Technology is constantly revolutionizing and new systems are being implemented to improve our user experience. The iBeacons or Beacon are the terms used by Apple to refer to a new technology that are small devices which use Bluetooth Low Energy to communicate with smartphones. The Beacons technology is the next trend in businesses for many reasons that we will analyze below, but first, we must know exactly what they are and how they work to understand more about the use we can give and that benefits our business.

What Is Beacon Technology?

The Beacons are a new location-based technology. It is distinguished by its low cost and easy acquisition. If you have the latest Smartphone, you probably already have this Bluetooth beacons in the palm of your hand. In order for your phone to be able to intercept these signals, it is necessary to have an application that will react to the data sent from the beacons.

Among its benefits, is the low consumption that represents in a matter of battery. Even a simple button cell battery could give you a long life of up to two years. In addition, it has a signal range of about 40 meters. In simple words, it is a current technology that does not require much investment to function properly.

Thanks to the features of Beacons technology, companies can communicate with mobile devices wirelessly, either to send messages or collect information. This is the main reason why businesses are interested in this new technology. The Beacons represent a great opportunity for stores to connect with their customers and understand them better. This way, they will be able to know data like the time they stay in a store and send messages according to their location.

It is very useful if you have a physical store since you can inform your customers of special and personalized promotions. Apple is one of the giants that use beacon technology. The iBeacons work with their mobile devices every time someone passes near any of their physical stores. Consumers have a level of control over the notifications that they receive through these beacons, something very important to respect their privacy.

The company can analyze the influx of customers within a store and monitor the influence of their push notifications on their online sales.

Benefits Of Beacon Technology For Businesses

We already know how they work within a physical store, but now we must discover what are the benefits of beacon technology for businesses, especially electronic commerce if we are talking about a virtual store. First, we must understand that beacon technology solutions cut that gap between the physical and the digital. It is not necessary that the user enters a room to receive notification and can always review the offer later because there is a virtual site that you can enter from your home or office. Also, this technology can be installed around the city so that outdoor advertising is more interactive with users. In this way, we can analyze the advantages they represent for our business:

Send Important Offers For Consumers Effortlessly

We are not going to fill out notifications to our clients. We have to choose the most relevant offers and this is how beacons are transformed into a trend that we will see in e-commerce. The physical discount coupons that we deliver to our customers disappear and we focus on personalized offers that can be found in notices on the street or at strategic points in the city.

Capture The Customer’s Attention

Beacon technology is an example of AI – Artificial Intelligence i.e. now, we can enjoy more information about the behavior of our customers. Thus, we can offer products that really interest them and capture their attention. This will generate engagement. In addition, we will know the effectiveness of the campaigns we carry out, the number of visits we receive and the number of purchases made thanks to beacon alerts.

Expand Our Database

One difficulty that presents itself to any company is the segmentation of our consumers. With the beacons, we will have more information to better organize ourselves and further detail the profile of our clients according to their preferences. Definitely, it will be a tool that we can use for our benefit.

Much Simpler Loyalty Campaigns

If we place ourselves on the consumer’s side, we know that a personalized treatment captures our attention. So we do not make a purchase, we know that a store cares about us and knows our tastes so we will receive offers that really are of our interest. Eventually, we will buy from it if the offer is good. This, added to the shopping experience we have, will serve to build loyalty and even recommend other people about the attention we receive from this store.

In the same way, you can make campaigns as points programs to encourage new users to make purchases in our electronic commerce.

Connectivity With Social Networks

We can not ignore social networks. A large part of the population navigates these sites and they share all kinds of stories. Beacons help online stores integrate with social networks to conduct campaigns that encourage interaction with users, either to receive special discounts or to participate in raffles.

Greater Reach

Generally, e-commerce uses online advertising to make itself known. This is a good method, but it limits you greatly to the fact that the user is connected and surfing the internet. With beacons, this is no longer necessary because we can communicate with our customers at any time. And it is not intrusive advertising that bothers the client since he himself can configure the application to receive the notifications that he wants.

When you get an idea of your business app, there will be hundreds of questions and uncertainty popping up parallel to the idea. You don’t need to worry about these confusions as it is normal, especially the first time when you step into a tech business lineup. But if you fail to overcome it at the right time, it tends to throw you for a loop. Based on our vast experience in mobile app development, we prepared an authorized and practical approach to turn your app idea from your dreams to the actual tech market. Let’s take a look at the ultimate guide to put your thoughts in order and turn your idea into a successful trending app. 

“I have an idea for an app. How and where should I start…? 

