Does your business have a mobile application? If not, you’re missing out on so many opportunities to grow your brand and increase your client base.
There are a wide range of advantages of having a mobile app in business, from increases in sales to greater website traffic.
With strategy and planning up front, a mobile app can take your business to the next level and help you get ahead of your competition.
In this article, we’ll break down ten different reasons why businesses need mobile apps and how to get a mobile app for your business.
Table of Contents
#1 Engage Your Customers
The average person spends over four hours a day on their mobile device, according to multiple studies and research efforts from various sources, including Nielsen, Pew Research Center, SmartInsights, and more.
For this reason, you want to ensure that your customers have easy access to your business on these devices, and the best way to give them this is through a mobile app.
If you make your business easily accessible to consumers, they will be more likely to engage with you and your content.
Another key to engaging your customers is making sure that the actual content within your app is engaging.
The applications that are the most successful today are those that help users achieve some sort of service or assistance with greater ease than they could without use of the app.
Try to think of a way to simplify one of your common business processes and allow users to complete it within your mobile app, whether it is placing an order or submitting a request.
#2 Increase Your Brand Awareness
Another reason why your business needs a mobile app is brand awareness, it’s essential to growing your business, and having an application is a great way to make your company accessible and known to customers.
Make sure you create an app that is brand-focused and centered around your company’s specific branding strategy.
This way, as consumers interact more with your app, recognition for your brand will increase.
In order to make your mobile app centered upon your specific branding strategy, pay special attention to detail during the design process
Use color and other design elements to your advantage by remaining true to the brand throughout.
#3 Generate Customer Loyalty
Another reason why businesses need mobile apps is to create customer loyalty, essential when it comes to long-term growth and success for your business.
A great way to begin building customer loyalty is through a loyalty program that you can initiate through a mobile app.
This program needs to be something that incentivizes people to continue to return and do business with your company.
For example, Starbucks utilizes a loyalty program where users earn stars with each purchase they make using their app, leading to an eventual free drink of their choice.
However, it is important to note that you do not necessarily have to have a loyalty program to grow your customer loyalty.
At the end of the day, loyalty is generated through repeated satisfaction and sincere interactions with your brand.
If your app is fulfilling a need and working well for consumers, they will become loyal to your business over time.
Although a loyalty program may be helpful here, a strong mobile application with a well-crafted user experience can build loyalty on its own, this is also why your business needs a mobile app.
#4 Build Your Audience with Valuable Content
If you really want to widen your audience and attract new users to your app, you need to provide content that holds some value for consumers.
The best way to generate valuable content is to ask yourself what your customers’ greatest needs are.
If you are able to create an application that fills a need people have or gives them information unavailable anywhere else, you may be able to widen your audience.
A great way to increase downloads and drive an audience to your mobile app is by incentivizing users with company-specific content that they cannot find anywhere else.
Whether this is an article that you make specific to your application, or a sale that customers can only partake in through an in-app purchase, make something exclusive to your mobile app.
The exclusivity will make your content more valuable, driving more people to download and use your app.
#5 Improve Sales
As a general rule, customer satisfaction will help to increase sales. In order to grow customer satisfaction, make sure that your mobile app leaves users feeling content with their time on the app or service they received.
Knowing how to get a mobile app for your business that can adapt to any device can make a huge difference in your sales.
Another way to increase sales through your mobile app is by creating a company store within the app.
Being able to make purchases within the application saves consumers the time of going to your website and through the entire checkout process there.
Instead, you can create a simplified checkout process within the application, which will likely drive sales just because of the ease of purchase.
#6 Create a Direct Marketing Tool
A mobile application can be extremely valuable to your business if you use it as a direct marketing tool.
A company-specific mobile app gives you a lot of power to push special sales and promotions right at customers’ fingertips.
You can make sales specific to the application, so that people are driven to use your application, or you can simply use the application as a tool to promote your special offers. Use mobile push and in-app notifications to your advantage, so that you can keep users engaged as much as possible.
Also, pay special attention to the descriptions and reviews that you choose to feature on your app, as these can give your app an edge as a marketing tool.
Your mobile app should be a place where users develop a positive perception of your brand, through your in-app content and marketing efforts.
#7 Drive Traffic to Your Website
Something very important to recognize is that a mobile app provides a direct connection back to your website.
If done right, your app can complement your website by providing a more personal experience that still connects back to the site.
If this connection is strong, you can drive lots of traffic to your website through your mobile app.
A mobile app is also very important to keeping users focused on your company and products. When customers are browsing the web looking for products, they experience a lot of noise and can be distracted by other companies’ offerings or advertisements.
However, a company-specific mobile app completely reduces that noise, because the app is solely focused on your brand and products.
#8 Connect to Social Media
If you strategize properly, you can use your mobile app to connect back to your social media platforms.
If you link back to your social media pages, users will likely be driven to those pages and potentially engage with your content on social media.
Be smart about how you integrate links back to social media within your application, and watch your social media impressions skyrocket.
Also, you can incorporate social media by encouraging users to share something on their social media pages, whether that is a review or link to your site.
The additional exposure for your brand is another reason why your business needs a mobile app.
#9 Gather Meaningful Analytics
Technology makes it so much easier to collect data, so why not have your mobile app collect analytics for you.
If you put in some work up front and develop a strategy for collecting data, you can generate some valuable insights from your mobile app.
A mobile app can help you track downloads, user engagement, and products that users show interest in, among other things.
Over time, if you track these metrics, you can use your data to develop a better digital strategy, which can be extremely beneficial for your company.
#10 Maintain Your Competitive Advantage
If no other reason has convinced you that your business needs a mobile app, this one should do it alone. In this day in age, every business needs a mobile app.
All of your competitors likely already have a mobile app or have one in the works.
Although this may depend on your industry, if there is a need for a mobile app, you need to create one or you will get left behind your competition.
In addition, if you are able to get creative with your application, you can take a giant leap ahead of your competition.
Especially if you’re in a field where not a lot of businesses have a mobile app, developing one may just be the thing that sets you apart from your competition.
Conclusion
In summary, having a mobile app for your business is absolutely necessary in the technology-driven world we live in today.
Without a mobile app, your business is missing out on so many advantages and opportunities for growth.
Although developing a mobile app may take a little work up front, it will be worth it in the long run and you should gather a few Mobile App RFP‘s from trusted mobile app development companies.
If you would like to request a Mobile App RFP from our team, please click here.
You will be able to watch your engagement, sales, and loyalty increase as your mobile app works its magic.
For these reasons, your company simply must have a mobile app to compete in the business world today.
