Mobile Madness: How Developing an App Can Amplify Your Business

If you want to take your business to the next level, start by asking yourself how accessible you are to your target demographic. Whether you’re selling a product or simply blogging, you won’t get anywhere without the right tools for success. Whether you’re a multinational corporation or a five-person startup, having a mobile app will take you from an 8 on the accessibility scale to a 10. This means that you can reach more people and build up a loyal base of customers, clients, or fans.

While you may think being at an 8 on our hypothetical scale is great and will get you far, if you settle, you’ll sink into a plateau instead of going above and beyond. Creating a customized mobile app is a way to do just that—go above and beyond what your competition is doing. This gives you an advantage in a crowded and competitive marketplace.

The Benefits of Developing an App

Almost all of us have a mobile device at our fingertips, and they aren’t just for making phone calls anymore. In fact, most mobile users hate making phone calls! Instead, they use SMS or various messaging and social media apps to keep in touch. There are apps for everything you can imagine, from productivity apps to some of the silliest games you can imagine. There’s even a virtual “crane” game where you can win prizes by controlling a real crane in Japan via your phone. So why has it taken you so long to develop an app for your business?

Billboards along the highway are a marketing tactic of the past, and mobile is quickly becoming the future of advertising and marketing. You may feel like you don’t need a mobile app, and the upfront costs of application development might seem pretty intimidating.  But the fact is, you’ll make that money back within as little as a few months, depending on how fast-paced your business is. The benefits of developing a mobile app to amplify your business are immediate. If you need a bit more convincing, here are four advantages.

1. Apps Give Customers a Better Value

The core idea of any business is to provide customers with your product in exchange for monetary value. No matter what product or service you’re selling, it isn’t necessarily a one-time deal. Customer loyalty is valuable. When someone purchases a product or service from your business, you should keep in contact with them following their purchase, whether your business with them is continuous or not. Instead of targeting only potential future customers, you want to target past customers as well. In doing so, you can double your conversions and make a significant profit. A mobile app can help you foster this kind of ongoing engagement with your existing customers.

You may be wondering how to do this, and it’s simple: you’ll want to develop a plan for a loyalty program and incorporate it into your app. The more points your customers rack up while using your app, the more they are rewarded. Whether the rewards are discounts towards your products, a free month of your service, or other prizes or incentives, there are many appealing rewards that you can offer to your customers. Giving discounts and deals ONLY to those who use your app is a great way to get more people to take the time to download it. After all, who doesn’t love free stuff?

If you’re a company with a physical location, you may want to incorporate an “automatic pay” feature within your app. This lets current customers easily and quickly purchase from your store, giving you an edge over your competitors. The digital world is all about how fast people can conduct business; when you make it easier for people to buy from you, they can spend more time doing the things they love. By offering discounts or letting them skip waiting in line to pay, your mobile app can offer real value to your customers.

2. Improve the Image of Your Brand

Developing a custom app isn’t just about making your brand more accessible to customers. It also cultivates brand awareness and strengthens your company’s carefully crafted brand image. A mobile app can boost awareness by making your business accessible, as well as by injecting some appealing personality. This is a fantastic way to garner conversions and promote what you stand for.

Having a mobile application for your business strengthens the bond and creates trust between you and customers. It lends you a sense of legitimacy as well, because how many scam websites have their own corresponding app? Your app makes it clear that you’ve gone above and beyond to make yourself more accessible to customers.

Mobile apps also subconsciously educate those who are using the application. If they’ve become interested in hearing more about your brand on a whim, while they’re out for coffee or waiting in line, they can to do so by simply hitting the “download” button in the app store. Then they can see what your brand is about first-hand.

3. Make Better Connections with Consumers

Mobile apps provide a fast, convenient, accessible way for you to connect with your customers. No matter where your customer is or what time it is, if they’re thinking of your brand and want to know information they can log into your app. Your potential consumers don’t have to wait until business hours to learn more; with their mobile device and your app in hand they always have the up-to-the-minute information they need. This convenience can go a long way toward driving conversions and creating brand loyalty.

 4. Increase Conversions and Profits

The bottom line of any business is profit, and having a mobile app of your own can certainly help you make more sales. Mobile apps will help you not only enhance the image of your brand but also create brand awareness, which can ultimately lead to more sales and more profits. By incorporating a mobile app into your marketing strategy, you’ll be able to make your products more accessible as well as improve the ability to purchase. With the tap of a fingertip on a smartphone screen, consumers can purchase your products or services without having to find an actual computer (let alone actually drive to your store). Convenience can make a big difference in consumer decisions.

A responsive mobile app can also tap directly into the emotions of a consumer. This requires that you provide a seamless and non-frustrating user experience. If you succeed in doing so, the customer subconsciously feels that they’re being very well treated. The emotions of your consumer when they open your app directly relate to the conversion rates. If you make them feel content, they’ll want to keep coming back to your app.

A study conducted by SalesForce backs up this claim, finding that 70% of consumer experiences with purchasing are influenced heavily by how they feel a business is treating them. Without even talking to a real human employee, customers can come to a conclusion about whether they’re going to purchase from you or not.

Long-Term Reliability of an App

For those who don’t believe that developing an app will pay off for them, we’ve gathered some data from the technology wizards at TechCrunch to further back up the benefits. Last year, more than 34% of Black Friday sales were completed on a mobile device. While this may not seem like a large percentage to some (although we don’t know how!), that 34% made up more than $4.4 billion in sales. It’s also important to mention that the most popular form of mobile device during this hectic holiday time was a smartphone, not a tablet at home.

These numbers are large for the holiday season, but can you imagine how much you’d make by incorporating an app year round for your business? This is especially true for businesses that can provide a conversion path that promises a discount. One of the reasons why holiday season spending is so high, other than cultural precedent, is that sales and discounts abound. People feel like they’re getting a limited-time deal and want to take advantage of it. The real-life data from TechCrunch proves that giving deals out on a mobile app is a successful marketing tactic.

Many people surf the web almost exclusively on their smartphones. If your website isn’t responsive to mobile users, it’s important to either implement a mobile website or develop an app. This greatly expands your ability to reach all types of potential consumers and drive up your sales even further. According to Pew Research, 19% of people in the United States do not own a desktop or laptop computer with internet access. However, many of these people still have a cell phone. Phones are crucial for contacting jobs, family, and friends, and for many this takes precedence over owning a computer. With internet service provider rates rising, it’s becoming increasingly more expensive to own both a smartphone with internet access and maintain internet access on an actual computer.