Businesses around the world undergo digital transformation virtually every day. In 2021, investing in process automation, company culture change, and innovative digital product development seems necessary. The rising popularity of medical and health apps presents a unique opportunity for businesses to engage with their clients in a completely new way, build more meaningful relationships, and learn customers’ needs firsthand while increasing safety and convenience for them. In this article, we will examine 6 effective strategies you should consider when building MedTech software.

1. Choose a niche

Healthcare apps are nothing new: step-counters, calorie intake journals, and virtual coaches have been with us for years now, with numbers of strong products competing for the crown. Since market saturation is a disadvantage for newcomers, before creating your app you should carefully consider your niche. 

Think about:

• Key purpose (self-reporting or tracking, emergency help, communication, training)
• App category (diet, fitness, lifestyle, chronic illness, mental health)
• User type (patient, caregiver, healthcare worker, medical provider, student, mixed)

Learn everything you can about other apps that occupy the same or similar niche and make sure that your app does something that the competition doesn’t, or at least that it does something much better than others.

Klue is an eHealth startup that created AI technology that works with Apple Watch to detect and track eating and drinking gestures. Gathered data is then used to discover and work on one’s consumption habits. Klue occupies a tiny niche: it’s a movement tracking app for patients with specific devices who want to eat more consciously. But recently they expanded to a completely new niche by introducing another simple feature – mealtime insulin intake reminders for Type 1 Diabetes patients.

2. Research target audiences

From local laws and cultural backgrounds to common device screen resolutions, a proper understanding of users’ needs can determine your healthcare app’s future. That was the case with Merck DORA, a medical app we developed, that helps in the fight against diabetes in Africa.

Our research showed that 90% of DORA visitors use mobile devices, with 60% of them using Opera Mini browser. To make this app successful, we had to make sure it works well with unstable or slow Internet connection, while maintaining brand identity, visual appeal, and making the app available in multiple languages, including Swahili and Amharic. Read the complete case study here.

Determining who your customers are and researching your target customers’ underserved needs are the first two steps of achieving product-market fit, as described in The Lean Product Playbook. It will help you understand what market your app is in and what your users want.

Researching your target audience will also help in identifying early adopters. Your first customers will be crucial to the further development of your app. If you get them to trust you, they will provide helpful feedback as well as bring new people to your app.

3. Build trust

Trust is important in any business, but when it comes to eHealth there’s nothing more valuable. When building a medical app, you need to convince users that they can trust you with their health, so the stakes are high. Luckily, there are several ways for you to build that connection with your customers.

Begin with taking care of proper security measures. People understandably feel a certain degree of unease about their medical data being stored somewhere on the Internet. Around the globe, privacy regulations were introduced to address that issue. Laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in European Union, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the USA require businesses to meet certain standards when dealing with private or sensitive data.

And since you’re dealing with personal health records, your app needs to be as secure as it gets. Your developers should always follow all platform-specific security best practices. Complying with the international standards, like ISO 27001 for information security or ISO 27701 for data privacy, should be considered necessary as well.

The next step you need to take is committing to open, transparent, and informational communication, especially when it comes to cost details and security guarantees. This will help users feel more confident in their decisions.

Another way to build trust, especially relevant to medical apps, is to offer real value for users for free. A fitting example of that is Headspace: Meditation & Sleep. The app contains a wide selection of guided meditations, inspirational stories, workout routines, and music created or selected by recognizable experts, and some of them are for free. That way every user can try the app for themselves before making the purchase.

4. Have great customer support

Although everyone wants to develop an intuitive user experience, even the best-designed apps can require additional assistance. While tutorials, FAQs section, and helpful chatbot could solve a part of users’ issues, at least a few will have to be handled by real-human customer support. Their professionalism is instrumental in building trust – people who go out of their way to ask you a question or send feedback are also customers attracted to your product. Gain their trust to build long-lasting relationships.

5. Use personalization

With an ever-increasing amount of health apps on the market, users are expecting more than generic interactions, irrelevant content, and ill-timed notifications. Today, personalization can be crucial to winning over and keeping users. There are many ways to personalize app experience, from simple touches like addressing the user by their name to creating unique offers tailored for specific locations or demographics.

One app that uses personalization in a simple, yet ingenious way is dminder – a comprehensive Vitamin D tracking app. It uses GPS in the user’s device to calculate when the insolation benefits are the greatest and sends personalized push notifications, unique to each user.

To personalize an app, you need to collect user data first. Knowing things like age, gender, interests, profession, location of your users, as well as their device types and when they are using the app, will improve user retention and their overall experience if you use that knowledge right.

6. Analyze and improve

Analyzing users’ in-app behavior presents clues about popularity and ease of use of specific functionalities. Upon those insights, you can make better-informed decisions about subsequent in-app improvements. That way you can eliminate features that users don’t care about and focus on what’s important for them. This knowledge is also irreplaceable when it comes to creating better sales funnels. 

Takeaway

The medical apps market is a competitive one. To succeed, a company must have a strong concept of a unique product or feature and an idea of how to make it contemporary, trustworthy, and useful. That’s when expert help can be beneficial. Learn how Monterail approaches healthcare apps development and build your digital product with us.