Introduction
After spending a bunch of time brainstorming and having an intense discussion, you’ve finally come upon an awesome mobile app idea. Congrats! Identifying the pain point of the user and building a mobile app to solve this is amazing. However many good businesses would still face some problems because of a lack of proper market research.
To ensure that your mobile application development achieves success, you should do thorough market research. In this blog, we’ll cover important steps and strategies for doing market research so your mobile app idea becomes a huge success.
Let’s begin by understanding what is Mobile App market research & why it is important?
What is Mobile app market research & why it is important?
Market research for a mobile app development is mainly the process to gather and analyze information to make smart decisions about the app.
Understanding your Target audience
- Is there any important market for your app?
- Who are your ideal customers?
- What kind of competition exists for your app?
- What sets your app apart from the competition?
- What are the features that your customers value the most?
- Will the app be free? Or will it charge the users for the same?
- Which are a few paint points users face with the current apps?
Moreover, perform a SWOT analysis to collect detailed insights and change your custom mobile app development accordingly.
Benefits of mobile app market research
- The chances of app success is higher by identifying target audience needs and weaknesses of the competitor.
- Reduces costs by cutting unnecessary features
- Optimize marketing to attract the right users.
- Provides concrete data for informed decisions about features, pricing and strategies.
- Reveals market gaps that you can fill.
- Ensures that the app stays relevant and adaptable by staying updated on the trends.
In fact, it would be safe to say that doing market research is an expense with benefits realized in the future. It provides you with the understanding and checklists that you require in designing and developing a mobile app that users will embrace and which is better than the current competitors.
Now, further let us understand the Key Aspects of Mobile App Market Research
Key aspects of Mobile App Market Research
Below is a detailed table which highlights or showcases the different types of market research methods and key metrics for evaluating mobile apps, thus offering a broader perspective of the topic.
Now, moving ahead let us understand the 8 pitfalls you should avoid before developing a Mobile app.
8 Must Know pitfalls in Mobile app development
Here are some things to avoid while doing market research for your mobile app:
Falling in love with your own idea:
In the course of your research, it is quite common to develop a certain fondness of an idea that you introduced in your conceptual framework, therefore avoid becoming prejudiced in your studies. It is important to be ready for the fact that what you started with can evolve in the course of the development or, most likely, can be close to complete overhaul based on the data obtained from users.
Relying on assumptions:
Never take liberties with yourself and presume that you recognize their wants or require. Sample customers with actual data by interviewing, conducting a survey, and user experience testing.
Focusing only on direct competitors:
Step outside of people targeting the same current app idea as you. Indirect competitors solve similar problems, or can be positioned on the same market focusing on the same audience with a different strategy.
Sampling the wrong audience:
And don’t just get information from your friends and family. Gain feedback from areas where persons are similar to those of your actual target market. Make sure to search for different opinions to prevent creating something that appeals to the narrow market.
Ignoring negative feedback:
In other words, always avoid negative critique that will pull you back while striving forward. It is relevant knowledge, which can be useful to enhance application, and should be used to define what issues a concept has.
Skimping on research:
Here I have to remind that market research is a timeful and an effortful process yet it is always rewarding. Do not be in a hurry or compromise and take shortcuts. The aim is to conduct as extensive analysis as possible to improve overall understanding of the market and customers.
Focusing just on features:
However, don’t overfocus on these features – always remember the needs and problems of target users. Your research should enable you to know the challenges your app will address, not the challenges it will present as features.
Looking at outdated data:
Away from the computer platform, the mobile application market is also dynamic. Ensure that you use the right data that are up to date and depict the current trends and behaviour among the users.
By ensuring that you avoid these pitfalls, you can be sure that your market research offers valuable insights to guide your mobile app development in the right direction.
Now before using the process and steps involved in market research, let us have a quick glance at a few tools that can be used for market research
Tools to use for Market research
There are a bunch of research and data tools and software available in the market which can make your job easier and more streamlined. While you can use your own platforms to gather data and insights, you can also use these tools to collect actionable data. Some of these tools are as follows:
Data.ai
Data.ai, formerly known as App Annie, is a famous popular intelligence platform. The essentially launched as an advertising analytics solution but has developed to become a full-blown app data and analytics platform.
