The size of the mobile market is growing exponentially, with increased mobile phone penetration globally. Further, estimates show a surge in the size of the mobile app market to USD 407.31 Billion By 2026. All modern businesses are struggling to find app ideas that will help them gain a competitive edge in this already flourishing market. Companies that offer the best apps to their users increase their visibility in crowded markets and earn loyal customers.
Many businesses hire mobile app developers to create new apps to capture a larger market share. However, successful mobile app development spans beyond an excellent end product. The process of profiteering app development begins with thorough market research. Sometimes businesses try to dodge off the market research expense with questions like 'why conduct market research in the first place?' But if you ask any mobile app development company, they will tell you how market research supports mobile app development at every stage, steering it forward in the right direction.
The mobile app developers unearth relevant details as they conduct market research for an app idea. Market research helps their team understand and interpret potential user expectations from an app product. It helps them create a mobile app that fulfills the expectations of the target market and captures a chunk of a share therein.
If you are still wondering,' why do businesses conduct market research during app development?', you are on the right page. In this article, we shed light on reasons to conduct market research and educate you about ways to conduct market research too.
Why do Businesses Conduct Market Research?
All foresighted mobile app developers believe in in-depth market research to gain valuable insights for app creation. Market research exposes the brilliance and follies of competitors helping businesses refine their own app development strategy. The gains from market research for a mobile app startup can help make the app product interesting from the end user's perspective. It also helps in choosing the platform for app development and narrowing ways to monetize the mobile app optimally.
Ways to Conduct Market Research for Mobile App Development
Most app development companies know that 'how to conduct market research for mobile app development' is the most important question they need to find answers to. Since all mobile app development services conduct market research to determine the unique way, they can position the mobile app brand in the market. The market research process for mobile app development can be broadly categorized into two major categories:
Primary Research
- Need for the app in the target market
- The business model of the app
- Optimized Marketing Strategy for the app
Secondary Research
- App's core strengths
- Optimized social media strategy for the app
Answering questions like such help app development teams test the viability of an app idea.
How to Conduct Market Research for Mobile App Development?
Apps that hit it with users are the ones that are loved, used, and needed by a specific set of target markets that the app businesses try to capture. Market research helps app businesses implement better decisions regarding the design, development, marketing of an app business. App developers find multiple ways to conduct market research for mobile app development; some of them are discussed below:
Scrutinize Through App Ideas Ruthlessly
In building an app, mobile app developers choose from a list of potential app ideas. But the question remains how do they know that app idea they want is going to be a hit? The simple answer is that all great app ideas solve a problem that persists. As long as people have questions, you can configure a great app idea and develop it further. App developers must ensue a ruthless process of elimination where they scrutinize many decent app ideas to find out which one is the best. Eliminate app ideas from the worst and keep the great ones.
Compare App Ideas
Search engines can help mobile app startups in gauging the relative popularity of searches for market research. Market research tools like Google Trends help businesses see the percentage of people who searched for a term relative to when this search term was the most popular. Gauge the popularity of different app ideas, trend directions, and data points over some time to find out which ones are popular among masses. Further, the use of keyword planning tools helps developers find fine-grained volume data for search phrases to have an idea about what people search for. Such tools even make suggestions for search phrases based on the developer's input. In the end, they have access to a list of search phrases and their average search volume, which can be used for the app store optimization purpose.
Access Stories, Problems, and Questions
Empathy can be the secret sauce of all successful market research campaigns. The market research begins when you present your app idea to someone who faces the problem that the app is trying to solve. Begin an emphatic market research campaign by researching competitors, blog posts, alternative products in the market. Leverage social networks and discussion boards like Quora, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Hacker News, LinkedIn, Product Hunt, etc., to shed light on your app idea and gather feedback.
Follow Trends that Span on the App Store
To learn what customers are buying, developers must scrutinize the App Store themselves. Track popularity charts from day to day to be successful in the app world. Look at the most popular free apps as it showcases what people are doing on their mobile devices. Also, look at the paid apps to discover what they are spending their money on and how much. Often the information you would encounter would be targeted to a specific country or region in the world. Configure the global trends or find a particular area you want to focus on finding the local trends.
Ascertain the Results from Initial Market Research
After the initial market research, most app developers narrow down on an app idea. However, it's essential to ensure that the chosen concept is, in fact, a popular one. Use special tools to see where your keywords rank on the app store. These tools can help you validate your keyword evaluation. Other devices on the market help app developers discover apps that are related to the chosen keywords.
Conclusion
The answer to the question 'how to develop an app?' begins with adequate market research. Ongoing market research at every stage of mobile app development verifies that the end-product is a perfect fit for the target market.
App developers who intend to rank their app product high on the app store by making it a hit amidst the audiences, allocate resources to conduct market research. Moreover, inadequate market research can cost an app business heavily.
Rahul, working with Promatics Technologies, has been associated with the apps industry for more than nine years now. He has seen the apps economy grow from its nascent days to a full-fledged industry with its complete ecosystem as of today. His interest lies in pursuing and getting to know the best app development technologies, processes, and platforms.
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