If you thought that mobile apps are important only for big brands, think again.
Today, most people own a smartphone and its core functionality involves more than just making calls and texts. A smartphone can host several applications that can serve almost all your purposes.
With the growing popularity of mobile phones and devices, many small and midsize businesses have begun migrating from traditional advertising methods to the mobile realm. And if you do not want to lag behind in the competition, you should get an app and an awesome mobile app strategy in place.
Have a look at some of the benefits that mobile apps offer to your business.
1. Acts as a direct marketing channel:
One of the biggest advantages of custom mobile applications is that it allows you to provide all the information you would want your customers to know at their fingertips. Apps can give information such as user accounts, prices, search prices, general info, booking forms, news feeds, etc. Additionally, push notifications to help you remind your customers about your products and services whenever possible.
2. Provides value to customers:
There’s no denying that you want to encourage customers to interact with your brand through sales. You may, however, want to also provide value for your customers that they may not get anywhere else.
One way to achieve this to let your customers collect their rewards via your app. The more points they collect, the better deal they can avail of on your products. This will result in more downloads and more return visitors.
Starbucks offers rewards exclusively to its app users which encourages them to buy coffee and snacks from them. Starbucks makes it even more lucrative by allowing its users to pay directly from the app.
You can incorporate such a plan in your mobile app and digitize the entire process. When customers see their points are accumulating in real-time, they will be impressed and keen to follow up on their next purchases.
3. Increases customer engagement:
Whether you are a small business or a big business, your customers may want to reach you. By including a messaging feature in your mobile app, you can really make a difference in the way they can communicate with you.
For example, if you own a restaurant, you can let your app users book a table within a few clicks instead of a call. It will definitely save their time and also trust you more.
4. Boosts brand awareness:
The most important thing an app does is that it makes your consumers aware of your brand. It also lets them communicate with your brand and foster trust.
The more your consumers trust you, the more likely they will be interested in your future sales pitches and stay loyal to your brand. With an app in place, you can let your users know that they can trust you by showing what your brand stands for.
5. Improves customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is an important reason why you should consider having your own mobile app.
With the immense amount of advertising happening on social media, newspaper ads, flyers, coupons, website banners, websites, etc, there are chances that you may lose your impact on the customers. A mobile app, on the other hand, will help make a true and sincere connection with your customers. It will also help make them a loyal lover of your products or services. Of course, it is not the only way to save your business, but a mobile app will definitely help you stay closer to your customers.
6. Be visible all the time
Statistics reveal that an individual spends almost 3 hours on his mobile phone in Canada. By 2020, it is estimated that a person will spend more time on mobile than TV. This is a huge advantage for your business as our mind registers images and texts unconsciously, it comes across. Having an app for your business will let you be before your users.
A well-designed app icon or great some great images in the app is sure to hold your users' attention.
7. Stand out in the competition
Last but not least, a mobile app will help you stand out in the competition.
Mobile apps at small business levels are still rare and you must take advantage of this situation.
Go ahead! Build an app and be the first in your neighborhood to offer it to your customers. They will be pleasantly surprised by this forward-thinking approach!
The bottom line
More and more companies are investing in mobile app development to create engaging apps and if you don’t, you will most likely be left behind in the competition. While a mobile app is not the best way to save your business, it is definitely a sure way of building a strong presence in your niche. It is definitely a convenient and cool element of the rapidly evolving technology that will help your business scale higher. Just make sure to promote your app after its launch.