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提升手机应用开发和运营成效的5大经验

发布时间:2011-07-26 16:54:21 Tags:,,,,

作者:Hillel Fuld

自从我开始从事帮助手机应用开发商凭借手机应用产生盈利的工作起,我就与这些开发商密切配合,包括只有1到2款应用的小公司和有着数百个应用的大型工作室。这些人有些共通点,他们都是极端的个人主义者。他们都对一款或数款应用有着自己的愿景,于是凭此想法进行开发并将其投放市场。在我阐述其他方面的要点之前,首先要让这些人产生的是个人驱动力。

无论你运营的是何种类型的业务,你都需要有个真正信赖的产品。如果没有的话,所有努力都无法发挥其作用,包括产品开发、销售和营销。一旦你有了真正相信的事物,你需要的就是驱动力和持久力。如果你有了上述这些素质,就已经成功了一半,这比那些因错误想法而努力的人要强得多。

以下是我从手机应用开发者及其经历中学到的有关打造成功项目的经验教训:

mobile-apps(from blog.bango.com)

mobile-apps(from blog.bango.com)

1、调查需求:整个应用生态系统中最明显的特征就是市场竞争激烈。我发现,许多应用开发商错失的至关重要步骤就是对整个市场的调查。我们可能都有着某些应用想法,我们认为能够把它开发成令人称奇的应用,但如果有人已经实施了这个想法,那我们的目标自然无法实现。

但是,多数开发商并没有去调查欲开发的应用是否已经存在。很多人告诉我说他们有个足以震撼市场的应用想法,但最后却发现这个想法已经有了数十款的应用,这确实令人感到震惊(游戏邦注:曾经有人让作者签署NDA开发一款iPhone短信引用,但此类应用在市场上已有很多)。如果你确实想认真地制作应用并将你的想法发展成真实的应用,那么你所要做的首个步骤就是调查应用是否已然存在。如果没有同样的应用的话,那么也要调查与之最相似的应用。很显然,如果不了解市场或竞争对手,这种商业行为必然会失败。

2、确定目标受众:这个问题我也碰到了很多次。如果你想要制作一款应用,那么你需要做的第一件事情就是确定你的目标受众。这个过程可以在脑中构思,也可以把它写出来。如果你的目标受众是那些喜欢板球和阅读板球博客的中年妇女,那么你或许需要重新考虑下应用设计,拓宽受众范围。

事实上,事情远没有这么复杂。如果你正在制作的是以技术社群为目标受众的应用,或许应该考虑下应该如何让你的应用满足更多人的诉求。重点在于,从你开发首日起,所有的事情都必须围绕你的目标受众来实施。如果你的目标受众是技术社群的话,那么你就知道应用必须在同类中做到最好,因为你的用户会见识过大量的应用。我想这种想法才是正确的。

开发商会稍微修改应用以使之更符合目标受众的需求,因而重要的是在应用开发初期就确定自己的目标受众。

3、专注:如果你曾经读过我编写的关于提升应用曝光率的博文或许你会知道我比较偏好简单的应用。我最喜欢的应用有《Flipboard》、《Dropbox》、《Instagram》、《Viber》,当然还有《愤怒的小鸟》。这些应用都各不相同,但它们都有着相同的特点——简单化。这些应用的开发者固然可以在应用中添加更多的功能,但他们决定专注于应用的某个价值,将其精化。无论是展示你自己的内容、允许你分享照片或杀死肥猪,以上应用都有其专精的功能。

在开发应用时,许多开发商认为在应用中塞入更多的功能就能赢得更高的下载量。这不仅是种误解和错误的想法,而且或许正与真理背道而驰。我发现的现象是,应用越直观简单,获得的交易量越多。这又是开发者需要认识到的重要经验。你应该专注于你做的最好的方面,如果你有其他有价值的想法,可以在添加在产品更新中,或发布全新的产品。重要的是,你需要专注加强产品的强势之处。