Step 1: Research the Tech Market

With nearly 3.6 Million apps on Google Play Store and 2.7 Million apps on iOS App Store, it’s not at all easy to beat the competition. Here you have to analyze the comparison of your app’s utility with similar competitors’ applications. But another question that fuels up here is how you can analyze your competitors. So, you have to make list of top five leading competitor apps in your app category and analyze following things: 

• Strengths, Weaknesses, Growth Opportunities and Potential Threats. 
• Crucial App Features
• What attracts you to its UI/UX design? Look for original graphical elements and top notch technologies being used. 
• Drawback that app faces. 
• User acquisition mediums ( targeted audience, traffic resources, marketing campaigns, etc.)
• Revenue sources (free functions, paid features, monetization strategies)
• App Rating (users’ reviews, rankings, app store ratings on different platforms). 

The primary reason behind the success of the mobile app is to resolve emerging issues of targeted users effectively. It is a big secret that if your app is capable of managing a particular problem better than other apps is the key to your app’s success. In simple words, you have to analyze it from the user’s point of view. Observe the problems you might face as a user, find out how the users prefer to get them solved and how much the user is enjoying your application.

“I have done the market research for my app idea. What to do next?…

Step 2: Create your Business Plan

You are up with lots of valuable information after market research. But yet you won’t be able to clarify how to start developing an app. Rather than bitting a big chunk and chewing it, you should slice and dice your business idea on paper in the shape of a business plan. Your business plan should be shaped according to the following factors: 

• Explain your Proto Persona: You should compose a portrait of your target users based on your app characteristics. Also, define and classify your target active and paying users. 
• Sketch your App Functionalities: Make a list of features that your app should have. Then divide them into crucial parts like the features to develop first and extra features that you can update later. Moreover, make the mockups of app screens and trace the user flow through it. 
• Evaluate your Unique Value Proposition (UVP): Think of the unique features that will make your app superior to other apps already available on app stores. This killer feature will be that essential feature to attract your competitors’ users too. The more powerful is your UVP, the more it will enhance its power call to action (CTA). 
• Choose a Monetization Model: All your efforts and investments will be ruined if your app plan does not include a monetization model. There are five standard models one can use to monetize its app. You can either use more than one model at a time also. 
  • Advertising ( Using Ads and Banners)
  • Freemium ( Combination of Free and Paid Features)
  • Premium Subscription ( Member to access specific content)
  • In-App Purchase ( Selling physical products, virtual goods, etc. in the app)
  • Paid Apps ( Must pay before downloading the app)
  • Choose the Priority Platform: To reach out to maximum people, you should launch an app on Android and iOS platforms. But building two apps for two different platforms can be pretty costly. However, if you have a limited budget, consider finding out which platform is more prevalent among your intended audience. 

  “If I don’t know how to code, how will I develop my app?…

  Step 3: Choose the Best App Developers in the Town

  If you are not a technical programmer, then after business planning, you have to look for one who can execute your app idea. Whom should you hire a team of developers or a software development company? All these depend on the following factors: 

  • How platforms do you aim at publishing your app?
  • Do you plan to develop an app from scratch, or will you go for a ready-made app with a bit of customization?
  • What are your project deadlines and budget for app development? 
  • How many features do you want in your app, and what is the complexity level of your app? 

  Developing a full-fledged mobile app involves many development stages, from writing code, managing data, creating the design, testing the app’s quality, and controlling team performance. If you are not familiar with coding, then the technical resources you will need are: 

  1. iOS Developer
  2. Android Developer
  3. Backend Developer
  4. UI/UX Designer 
  5. QA Specialist
  6. Project Manager

  I have an idea for an app but no money in my hand. Can I still develop my app? If yes, then how?…

  Step 4: Raise Funds

  Lack of financial resources for starting a business isn’t a new story. So if you have a fantastic app idea and no money in your hand to start your business, it’s not doomsday. Here are some sources funding your mobile app startup business:

  • Personal Finances
  • Friends and Family Partnership
  • Services and Events for Raising Funds for Startups
  • Post Your Idea and Get it Fund by Crowdfunding
  • Find Sponsors for your App at Accelerators
  • Angel Investors Sharing Certain Percentage of Business
  • Venture Companies
  • Private Software Development Companies Partnership ( Clustox is also up for partnership offer to new tech startups)
  • Bank Credit

  If you want to increase your app idea chances to attract substantial investment, creating a demo version of your app is the best method. A working application prototype will have the power to convince people to finance your app idea. Basically, a prototype lets you demonstrate your app idea in understandable actions instead of simply showing a rough sketch on paper. 

