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TLDR; A white label app is a quick and easy way of creating new income for your business, especially if you already have an engaged audience.
Are you considering creating a white label app for your business? White label apps can provide a fast way to way to create your own app, and with it, sizeable new recurring revenue opportunities. But they are not without risks, and not for everyone. This guide will take you through some of the points to consider.
What is a white label app?
A white label app is a pre-made application designed to be rebranded and sold to multiple clients. These apps are created in such a way that they can be easily customized with the branding, themes, logos, specific features, or functionalities that you request - this is the "white labelling".
The "App" can be either a mobile native app, i.e. like those that are found in the Apple App Store or Google Play store, or web app: a responsive website that works on mobile and desktop browsers. For the scope of this article, we're assuming a mobile native app.
The main advantages of this approach over building your own app from scratch is that it's faster, cheaper and easier. There are also some downsides, and we'll dig into all of this later in the article.
Why consider a white label app?
First of all, why even consider an app at all? In our experience working with our clients over the years, there are typically 2 main reasons: to make money, and to engage users.
To make money
Apps are a great way to create a new income stream for your business. Apps have multiple revenue models built in, including paid downloads, in-app purchases and subscription services. And it really works! The Apple App store generated over $89.3 billion in 2023.
And you can have a slice of this too! Subscription models work particularly well for mobile apps, especially coupled with user engagement and retention.
So how much can you make? Based on our experience over the last 5 years, here is a quick formula you can use to estimate your earnings:
size of audience x engagement rate x monthly price x 0.5
where:
Size of audience | Number of followers, or number of customers you already have |
Engagement rate | This is a measure of how much of your audience will engage with your communications. It is measured by the total number of interactions your content receives, divided by the total number of followers/customers, multiplied by 100% |
Monthly price | The monthly subscription price you plan to charge |
Do you want a more accurate estimate of your income? We'll put together a detailed financial plan personalised to your business, FOR FREE, so that you can clearly understand your estimated income and also costs. Just click the button below and ask us for our FREE financial plan!
To engage your customers
Apps have the unique ability to engage users through notifications, personalized content, and interactive features, particularly over and above a website or web app. This level of engagement fosters user loyalty and retention, which can then lead to better monetization over time.
Apps also allows new channels of communication with your customers using Chat and community features, enabling upsell opportunities for example to upgrade to a 1-1 coaching session.
Why choose a white label app
So why not just make an app from scratch yourself? Well you can, but it's hard work and requires multi-disciplinary skills. Here are some key reasons why you should consider a white label app over other alternatives:
You don't need to be technical: Building an app from scratch requires multi-disciplinary skills, including UX/UI design, technical implementation, testing and QA. If you are not technical, or not familiar with the app technology stack, there is a steep learning curve and a lot to learn especially if you are targeting both iPhone and Android apps. The great thing about white label apps is that you don't need to understand coding at all, as all this work has been done for you.
It's quick: You can create a white label app and deploy it into the App stores within a couple of weeks. App development from scratch can take months.
It's cost effective: mobile app development to include both Apple and Google stores will cost about $50,000 if you were to hire a good agency.
You can focus on your business: it's important not to lose sight of the objective of your app. Do you really want to spend the next few months working on an App? Or would you rather spend time with your customers and working on promoting the app?
What are the Commercial Considerations?
Mobile apps can be very lucrative as we've mentioned, but only if you can find a way to acquire customers profitably.
There are over 1.8 million apps in the app store, why would anyone use your app? Plus, did you know that more than 50% of apps are uninstalled within 30 days after they are downloaded.
So how can you avoid these risks? Here is a checklist of items
Do you have an engaged audience?
Apps work best when you already have an engaged audience, e.g. you have built a following on a social media channel, or through you business you have existing customers. AND, they are engaged.
How engaged is important to understand and measure. Engagement rate is the total number of interactions you receive for your content, divided by the total number of followers. Engagement rates of 1-5% are pretty good!
If you are starting a new business and still building your audience, a white label app can also be a good and inexpensive way to test your audience and niche. White label apps, like the ones that you can create using our platform, can be changed quickly very often without resubmitting to the App store.
This approach however requires some patience and lots of experimentation and inherently more risky.
Will it add real value to your customers?
The best performing mobile apps add real value to their customers. What value would your app provide? This is called the Value Proposition, and it's a clear statement of what benefits your customers will derive from using the app.
Personalisation: White label platforms like Meal IQ can personalise your App for your end customers. This means that your App is personalised to each of your cusomer
Exclusive content: What can your customers look forward to receiving in the App that they can't see elsewhere? Platforms like Meal IQ can allow you to add multi-media content including podcasts, videos, and lessons to provide exclusive content for your users.
Leverage the 1-1 engagement: Using community chat features, you can leverage the opportunity of 1-1 direct chats with your customers to find out more about their needs and upsell from your portfolio, e.g. 1-1 coaching sessions
Fits in better with consumer lifestyles: Can you imagine an architect designing a new skyscraper using a mobile phone? However, most customers would prefer to make recipes using a mobile phone rather than a laptop.
Do you know how to acquire customers?
Once you have an engaged audience and value proposition, then you need to think about how to acquire customers. There are many techniques for customer acquisition and beyond the scope of this article.
If you want to know more about customer acquisition, book a discovery call with our team by clicking the image.
it's something you'll need to think about and perhaps cost into your business plan.
And do you have business plan?
Consider the costs of marketing and content creation and for large audiences, community management.
We can put together a free business plan with these line items costed out for you. Just click the button below and ask for a free business plan.
A note about competition
One question we get asked a lot is about competition. A common mistake is to compare yourself to one of the big apps that already exists, e.g. My Fitness Pal. Your key point of difference is YOU. When you get an engaged audience, you have already found your niche and your customers, and you don't need to worry about faceless brands like My Fitness Pal and the others.
If you don't believe, remember Conor McGregor? He launched a whiskey brand - WHISKEY! How commodotised is that market, yet it's a billion dollar business. YOUR BRAND IS EVERYTHING.
Wrapping up
We hope this guide gives you a good idea of what you should be thinking about when considering a white label app.
Meal IQ is an award winning platform with over 5 years experience and have helped hundreds of clients create their own white label apps. If you want us to help you create yours, book a discovery call with our team.
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