4、执行:所有的手机应用的雏形都是想法。如果应用世界的竞争有产生某种结果的话,那就是标准的提升。用户想要或期盼得到更好的内容,如果你的应用无法满足,那么你就永远失去了机会。在应用的设计和用户体验方面,这一点尤为重要,我认为这比原始的想法更为重要。

对这个行业的开发商而言,速度固然非常重要,因为你不可浪费时间,你需要尽快发布你的应用。但是,如果在马上发布低质量应用和隔数周时间发布高质量应用之间做出选择,我愿意选择后者。这一点在所有行业中都适用,但通常来说,多数其他行业可以在产品研发上投入更多的时间。几乎没有哪个行业的竞争性像手机应用这般激烈,因而重点在于你需要在产品研发完整之后再行发布。

5、持续性:根据多年来面见数百个手机应用开发者的个人经验,可以说他们中多数人都犯了个很根本的错误。他们觉得一旦手机应用发布,开发过程也就结束了。但事实上,发布只是个开始。当然,少数应用创造了一夜成功的神话,但并非所有应用都可以在两周时间内售出数百万份。不可以此作为愿景,因为其发生的概率通常只有10%。

更为经常发生的事情是,高质量应用进驻市场后销售量缓慢上升。如果开发商投入时间定期发布更新来吸引其受众,就能够带来更多的下载量和曝光度。在业务运营中,推出产品在多数情况下只是准备工作。你需要为将来的事情做准备,思考如何留住你的用户。

你要如何让他们时常访问应用?你要如何确保他们成为应用的传播者?更为重要的是,你要如何让他们不断感到高兴和满意?对应用开发商而言,这些问题相对简单。定期发布产品更新,添加些许新功能并修补某些漏洞,你就可以保持用户的兴趣。对大型应用开发工作室而言,做法会更为复杂些,但上述做法同样能够发挥作用。

总得来说,我获得了面见许多优秀手机应用开发者的机会。这些人对新技术很敏感,我从他们身上学到很多经验。我希望这篇文章能够把我学到的这些经验传播给你。

游戏邦注:本文发稿于2011年2月18日,所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

5 Lessons Businesses can Learn from App Developers

Hillel Fuld

Before I begin, I want to clarify one thing. I have never built a business or a product from scratch. I am not an entrepreneur (yet) and there is nothing more annoying than a person who preaches out of lack of experience. Having said that, due to the nature of my work, both as a blogger and a marketing guy, I meet a lot of mobile companies on a daily basis. I hear their challenges and thoughts, and it always occurred to me that the average app developer goes through what every business owner goes through, only on a smaller scale.

Ever since I started working at inneractive helping mobile developers generate revenue from their mobile apps, I work closely with these developers, both small companies with one or two apps, and large studios with hundreds. These guys have one thing in common, well maybe more than one, but they are all extremely driven individuals. They all had a vision of one or many apps, and they followed through, developed it, and brought it to market. Before I get into the other things you can learn from app developers about creating a business, the first thing we all have to take away from these guys is drive.

Whatever type of business you are creating, you need to have a product you truly believe in, without that, nothing is going to work, not the development of your product, not the sales, and definitely not the marketing. Once you have something you truly believe in, you need drive and stamina. If you have those things, you are more than half way there, and you already have a huge head start on many other entrepreneurs who are doing what they do for all the wrong reasons.

The following are some lessons I have learned from mobile developers and their journey, about entrepreneurship and creating a successful business:

1. Research Required: One of the blatant characteristics of the whole app ecosystem is its super competitive nature. What you might be able to get away with in other industries will not fly in the world of apps. A critical step I have found that many app developers miss is the whole market research thing. We all probably have an idea for what we think would make an awesome app, and if not, we know someone who does.

What most of us do not do however, is check if that app already exists. The number of people that have told me they have a killer idea for an app, that turned out to be an idea implemented tens of times already, is truly astounding (I actually signed an NDA for a person who had an idea to make a messaging app for iPhone, as if there are not enough of those). If you are serious about creating an app and making your idea a reality, step one is checking if the app exists, and if not, what are the closest things to it. Obviously, a business that does not know its market or competitors is a business doomed for failure.

