By Jen Brister
Thousands upon thousands of iPhone apps, or applications, are downloaded each and every day. There are apps that can help you to navigate by the stars, help you do your taxes or even find the best price for an album that you like. If you have a small business and are thinking of out-of-the-box ways to reach your customers, you should consider developing your own iPhone app for your company.
You can not only get your business name out there by developing an iPhone app, depending on how your app sells, you can make some residual income as well.
The Idea
The first thing you will need to do when developing your own app is to come up with an idea or concept for the app. Realistically speaking, it should have something to do with your company or business. You could create an app which will help your customers look at items in your store or help them to research the kinds of products that you sell.
Find a Programmer
Once you have come up with an idea for your iPhone app, you can find a programmer to create it for you. Search on online forums such as eLance to find developers who will place a bid to do your project. You simply accept the bid that you feel comfortable with and let the developer take it from there.
Development Costs
The cost of development, or programming, can be anywhere from $100 to thousands of dollars, depending on how complicated your app is or how long it will take to develop. Since Apple has very distinct specifications on how they approve the apps, it is a good idea to find a programmer who has developed many apps before. An experienced programmer will help you to see your vision come to life in the quickest and most efficient way possible.
Submitting the App to Apple
Once you are satisfied with the app that your programmer created, you can submit the app to the Apple store for approval. It can take quite a bit of time for your app to be developed and then approved by Apple, so you will have to be patient during this process.
Promoting it to Customers
Once your app has been approved by Apple, you will need to promote it to your customers. Place posters in your business which advertise your app. Send out emails or fliers to customers which direct them to the app store and to your app.
There are a couple of ways that you can make money from an iPhone app. One is from direct sales. You can sell your app for $1.99 and make about 70 percent of that from every sale. You can also offer your app for free but place Google ads within your app. When a user clicks on an ad in your app, you will make a small amount of change. Though ads can sometimes be seen as frustrating for users, you can make money with a few good free apps which contain ads.
Call together a few of your best employees and brainstorm ideas for a company app. You will probably have so many ideas, you will have trouble choosing the one that you want to develop. Choose wisely and begin the process. Though it can take time, having an app for your company is one great, long-term marketing strategy.
About the Author
Jen Brister has been a writer, researcher and Internet marketer for three years. She makes her living writing full time, publishing videos and creating Web sites.