Why Mobile Apps Shouldn’t Be in Your GTM Plan

Why Mobile Apps Shouldn’t Be Part of Your GTM (Most of the Time)

For Context:

I have probably said it a thousand times.
I usually do not encourage anyone to go that route when the benefits do not outweigh the downsides (which is the case 90% of the time).
I have often shared this opinion informally in consultations and ideation sessions but writing this now is my way of putting a million exclamation marks behind it.

The Sit-Rep

We are currently taking a product to market, see more about it here.

It features two different applications. A mobile application for the service provider and a web application for those looking for the service — a marketplace per se. We are more than two weeks behind schedule simply because the application was flagged unreasonably when taken to the Play Store.

You've probably heard a thousand times that distribution is important. Being able to get your product in whatever form it might be to its end user is the goal. The trusted reliable way of doing that is by having your mobile app on the Play store or the App store — people simply can't bring themselves to take apps from anywhere else.

We knew this and considering the dynamics of the market we were entering into, it was congruent that we developed a mobile app to get the supply and make it easy for them yet feel real.

So in this case (a rare 10th percentile), a mobile app was quintessential. Nonetheless, we soon got reminded why we had that opinion in the first place.

The Problem

The biggest two reasons to me are the distribution and right after that: the user friction — especially if you're building in places like Africa where adding an extra application to users' devices which have low storage space is almost like telling them to dive into a frozen pond in Antarctica.

We hit the first in less than two weeks (of playing parley with Google), our app got flagged for different reasons all of which were sorted. Then came the most absurd one being that we were using branding that belonged to another company or so.

Now I pride myself in being especially good at finding unique brand names and being able to dance around intricacies (yes, I know Applift is not that unique). But with this product, I certainly did a whole lot of due diligence and even when there were others there was really none that was so identical or close in our market or in any market we had interest in for the foreseeable future. This was to say the least: traumatic. It brought nostalgia back from when I first tried to get my app to the Play store, one of the incidents that really formed this opinion.

So, distro hit us hard. I could place a safe bet that we would find some friction in downloading the app too (although we've done our best to keep the bundle size as small as possible).

The Hidden Cost: Momentum

Now these are minor issues when viewed simply through the lens of delay and time lost, but there's something much more critical that it hurts — and that is momentum.

Picture this: the whole team has worked, you've set up your marketing, fliers, started reaching out to businesses etc etc. and while trying to get the app up you spend much of your energy decrypting Google's cryptic warnings and rejections or trying to prove to Apple that you own the company that will be publishing apps on their App Store (I have been through both).

That's a really sure way to get distracted and to drain momentum from any team. It's not helpful at all.

A Better Way

The web has always been touted for its ability to give access to knowledge to anyone with an internet connection. Soon enough it gave access to other things too: tools, financial services, work etc etc. The web is the lingua franca of the modern world to say the least.

Advancements in software development have made it that you could provide functionalities that would have been otherwise found in a mobile app via the web. Even more, you can maintain one codebase and deploy to web, Android and iOS.

The strategy typically involves using modern technologies like React Native + Expo, Flutter and even tools like Ionic. We ourselves deployed Ionic for the project in discussion.

Go for this. Have a strong bias for the web every time!
In places like Africa too, try to get it as light as possible and actually Go to Market!

Finally

In early GTM, speed and access matter more than polish or position. Distribution channels can hold your idea hostage — and better to think they will. Build where your users can reach you fastest, get your idea validated and have that confidence you need to keep building.

But as always,
keep building!