Why Is Market Research Before Mobile App Development Important?

Mobile app development is a complex process that takes time and a standardized process followed by the app development team. A crucial support system of the mobile app developers is the market research team. Before floating any mobile app, it is very important to know about the market in depth.

Since there are many mobile apps, you need targeted research before creating a mobile app. Without research, the mobile app loses its edge and becomes just another app in the app store. Therefore, you need strong market research and a data analytics team to support your Mobile App Development process. Hiring the right research team is as important as hiring mobile app developers.

This article discusses the best ways of conducting fruitful market research for app development. Keep these tips in mind when going for the next round of market research for your mobile app idea and development.

Types of Market Research

There are two types of market research phases that you can start with. The two types are primary and secondary market research. Before delving into the tips for market research, let us understand the types of research.

1. Primary Research

Primary research helps you gauge the demand for your conceptualized mobile app in the market. Once you know your app idea’s demand and problem-solving ability, you can further work on it. You can either abandon a low-demand product idea or increase the demand for a product idea with the help of market insights. Primary research gives an initial view of the market and helps you plan your development and marketing approach. The idea is to find out what the market needs and cater to it.

One of the best ways of doing primary market research is to read the trends of digital forums. Social networking platforms and landing sites help you test the waters in the initial phase. Research the revenue and advertising strategy and see if the planned strategy will work out well in the market segment. After the strategy is finalized, take a mixed approach for brand campaign launch to clear pre-launch and post-launch limitations.

2. Secondary Research

Secondary research is the phase that follows the primary research step. Secondary research is targeted towards improving the app after creation and launch. Secondary research takes the overall performance and customer feedback from the usage of the mobile app into consideration. The research method helps you improve features and marketing plans for the mobile app.

The first and foremost approach to secondary research is a detailed SWOT analysis of the launched product. Secondary research also works with studying your target demographic and social media profiles. Secondary research helps optimize and expand marketing efforts across different demographics. Secondary research must be conducted from time to time after the launch of the mobile app.

Methods To Conduct Market Research

1. Internal Data Analysis

One of the sure-shot ways of market research is drawing insights from already collected customer data and databases. The internal data analysis process focuses on website data, CRM data, and campaign run data to gauge the popularity and impact of the app. Another pointer of internal data analysis is interviews with app creation and marketing employees.

The detailed data analysis gives you an idea of how successful the mobile app has been. Even before mobile app development, you can follow this process to know if there is a need for a mobile app or not. Internal data is gathered from your company’s touchpoints with the market and proves valuable.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups are a tool of market research. A focus group includes 5 to 10 people from the market segment. The focus group participates in an interesting market-oriented discussion with a moderator. The focus groups take valuable feedback from people and know the extent of an issue that the market identifies with. A focus group discussion helps you gather the right information on an app idea to make it highly targeted. A focus group discussion works when you introduce a new feature in a mobile app.

3. Surveys

Market surveys are focused on polling the audience with a certain set of questions. Surveys have existed for a long time, but we see them online nowadays. Surveys are a great tool if you have specific questions about a product. Market surveys are usually done to know about customer loyalty and their needs.

You can run a survey as long as you have relevant questions to reach a wide range of audiences. There are multiple survey platforms that you can use for market research. From user satisfaction issues to the addition of new features, there are many areas in which a mobile app development company can conduct research.

4. Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is very important in every market segment. It is also very important in a highly competitive business ecosystem like mobile app development. A mobile app development team aims to float something unique with never seen before features. However, there are many mobile apps in the market that a new entrant has to take up in-depth competitor analysis before choosing the right mobile app development niche. Competitor analysis aims to learn from your competitor’s mistakes and take advantage of their business gaps.

The mobile app development process and output have become highly targeted. Before you launch a mobile app into the market, you have to ensure that it becomes successful right from the start. To ensure this result, you must conduct major market research before and after mobile app development. Even before you hire app developer for the actual development process, your market research team needs to be accurate with the insights.