  “I have secured funding for my app idea. Now, what’s next?…

  Step 5: Build an MVP

  Done with market research, drawing up your business plan, securing financial support, now it’s time to validate your app idea. There is no need to develop a fuller version of the app to launch it. Today, everyone follows the faster and cheaper way to assess the viability of an app idea by building a minimum viable product (MVP). As the name suggests, the MVP of an app includes a minimum set of features that your app can’t function without. However, building an MVP will solve the following tasks just in one go:

  • You have to check the viability of the app idea.
  • It helps business owners get early adopters and receive valuable feedback. 
  • Give a clear vision of the target audience. 
  • It keeps the development time and costs lower. 
  • It makes it possible to generate revenue in the early stages
  • It serves as a powerful source to attract more prominent investors.

  “My MVP is developed; still, I need to do more with my app idea?…

  Step 6: Keep on Improving your App

  Once after building an MVP, you move to the following tasks: testing, getting feedback, fixing bugs, and advancing the application with new features. However, this cycle keeps on repeating from testing, adjusting flaws, and releasing.

  “How can I take my app idea to the next level of the market?…

  Step 7: Expand Your App Stores’ Presence

  Besides focusing on improving your app’s functionalities, you should also focus on how to keep users using your app. Another duty that you have to perform is to figure out how to get higher-paying customers that will consistently boost your revenue. Along with increasing your revenue, you also need to implement marketing strategies to become a brand recognized worldwide. The three tasks you have to perform for increasing your app presence are: 

  • Ensure maintenance and support to build a successful business for a long time. Your support should include user assistance, response to requests, technical support, and regular updating of help information. 
  • The best way to increase user engagement and generate more revenue is to offer users something extraordinary. The more cutting-edge features you provide, the more users will spend time in your app. 
  • Well-organized marketing campaigns can drive ever-increasing traffic to your app and make it shine brighter than rivals. Some of these well thought out marketing strategies and tools are: 
    • SEO/ASO Services: Search Engine Optimization and App Store Optimization aim at a single goal – to show your app to the users searching for that specific niche. Some of the tools that top software marketing companies use for keyword research are; Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, and AlsoAsked. 
    • Social Media Campaigns: According to market research, it shows that social networks are the most potent resources to target audiences and post an attractive app pitch. 
    • Influencers: Another effective way of advertising is to collaborate with influencers who can promote your product among their millions of followers. 
    • App Contests: To reach out to more app audiences, you can participate in various digital app contests and competitions. To find out about such competitions and participate in them, you can check out BestMobileAppAward.

  Final Words

  Are you feeling excited when coming up with an app idea that can make people’s day-to-day activities more thrilling and convenient? At Clustox, we are excited to take part in creating custom mobile applications to give a digital presence to your business. Here let’s combine your app ideas with our capabilities and develop a mobile application. Ready with all the plans? Drop us a line to begin.

Great technological ideas, strange as they may seem, are not always the product of a person who dominates the technologies. You may have an idea to create a really useful application but lack the required expertise or time. For instance, suppose you want to create apps. But you do not possess the knowledge, or you do not dominate the matter enough to develop that application, or simply, you do not have time. In these cases, the best idea is to outsource mobile app development. Outsourcing the mobile app development will help you attain two basic objectives: One is to get the application to the market as soon as possible so that you become able to fulfil the second objective, i.e. to start making money. 

How to Outsource Mobile App Development? 

Hearing and reading about the next great innovations and technologies is fine, but it isn’t great if you are not capable of applying them. Before looking for an outsource mobile app development company, you have to devise your in-house first. After that, to ensure a successful project, you need to define requirements and expected project outcomes. Thus, a loose portfolio and no game plan leads to a big mess all around. 

Communication and collaboration are essential between in-house teams; communication is the core attribute that makes your outsourcing partnerships strong. So, if you are clear with what you want from the app, you’ll be able to take a strong start. Providing the software development company or freelancer with a clear picture of the desired product makes communication easy and the mobile app development cycle smoother. 

Here are some suggestions you should consider while defining your app: 

• What will be the login features? 
• Will the app feature in-app purchases? 
• Do you prefer your app to be a freemium model? 
• Will the app launch on iOS, Android or both? 
• Do you want it to be a native or hybrid app? 
• Does the app need to be compatible with social media integration? 
• What are your plans regarding API and database hosting? 
• Will the app support user preference customization? 

It was just creating a rough sketch before actual development begins to save your time, energy and cash in future. Moreover, you won’t cover everything during the mobile app development process; rather, you have to sort out enough to pave a clear path forward. 

How to find a Mobile App Development Outsourcing Partner?

The only big upside for outsourcing everyone faces is that you will never lack selection besides all the services already supplied. Looking for a mobile app development outsource partner is vaguely similar to a dreaded job search. Thus, the most trouble you’ll run through will be choosing what outsourcing company partners will be right for your company. 

