November 2019

​The sole purpose of creating an app for a service or product is so that customers can use it. But when the customer has got a plethora of options that provides a similar service or product, then why should they download your app? What does your app offer that the other doesn’t? To ensure that the customer picks your app each time, you can use a tool that will help you build the product or service that the market needs: The Product/Market Fit Canvas.

What’s a Product/Market Fit Canvas?

Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz defined product/market fit as, “Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.”
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ee204/ProductMarketFit.html
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In a great market with lots of real potential customers, the product or service has to be able to solve the user’s problems. You need to create a need for your product/service in the market by targeting a market segment that finds your product/service attractive. 

While drafting the product/market fit canvas you need to focus on:

• Creating a better product than the product/service launched in the market or be the first to launch it
• Developing an app that solves a core purpose and help the users solve problems with key features available in the app
• Outlining the strengths of your app and constantly updating it as per user feedback and updating trends
• Identifying metrics that are important for the app and ensure that the user is visiting it at regular intervals

​Using Product/Market Fit Canvas at Each Stage
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​​During the pre-launch stage, use the canvas to update your targeted user’s profiles according to their type.
Based on their type, segment them into a user group; for instance, classify them according to their gender, profession, age, etc.
Thirdly, list the features that your app offers them which will help them solve their problems; for instance, Uber solved a core problem which is door-to door travel service and then later kept solving user’s crisis by introducing Uber Pool, which is cheaper and more environment friendly.
Taking the Uber example, take a look at the table that can be created: 

Of course, not every column can be filled as per your assumptions; some data will surface once the app is launched.
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During the Beta testing stage, use the canvas to:

• Analyze the application features and come up with ideas to improve them (Update App Features)
• Identify the main competitors and find a way to out-do them by introducing better features

Taking the Uber example, take a look at the table that can be created: 

Factors of an App that is a Product/Market Fit

Requesting User Feedback
User feedback is the most important factor that decides if your app is going to be a hit or miss. Email surveys can be used to ask users to give feedback. One of the most popular way is to use the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
An NPS is obtained using a survey that asks users to rate an app on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means they would never recommend this app to family and friends and 10 means they would definitely recommend the app to family and friends. You can add some extra questions to such a survey to let users explain what they like and dislike about the app.
Once the user shares their feedback, you can make the necessary changes and use the Update feature to incorporate it. Although, there are times when the feedback received is not valid or has confusing and not very detailed feedback.

40% Rule
Sean Ellis, who founded GrowthHackers, suggests that the company should use the 40% rule to conclude if the users actually like and need their app. Ask the users, “How would you feel if you could no longer use this app?” with the below options:

• Really disappointed
• A little disappointed
• Not disappointed
• Already not using the app

If 40% or more of surveyed users say they’d be really disappointed, your app is considered to be a success. This feedback should come from users who have either used the app twice or used it within the last two weeks. This will help you get a definite KPI for your app which you can set as a goal.
  
Active Users
Andrew Chen, the former Head of Growth at Uber and a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, stated that the app’s success depends on active users – further segregated into Daily Active Users and Monthly Active Users. The app metrics that showcases 20% of daily or monthly users, the app can be called successful; whereas, if an app has 50% or more daily or active users, they are considered to be “superstars”. Some examples include, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.

Retention
Alex Shultz, VP of Growth at Facebook, has his own criteria to measure if an app has product/market fit. He focuses on the retention rate; when it remains stable for a certain period of time or even keeps growing, you’ve achieved product/market fit.
This helps you to have a definite metric to focus on based on your business specifics. The metric also hints at when you need to update your app and also helps you predict your app’s growth.

To Conclude
Most of the information you get on product/market fit is about making an app that achieves just more than a marginal niche. There are a number of products or tool kit apps that can be considered as good examples of a niche service/ product. These are rarely few brands in the mobile app industry, as most apps are mainly focusing on the mass markets.
To build a product or service that is worthwhile, mobile app developers need to keep their attention and invest their time on the product. If mobile app development is not your main business and you choose a company to help you achieve the best fit! Contact the Vancouver Mobile App Developers App Scoop team. 

