A recent study has shown that the worldwide mobile app revenue for 2015 and 2016 has been $69.7b and $88.3b respectively. The projected revenue for 2020 is said to be an astounding $188.9b. Seeing such figures makes one wonder, what makes the app industry such a high revenue yielding sector? And how do companies make money when most of the apps on the app store are free? Well, the answer to that question is not a secret. Having an app is far easier than visiting a website or a physical store to get some product information. Let’s just take banking for example. Customers have realized that transferring of funds or checking your balance on the app is simpler and saves them a bank visit. Over the past few years, we have seen immense growth in mobile apps and developers. Companies want to ensure that they have their apps available to all their customers.

Drawing more traffic to your app:

Marketing your app is a crucial element for the apps performance in the market. It begins even before the app is fully functional and out on the store. Below is few of the key ways one can advertise the app before rolling out in the market to draw users towards the product.

Blogging: There is no surprise that blogging is a power tool to voice out your opinion regarding anything that is going on. So why not your app. Create a dedicated blog regarding the upcoming app. Keep readers posted with updates and changes you have been making. This will help customers to build expectations from the app and will let you know what you might need to work on.

Beta Version Testing: Considering releasing a beta version to the android / iOS developer forum to get inputs from other developers.

Video Demonstration: Once the app is up and running, it would be a good practice if you could give the users a demo tour of the app. Screen capture the different aspects of what the app can do so that the users are aware what the app is capable of and how it would help them.

Social Media: Ensure that you share you app updates on all your social media platforms to cover all the target users possible. Using a screenshot of the app interface, app logo and other aspects will help drawing more attention.

Alternate App Store: Alongside releasing the app the native play store / app store considering uploading it on alternative app store for example Amazon Appstore, 9 apps or Appslib

App monetization: There are a few common ways a developer or software developing company earns revenue of an app, which is available on the app store.

In-app purchases: In this method, the app is supposedly free to download on the app store. Customers would download the app without any cost; however they will not be able to use the complete feature of the app unless there is an in-app purchase made. For instance, let us talk about a racing game. The user has downloaded the game for free and has unlocked a new stage. But to win that race they will have to buy a featured car through the app to beat the rival. This method is most common in the apps on the app store. The disclaimer itself says that the app is free, but has “in app purchases”

In-app Ad model: As the name says, developers allow other websites to post some ads on their apps. This app could be a small banner at the bottom, which does not interfere with the app interface, while others are a full screen which can be skipped or canceled. There are two ways a developer or company can get paid in this method.

Customer Click: Every time the user clicks on the ad on the app, the developer or top mobile app development company gets paid. It could be a shopping website or an informative blog. It does not matter as long as the user clicks on the ad button and site is redirected to that particular website.

Merchant Pay: If the ad featured in the app is a shopping website, and the customer buys a particular product from that website, the merchant would pay the developer a certain percentage of the product purchased by the customer.

User Pay: This is probably the least way to earn revenue on your app. In this method, the posted app is not free and user needs to pay a certain amount to download this app. As you might have noticed there are very few apps that are paid because consumers do not want to pay just to download the app.

Subscription: This method is commonly used in music and video streaming apps like Netflix and Wynk respectively. Customers are able to download the app for free and would be given the full features of the app for a set timeframe (mostly 30 days). However, after a certain point of time they would require to purchase a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription. User opts for monthly subscription thinking about the low cost and thus the cycle continues.

Email Marketing: Every now we come across apps which need an account to be registered to use that particular app. At the same time, it also gives us an option to register using the user’s Facebook ID / Gmail ID. Since users usually have their Facebook or Gmail already registered on his phone, they do not need to go through the hassle of creating a new ID. Using this method, the developer is able to acquire the customer’s email ID which is crucial information. Depending on which ID is selected by the consumer Facebook or Google would pay the developer accordingly.

Cost per Install: Like it says, the developer is paid depending on the number of times the game is installed on a separate device.

Product Sales: If you are a retail seller of any kind you can have revenue coming in by having products displayed on the app for the customers. Rather than going to the physical store, customers would like to order the items they want to purchase directly from their phone.

Now, the next important remaining step is to carefully choose and hire best web development company having experience in building on demand apps.

Make sure before getting down to implementing your idea, consider analyzing competitors and their respective business model to build your app successfully to stand in the marketplace.

About the Author :

Krunal Vyas | IT consultant I’m Krunal Vyas, IT consultant at iQlance Solutions Pvt. Ltd, We’re an award winning Web Design and Mobile App Development Company Canada. I’ve helped more than 200+ Clients to build meaningful Apps and Website. So Let’s discuss your next Great idea with me..