However, outsourcing does not necessarily mean hiring an outsourcing company to look into the project. While hiring an app development agency, either offshore or nearshore, a popular approach for freelancers may be more in line with your requirements. The choice between freelancers and an outsourcing company depends on the situation of the call.

1. Freelancers

There is a huge competition for freelancers as there are unimaginable numbers of freelancers skilled in different fields. There are chances that one single freelancer will not be a jack of all trades, so once after finding an ideal candidate for a specific task, you will again have to search for the next freelancer for other activities. Like on this blue marble we call a house, freelancers come with their pockets filled with pros and cons that you also need to consider before the final decision. 

Pro: 

• It is easy to approach freelancers through dedicated platforms. 
• Best hires for short-term projects.
• Cost-effective service providers

Cons: 

• Poor communication may lead to poor results
• Might be unavailable when needed due to difference of time zone

2. Outsourcing Company

Freelancers are good in a pinch, but some projects demand outsourcing companies as ideal choices. When you have big plans and desire out of the box solutions, you should look into an outsourcing company. Outsourcing mobile app development projects to a renowned company can bring the team of experts and their expertise bound to get your mobile up and to run. Moreover, there are such cases that outsourcing companies may answer your app development plan, which a freelancer couldn’t undertake, so they are also more expensive. However, outsourcing companies are not expensive in all cases, like outsourcing with a nearshore mobile app development partner. What pros you can expect from an outsourcing company, and what cons you should consider before opting for an outsourcing company. 

Pros: 

• Team of highly experienced and skilled professionals developers to designers, project managers and more
• Up to date with knowledge of latest technologies
• Long-term work relationships
• Efficiency, Scalability and Flexibility

Tips to Outsource the Development of Mobile Apps:

While outsourcing the realization of the app, there may arise many doubts. The first and most important: who to commission the materialization of the apps? Once you select the development company, here are five tips for outsourcing the development of the mobile application without too many headaches:

1. Decomposing the project for better understanding:

At first you should ensure that the subcontractor understands the idea you propose to him. To do this, the project must be decomposed, specifying its details. It is important to document everything together with a wireframe to make the developers’ work as easy as possible.

2. Specify the Budget clearly:

It is very important to talk and clarify with the team that will develop your apps. You should clear everything related to the costs of the project. Often, the mobile app development starts with an approximate budget, and then it goes up and needs more investment, with which the initial cost is fired, and you end up paying an excessive amount. To avoid such scares, the budget should be agreed upon earlier. It is estimated once you analyze and discuss all the details and specifications of the project.

3. Work Scheduling:

Request for the work schedule. For this purpose, it is necessary to meet with the developer. Also, you should establish the dates of work to fulfil the objectives. In this way, you can control unforeseen events and act on time.

4. Constant interactivity with the company:

The interactivity with the company must be constant. All those working on the project must verify that the application made is in line with what was imagined from the outset. In addition, it is convenient to analyze the results, correct errors and even rectify if new options appear.

Some other things to note down:

It is necessary to take advantage of the experience of the team of professionals to whom it has been subcontracted. They need to work on other projects. They should know how to do it better and get the best results. For that, it is significant to maintain a regular dialogue. It should not just verify the given steps and confirm that the deadline is met. But it should also know what new developments were born concerning the project. They include the ones which are related to the market in which the future application will compete.

It is also important to protect the original idea when you decide to create a mobile app. Although there is some other person who develops the app, the creation is your own. So, you should make sure that nobody steals the idea. To protect the idea, it is advisable to sign a confidentiality agreement with the collaborators. This agreement will include the parties that sign it or those who participate in the project, identified with name, surname, ID, and address; the object of the contract; and the clarification of confidentiality. The agreement will also include the following things:

• Intellectual Property
• The possibility of cancellation or modification of the contract
• The jurisdiction to which future conflicts will be submitted, if any, and signed by all participants in the project

Wrapping it Up: 

The most important part of outsourcing mobile app development is planning. Having a structured concept of what you expect the app to be, who will be responsible for the project, and how you will prevent unpleasant results during the app development cycle. You cannot rely totally on any outsourcing partner that will be a perfect fit for your project. Either working with freelancers or outsourcing companies, you have to check the whole project’s balance. However, once you have come across the best option, establishing a contract and project milestone will be the final hurdle before getting your mobile app development project underway. 

At Clustox, we believe in the benefits and effectiveness that nearshore and offshore outsourcing can bring to any company’s table. So, anyone who has a unique idea for creating a mobile application but lacks technical knowledge and skills can now achieve it. Drop your idea with your tech experts and learn how they will turn it into reality. 

