phone screen with app icons and map in background

How to Make an App for Your Small Business

February 22, 2021

Filed under: Insights

Approximately 42% of small businesses have a mobile app, and only 30% plan to build one in the future. Mobile apps are important in engaging both current customers and potential customers to react, purchase, and even use your services and/or products.

Therefore, a mobile app is essential in increasing your customer base and boosting your profits. But, how do you create such an app?

Don’t worry, with this guide; you can find out! From defining the app’s purpose to hiring an app developer, you can learn how to create an app today.

Now, are you ready to get started? Here’s an in-depth look at how to make an app for your small business:

Define the Purpose

Creating an app just because you want your business located in the app store won’t likely give you positive results. Instead, you will need to build your app with careful deliberation and planning.

To begin, try and find the purpose of your app and your mission in creating it. Ask yourself, what benefits will be included in the app?

What features will need to exist for those benefits to happen? What operating system, target audience, or additional features do you specifically want to focus on?

For example, creators may want an app to focus on:

Telling customers about your business and why they should purchase your products/services
To streamline customer orders and purchases
To effectively integrate self-service features and customer interactions

After all, defining your app’s purpose will help move the project along faster. However, make sure it’s concise and useful. It’s good to have many ideas, but try and navigate through which ones are practical and which ones are not.

Sketch Your App

Next, sketch what you want your app to look like. Start with whatever comes to mind.

Usually, creators start with the user interface. Then move on to the opening screen, displaying what needs to be on the layout for users to understand it.

Sketch the following screens and how each button, category, and potential images/graphics, will be displayed. Go into detail about what each button will lead to and what each category will display.

After you’ve finished sketching, put your drawings into a flowchart to display your application. Check it carefully for inconsistencies and errors.

Make sure that in each transition, everything moves seamlessly. The app should be created without confusion, errors, and blind ends in mind.

Hire an Experienced App Developer

While you can develop the app yourself, it’s strongly recommended that you work with an experienced professional. With over 8.9 million apps in the world, your app needs to stand out and show that you’re an expert in your field.

Only an experienced app developer can help you meet all these crucial requirements:

Perfectly compatible with all smartphones
Is tailored made for your target audience
Is fast and reliable
Reflects your brand’s mission and style aesthetic
Is innovative and unique
Has a user-friendly interface

Hiring a professional software developer can be costly; however, it’s a wise investment to make. If you have a limited budget look on freelance sites. Developers may charge less than at a private company.

However, before starting the project with any app developer, request that they sign an NDA. That way there’s a protection system in place for your idea. When talking to a developer, let him or her know all of your thoughts and ideas, so they know what you want and are able to deliver exactly that.

Also, remember that every time your app needs an update, you need to contact the developer. Updates are necessary due to changing customer wants, OS enhancements, and business expansion.

Test Your App

When the developer has finished with the first test version of your app, go ahead and test it. Ask yourself, does the app respond quickly? Is it completing tasks, or is the app crashing down every time a task is requested?

Then take a look at the app’s function and decide, will the app provide users with the intended purpose? Is it user-friendly? Does it provide customers with any additional benefits?

Now, don’t forget to look at the overall style of the graphics and the color of the images. Do they fit within your brand? Are they unique or memorable?

But most importantly, is there room for improvement? Can the app be enhanced to perform more effectively and efficiently?

The answers to all of these questions will help provide a better mobile app for your business. However, don’t limit testing to one small group. Ask a variety of company members as well as existing customers to test the app and see what works and what doesn’t.

Report all bugs, flaws, and inconsistencies to the developer so they can be fixed quickly. Once fixed, test the app again and again until you feel the app is perfect.

Set a Price

Before releasing your app, you must figure out its price. While a free app is always marveled at by mobile users, although for companies, it’s a bit different. Here’s why: it’s costly.

After all, you have to pay several different companies for the creation of the app that may end up costing you approximately 100,000 or less. Since it takes such a high price to make an app, it’s certainly hard to get your investment returned, let alone trying to increase your profits.

In fact, the average return of investment usually doesn’t happen until one to two years later, if you’re lucky. Therefore, while free apps are usually more popular, try to incorporate fees or lucrative ads to profit off your app.

For example, you can include paywalls into your app, which limit the services customers are allowed to use for free. It’s a great way to charge customers for your services/ products while also accommodating those who rather not pay.

So rather than make your app completely free, make sure you consider all your options in order to make the best financial decisions for your company.

Release It

Once your app has been tested and approved by your company, it’s time to display it to the public. To do so, you’ll have to submit the app to the intended app marketplace or marketplaces. For example, if your app is available on iOS and Android systems, you can submit it to the Apple store, Google Play, or the Amazon app store.

Google Play will immediately make your app available for download; however, the Apple store will review it and have to approve it before it is available to download. The entire process tends to take about a week.

Create an Optimized Marketing Strategy

To get people interested in using your app, you need to tell them about its features and design. Post updates on your website, social media accounts and let your existing customers know that an app is in the works.

You can offer existing customers incentives to use the app. For example, you can create incentives like 15% off select products or a free goodie bag for the first hundred customers that complete a purchase through the app.

You can even offer incentives through the app as well. For instance, you can suggest that the first hundred customers that download the app become a premium or VIP member for free for the first three months. Incentives like these gain attention and can even be used to persuade potential customers to purchase your app or simply download it.

However, make sure you employ other advertising methods as well. After all, you want to diversify your marketing plan to speak to a broad audience.

Thus, you can also advertise your app on popular social media applications like Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook. That way, people are aware of your app and its intended use. In fact, people may be swayed to purchase it or download it based on the discussion they see on social media.