Smartphone users across the world are growing rapidly and the ability of even the most basic smartphone keeps getting better each year.
With most of the world mostly online, it has become very important for businesses to invest in gaining a persistent and accessible online presence.
Many businesses, aside from opening social media pages, are taking a step further and building their own unique mobile apps. But building mobile apps is not easy and can easily become a very costly affair. Therefore, here is how to do it on a budget.
Set clear goals
The first thing to determine how to build the mobile app for your phone is setting clear goals. What do you want the mobile app to do? Who is going to use the mobile app? How will it make the customer experience better? What are its implications – short-term and long-term returns? How are your competitors doing with their apps, if they have them?
This will help you streamline your budget and put only needed features on the app – or not build one at all if it’s not necessary
Define your business needs
There are over five million apps on Apple Store and Google Play Store combined. So, if your app just joins the millions of others, you will be best advised not to proceed with it.
Run through your business needs and see which problems the app will solve. If the app cannot solve a problem in your business, for example, make buying of items easier, then it would be of no use. You’d rather stick to social media if you come up short of why your business needs a mobile phone app.
Offer exclusive content
Your social media page is great, but your app should offer an extra bit of content to your key customers. Remember, people who will download your app will be people who are completely bought with your business.
Thus, rather than replicate what’s on your social media pages or website, make unique features for the app to keep the cost down. For example, you can give special discounts if they purchase through the app, give prizes, and so on. That way, the customers will see the value of the app.
Hire a unique team of app developers
The next way to build an app on a budget is to weigh the cost of the app development. If you have in-house app developers, how does the cost of managing them compare to outsourcing?
So, you could work with in-house developers or seek external app development agencies if they are cheaper than putting together an in-house team.
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