A Quick Summary – In this article, we will look into the two of the best digital marketing techniques, SEO and PPC for your website. And which one will stay longer in the business.

Being a site owner, it is important to be completely aware of the thing t

• Selling Links

hat generating loads of digital traffic is one of the ways for giving a rapid boom to the business. This also means that your services/products are reliable for the users. In spite of the fact that there are lots of ways of getting traffic to your site, SEO and PPC have a great hype among all of them.

For me, understanding your customer’s perspective and how they use the sites is the key factor to determine whether to use SEO or PPC marketing strategy.

Let’s look into the yin and yang of the SEO and PPC.

An Organic Marketing Strategy – SEO

The abbreviation SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO friendly site means a search engine can easily slide through your site, interpret your content and index it into its database. Once your content is indexed, chances of high ranking are quite immense. Natural or organic traffics leads to your site to the top rankings in search engines.

SEO Techniques – Black Hat & White Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO are deceptive and quite outdated. Owing to the updating search algorithms and advancement in machine learning, spam techniques are now exposed more than often. Some of the Black Hat Techniques are:

• Selling Links
• Keyword Spamming
• Link Farming
• Keyword Stuffing
• Cloaking
• Article Spinning
• Hiding Links on your site

White Hat SEO

White Hat SEO techniques maintain the integrity of the website by staying within the terms and services of search engines. Some of the white hat SEO Techniques are:

On-Site Optimization:

• Meta Title and Tags Implementation
• Images ALT and Title Tags
• Content Internal Linking
• Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3 etc.) Optimizations
• Canonicalization
• Robots.txt and Sitemap.xml and more…

Off-Site Optimization:

• Guest Post Submissions
• Local Business Directories
• Social Signals
• Blogs Commenting
• Social Bookmarking and more…

Pros of SEO

Cost Effective

SEO is quite cost-effective as natural traffic is driven to your site and as compared to other marketing strategies it delivers brand awareness and relevance more effectively.

Brand Awareness

As Google has stepped up its search algorithms, adopting the use of nuances such as stemming, synonyms, acronyms, and answers, now it’s far easier to reach out the potential customers and users for brand awareness in search engines.

Long Lasting

As compared to paid strategies, your search traffic does not seize right after you cut back your marketing budget. Organic strategy takes some time to drive traffic, but once you are invisible, your business can sustain for longer.

Cost per Click

Organic traffic takes a bit time, but once it sets up, clicks or impression are not charged.

Stable Ranking

In SEO technique, content is ranked based on the relevance and usefulness, chances of higher ranking are good enough, as compared to paid strategies, where competitors can bid more to rank high and appear in more searches.

Cons of SEO

Ongoing Process

An SEO strategy is an ongoing process meaning that your site will never be fully optimized. However more you put effort more you are likely to reap the reward by ranking higher in future searches.

Slow optimization

SEO is slow as compared to other paid marketing techniques. You will have to put a lot of effort before the results are visible.

Time-consuming

SEO technique is time-consuming, as you have to research for the ranking keywords, your opponents’ marketing strategies, best and useful content for your site. You can hire someone or use some marketing tools but it will cost you bucks.

As you’ve learned about SEO, now is the time to get some insight about PPC marketing technique.

PPC – A Paid Marketing Strategy

PPC stands for pay-per-click, a marketing strategy to buy visitors for your sites. In PPC strategy, advertisers pay a fee for each click they get on one of their ads. It plays an effective role in time sensitive and specialized campaign by directly addressing the competitors and breaking into the new marketing platforms. If you only did keyword research once to create your campaign, you are more likely to lose the potential visitors. PPC keyword list should possess these qualities:

Relevance

You must find and use relevant keywords according to your services and offers to bring the targeted audience to your page, instead of wasting the budget on relevant keyword biddings.

Exhaustive

Along with commonly and mostly used keywords, your research should also include the long tail keywords. Such keywords offer higher chances to lead more traffic to your site.

Expandable

PPC is verbose which helps you expand and refine your campaign iteratively. Such a strategy helps you grow visits to your site.

Pros of PPC

Scalability

PPC strategy is scalable – all you have to do is to set a budget aside to get through all this search optimization process. It offers rigid control over budget, allowing you to set the limit for the campaigns.

Ranking on the page

Even if the user chooses to get past the ads on mobile and web, they would still see the paid search ads.

Brand visibility

PPC lets your products are seen by the right audience. With the help of visual product ads, you can bring more value to your ads and gain effective control of the leads to your site.

