Today, we live in an age where we can’t spend a single day without our smartphones. From reading the news to watching favorite movies/shows, shopping, and ordering food, the mobile phone has become people’s true mate. With over 3.8 billion smartphone users (globally) spending nearly 90% of their mobile time only on apps, it’s no wonder that the mobile app industry is also rising at a steady pace.
Mobile app development is surely helping businesses grow well, boost sales, outperform, win over competitors, and ultimately generate better revenue. All in all, taking businesses of various niches to the very next level.
While being primarily focused on providing value to the users during mobile app development, the business owners and a mobile app development company shouldn’t overlook the pricing strategies for a mobile app project. If you want to build a profitable and scalable mobile app for your business, emphasizing pricing strategies is crucial.
Before we dive deeper and discuss the pricing strategies for mobile apps and choose the right one, let’s first understand the pricing strategy basics.
What Is a Pricing Strategy for Mobile App?
Let’s admit that every app owner’s end goal is to earn more and more money out of the developed mobile app. Agreed? Pricing strategy is all about understanding the psychology of pricing for mobile apps so that businesses can make money. In simpler terms, pricing strategy refers to how businesses make money from mobile applications. A well-thought-out pricing strategy helps businesses build a successful app.
Types of Pricing Strategies for Mobile App
- Free – To attract maximum users, you should make your app available for free. The main source of income from this type of app is advertisements. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are great examples to appreciate the free pricing model.
- Freemium – Freemium apps are free for users to download but contain limited features and functionalities. Businesses include in-app purchase methods to make money. Canva and NYTimes are leveraging this app pricing model.
- Paid – Simple, the users have to pay to download these apps. As it’s not hugely popular, businesses need a compelling marketing strategy to generate money from these apps. Most apps from Apple App Store are paid and considered successful.
- Paymium -These apps are not only paid but also enable extra cost for availing additional functionality. This is not a widely popular accepted pricing model. Some music and social media apps highly leverage this pricing model.
It does not matter whether you are chasing the Android or iOS app development method, budget will always be an integral part of which pricing strategy will be considered profoundly.
Top 5 Tried and Tested Ways to Choose the Best Pricing Strategy for Your Mobile App
- Gauge the Market and Your Competitors: Before you fix the pricing strategy, you should study the market thoroughly and analyze your competitors. This will help you understand the target users, the app creation process, and develop the right pricing strategy. For instance, if you launch your app at a comparatively lower price than your competitors, it will give you a competitive edge in the market. Thus, increasing your user base and ROI.
- Analyze the User Behavior and Psychology: User intent is ever-changing, and that’s why you need to keep pace with it. Consumer behavior and psychology play a significant role in deciding the price of your apps. By understanding user intent and psychology, you can create an app that users love. Try to make users feel that the app is created for their benefit; hence, they will automatically feel that your app’s price is reasonable and relevant.
- What Customers Are Willing to Pay: To make your app competitive, you need to match the pace of ever-evolving market demands. The relevant pricing strategy for mobile apps needs to revolve around what the market and customers are willing to pay for the services your app will offer. To figure that out, you need to test your application at different price levels and see how the market responds. This will help you understand your pricing strategy the right way.
- Build the App your Users Want and Need: An app should be made keeping users’ pain-points, questions, and all the concerns in mind. Your app should solve their problems and clear their doubts. To put it simply, your app must offer what your users need and want to make their life seamless. When you give your users what they have been longing for quite a while, they are willing to pay. This way, it becomes easy to decide the price for you as well.
- Make the Price Reasonable for Your Customers: Need is one thing, but the app should be feasible and affordable for users. If you want to attract more users, you need to offer better value to your customers at a reasonable price. The market research will help you understand and determine your app’s price range that is easily affordable for your users and fulfill their needs. Ensure your app tops all the checklists users consider and are worth the amount they are willing to pay for.
The Bottom Line
If you don’t figure out and set the best-suited pricing strategy for your mobile app, it will cost you loads of customers. As a result, you will suffer a huge (monetary and brand image) loss. Wait, don’t fret! Understand all the pricing types and strategies for apps mentioned above and implement them the right way to make your app the most profitable and your business the most successful. It’s that simple!
