Can you believe that almost half of all small brands and commerces connect with customers through mobile apps for business? That is 48%. This figure has increased since last year impacting how this small companies operate. More importantly, around 27% of owners who do not posses’ a mobile app said they have plans to invest in them in the near future to help the development of their brand.
Taking into account how many of us starting using mobile devices more than ever with the rise of the pandemic, it makes sense for companies to recognize this opportunity to grow their business by connecting with their audience, this is what drove their responses on the survey. Let’s see.
So, as you see, mobile apps for business is a trend on the rise. But besides helping you to connect with your customers what other ways a mobile app can support your business model this year? If you’re still not convinced, here we have 7 reasons to start developing your own brand’s app for this year:
Remember that the average person spends most of their time in their phone, so a mobile app will help you connect with many more consumers in a short amount of time.
On the other hand, you can always use push notifications to increase traffic to your website. Or create trends, promotions and discounts on the app to encourage customers to go the website as well.
The idea behind a mobile app, is to help your consumers to navigate your catalog of products and services much more easily than a website. Apps can show it them effortlessly, allowing them to feel a much more personalized experience.
You can collect regularly feedback from your app’s users and understand their perspective on your brand or product, their behaviors and trends. For example, you can learn a lot from a consumer knowing their search pattern and then suggest recommendations to them. You can also pair it with Machine Learning to a more in-depth analysis and a predictive global data.
One of the best things about a mobile app it’s their ability of reducing expenses for your company, specially for brand promotion. Which means that you don’t have to spend more money on printing posters, banners or any other advertising, as well as the money you will save by not having to hire the companies that design, print and distribute these.
Instead, you can now use chatbots, push notification, pop-up messages, update notifications, and many other options to grasp the attention of people without having to have a large budget.
In these times it’s crucial for your company to be on board with the latest technology and trends, specially now that virtual reality and augmented reality are the rise, stating with the current trends will make your brand trending as well.
If you own your company, then you already know that is easier to keep a customer around than to gain a new one. And this is exactly what you can achieve with mobile apps for business in an easy way by using features of a loyalty program for example.
Mobile apps help to be a vehicle of a secure payment channel, and this is one of the main concerns of buyers. These apps provide encrypted and safe platforms allowing you customers to feel stress free when making their purchases as upgrades their level of trust in your brand.
Features can always be personalized to meet your brand’s needs or to enhance the experience of users. This is big plus on the tech side of marketing where features can be tailored in regards of the requirements of your company and other specifics of your business. And you can always integrate them with all social media sites and companies.
First of all, we recommend you look for the “pain points” of your business and based on it you will be able to search for the best app for your needs and also the best mobile app development company. Some points will coincide, but others won’t and that is where you have the amazing opportunity to make apps to suit them.
In fact, we believe that even though subscription apps are a great solution, an app created for yourself and tailored specifically to your brand will always be much more satisfying. For example, a doctor needs an app to book appointments but also wants the app to send photos, branded, be able to enter requirements, locations, doctors, among other options. Then the best option will be for that doctor to create his own app.
Now that we’ve caught your interest with that long list of pros above, let’s talk about what you should consider first before creating or choosing an app for your brand:
Identify your challenges/opportunities: For this, you will need to make an internal analysis of identifying your business’s challenges so you can focus on those that generate the most value for you. After, you will have the task to investigate in the market for apps that suite and cover your needs, or whether you wish to integrate it. As a practical example, let’s say one of the problems you0ve identified is that there is no parking at your store for customers. A great solution would be to look in the market for an app that allows the buyers to find parking and integrate it to your business.
Integrate opportunities/challenges: Once you have made your internal analysis, you will find that you have more than one opportunity and/or challenge in your business. A practical idea to solve them or make use of them, is to regroup all of those opportunities and challenges together and form an idea for your mobile app that will have more benefits for you and your customers. Following the same example, say you need an app to schedule medical appointments, but you also need that parking for your customers tranquility. Well just integrate the schedule with parking, all in one app to make your business more successful and reliable.
Find apps that meet those needs: The mobile apps market has grown exponentially and there are so many options out there for everyone and every business needs, you just have to find the right fit for you.
If you can’t find it, create it yourself: Evaluate whether finding a premade app is the best option for you, or if you can’t find what you are looking for out there, remember that there are plenty of tech companies ready to make and customize your app according to your needs. You can find a mobile app development company perfect for your vision.
A beautifully designed mobile app can bring many benefits for both you and your customers as you have seen, but if are still not convinced and need more inspo, here are a couple of examples of business apps that do just that.
Is a cloud booking and scheduling software solution that allows medical practices to streamline processes regarding staff management, meetings, reservations, appointments, and many others. The app uses a platform to share booking links with a patient, it can also send emails or texts reminders to patients as well as reschedule medical appointments using a drag-and-drop interface.
This bank has a mobile banking app that allows customers to pay bills, find an ATM, make mobile check deposits, and review their transaction history. The easy-to-use format of the app allows customers to open the app with fingerprint rather than a password. Ally bank app also allows customers to read up on stock market news directly from the app, and as a bonus, the app uses Zelle, to transfer money within Ally accounts or between Ally and non-Ally accounts.
Nowadays mobile apps are not only for big corps or just to have fun. Small businesses can also generate theirs own apps. While it might seem exhausting at first, you don’t have to carry all that burden for yourself.
At Stringnet we develop a personalized application for your business, everything you need to improve your customers’ experience, tailored to your brand’s needs and inside the budget you have planned.
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