A/B Testing

One of the perks of PPC is A/B Testing, providing call-to-action buttons, effective landing pages and split-test ads. It allows targeting potential customers based on keywords search, language, device, time and previous visits.

Final round…

“Who is the winner?” This debate is never-ending, as both SEO and PPC strategies offer functionality and features according to the businesses’ perspective, target audience, budget, sustainability and scope. If your business target is long term marketing, then SEO is the all-rounder here. SEO won’t rank you high overnight but it will help your business to maintain it’s ranking on the engines.

On the other hand, if you are inclined to see a quick result and want to get most out of your campaign, it’s best to use PPC.

Both SEO and PPC can get you to the front page of the search engine. All you have to do is to adopt the right strategy.

Seek out the SEO & PPC specialists at Clustox to help you resolve the dilemma of adopting the right marketing strategy for your business. They have the expertise, skills and knowledge to amplify your financial plans and deliver a positive Return on Investment (ROI). Clustox has got your back. Let them help you grow your business by choosing the SEO and PPC strategy best fit for your business.

Ordinarily, ideas are always generated in an entrepreneurial mind. However, despite the moment of euphoria that these moments generate, one never knows if the idea will have a future or not. There are cases where the entrepreneur has gotten a bad idea ahead. At the same time, he can give up a good idea and ends up putting it in the drawer. Thus, it is essential to understand the steps to formalize your business idea before moving to the next steps of hustling, hiring, and selling your products or services.  

Well, know that there are ways to prove that the idea is good or not and avoid any wastage of time/money. Therefore, we will present in this post the concept and tips to validate the business idea. Keep reading!

What is meant by Validation of Business Idea? 

Business Idea Validation is nothing more than testing and understanding if it can become a profitable product. The main goal of idea validation is to expose your potential tech product to end users and observe the user response after the launch. 

Business idea validation includes anything from information-gathering interviews to special end user interfaces on the web or mobiles. The best-recommended ways of validating business ideas are face-to-face, in-person, or virtual video calls. 

Why do you need to Validate Business Ideas? 

In short, the main aim behind validating business ideas is to save you a ton of time and money. Moreover, it drives you deeper into the whole idea and generates interest in your business idea. Hence, testing your idea revolves around exposing it to the marketplace at the end.

You have also avoided silly mistakes like working on an idea that no one is really interested in. Here, idea validation benefits you a lot to find out whether your idea appeals to a potential audience or not. Therefore, validation of business ideas, especially in the case of mobile app development or developing some other tech product, is essential to tell you whether you should pay to create a thing or not. 

Business Idea Validation Process

About 8% of the startup business ideas face failure because they burn out before they become fruitful. So, here are some basic steps that will help you stick through an idea validation process. 

• Be critical: During an idea validation process, it is essential to stay inspired and enthusiastic. Plus, you shouldn’t ignore the truth that even a good idea has lots of bad options. 
• Be simple: Hypotheses of your business idea should be concerned just in a particular way. So, you need to set up metrics and track them to avoid unnecessary actions. 
• Be systematic: You need to be disciplined about the idea to make sure your idea will work in the long run in real-life situations. 
• Pay attention to mistakes: In this process, you will be learning and improving continuously. You can ask other entrepreneurs about the mistakes they commit in their early stages.

Tips For Validating A Business Idea

Now that you already understand more about the importance of the business idea validation process let us provide some tips for doing this in the best possible way. Check it:

1. Check If You’re Revamping the Wheel

You might be sure that your proposed idea is the best, but there are chances that a similar app already exists. So, it requires you to jump into a deep search to see if similar apps are already available, then what unique features you can add to make it stand out. Suppose you find out the same idea already exists after a long search, don’t worry at all. Initially, you can use your idea to make a start and launch the app at least. Then once after launch, based on feedback and reviews of users, you have to find ways to improve the idea. So, if you are confident that improving your app idea can attract more users than your competitors, you are ready to move to the next step.

2. Three Pronged Analysis Before Launch

According to Statistic, approximately 66% of business idea initiators will always have a back plan. So, for planning your backup plan, here are a three-pronged analysis:

• Investment Cost
• Personal Interest
• Potential Profit 

3. Experiment and Build An MPV

MPV is the abbreviation for Minimum Product Viable. It is what the name itself says: a version of the product that is being designed to test and verify. Therefore, create a prototype that represents the product or service it will offer. This will be done to test it in real situations with potential customers. At that moment, it will be possible to know if the idea has potential or not. Moreover, initial ideas are just starting base points to build a better and refined product. In the business idea validation process, you get a chance to experiment with your product in the following ways: 

• Build an MVP – Landing Page, Outreach emails, and physical prototype
• Prototype
• Conducting surveys and interviews
• A/B Testing 
• Crowdfunding

4. Start Capturing The First Customers

Starting to get the first customers should be one of your priorities. They will help you validate much of the idea, provide feedback, and the main thing is to buy your solution.