​Digitization has swept across the world and has changed almost every industry – one such primary industry is the Real Estate. Gone are the days where you had to refer to newspapers and circle out the properties that you are interested in or find worthy agents to search your dream home. It’s time to welcome Real Estate 2.0! 

According to a real estate report, 

• 80% of all home buyers are searching online
• 83% of home buyers see pictures of the property online
• 52% of the prospects used an iPhone in their home search
• 49% of the leads come via referrals
• 91% of realtors use social media to list real estate properties
• 33% of first-time buyers research for real estate properties online

Reference Site: https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/reports/2017/2017-real-estate-in-a-digital-age-03-10-2017.pdf
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The US real estate has taken a huge leap – the overall growth equity funding has been up by 84% in 2018, according to the Real Estate Technology Sector Summary 2018 Year-End Review by GCA Altium.
Reference Site: https://gcaaltium.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GCA_Real-Estate-Technology-Q4-2018-Review.pdf
There has also been a transformation in site visits since the past few years. It is said that by the year 2025, nearly 20 million households in the US would be owned exclusively by folks in the millennial generation. Hence, there needs to be a change in the way real estate is marketed and sold. Let’s take a look at how we can turn the tables around in this rapidly changing market.
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First Step: Online Viewing of the Property (Searching and Listing)

Before buyers and sellers are matched to each other, they have to be matched to real estate agents; but now buyers and sellers can get in touch directly through online apps. At the same time, buyers and sellers can view the agent’s rating online and choose the best one in the marketplace.
There are already three brands that have made their place in the market:

Nobul.com is an online Canadian real estate marketplace that allows agents to compete for clients. It allows buyers and sellers to compare the agent’s services. Interested agents can then reach out with their offerings. Nobul charges agents a 20-basis point referral fee – $2,000 per $1 million of real estate value – for closed deals.

Property Whispers is an Australian matching platform that covers the residential marketplace, including real estate that’s advertised for sale and that’s for sale off-market. The platform is well-known amongst agents, brokers, and vendors since it helps them get the contact information of matched buyers. In a world where traditional advertising campaigns cost thousands of dollars, the platform charges agents only $99 plus GST per listing (with a free trial provided). Private vendors, in turn, pay only $139 plus GST to list their properties.

Homes.com has a Snap & Search feature that allows buyers to take a picture of the real estate that they wish to buy and the service helps them find a similar one. The platform also allows the buyer to navigate to their ideal location providing average area pricing. Filters such as “must-have” and “around” (for approximate pricing) enable buyers to find relevant listings. All property results have a match score on a scale of 0 to 100, showing how closely a property matches the buyer’s preferences.
In the distant future, there are going to be multitude apps with key features like location based, VR technology and more.

Second Step – Real Estate Showings (Viewing the Property)
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Once the property has been listed, the next step is the buyer going to tour the property. Time is todays money; hence, technology has stepped in. Real estate apps can conduct showings online. According to a report by the NAR, 10 weeks was approximately the time spent by buyers to find a property (in the year, 2018).

There are two ways of real estate showings:

1. By booking an appointment to view the property
2. Virtual tours – where the buyer can see the property and its features online

For easy offline home tour bookings; the buyer can use:

The Redfin Aggregator asks the buyer to fill in the form of a “Go Tour This Home” option on listing pages. The buyer can also choose their preferable time and date. A lightning bolt symbol by the time slot means that it has been confirmed and accepted by the listing agent.

Another way is by using the Showing Suite app. This app is tailored to schedule property viewings through text messages. When an agent signs up, they can import their active MLS listings to the platform. Then agents can activate a Showing Robot on those listings to automate scheduling. They can also customize how they and their sellers prefer to be notified of new showing requests and confirm them manually.

