These days, almost every business could benefit from building a mobile app. Though they’re often one of the last things a business thinks about when it comes to digital marketing, mobile apps are effective in many ways and help small businesses accomplish many different goals.
Why You Should Consider Building a Mobile App for Your Business
Robyn Rivera
6 Reasons Your Business Needs a Mobile App
#1. It allows you to directly connect with your audience.
From direct messaging on Facebook to email marketing, there are a lot of ways that you can make direct connections with your audience these days, but no other channel is more effective than a mobile app.
With a mobile app, your users don’t have to open Safari or Chrome and go online to find your business, which requires them to first think about your business. Instead, they can click an app that’s visible directly from their smartphone’s desktop. Mobile apps shorten the sales funnel, giving your audience a more straightforward way to find you.
#2. It gives you a powerful marketing channel.
While it’s true that mobile apps make it quicker and easier for your customers to find you, mobile apps are not a one-way street. They’re also a powerful channel to take advantage of when you want to get the word out about something.
Giving your users the ability to enable push notifications is one of the best things you can do for your mobile app from an engagement standpoint. According to data from Localytics, users who enable push notifications logged an average of 53 percent more sessions than users who didn’t.
Push notifications are so effective because they’re almost impossible to ignore. Even if your users don’t make a purchase with, or otherwise convert, on every push notification, at the very least, they’ll open your app to see what the push notification was about.
#3. It provides value to your customers.
Not only are mobile apps beneficial to businesses in many different ways; they’re also beneficial to your customers. The biggest benefit to your customers is the ease and convenience a mobile app can provide for them.
Here are a few of the tasks made quicker and easier with a mobile app:
- Shopping
- Making purchases
- Scheduling appointments
- Getting questions answered
- Finding information
- Making returns or exchanges
- Leaving feedback
- Signing up for loyalty programs
- Staying up to date on sales and special offers
#4. It makes your brand more visible.
A business’s online success these days depends on many different factors, but at the end of the day, it all boils down to one thing — visibility. Without visibility, it doesn’t matter how great your website is or how strong your social media presence is. And, luckily, increased visibility is one of the key benefits of having a mobile app for your business.
According to the screen time stats from RescueTime, the average smartphone user in the United States spends about three hours and 15 minutes a day on their smartphone, with the top 20 percent of users spending as much as four and a half hours per day. RescueTime also found that users pick up their smartphones an average of 58 times per day.
Even apps that are placed in folders are easy to spot from a smartphone desktop, which means that each one of those 58 times someone looks at their smartphone, they have the potential to see your app. That’s a lot of visibility for your brand.
#5. It helps you build a more loyal following.
Increasing customer loyalty is one of the most effective ways to increase your bottom line and get a bigger return on your marketing investment. Let’s face it, attracting new customers and ushering them through the sales funnel can be pricey and time-consuming. On the other hand, encouraging existing customers to make another purchase or schedule another appointment is affordable and much more effective.
When people think about increasing customer loyalty, they often think about nurture campaigns through email and SMS marketing. However, mobile apps are another great way to build a more loyal following.
One way you can use your mobile app to increase customer loyalty is by implementing a loyalty program on your app. With a mobile app, customers won’t have to keep track of a loyalty card or a tracker with hole punches or stickers. Apps can also make it fast and easy to enroll in loyalty programs and understand the benefits.
#6. It can help to boost your revenue.
Are you looking for a great way to give your bottom line a boost? If so, you should absolutely consider a mobile app for your business.
A big part of the reason why mobile apps are so effective as a sales tool is the increased visibility they provide, which I discussed in my fourth point. With an app, your users can be directly notified about sales and promotions without all of the clutter and competition that comes with other forms of digital marketing, like search ads or social media ads.
Another thing that makes mobile apps effective is the accessibility they provide your users. A mobile app gives your customers one more avenue they can use to make purchases, put in orders, or schedule services — allowing them to pick an option that’s most convenient for them. They also allow users to create accounts that they can stay signed into, making the checkout process even quicker and easier.
While having a mobile app could certainly be a great thing for your business, it doesn’t erase the need for a professional, attractive, user-friendly business website.
Mobile app or not, your website is your small business’s main hub online, and it needs to be up to par. These days, that means that it needs to be mobile-friendly, fast, and easy to navigate, and that’s exactly the kind of website the Websites 360® website builder makes it easy to build, even without knowing a single line of code.
Building your own website with Websites 360 starts by picking a beautiful design template. Get started today.