Also, remember that if the idea is not recognized as a great solution and if the audience does not understand why it was created, it will be difficult to turn it into a profitable business. Therefore, having a marketing and sales plan is vital for the success of the business.

So, after testing your MVP and successful results, you might feel that you are winning an idea that will build your brand around it. Now you need to focus on two questions: 

1. How do I get my first customers? 
2. How do I get my N-th customers?

You might be confident that you have the best business plan in the world, but without customers, the whole business plan is nothing. Therefore, you need to create a promising customer acquisition strategy and marketing strategy. It is good practice to be prepared by explaining it to investors, partners, and stakeholders during idea validation itself. All you need to remember is, 

“It is much easier to build a brand around a demand , than to build a demand around the brand.”

Business Idea Validation Checklist

Before making your developed product online in the market, you should check for the chances to succeed. You should keep a critical eye on these aspects throughout the process and check after creating the product. 

• Right Time: Despite having a groundbreaking idea, sometimes the wrong launching moment can be a costly error. 
• First Customers: These are those users who will use your product first. So, you should not leave any chance behind to identify these users’ feedback and evaluate it with your product functions. 
• Meeting the Demands of Customers: The feedback you acquire from your customers will help you analyze to what extent your product meets their needs and works as expected. 
• Advantage: You need to compare your gathered insights with your competitors to analyze your designed product’s success. Moreover, you can also use a business model canvas to identify the advantages and disadvantages of your product. 
• Complexity level: Rather than assumptions from gathered information, you should ask your customers directly, “Are they comfortable with the product and enjoying benefits from it?”
• Simplicity: If you are not able to define what your product is in one sentence, then hold on. You need to sort out the vague ideas to ensure the whole idea is simple enough that everyone gets it. 

Conclusion: 

Despite following an organized approach of idea validation, you need to understand it cannot eliminate all the problems. Therefore, you need to be active and prepared enough to handle other downsides also with a great business idea. Furthermore, business idea validation is just an effective way to minimize risks and MVP development costs. Yet, you need to consider validating your business idea to know if it has a potential market demand or it can bring a high turnover in your business plans. 

Here, at Clustox, we focus on helping business startups to build a valuable market-driven tech product. Our first step of developing a successful product is conducting deep market research, competitive analysis, and customer requirements. It helps business startups to save some thousands of dollars and even more. You can talk to us, and we will help you to conduct the discovery phase properly. So, identify core competitors, create a marketing strategy and UX prototypes at extremely low cost with Clustox- software development experts today!

If you are here reading this blog, there are fair chances that you own a business or are planning to start a new tech business in the future. From a business point of view, one of the most important steps of success is to “go where the customers are.” Since people of all ages are on their smartphones, it only makes sense that appearance on mobile devices is where you need to be. How dominant is mobile technology in our lives? It is stated that by 2022, there will be over 5 billion smartphones in use worldwide. Despite, dominancy of mobile app development trends, many business owners still believe that having a website or social media page is enough to attract customers – that isn’t true anymore. Today, mobile apps are the only potent marketing tools for both large and small businesses. Yet, some might think that developing a mobile app is a way too expensive and unnecessary investment, but it can help drive sales even more than traditional advertising. 

If you are now planning to build a mobile app for your business and want to reach more customers than ever before, then a mobile app development company is just what you need. But do you know how a mobile app helps your business? It is time to take a look at five reasons why your business needs an app in 2022. 

First, Ask these 10 Questions about Do really Your Business Needs a Mobile App? 

Before reading out the reasons that will convince you to build a mobile app for your business, read out the questions below before starting your app development journey. 

• Are you planning to develop a mobile app because of “FOMO- fear of missing out”? 
• Will it be significantly different from an optimized website? 
• Can internal apps make you more competitive? 
• What will encourage daily interaction within your app activities?
• Web App Vs. Mobile App – What would be better for you? 
• What is your primary interaction preference with customers; face-to-face or online tracking? 
• What is the end user’s context? 
• Will a mobile app extend your selling workflow? 
• Can this problem be solved with any other alternative rather than a mobile app? 
• Does your business already provide a valuable online experience?

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App

1.  Makes Brand Promotion for Business

On average, a person spends nearly three to four hours on their mobile phones every day. And from this time spent on mobile phones every day, they explore the installed apps most of the time. While using apps, they’ll notice brand logos or images that speak a lot to them. However, if users come across a certain app multiple times in a day with no variation, they might find themselves recognizing it almost by instinct. 