For virtual tours and video walkthroughs; the buyer can use:

Zillow à Zillow 3D Home feature, a free platform for listing agents. Agents just have to capture panoramas and the app automatically creates a tour.

Realync is an app that is solely dedicated to virtual tours. It allows buyers, agents and sellers to interact via live video and audio, take pictures and notes, and send messages. Each tour file is automatically saved to the cloud for later access and sharing.

The Zillow Real Estate app (iOS only) can be used to show walkthroughs, i.e. short videos of a listing recorded by a mobile phone or some other device. As an intermediary between a seller and buyer, agents strive to ensure stable communication until the deal is closed. The best way to do that is in-app messaging.

Another app that can be used for showings is the Periscope app. It is a live-streaming app by Twitter It allows anyone to film any event they want. This is what is required for an open house! Periscope can help buyers, sellers and agents to sell homes if it is not possible for any party to make it physically to a showing.  

Third Step – Digital Documentation

After the showing is done and the buyer decides to buy the property, he/she no longer needs to run around pillar to post like before. Today, there are several websites and automated tools available that take a fraction of the time needed earlier to prepare all documentation. 

If engaged early during the transaction, these portals record and manage each step:

• Documents needed for the first visit pre-requisites to transaction-related documents
• Payment information
• Ongoing rental revisions

Such portals also allow direct validation credentials with government authorities, enable digital verification of documents, and help with other legal requirements. For the buyer, this means transparent pricing and taxation, transparent and legal payments and the elimination of fraudulent transactions.
The real estate industry involves huge quantities of signed paper documents which must be kept for several years due to legal purposes. Staying organized, finding documents on time and making sure you have all the right papers with you when showing a house can be complicated. In today’s era, the buyer, seller or agent can opt for digitized:

• Signature cards
• Leases
• Contracts
• Loan agreements
• Affidavits
• Assignment of liens
• Purchase agreements
• Real estate disclosure forms
• Financials
• Work orders
• Move–in and move-out documentation
• Notices
• Invoices

This would help realtors save time, boost productivity and increase room in the workspace.
 
Some the real estate apps include:

• Follow Up Boss for centralizing communication
• Folio for organizing your inbox
• Cloud Attract for building real estate-specific landing pages
• Wise Agent for real estate marketing automation
• LeadSimple for reporting on real estate leads and sales
• LionDesk for recording and embedding videos into emails and texts to bring properties to life
• Mojo Dialer for dialing real estate leads
• Showing Suite for scheduling home viewings via text messaging
• Spacio for digitizing open house sign-in forms
• Magicplan for digitally creating floor plans and furnishing rooms
• PalmAgent ONE for estimating closing costs
• Disclosures.io for organizing and sharing disclosures
• DocuSign for signing offers and closing documents

 
To Conclude
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Every good thing comes with its own set of challenges. Similarly, online transactions and interactions could also prove to be a death-wrenching experience if gone wrong. Ensuring that the opposite party, i.e. the buyer, seller or agent that you are speaking with is genuine. Apps like Silent Beacon and Trust Stamp are tailored to ensuring realtors’ safety. 

For example, Silent Beacon has a panic button and is considered the most trusted app. It provides a list of emergency contacts to send alerts to by means of call, email, or text message. In addition, it shows an agent’s current location to trusted people within five seconds. The greatest feature of the app is that agents can use it to reach 911 directly.

As per the recent trends, there has been a speculation that the agents in real estates will be redundant since all the formalities can be taken care of through different apps and digitalization.

