Is your company investing in building a mobile app for the first time? If so, you probably have a lot of questions.

At Epic Apps, when we initially begin discussing app design and development with a prospective client, we always try to make sure they understand the steps that are involved and how those steps inform the final cost of a mobile app.

We want you to go in with eyes wide open, so we stress the importance of everything from discovery to user experience (UX) to quality assurance (QA) to marketing. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through some of the key advice we offer most frequently.

You’ll grow to appreciate the discovery phase

Building an app is exciting, so it’s easy to understand why some companies want to dive right into the process. However, we require a discovery phase, and we’re not alone. A recent survey by Clutch, a ratings and reviews firm based in Washington DC, found that nearly 70% of app developers view the discovery phase as a step that’s not optional.

We find that the discovery phase is an essential piece to understanding the client’s concept, audience and how their app will fit into their particular industry or organization.

We want you to invest in an app that’s truly going to work for your business, while keeping the app development process efficient and cost-effective, and the discovery phase provides that crucial insight.

We’ll help you understand how to market your app

At Epic, we specialize in app design and development. That being said, when it comes to marketing, we make sure our clients are aware that marketing the app is just as important as creating it in the first place.

To help your app succeed once it’s launched, we’ll help you understand the cost and effort associated with marketing your mobile app.

We’ll also inform you of the various avenues you can use to build users, including:

  • Brochure sites highlighting the app
  • How to leverage your current personal networks
  • Paid marketing using AdWords, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms
  • Optimizing your App Store description, keywords, screenshots and SEO

Overall, word of mouth won’t be enough to ensure your app’s success. By taking full advantage of marketing opportunities, you’ll be able to help users find and download what you’ve built for them.

You’ll become more tech savvy than the average company

There seem to be a lot of misconceptions about making an app among first-time clients. By working with Epic, you’ll emerge from the app development process with newfound know-how that will help you tackle future projects.

The biggest misconception we encounter is how easy many first-time clients think it is to create an app from scratch.

What they don’t realize is that the easier an app is to use and the more seamless it appears to be, the more difficult it was to design and code. Although app builder software might provide solutions for companies looking for simple apps, you’ll need to hire a mobile app development company to deliver a highly customized design or advanced features.

Clients are also sometimes surprised to learn that we spend weeks on user experience (UX) alone. Although some clients are taken aback by how much time we spend on this foundational step, we believe great UX is the most important part of the app development process. After all, you’ll want your users to navigate your app seamlessly.

Finally, we encourage clients not to underestimate the importance of a great launch and marketing plan. The “build it and they will come” mentality, a la Field of Dreams, just isn’t going to deliver the results most companies want. Once the app is completed and live, there is still a lot of work to be done to make sure people know about it and will use it — and Epic will help you make a plan for success.

It takes vision, funding, energy and dedication to launch a successful mobile app. It’s not easy, but we’re here to guide and help every step of the way.