So, if you want your brand to stick to your customer’s minds, they should come across it more often. There are different ways of doing this. One way to accomplish this is by installing a mobile app that consistently displays your logo or brand name. It helps customers to remember who you are and what your company is associated with. Thus, a mobile app offers business brand awareness and engagement. Moreover, through this regular interaction, you are fostering trust. 

2. Helps in Reaching and Engaging Customers

Having a mobile app for your business and not engaging customers will make the app totally useless. The “love affair” between the users and their smartphones gives the business an excellent opportunity to leverage the relationship. It is an experienced fact that engaging customers and building a loyal base of repeat buyers are essential for a company’s success. 

Thus, integrating a loyalty program into your mobile app can prove to be an invaluable tool for increasing your customer retention and profitability. So, to keep your customers back to your app, you should offer users exclusive offers, promotions, and bonuses. Furthermore, here are a few tips on how you can engage your loyal customers via a mobile app. 

• Exclusive Deals: Let it be a discount or a contest allowing them priority status for particular services can make your business visible to a wider audience ratio.
• Make it Personal: It is recommended that people get attracted to areas where they see their name written. So, it is worthwhile to collect information about your customer to create special offers and give product suggestions that will truly attract them. 
• Make User App Experience Fun: Integrating games, videos, or augmented reality is a unique way to stand out from other typical apps in the market. For instance, if you have a sporting goods company, create a tennis game or a hair salon that allows them to upload images and try new styles. 
• Make It Easy for Them to Find Something: Integrate maps of your physical location, add a search bar to allow users to find products easily, let users keep track of their order, etc. all such features will keep your customers loyal for a longer time. 

3. Increase your Targeted Audience

Another important reason why your business needs a mobile app is to increase the target audience. With a reliable mobile app, you can reach people that your product or services are intended for. The more you grow your audience, the more you enjoy business success by using tools and channels that target the right place and people. 

There are plenty of mobile app development companies that build mobile apps for both iOS and Android. Having an optimized app for iOS and Android is just another way to ensure no mobile user is left untouched. Here is a couple of things you need to know for audience targeting: 

• App Store Optimization: Nearly 65% of users will find your business mobile app through an app store search. For making sure you are visible in app stores, implement a result-driven ASO strategy and make sure your app features are visible to your customers. 
• Ads: Some may get through your app from Apple Search Ads and Google UAC. So, you can increase your app visibility to your users on Apple App Store and Google Play Store by bidding on high scored keywords and targeting relevant audiences. 

4. Increases Business Sales

Today, the mobile app development trend is not a luxury anymore but a necessity for businesses as it has a proven track record of increasing sales. According to INFORMS, it is reported that app users make 33% of online purchases more frequently, and they spend 37% more on online purchases than non-app users over 18 months after an app launch. Thus, developing a mobile app with an appealing user interface is essential to engage and compel users to make purchases. Moreover, experts state that consumers often respond to intuitive design that offers a smooth, quick, and easy experience. Here are some key features to focus on while developing your mobile app for business. 

• Simplicity
• Fast Loading Time
• In-App Payment Gateway Integration

5. Increase in Valuable Business Analytics

Customers are greatly convinced with your app when they get a hassle-free experience through it. This helps businesses to gather data about the users and their interests. By their clicks on products and searching activity through the app, we can understand their major areas of interest and what they are looking for. In addition to getting knowledge about their interests, you will also get to know where improvements are required and what new things should be added. 

Now, there are such advanced mobile apps developed that are able to collect valuable information for further analysis. This analysis includes; what product categories do most people prefer when shopping in-store or online? How often do users visit websites and apps for shopping? What is the average order size of customers when checked out? And what searching filters they use most frequently; price tag, product rating, etc. 

Therefore, the best way to improve your customer app experience is to understand the needs and interests of customers. So, keeping track of how users interact with your app can improve understanding of the customer’s mind. Hence, it is said that understanding customers will be key for any business venture!

Summing up:

Thus, the mobile app market offers a valuable opportunity for businesses to drive business growth and increase revenue. However, if you succeed in building out an absolute mobile app, the truth lies in the fact that it is all ruined if you’re not getting any traffic to it. Consequently, businesses taking the initiative of investing in mobile app development should take much time to develop a solid promotional strategy and ensure high success. 

So, what are you waiting for to invest in mobile app development for your business? Clustox’s specialists with years of experience in helping businesses build a successful mobile app also have a lot to bring to your table. Schedule an appointment with our Tech Consultants to gather all valid reasons about why your business needs a mobile app in 2022.