It offers app owners to assess the market trends and their own data side by side. A empowers app owners by offering solutions related to app store analytics, advertising intelligence, market data and competitor analysis.
SurveyMonkey
As evident by its name, SurveyMonkey is a famous tool that enables you to conduct an online survey. It minimizes and automates the steps needed to create actionable and insightful survey forms and questionnaires.
It is an amazing tool for businesses that want to collect primary data while following the standard practices of surveys and data collection, which helps you comprehend the sentiment of your customers and stakeholders and get an empirical understanding of the scenario.
Think with Google
Think with Google is yet another amazing tool for all kinds of market research which can help you understand the trends of the industry, technology trends, popular practices and so on.
Moreover, it gives you in-depth insights across a range of topics. Its integration with AI makes the platform more dynamic and useful for an ever-evolving and changing mobile app industry. You can use the platform to predict the emerging trends of the industry and align your goals as per the same.
So, these were a few popular tools for mobile app market research. A few more renowned lists of tools for market research includes names like Statistica, for obtaining statistics, Make my persona, a HubSpot based tool to generate user personas, AnswerthePublic, which is a keyword research and planner tool.
If not tools, then you can also use online data banks, market research services, online listening tools, etc. Use the most feasible and suitable combination of tools to get the best results possible.
Now, moving ahead let us understand how to run a thorough mobile app market research
Conducting a thorough mobile app market research
Understanding your competitors is deemed mandatory when developing a custom mobile app. It is useful to know the competition, where and how one is positioned in the market and thus develop an app that will be unique.
Identify Your Competitors
Direct Competitors
These are apps that are similar to yours, and they execute services that can interest the same category of users as your app. When choosing your class, search for apps that perform functions that are similar to those of your selected app.
Indirect Competitors
Think about the change that your application offers to service users and don’t restrict your options to similar apps but look for apps that offer a more general solution to a more specific problem your app will help solve.
Analyzing Competitor Apps
Features and Functionality
Take time and analyze your competitors’ downloads and their applications installed in your handsets. Determine the services it holds, how those services work, and the ambience the customers are likely to get. Examine how strengths and weaknesses look for their approach.
User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)
Determine usability of your competitor’s apps. Are they easy to navigate? To what extent can the target users or readers find it easy to navigate when accessing the design? Think about a way you can enhance their UI/UX designs section.
Monetization Strategy
What business models do your competitors have and how do they make their money? Are their apps available freely with paid options inside or available with paid subscription or are the apps free to download? Reflect on the fact how their pricing models might work for your app the best and choose the most suitable ones.
Look Beyond the Apps
See how well your competitors are doing based on the keywords they appear in app stores based on. In essence, points to check out their app descriptions, screenshots, and reviews with the view of evaluating their ASO (app store optimisation) plan.
Go to your competitors’ sites and pages in social networks. This way you will learn how they sell their apps, the type of content they post and how they interact with their fans.
Gather User Feedback
Applications for the below App Stores should be installed on their official sites and the following should be done a. Perform a quick search on the apps stores b. Read over the negative customer reviews on the apps of competitors. Focus not only on the praises and complaints for a better understanding of a user’s pain and gain.
Use your findings
Based on the analysis, brainstorm ways to differentiate your app. Can you offer unique features, a superior user experience or a more competitive model?
Analyze the weakness and identity of your competitors and figure out where you can improve upon their offerings.
How well does your app stand against the competition? Knowing your competition is always important in fine-tuning your idea and offering a unique value proposition to the users of the app.
Now, let us moving towards the concluding part for the discussion, followed a few Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
Conducting thorough market research is important for the success of a mobile app. By understanding the target audience, analyzing competitors, and identifying market gaps, a developer can build applications which genuinely meet the needs of the user.
An effective research not only helps in refining app features but it also ensures that the marketing strategies are well-informed. Using various research methods and tools, such as surveys and analytics platforms, can offer valuable insights into user behavior and preferences. Ultimately, a well-researched app is more likely to resonate with users, leading to higher engagement and success in a competitive market.