let’s discuss the key factors that determine the cost of mobile application development.

Design approach

There are companies that suggest a mobile application project requires months of research, including research trends in application development, journey creation, concept testing, visual design including interactions design and mock-ups, UX design, and mobile app prototyping creation to test the mobile UX with real users.

Others work on assumption that the instructions received from a customer are enough, that the details could be clarified as they go along, and apply minimum effort in creating the designs. The cost can vary from low to high depending on the approach developers take.

Effort and time

Effort and the amount of days it will take to create a solution is one of the biggest reasons that determine the price. As a rule, more experienced teams go into details and make an exact estimation for every case.

They have vast experience in developing the same solutions or apps and can provide an accurate estimate including potential risks and errors. The effort can vary from one company to another based on the method used to evaluate the effort and time.

The type of application

It is true that the price can vary accordingly to the type of app you need. A standard application with basic functions will cost you less than a custom developed solution with difficult processes and advanced tools. We have already discussed the number of hours needed for the implementation.

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It is obvious that custom solutions need to be scrutinized, and the developer will spend more time working on them. Just like any other product or service. One needs time to make research unless he is a real expert.

Location

It is obvious that an agency from New York, London or San Francisco will be a great choice. On the contrary, a team based in China, India, or Mexico, therefore, will perform your task for a lower charge. The prices can vary from $200 per hour to $15 per hour.

The location issue is also connected with choosing between local companies and outsourcing. Of course, it makes sense to find local app developers. At least, this is how you can avoid communication problems because face-to-face communication is a chance to understand what you are going to pay for.

On the other hand, you can always find application development outsourcing. As it was mentioned, the communication with the foreign team may be more challenging. There are experienced teams and proficient developers across the ocean costing less and able to perform even better than a local agency. All you have to do is to find outsourcing that you can trust.

Change management

Once the company overcomes the first challenge of landing customers, it faces the other challenge of making a profit on them. The most common method of agencies is to do everything to underprice the project and minimize the scope. Later they will offer a change request to make a customer pay more for the extra functions they originally suggested were included.

The other way is to base the estimate on the suggestion that there will be a necessity to change something (redesign functionality, add something, etc.) based on the final user feedback. Sometimes change requests can double a price.

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Be attentive if you might need to include some changes as the creation of an app goes. Make sure that a planned budget you have includes extra expenses coverage. In some cases, the initial rates can grow higher than you expected but if the agency is reliable it will prove its value.

Size of the company

This is not a key aspect. However, as a rule, bigger companies with 200+ of team members have higher rates while small ones with 10-20 people set lower prices. However, agencies of a certain size sometimes have some scale advantages that give them a lower quote. 

The code quality and the ability to hand it over

Over the past years, we have reviewed the code quality for more than 100 developers. Some of them are really good, but most are poorly structured and developed. Sometimes it is about the quality of the developers, but this could happen simply because of stress or other factors that don’t depend on them.

Sometimes the reason is that there is no proficient technical lead of the development process or because they are trying to make it more difficult to take a hand over the code. Other companies solve this problem with the help of internal developers who review the code or even performing an outsource code review to avoid any issues connected with the code quality and make sure that it is well-structured.

Proficiency of the developers

It is quite obvious that the difference in the effectiveness and productivity between a professional and a poor developer is significant. A professional developer can simply cope with a task in a couple of days while a poor one needs weeks to resolve everything. For that reason, the number of people you get for your budget is not a guarantee. A small team of 5 people can produce much more than a large team of 20 people in the same amount of time.

So, which agency you should choose as your application developer? Focus on the one that fits your needs in all terms including quality, prices, location, timelines, guidance, and experience.