5 Proven App Ideas That Will Get You Results

With the millions of apps out in the market in 2017, it’s a no-brainer that the value of apps have slowly decreased to the point where paid apps are looked down upon.

So, how can you or your app development company build an app that people want to buy or download to their phone?

In today’s article, I will be talking about 5 proven app ideas that will get you results.

Remember what your goals are.

One reason why many apps go down the drain is because they forget the actual purpose of their app- bringing value to your audience and building a new audience for your main business.

Quickly think about this from a consumer’s point of view- “Why should I download your app over the 1,000s of other apps I see here?” That’s what I will be covering here, building an app around the main goal of an app. Providing value & Fixing Problems for Users.

Why Creating Content is Important for Your App

If you’re a new app developer/publisher, your initial thought is “All I have to do is build a really good app and release it.”

That statement couldn’t be further from the truth. Releasing an app is only the beginning. It doesn’t matter how good your app is, in fact, it could be the best app ever created, if nobody sees it then your app is worthless.

That is the sad truth.

After releasing an app, you should now be focusing on promotion. This is where creating content comes in. You will find online marketing very difficult these days if you do not implement content marketing into your strategy.

Content marketing is huge. According to Content Marketing Institute, while content marketing costs around 62% less, it generates over 3x as many leads.

Why am I telling you this?

Because content marketing is vital for any type of product in today’s market. Ahrefs shows this perfectly with 6 different examples of how content marketing drove success to campaigns.

Now let’s talk about how you can actually use content marketing to your advantage. Being a gamer, I am going to be using gaming as my example.

So, you build a game for millions of mobile users to enjoy. It’s a strategy game similar to Worms. There are many ways of making content for this type of game.

App Ideas
Image From Google Play Store

You could make a blog talking about the development of the game, the best strategies or just simply how to guides. You can also combine this with YouTube. People love watching others playing games and giving tutorials on them.

That’s why games such as Call of Duty have the ability to give over $1 million in prize winnings to professional gaming organisations.

You can create a content schedule, maybe upload or posting 3 videos/blogs a week and grow your fanbase before your game is even out.

Emphasising Why Your App is Unique is Necessary

You really do not understand how many mobile apps are out there until you either start building your own or you surf through the app stores looking for a new app to download.

There are loads…

This is why you need to emphasise why your app is different to all the others out there. With the addition of creating your own content for your mobile app, you can also outreach other websites to create a buzz around your app.

However, simply writing an email to website owners asking them to feature your app won’t work. You need to create a solid pitch in order to get people’s attention. OutBrain gave a really cool pitch that you can use to email people about featuring your app.

Emphasising why your app is different doesn’t only apply to website owners. You need mobile users to clearly understand why your app is better or else they will not download it. Having a landing page on the app store that is amazing will increase your CTR (Click Through Rate).

Thinking Outside The Box by Leveraging Your Local Area

This idea doesn’t really apply to a mobile game so I am going to switch niches here and talk more about hotels. More specifically, the W Hotel.

If you have used their app before you will have noticed that when it comes to leveraging the local area, they thought way outside the box. Allowing their users to order their room service from the app.

Not only that, but they also have a feature that offers music from talented local artists adding a personal touch to your stay at the location.

So, let’s say you run a plumbing service and you build an app to make it easier for clients to contact you and book appointments. You can also offer a live tracking feature where people can actually see where their plumber is on the day of their appointment.

If you’re anything like me then you will find it really frustrating when you have an appointment and you have to stay home all day because you have no idea when your plumber will show up.

Leveraging is a huge part of marketing and is something you must implement in your marketing strategies if you haven’t already. If you’re a local business then the most powerful thing you can leverage is your local area.

Come up with a really good idea that you do not see your competitors doing and leverage your area to become the go-to company for clients.

Fixing A Problem Within Your Targeted Niche

One common trait across any successful business is that they fix an issue within a targeted niche. Whether it’s Coca-Cola replenishing your thirst or if you’re an entrepreneur teaching people how to do something, for example, programming.

A lot of people already know this and I am sure that some of you are silently saying this to yourself. But how many of you actually do it?

App Ideas

Information is knowing something, but knowledge is information + action which not a lot of people actually do.

How can you build an app that fixes users problems?

Some of the best practices that other entrepreneurs do are simply ask people within their niche what their biggest issues are.

In this example, I am going to refer to  PaperKarma an app for the iOS, Andriod & Windows phone. Whenever you receive junk mail in your mailbox you can take a snapshot of all the mail you do not want and PaperKarma will help get you off that company’s distribution list.

Now, let’s quickly break that concept down so that you can see why this app has a 4.5-star rating out of nearly 5,000 users on the Google Play Store alone.

Fixing The Current Issue

What is the issue in this example? Junk mail. Nobody likes getting random mail from places they haven’t even heard of before and it doesn’t help that companies sell your information off to other companies so you can not escape this problem.

The best way to build successful apps like this is by building your app around a current problem instead of building an app that can cause a new problem.

Making The Solution Easier For Users

Next up is the solution to the problem. Since mobile usage is growing more and more each year, it wouldn’t make any sense to have people collect the mail and drop it off to a local PaperKarma store.

That’s what we would’ve had to do 20 years ago.

So to make things easier on us, they built a mobile app that we can use to take an image and have the process start in under 20 seconds.

Create Loyal Users By Actively Engaging Them

Let’s be real here. Nobody likes to feel like just another number right. We want people to treat us with respect and make us feel valued.

Now that you have built your app and it’s ready to launch, you need to start thinking about your support team and how you are going to handle issues that your users may face.

Engagement could also mean how often you are active on social media or how many videos you make for your YouTube channel.

By showing your audience that you actually care about them and what problems they have, you will gain new and more importantly loyal users that would be willing to pay for any new update or product that you release at a later date.

Here is a highly detailed infographic on the impact that content can have on somebody during the buying cycle.

Measuring the Impact of Content Across the Buying Cycle
                                                                                                                                                                         Source: Visually

Udemy explains how loyal fans and repeat customers are really important and they also explain the difference between a loyal fan and a repeat customer in their article Sales Funnel: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Customers.

Making things quick I will explain why these two types of customers are important to you. Loyal fans are users who would download your app and continuously use it for a long period of time.

They probably wouldn’t purchase anything else from you or download any of your other apps if you release them. However, they will do something much more valuable. They would recommend your app to others.

This is really powerful as over 90% of consumers would trust a friend’s recommendation over any type of advertisements.

Repeat customers, on the other hand, are even better for you. Not only will they most likely recommend your app to others, they would also most likely download/purchase other apps and products that you will release at a later date.

What You Should Take Out From This Article

Just building a mobile app and publishing it on the app stores aren’t enough to have a successful app. It takes time, strategy and many other aspects.

You can focus on building an app that reflects and complements your business with extra features that build a fan base or you could build an app that is a bit more personal to you (Like a game) and build a community.

Whatever you choose, you will need a team of experienced developers and marketers to help you build a solid strategy. If you would like to have a free consult with us then feel free to contact us.

If you would also like to add your input to this article, you can leave a comment down below and we will get back to you.

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