This article was originally written by Brittany Mills in 2016, and since then, the Mobiquity team has updated it to reflect new discoveries and trends in the industry.
A strong mobile app strategy is an absolute necessity for companies just getting started with application development or those looking to revamp or overhaul their existing software. Put simply, it’s the best way to ensure your app is doing everything you want it to do—both for your company and for your current (and potential) customers.
To ensure your strategy is as effective as possible, we recommend five essential features of mobile app development and management: defining success, selecting appropriate tools, improving engagement, monetizing, and assessing your overall mobile app strategy.
All stakeholders, from developers to adopters and testers, need to be aligned around a mobile app strategy with a uniform definition for—and measures of—success.
That comes from analyzing certain factors key to the development process, such as:
Once answers to these questions are solidified, you’ll have a clear definition of success.
With clear goals and metrics in mind, you can prioritize functions that will manifest your vision more efficiently - this applies to both development and ongoing UX.
It’s also important to consider industry-specific trends and expectations.
For example, the features that make a good banking app change over time as users now see functions like instant check deposits as basic rather than the exciting development it once was. To that end, an effective mobile app strategy needs to be proactive, considering all of the possible features and prioritizing them into the ones that will help you best achieve your business goals.
Banks aren’t alone in leveraging data to optimize their mobile app strategies. Many key features in healthcare and life sciences apps, like scheduling and advice, use AI-powered big data and data analytics to engage customers.
Industry-agnostic ways to leverage data analytics for user engagement include:
Ultimately, the best user engagement strategies are driven by data analysis.
Companies also need to explore different monetization strategies to determine the best ones to meet their goals. Per Statista, advertisements are the most preferred form of monetization in apps in 2024, especially in the US. Interestingly, global markets saw more utilization of paid apps and in-app billing (i.e., subscriptions or in-app purchases).
Maximizing ROI from mobile apps requires balancing revenue generation with user satisfaction. Overburdening users with banners, pop-ups, and other ads can cause frictions that ultimately drive users off the app—and potentially onto competitors – so it’s important to consider the pros and cons of different monetization strategies before deciding on the right one.
If your team has a mobile app strategy in place, it’s important to assess it regularly to determine whether it’s meeting (or on track to meet) its defined goals. This is vital to your overall app development strategy and should happen continuously.
One of the primary goals of regular review is to identify areas for improvement and innovation. For example, you may discover that a new feature is not garnering users’ attention. That can lead to prioritizing customer experience in the next round of updates, identifying whether the issue lies within the functionality itself or its positioning—for example, how users navigate it.
Part of staying ahead of mobile technology trends is making conscious decisions about which new technologies to integrate. You should consider how a specific function or tool like artificial intelligence (AI) will impact your users.
To return to financial institutions and their software, forward-thinking banks leverage generative AI to optimize customer journeys. This is an effective mobile app strategy because they use cutting-edge predictive analysis to answer users’ questions and provide real value instantaneously—and critically, cost-effectively.
Effective mobile app strategy starts with planning and defining what success looks like. At Mobiquity, we help companies across all industries plan for, develop, deploy, and manage software that meets their customers’ needs and maximizes ROI across all segments.
Get in touch today to learn more about what an effective mobile app strategy can do for you.
We believe that addressing customer challenges gives you opportunities to delight. Using our proprietary Friction Reports and strong industry expertise, we dig deep into customer sentiment and create action plans that remove engagement roadblocks. The end result is seamless, relevant experiences that your customers will love.
