How To Conduct Mobile App Market Research?

When it comes to developing a mobile app, it could either turn your Business into a successful venture or spoil your business plans. Today’s entrepreneurs are eager to bring their mobile ideas to the market. It does not matter which type of app you are developing but researching a mobile app idea is something you must pay attention to.   

Research from Inc.com says that around 2/3 of apps get less than 1000 app downloads in the first year. The reason behind the failure of apps is the lack of mobile app market research.   

Let’s throw some light on statistics-  

According to Business of Apps, “143.6 billion apps were downloaded in 2021″. Statista says, “There are around 3.55 million apps on the google play store while approximately 1.6 million apps were available on the app store. Hence, we can understand that the app industry is becoming huge.  

But it does not mean you will roll out mobile apps instantly just because everyone else is doing it. Building an app without doing research is irrelevant.   

In this article, we will delve deeper to make you understand a glimpse of market research, and the steps involved in doing market research for mobile apps.  

What is Market Research?  

Market research involves collecting information about the needs and wants of customers, what customer expectations are, and whether your product matches their expectations or not. It becomes necessary for organizations to conduct market research so that their efforts and time are well-spent in launching the product.   

HubSpot says,” Market research plays a pivotal role in evaluating the success of a product.” Understanding the customer’s persona gives you an overview of your target group and how you can provide more value to them.   

Once you perform market research, you can offer the best products to the customers while improving their overall customer journey.   

Let’s understand this with the help of an example – There was a taxi app named “Hailo,” and the company got massive success in Britain. They decided to expand their presence in the USA. The company failed while launching the product in the USA. The reason is pretty simple. Hailo company did not conduct market research.   

Importance of Market Research

Here’s why Market Research is important for businesses-

1. Get to Know About Customers.   

Through market research, you can serve your customers in a better way. Market research gives you a competitive advantage where you can effectively study your customer persona and reach out to them.   

Here, the one size fits all approach will not function effectively as every customer is different. When you understand the needs and preferences of your target audience, you can market the right products to them.    

2. Help you Do the SWOT Analysis.   

By conducting market research, companies can perform a SWOT analysis where they can identify their strengths, the areas in which the Business is lacking, the potential in the market, and the current threats that could affect your Business.   

 3. Helps you to Validate a Product Idea   

Market research helps startups analyze whether there is a demand for the product in the market. When launching the product in the market, you need to consider which type of customer your product is catering to and which kind of need the product will satisfy.   

Additionally, the timing of the product should matter a lot. Launching a product too early in the market when there is no need or launching a product too late when your competitors have already played their part. Both things are going to spoil your game.   

Market research lets you know how your product should look and frame the marketing strategies accordingly.    

4. It Reduces the Chances of Failure For Startups   

According to CB Insights, 35% of startups fail because they launch the products without knowing whether there is a market need or not. Market research helps these startups identify the need first and then develop products accordingly.   

Steps For Conducting Mobile App Market Research

Here’s the step-by-step guide for conducting mobile app market research-

1. Validate Your Mobile App Idea   

The first step in conducting mobile app market research is validating your product idea. Here, a business owner needs to identify the need in the market. If there is no need for the product launch in the market, your idea proves wrong.   

To ensure whether an app idea has potential in the market, start talking to people and sending questionnaires to the customers, run a survey, and get feedback from them. Hence, you can figure out whether this app idea could meet the customer’s needs or not.  

2. Identify Your Target Customers   

If you think your app can serve everyone’s needs and is created for everyone. Then, it is for no one. A clear understanding of your target audience can help you spot the right opportunity.   

Identifying an ideal customer avatar is fundamental to making your app idea live.   

For example – You want to develop Android apps for your customers. However, you found out that 80% of your target customers comprise of I-phone users. Thus, you get all the bit-sized information by doing market research.   

3. Do the Competitor Research   

Michael Corleone once said, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” The next step involves in mobile app market research is to conduct competitor research. Doing competitor research plays a significant role because you get to know various things-  

• What type of business model your competitors are following  
• What problems does your app solve  
• Study the competitor market strategy   
• Study the app features   
• Identification of needs in the market   

There are various tools that businesses can use to identify the hot trends going on in the industry. You can take help from multiple sites such as Data.ai, Statista, Business of Apps, and google trends. Here, you can identify the demand for apps.   

For Instance – Data.ai provides insights into the number of app downloads and top apps by revenue. Another app, Statista, offers new and relevant information on app usage in various countries.   

Google Trends is another tool that businesses can do for conducting market research. It provides you latest data for you to market your app idea. For example – If you want to know which countries have a similar user base for the app you are trying to target, then use this tool wisely.   

4. Create a Business Plan   

Now, it’s high time for businesses to create a business plan after understanding the target audience, market, and competitors. When you are starting a business plan, a few components have to be included, such as –  

• Create an executive summary   
• Do brainstorming sessions with company stakeholders   
• Analyze your product strengths   
• Frame marketing and sales strategies   
• Estimate the budget   

5. Perform a SWOT Analysis   

SWOT analysis lets businesses note their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities available in the market, and external threats that could affect the Business. A SWOT analysis lets you know how your app could be made differently from others.   

Dig deeper to study small and mid-sized companies. You need not worry about imitating competitor strategies blindly; take inspiration from direct and indirect competitors and apply those findings while launching your mobile app.   

For example – If you plan to launch a calorie tracking app, but you performed a SWOT analysis wherein you get to know about competitor apps. You get to know that meal tracker apps are available in the market; now is a good time to analyze the app user interface, UX, and other functionalities.   

Wrapping Up  

The above instances might have helped you as to why you need to perform mobile app market research. 35% startups fail because they develop the product without identifying whether there is a market need or not.  

Therefore, it’s better to perform mobile app market research accordingly. If you need help in doing mobile app market research then connect with our mobile app development experts.  

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