Gone are the days when mobile apps were reserved for large corporations or entities. Today, building a professional app for your business is easier and less expensive than ever.
Apps are an excellent way to strengthen relationships with both current and potential customers. If you are considering building an app for your business but are unsure if it is the right option for your company, do not worry.
We have outlined the main benefits of developing your own mobile app for your business. All it takes is a clear goal for what you want your app to achieve, and you can begin the development process.
Why are mobile apps important for your business?
Mobile apps offer a convenient, accessible, and user-friendly way to buy products and services while on the move. They offer increased engagement, customer loyalty, and revenue opportunities for your business. Below are 5 reasons why mobile apps can be important for your company.
- Building brand awareness
- Adding value for customers
- Increasing customer engagement
- Better customer service
- Enhancing your product or service
1. Building brand awareness
A primary benefit of mobile apps for businesses is their capacity to enhance brand awareness in conjunction with your other marketing initiatives. The mobile app serves as a point of contact with your audience, and also increases the effectiveness of other aspects of your marketing campaign.
Once the user installs your app on their device, they’ll encounter your brand multiple times a day, especially if you create built-in features that allow you to engage with your users consistently.
According to Statista, the average person spends over 4 hours on their smartphone each day. By offering a mobile app, organizations can provide a convenient and interactive experience that can increase customer loyalty, in-app purchases, and positive associations with the brand.
For example, a well-designed mobile app can provide exclusive deals, rewards, and personalized recommendations that motivate customers to make additional purchases and share their positive experiences with others.
2. Adding value for customers
Digital accessibility is perhaps the most important business trend of our time, and mobile applications fit perfectly into that mix.
Mobile apps make it incredibly easy for customers to make purchases, even while on the move. According to Insider Intelligence, 61% of U.S. adults view mobile commerce as a necessity for convenience, showing that smartphone users are increasingly relying on mobile apps for their shopping needs.
Apps can also provide instant customer service through chatbots, which can address common queries and offer support, saving both time and effort for customers. In addition, mobile apps offer the opportunity to engage customers with push notifications about new products, promotions, and sales. This keeps customers informed and interested in your brand.
When you add all of that together, you will achieve increased customer loyalty that can transform your business into their favorite brand.
Speaking of which, if your company has a loyalty program, you can integrate it into the app. Traditional loyalty programs are not convenient because they typically require the customer to enter the store with a punch card.
What happens if they visit your store without the punch card? At best, they leave a bit disappointed. At worst, they leave unhappy and upset.
Creating a mobile application eliminates that unfortunate scenario from the equation because, while a customer might forget to bring a punch card to your store, they rarely forget to bring their smartphone anywhere.
Mobile apps also provide customers with 24/7 access to your business and its various programs.
3. Increasing customer engagement
You have several options to enhance customer engagement with your business. Email marketing and social media are tried and true methods, but neither of these mediums is as personal or direct as push notifications.
Whenever your business has a special mobile app offer that you know your customers will love, you can schedule a push notification to alert them on their devices.
An example of a special offer is a limited-time discount on a popular product. The notification could say something like:“ We have an exclusive offer just for you!” Save 20% on our best-selling product for the next 24 hours.
In fact, mobile apps tend to drive better engagement and have conversion rates around 100-300% higher than those of desktop web viewing and mobile-optimized websites. This type of notification can be a great way to drive sales and reward repeat customers.
You can also set up automations that prompt customers to leave reviews or ratings whenever they make in-app purchases of your products and services. This feedback can help you optimize your services and product offerings and provide social proof to potential customers.
Having an app for your business also helps you deliver a more controlled and complete brand experience to the app’s users.
A business website technically already showcases your brand on your users’ screens, but it requires users to open their browsers and search for your business. This risks losing potential users to a competitor, especially if that competitor provides the convenience of an app.
On the other hand, business apps provide your customers with a portal that directs them straight to your storefront, allowing distraction-free browsing since users are restricted to viewing one app at a time.
4. Better customer service
According to Salesforce data, 88% of consumers agreed that a positive customer service experience increases their likelihood of making another purchase.
We all know that customer service is critical to business success, and one of the most important aspects of customer service is respecting the customer’s time by responding to their inquiries quickly.
With the right mobile app development, your business should be able to provide all kinds of useful customer service features such as in-app messaging, call and call-back buttons, easy directions to your stores, RSVP capabilities, and customer feedback options.
Mobile apps can also offer self-service options, such as FAQs, tutorials, and videos, which enable customers to quickly find answers to their questions. By providing solutions to customers, companies can effectively reduce the workload for their customer service representatives and improve the quality of customer service.
5. Enhancing your product or service
One revolutionary aspect about the rise of online stores was that it gave everyone, from enterprise businesses to mom-and-pop shops, a treasure trove of website analytic data about their customers. This could be used to help drive engagement and conversions.
In that same way, large and small businesses can acquire even more data about their users with mobile applications. For instance, with mobile apps, you can access a user’s location if they enable location sharing with your app, which is something you can’t do with a website.
By analyzing customer location data, you can identify patterns and trends that can help you make more informed decisions about improving your product or service. For example, you might discover that customers in a certain area are more likely to use certain product features or have different preferences regarding pricing or packaging.
On top of the feedback users typically leave for you on the application (complaints, comments, reviews), you can analyze behavioral data. This might include what users search for most often, which FAQs they consume the most, and how long they stay on different pages within the app.
If analyzed properly, this information can lead to insights you can leverage to level up the user experience (UX), strategize ad campaigns, and create better products.
The future is mobile
There are reasons that big and small brands alike used to do whatever they could to get their stores into shopping malls and other high-traffic spots: money flows wherever the customer goes.
However, the golden age of malls has faded; online stores saw to that. But now the cycle is repeating, and mobile apps are disrupting e-commerce sites.
According to Statista, more than 57% of internet users’ online activities are carried out on mobile devices rather than computers.
This point alone makes it worth considering the potential benefits a mobile app could bring to your company. And if that’s not enough, remember that many of your competitors are already putting time and money into developing their own mobile applications.
By investing in mobile apps, you pave the way for better brand experiences and, in turn, happier customers.
Ready to build a mobile app for your business? Hire a mobile developer on Upwork today. Gone are the days when mobile apps were reserved for large corporations or entities. Building a professional app for your business is easier and less expensive than ever.