2. Define Target Audience: Yet another mistake I have encountered countless times. If you are creating an app, one of the first things you need to do, at least in your head if not on a piece of paper, is define who your audience is. If you are creating an app for middle aged women who enjoy cricket and read cricket blogs, you might want to reconsider broadening that audience.

In fact, no need to go so far. If you are creating an app that targets the tech community, it might be worth considering if there is something you can do with your app to increase its appeal to more people. The important thing is that everything you do from day one is based on the fact that you know who your audience is. If it is the tech community, then you know your app has to be top notch since chances are, your users have seen a lot of apps. I think you get the point.

This is a crucial point for developers and it is magnified when you are talking about a full fledged business. A developer can always tweak the app a little to better match the audience, that becomes a little more difficult when you are talking about a venture with overhead, employees, and an entire business infrastructure. It is important to do it right from the get-go.

3. Focus: If you have ever read any of my posts about apps, you probably know I am a fan of app simplicity. Take a look at some of my favorite apps: Flipboard, Dropbox, Instagram, Viber, and of course Angry Birds. Each one of these apps serves a completely different purpose, but they all have one thing in common, simplicity. The creators of these apps could have easily integrated more features into the apps but instead they decided to focus on one specific type of value, and to excel at it. Whether it is displaying your content, enabling you to share your photos, or killing pigs, each one of the above apps excels at one thing.

When creating an app, many developers have the misconception that the more features you stuff into your app, the more downloads it will get. This is not only misguided and incorrect, it might actually be the opposite from the truth. I have found that the simpler and more straight forward the app, the more traction it gets. Once again, this is an important lesson for entrepreneurs. Focus on what you do best, and if you have ideas for extra added value, there is always the next release of your product, or for that matter, you can always release another product. The important thing is that you focus your product on its strengths and not get carried away with bells and whistles.

4. Implementation: When creating a mobile app, it all starts with an idea. The problem arises when the developer wants to get that idea on the shelves of the respective app store as soon as possible at the cost of its implementation. If there is one thing that is a result of all the competition in the world of apps, it is higher standards. Consumers want and expect more, and if your app does not deliver, there are no second chances. This is true when it comes to the design and user experience of your app, which I believe to be even more important than the original idea.

It is true that with the speed at which this industry developers, you do not have time to waste, and you need to release your app asap. However, if the choice is between releasing the app now with an inferior user experience, or in a few weeks time with a more solid interface, I say wait. Again, this point applies for anyone creating a business, but generally speaking, in almost all other industries, you have more time to invest. There are almost no industries as competitive as the mobile one, and so it is important that you develop your product until it is ready to be released, and not release it a second before.

5. Consistency: Based on my personal experience meeting hundreds of mobile developers over the years, I can safely say, that most of them make one fundamental mistake. They think that the process of developing a mobile app ends once it is released, when in reality, that is only the beginning. Of course there are the very few apps that have made the news because of overnight success. Apps that have sold millions in two weeks are not the norm, and if you think they are, you are in for a nice surprise. That should by no means be your strategy because nine out of ten times, it won’t happen.

What does happen more often is that a superior product hits the market and slowly starts to build up traction. If the developer invests time in engaging his/her audience by releasing regular updates, the results are more downloads and more exposure. If you are creating a business, getting the product out the door is half the battle at most. You need to plan for the day after and how you intend on retaining your customers.

How are you going to keep them coming back for more? How are you going to make sure they become your evangelists? Most importantly, how are you going to keep them happy and satisfied? For app developers, this is fairly simple. Release a new product every so often with just one new feature and some bug fixes and you will keep your users interested. If you have a developed business, it is slightly more complicated, but worth the effort.

To summarize, I have had the opportunity to meet some of the greatest mobile developers out there, and besides the obvious advantage of seeing new and exciting technologies before they launch, generally speaking, the developers I have met are some of the most motivational and inspiring people I have ever met and I have learned a lot from them. I hope I succeeded in passing on some of those lessons to you. (Source: Tech N’ Marketing)


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