Mobile apps are part of our day-to-day routine. We use our mobile apps for texting, messaging, video calls, dating… And we also have on-demand delivery applications and social and email apps to stay connected on the go, don’t we? But how can we create better apps? How do we develop a successful mobile product?
App development is not only about coding it is also about product planning, about knowing your audience and how you want to reach them out. Building an app must solve a problem or a need of a specific group of users. Essentially, the success of your product will be defined by how well your app leverages the needs of your prospects. Let’s dive into what mobile app users want.
What do people want from mobile apps?
There are 4 main elements of an app to keep in mind when developing a mobile product:
- App Delivery: Mobile app users want mobile apps to be easy and quick to use. They want to be able to accomplish their tasks with minimal effort. A proper app delivery means user-friendly interface and intuitive UX.
- Problem – solving product: Mobile users want to be able to use mobile apps to make their lives easier, more efficient, less risky or more enjoyable. Give them a valuable reason to download your app! Think of how your mobile app can help users solve a problem or make a faster or easier delivery.
- Product Personalization: People want app personalization. Narrow down your message – in both your product and marketing efforts. Keep your message concise and use push notifications and email marketing to personalize app content and recommendations as much as possible to your engaged users. The idea is that the prospect thinks: This is made exactly for me!
- Safety: Make your app safe and risk-free for mobile users in terms of user privacy but also in terms of using safe payment methods like credit card, Apple Pay, and PayPal.
These core 4 elements, as mentioned, convenience, utility, personalization, and safety are the pillars in which a mobile app should be developed. And how all of these features are aligned with your audience values will determine whether your app will be successful or not.
How are mobile apps valued?
Mobile App Business Assessment
There are some main elements when financially assessing a mobile app:
- User base and user Engagement: What are your new installs on a daily basis? How many active users do you have? How do they engage with your app? What are your early retention rates?
- User revenue: Revenue generated from your app users (ARPPU, gross and net profit, EBITDA, cash flow,….)
- Mobile Growth potential: How much room for improvement does your app have? Calculate your app growth potential to set up your acquisition strategy. Elaborate an acquisition plan with your goals and a forecast to analyze and assess your mobile performance
- Market share: The percentage of the market allocation in your specific niche – this info is vital for other publishers as well as for ad networks
Mobile App Users Assessment
Looking into how a mobile app user rates our app, we have some factors we should beware of:
- Historical and last 28-Day Downloads: The number of installs of an app can determine whether a mobile user is more likely to install or not your app. Mobile products will have a low historical tendency to have lower user conversion. Also, mobile stores focus on the last 28 Day Performance to determine your positioning in their store.
- Ratings: It is an essential element most mobile users look into before downloading an app. A poor rating will harm your user conversion and will discourage the mobile store to give your app a visible placement. Best practices speaks of having at least a 4.1 minimum rating in your main markets.
- Reviews: As an element of the user experience feedback process, compulsory in all mobile stores, reviews as well as ratings are also crucial to determine user conversion. Try to answer all your user reviews, if possible, in the corresponding language and insert user prompts in your app to facilitate users to provide reviews. The number of reviews of an app is also a symbol of the app’s popularity.
- Unique Selling Position (USP): Your value proposition will be displayed to your users in the store’s product page. Having a clean, structured design with a clear value displayed among your app title, descriptions and visual assets will help your users better understand what your app is about, what are you offering and what can be found inside. If mobile app users see no value, they won’t install your product. It is crucial to send them a clear callout of what can be perceived as valuable. Test different messages and visuals to understand which type of values work best for your mobile app.
There are other factors that a mobile app user takes into account: app crashes and ANRs, ad frequency, app content…. As app developers we need to push for value within our user base to keep optimizing our product.
When are users using mobile apps?
People use mobile apps for tasks as well as business operations everyday. The average mobile owner uses 10 apps daily and 30 apps each month. As expected, younger adults spend more time on apps than older adults, being young adults (18 to 24 years) 112 hours/month compared to the 50 hours/month of adults over 65.
Among all app categories, entertainment apps were the most-used app category and 75% of users tend to engage with them on a daily basis.
The place where people use mobile apps most is at home – and surprisingly the restroom is the preferred place at home to use them as 83% of mobile app users use restrooms to engage with apps.
Other popular places in which people engage with their mobile apps are at work (86%) and having dinner (73%).
Another interesting fact of mobile app usage is that 81% of people use mobile apps while watching TV and 79% of them while being with friends or family. This means that most people using mobile apps tend to engage with them on a “secondary level” while doing other activities or interacting with other people.
App developers should keep this in mind when analyzing their app content and messaging as rarely app users will give more than a few seconds full attention to their product.
We help app creators and mobile developers in their way to market their apps in the stores – feel free to contact our aso services to revise and optimize your app strategy – we’re happy to help.