There are also speculations that the Bitcoin market will have a gigantic impact on the financial transactions that are done in the real estate industry. This technology is considered to be a secure system because cryptology is used to ensure that nobody can intermingle with the timestamps or blocks. If somebody does so, there is digital evidence in the system. This makes it ideal for handling data structure and to keep track of records of anything that is valuable, such as financial transactions. A significant benefit of Blockchain in real estate will be an immediate reduction in service fees.
So, if you wish to know more about how to digitalize the real estate industry or make an app for the real estate industry; feel free to contact the App Scoop Vancouver mobile app developers and app development team: https://app-scoop.com/

Advertisements are the oldest form of marketing. They catered mainly to a mass audience who were grouped based on gender, occupation, etc. In today’s times, companies are trying to target each individual based on their unique preferences. Hence, the best way to target individuals is through mobile apps!

Did You Know?
There will be roughly 7 billion mobile users worldwide, by 2020? Annual mobile app downloads in 2022 are projected to reach 258 billion? App store consumer spending is projected to increase by 92% to $157 billion worldwide in 2022?

Yes, it’s all TRUE!
Reference Source: https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/market-data/app-annie-2017-2022-forecast/

​In the United States, the average user spends almost three hours a day in mobile applications out of less than four hours a day spent on mobile devices. The mobile app industry is blooming, especially with the constant changes being made in the AI software. Artificial Intelligence helps mobile apps store the user’s data to identify and pre-empt their preferences, needs and choices of the user. This immensely helps brands to market their products. 
Currently, businesses are targeting different app stores for enhancing their brand’s visibility and to reach out to their customers; they are monetizing the applications and reaping out large profits.
 
Advantages of Having a Mobile App for your Business

Quick Search, Quick Find
If the user wishes to purchase a product, he/she needs to log in online, search for the product, keep waiting for URLs to download and gives them the opportunity to compare it with other brands. With a mobile application, companies can ensure that the user just needs to click on an app, type in their preferred product in Search and voila!
An app makes it for the user to even find a product if they are offline and it hardly takes a few seconds. Amazon is one of the leading e-commerce apps because it allows the user to search and get their items delivered by just performing a few steps.

Enables a Direct Marketing Channel
Using mobile apps allows brands to directly sell their products to end-users. It serves many functionalities such as it can provide general information, product prices, search features, news feeds, and so on.
Through push notifications, brands can get even closer to a direct interaction with their customers; and even alerting them if new or discounted products and services are being launched. 

Awareness and Visibility of The Brand
There are different ways to increase awareness and visibility of the brand – as we mentioned, initially different ways of advertising the brand included radios, hoardings, TV, pamphlets, etc. Using a mobile app is like a blank hoarding. Brands can make it stylish, informative and functional as per the business requirement.
For best results, brands should create apps with features that the customers would get attracted to, for instance, simple payment methods, virtual intelligence features, etc. The more often customers get involved with the brand’s app, the sooner they tend to buy their products and services.

Collecting Consumer Data
If an app appears to be trustworthy and is helpful for the users, then certainly the users would love to share their personal data with the brand. Brands can use the AI feature in their app to get personal data from their users.

Onboarding option is one of the best options through which the brands can collect information about the users with a set of few questions that would be produced while registering. If the application offers special offers, discounts or bonuses, then the brand can present a set of questions in return of bonuses that would likely attract the users.
Another way is to track reviews about products and tracking in-app behaviour – this would help the brands take initiative for making effective digital marketing strategies. For instance, the Starbucks mobile app helps Starbucks collect user data, try out new ideas, and roll out targeted data-driven initiatives. The company’s personalization and customer satisfaction efforts are reaping excellent rewards. As of April 2019, Starbucks boasted 16.8 million active loyalty program members.

Geo-Targeted Push to Increase User Base
One of the biggest beneficial factors of the Internet is shattering borders and making the world one place. Mobile apps can not only increase the brand’s user base in the country of their origin but also gives them the scope to enter the International market.
With the help of geo-targeted push notifications, localization and location-based content brands can send specific messages to the right user base. Brands can give users specific content based on their region or even exact location mapping. Location-based calls-to-action feel much more personalized and drives more effective sales.

