Every app development process should not begin till the target audience to use that app is defined. According to CB Insights, 14% of startup failures happen as a result of not properly defining their target audience per their post-mortem on the death of 253 startups. With many apps for users to choose from, standing out is not an option, but a necessity as well as honing in on the audience who really need the product you’re offering and who are willing to pay to use it, depending on the purpose of the app. This article explores how to define your target users with aplomb and leverage that knowledge into your app development.
First things first, what are you building?
In one sentence, you need to describe what your app does, as that gives you a good platform to launch from; it is like a vision statement of the app. For example, you might say “This app will allow tourists book an affordable, safe, and secure apartment.” From this statement, the app caters to tourists, but that is only a platform as there are different kinds of tourists. You’ll need further research to first identify the types of tourists there are, before building the perfect persona for the app. When you have clarity on what you’re building, then you can proceed to conduct qualitative mobile app market research into your defined primary user persona.
Conducting Market Research
Ideally, you can outsource your market research to companies specializing in this domain. However, this data doesn’t come for cheap and usually costs four figures. For big and established firms or startups, this might not necessarily be a lot, but for new startups, this might not be the cost-effective route to follow. Newly-started startup owners have to roll up their sleeves and get into the dirt to perform market research to save money for marketing purposes. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Gather stats and insights
It is imperative to get insights and data about the niche or industry your app will serve and a great place to start is Statista. You can get data on app usage per industry or niche that can inform how large your potential market is, which should also help you determine your potential revenue when developing your business plan.
- Check the trends
Another thing you want to know is if interest in your idea or something related to it is getting stronger or waning in recent times. You can use search engine data for that. For example, Google Trends/ Adwords will give you an overview of the things people are searching for and how often that happens. If interest in the topics related to your idea is waning over time, then you might need to ask yourself “Why?” and perhaps ditch the idea. On the other hand, if interest is growing, then this shows that people are searching for answers related to your idea. You could also gather keywords that will be important to your online marketing strategy in this phase too.
- View questions on popular forums related to your niche or industry
Another place you can seek out insights is on forums related to your idea and social media, to see what topics people are talking about. In this phase, it is important to focus on their pain-points; make a list of these and note every detail of their description. Forums like Quora and Reddit will show you the questions in people’s heart and reading through the answers and comments will definitely give you many insights.
Feel free to check more information and insights on the MLSDev website and blog. For, example check out the guide: How can you make your app successful.
