Embarking on an app development journey consists of multiple stages, one of which is figuring out your target audience. It represents the people you expect to find your application convenient and use it. You can make initial predictions, but thorough market research is the one to shape your target users.
During this investigation, developers can discover more about the people most likely to need and enjoy their creations. In many cases, these findings directly influence the app development process. Thus, it’s ideal to have your target audience established in advance to know exactly what works and what doesn’t work for it.
First, it is far easier to establish your target market than your target audience. Your market can be people who enjoy sports or skincare, including people of all ages and genders. The target audience narrows this down by focusing on people of a particular age, interests, gender, and spending habits. Businesses also go deeper by creating customer personas representing different product buyers.
Your app likely solves a particular problem that you should clearly define. Once you have that, start considering what customers will likely be interested in such a product. For example, a budgeting app can have a much more versatile audience than a CRM product. Still, you want to answer the following questions about their potential clients:
Depending on your resources, you can take different approaches. A more direct method is surveys, questionnaires, or focus groups. In most cases, developers have a general idea about the people likely to be interested in using your application.
For example, a mobile game is expected to receive interest from users who are already enjoying such content. Another instance is a fitness app that will receive attention from people interested in improving their lifestyle and becoming more active/healthy.
Getting fresh data can be challenging and expensive, so many companies have turned to existing reports and research. That might include industry reports, market research from different companies, or independent studies. The natural approach is to look at your competitors and analyze their statistics. Apptopia is one tool that can help you find data on your competitors.
Of course, social media and digital communities can reveal a lot about your target audience. For instance, you can see what users say about your competitors and determine which functionalities and features you can improve.
Proper market, user, and competitor research can yield many insights, helping you make informed decisions. For one, you’ll know what pains your potential users in the similar applications they use or what features they would love to see implemented.
Besides that, you can see specific usage patterns, like when users complain about clunky or confusing UI components.
In addition to the application's overall functionality and feel, your target audience research can determine how you monetize your app. Insights from a particular industry are likely to influence your decisions the most.
For instance, some industries work better with subscriptions or paid apps, while others thrive on in-app purchases, ads, or other monetization techniques. Consider integrating more novel options for app monetization, like offering users perks and rewards for sharing their unused internet bandwidth. The great thing is that you can use multiple app monetization platforms to increase potential revenue sources.
After launch, you’ll have a more direct way of collecting information and analytics. Then, you can dive deeper into statistics and analyze them. Thus, paying attention to your user base and changing your approach if necessary is crucial. After all, initial research can give you an idea, but actual numbers will showcase who decided to buy/use your product. Then, you can manage their expectations and adjust your marketing strategies.
Knowing your target audience does wonders when creating an application that attracts users. You know what they need, their problems, and what they are willing to pay for your product. As mentioned, monitoring app analytics is crucial to see if your audience changes. Sometimes, you might be surprised that your initial assumptions were flawed and different users are using your application.