Connecting with Users
With mobile apps, it becomes easier for the brand to connect with individual users.
Personalizing content for each user makes them feel special and they keep coming back for more. Customers want to experience content that is relevant to them and their interests.
Push-notifications reminds users about your brand and encourages them to use it. Although brands should remember not to overdo it – too many push notifications about irrelevant information would just irritate the users.
In-App messages allows the brands to message the user in the app itself. It is a good way to reach the target audience as it is built into the app experience and is extremely personalized. Messages can introduce new features, and drive conversion.

Social Network Marketing Through Mobile Apps
Due to the ability to synchronize with the social networks, the brand has a higher chance to disperse the virtualization of their content. Users can easily share the brand’s content on their social networks, thus creating viral posts. For instance, the new PUMA ad of Propah Woman has created a stir in society and gained many followers and brand customers.

Summarizing Mobile App Marketing
Mobile apps make the brand stronger. They break all boundaries geologically. The user can walk through the application anywhere and anytime, whether it is during their leisure time or long journeys. To attract maximum attention from the user brands should create apps that reflect all the features the target audience is looking for and involve the users in the app as much as possible. ‘Effective frequency’ exposes the app to more users, hence, the chances of a purchase are even higher.
If you are a brand and wish to create a mobile app, you can contact the Vancouver mobile app developers App Scoop team.

Most times developers and companies measure their app’s success based on the downloads of their app; but most forget that the app only gets profitable if the user actually uses it. The “traffic of the users” on the app is what actually measures its success. You could attract the user to download the app but the question is the user actually using the app after a week, a month or a year. This in the app world is called retention of users.

Keeping the users engaged is one of the most difficult stages; especially in this fast-paced world where similar functionality apps are being introduced in the market with new and better features. This is where customer loyalty comes into play. A loyal customer is the one that will choose your app over your competitors even after a week, a month or a year. The key to gaining a loyal customer could be achieved by gentle “pushing” – in the app world known as a Push Notification.

​What Are Push Notifications and How Do They Help?

​As most of you must be aware, they are the messages that pop up on your smartphone reminding to use the app or sending you offers and updates.  As a whole, push notifications are effective; they encourage both purchases and user retention. However, these messages become even more effective when they’re expertly crafted and personalized.
It’s worth investing time and effort into building push notifications that users really care about. These ensure the most engagement. Remember, if your push messages aren’t valuable, people will simply opt out; or perhaps they won’t opt in to begin with.
As per Localytics, most app users who have enabled push notifications will use an app for at least 9 sessions, with 46% remaining beyond the unofficial retention point of 11 sessions. However, almost half of users who don’t enable push notifications will abandon an app after just 2 sessions. Also, they discovered that the perception of push notifications has improved over time, with 52% of respondents to a 2018 poll stating that pushes were better than they were several years ago.
Reference Source: http://info.localytics.com/blog/21-percent-of-users-abandon-apps-after-one-use

There are 3 essential types of push notifications to inspire loyalty from your users: ​

1. Mechanical Push Notifications
2. Behavioral Push Notifications
3. Location-based Push Notifications

Let’s take a look at each one in detail.
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1. Mechanical Push Notifications: This type of push notification is sent for a specific activity – it is triggered by a user action, predetermined time, or event. 

• User Action: For instance, if the user has been shopping on an e-commerce app and leaves their cart abandoned, he/she will get a push notification to go back and purchase the items. Nearly, 75% of all shopping carts are abandoned – hence, mechanical push notifications are important.

• Time: For instance, a phone provider will send a notification to the user 24 hours before their card expires. If an app is integrated with a calendar, it can send reminders every time a user has an event planned.

 

• Event: For instance, if someone comments or likes a picture on Facebook, the user will get a notification stating so. This push notification is triggered by a simple event.

Mechanical push notifications are used in a wide variety of apps and have simple logic. Google and Apple provide their own native services for building mobile apps with push notifications for business. Check out these services for Android and iOS.
To set up mobile app push notifications, you can also use third-party tools such as Kinvey, Localytics, and Kumulos. Their advantage is that they can be used cross-platform.

