Mobile apps have become incredibly popular for their utility, convenience, and flexibility. You could make an app that does almost anything – and with suitable marketing, you might turn it into a serious revenue-generating opportunity.

What if you hope to use a mobile app to teach people a new subject or skill, though? Are you aware of the best ways to harness the full potential of this tool?

Create a Long-Term Plan

The best mobile apps feature regular updates and add new functions on a regular basis. If you want to keep users engaged and entertained, in fact, if you simply want your app to remain active and up to date, you ought to create a long-term plan from the outset.

How do you plan on supporting the development of this app in the future? How are you going to make your app steadily better?

• The ultimate vision. Start by devising the ultimate vision for your mobile app. What do you want this tool to accomplish for people? How do you envision it accomplishing this? Think about your target demographics and how they prefer to learn things; also study your top competitors and figure out how you can differentiate yourself.
• New features and modules. Most mobile apps launch as a “minimum viable product” (MVP), which means they provide the least amount of features and functionality necessary to make the app useful and (the makers hope) popular. This is usually done to expedite a launch date and reduce the impact of obstacles that could prevent the designer(s) from generating revenue. But if you take this course, you’ll have to come up with new features and modules to add to your app in the future. For example, you could expand the functionality to help students connect with each other or introduce a new portal for video lessons.
• New lessons and information. You’ll also need to add more lessons and raw information for your users to absorb. Regardless of whether you’re teaching a subject or a specific skill, there might be a nearly infinite amount of knowledge and information for you to share – certainly, the body of readily available knowledge is growing all the time. If you want your app to remain competitively viable, you’ll have to roll out new lessons and information on a regular basis, so you’d better have a good idea of how you’re going to do it.
• Technical issues and resolutions. Of course, mobile app updates are typically required to resolve unforeseen technical issues. Over time, your users are going to notice bugs and errors, and you’ll want to correct those as soon as possible. You’ll also be responsible for introducing new security patches. What is your timetable for these?

Provide Content in Multiple Mediums

If you want your mobile app to be more effective at the instructional level, consider providing content via multiple mediums. Different people prefer to learn in different ways; you can reach more customers and instruct them more effectively by relying on many a variety of types of content simultaneously. For example, you can offer written articles, audio streams, video streams, and interactive sessions that all provide similar concepts and lessons.

Target a Specific Audience

If you develop better market research, you’ll be able to reach your target audience more specifically and broadly. It’s worthwhile to identify the beliefs, values, and existing level of knowledge in your target demographics. How do these people think? How do they prefer to learn? How can you adjust your language and the scope of your lessons to suit their needs more effectively?

An added bonus from this approach is competitive differentiation: If your app is targeted to a specific audience, you should have greater relevance and appeal for them.

Build a Consistent Brand Voice

Your brand voice is the tone and style with which you communicate with your audience. It ought to be both unique and consistent if it’s going to be memorable, so spend some quality time identifying and polishing your brand voice standards.

Use Small, Digestible Chunks of Information

It’s much easier to teach through a mobile app when you release small, digestible chunks of information. Instead of writing protracted essays and making feature-length videos, try teaching your audience through paragraphs and video shorts.

Get Feedback and Improve

Finally, you should go out of your way to collect feedback from your users and learn what you can from that precious information so you can improve performance. What do your users like most about your app? What do they believe it lacks? And how can you close that gap?

With a better, more effective educational app in place, you’ll have an easier time teaching your audience. Just be prepared for the likelihood that you won’t be able to make a perfect educational app overnight; for most developers, this is a process that takes many iterations and updates.

Each step will take you closer to your ultimate goal.