Mobile app demand from businesses and consumers has skyrocketed.
By Sam Furr
Opportunities within the business world spring from many places. Whether you want to streamline in-house operations, invest in new marketing channels, overcome challenges or resolve pain points, these usually all have one common goal – to increase revenue. But now we’re living in a digital-first age, the solutions businesses use to act on growth opportunities have shifted; especially through mobile app technology.
Mobile app demand from businesses and consumers has skyrocketed. From improving customer experience to streamlining internal operations, there’s pretty much nothing a mobile app can’t fix, which is why they’ve become key to keeping mobile-first customers and employees happy.
But if you’ve spotted a mobile app opportunity within your business, failing to successfully pitch your idea to your investors, board members, shareholders etc. can put the breaks on your innovation completely.
Have you identified a brilliant app opportunity? Here’s how to nail your pitch and secure funding to give your project the go-ahead.
1. Focus on Return Instead of Cost
If you’ve thoroughly researched your mobile app opportunity and can explain the rewards it could bring to the business, pricing shouldn’t be your audience’s main interest. Cost should only come into the equation for calculating ROI (return on investment), e.g. if your mobile app innovation will cost £3 million but the ROI will be £15 million, it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.
However, it’s also worth remembering that ROI doesn’t just relate to raw revenue, it comes in many forms, including:
Increase Employee Retention:
Did you know that 95% of employees believe a mobile-first working environment is essential for improving staff turnover rates? There could be an opportunity here to create a mobile app that enables staff to work remotely.
Automate to Cut Costs:
Use your mobile app to replace monotonous manual employee tasks, e.g. scheduling and administration. Now, your employees can focus their time on what they’re employed to do instead of wasting time on jobs that could easily be automated.
Remove Pointless Third-party Subscriptions
Research by Adobe found that 69% of company departments are using two to five enterprise mobile apps, and 27% are using six or more! Review how much you’re actually spending on third party subscriptions and weigh it up against the cost of creating a mobile app. Although the initial upfront cost might be larger, a mobile app should be the more cost-effective long term solution.
2. Produce a Roadmap
This outlines the ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘when’ behind your app development project. You’ll need this information for determining your strategic direction. A roadmap will govern how your mobile app’s goals align to the wider business objectives and vision, whether it’s a worthwhile investment and how it will compliment the entire business plan.
But a frequent mistake with roadmaps is believing they have to be 100% certain, when they should actually allow room for change. This is perfect if you’re only launching an MVP (minimum viable product) as it keeps features lean and only prioritizes what is needed to get your app on the market. You could get further advise on road mapping and MVPs by seeking help from experts like app developers to streamline your future vision.
3. Delivering a Successful Pitch
This is what all your hard work comes down to. But if you’ve covered all of the above, incorporating these last few tips should leave your mobile app innovation utterly irresistible to your audience.
Reference Your Roadmap
Remember what we mentioned earlier? Keep referring to your roadmap to share short, medium and long-term rewards. Don’t focus on the logistics of app building here, focus on how your solution benefits the overall strategy.
Share Integration Potential
Nobody likes to rock the boat within a business, so many shy away from operational changes through fear of creating additional work and upheave. Prove to your audience how this mobile app integrates with existing operations and systems to simplify the experience.
Use Visuals
The mobile app market is only around 10 years old, so it’s still a pretty new concept, which is why many businesses struggle to understand how a mobile app will function if they can’t see it. Having visuals, a demo or even a prototype will make your idea come to life.
With simple visual aids, your app idea will seem a lot more realistic. And if you aren’t willing to invest time in some visuals, why should an investor fund your project?
Tell an Engaging Story
Storytelling sells – brands who regularly use storytelling in their marketing outperform competitors by 64%. Apply the same strategy to create a more compelling pitch. You share a story by using your visuals or demonstrating the struggles users have, and that addressing them aligns with current business objectives.
Sam Furr is the Founder & Head of Product Strategy of Tappable. Sam has been developing apps for over 10 years and founded a successful award winning, international digital app development & product design agency; Tappable. Whether you’re after a commercial, enterprise or consumer facing product, Tappable will help turn your opportunity into a mobile-first solution that delivers.
Mobile app stock photo by ra2studio/Shutterstock