​2. Behavioral Push Notifications: This type of push notification uses Artificial Intelligence to gauge user behavior based on user data and statistics. In other words, the application predicts what the user wants before they even know it.

A recent study by Localytics discovered that users consider notifications triggered by in-app behavior as spying. About 49 percent of respondents stated that they prefer apps that send pushes based on stated preferences over in-app behavior.
 
Reference Source: http://info.localytics.com/blog/push-notification-survey-2018
 

• New Releases: For instance, if a new comedy show is going to be released on Amazon Prime, and the user has seen most comedy shows on this platform; it will send a push notification to the user that a new show is going to be released soon.

 

• New Arrivals: Similarly, if the user has been shopping in a certain store, for instance Marks and Spencer and a sale is going to come up; M&S will send a push notification to user intimating them about the upcoming sale.

 
H&M uses deeply personalized behavioral push notifications to increase sales. The H&M app acts as a personal stylist, offering items that go great with your latest purchases.
 
Reference Source: https://apps.apple.com/ru/app/h-m-we-love-fashion/id834465911?l=en
 

• Cheer-up Notifications: Apps belonging to Fitness genre or Mental Health genre would ideally send out a message to the user during the day. For example, Activity app on Apple Watch is a fitness app that sends helpful and supportive notifications during the day; MyFitnessPal, will kindly remind you if you forget to log a meal; Headspace, a mental health app, sends users notifications to improve their mental state.

 
3. Location-based Push Notifications: This type of push notification is geo-targeted; which means that it is sent to the user when they go to a certain place. These are relatively new in the market. Say for example, if the user has an M&S app, they will be sent a notification that a M&S store is 500m from their current location. 

According to a Localytics survey from 2018 of 1,000 smartphone users, 49% would use an application more if it sent them push notifications in their hometown, and 42% said they would use an app more if it sent pushes triggered by their present location.
 
Reference Source: http://info.localytics.com/blog/push-notification-survey-2018
 
Two types of location-based push notifications:
 

• Based on collected user data: This type of notification is based on a user’s IP address, city, region, and country.

 

• Geo-triggered pushes: Such notifications are sent in real time when a user enters or leaves a certain geographic zone (if they’ve shared their location via their phone).

 
These two types of location-based pushes may contain:

• Announcement of discounts, rewards, and other special offers
• Information about new products
• Information about buying top-ups when travelling
• Updates on the status of orders (for example, when a taxi has arrived)

 
Examples of location-based push notifications:
 
Welcome to Paris! At Starbucks? If you use Foursquare, you probably recognize these questions.
 
Alexa, set a reminder to pick up a book from Penguin Bookstore. When you pass by Penguin’s bookstore, Alexa will notify you. The Alexa app lets users adjust the reminder location radius to as close as 500 feet, which is helpful if you’re on foot.
 
Google Keep, an easy-to-use note-taking app, looks like a dashboard and provides a location-based option for each note. A user can tap “Remind me,” choose “Pick place,” and type an address or search for a location. Users can share notes and location-based reminders with friends who have Gmail accounts.
 
Don’t Push the User Away with Push Notifications  
 
Like they say, all good things should come in small packages; similarly, make sure that you do not overwhelm the user with push notifications. Sending them a lot of information in a short duration of time could drive the user away instead of winning him/her. Give the user the opportunity to choose the push notifications that he/she is interested in; for example, a retailer could add preferences such as, Online Specials, Product Suggestions, New Range, etc. 

When users download an app, give them the option to opt out of allowing you to collect data related to their location and send them pushes. Permission is key! You don’t want the user to feel like they are being stalked or their personal information is being used against them. Conduct thorough research and test notification timing and content to figure out what resonates with your customers.
 
If you are building your app and require assistance with setting push notifications, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers and app development team: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html