Having a branded app is no longer something that’s reserved for big industry players. In fact, studies show that customers expect innovation, even from small to medium-sized businesses – and apps are generally found to be at the top of their wishlist.
It’s not just customers that benefit from apps though. Here, we’ll walk you through 5 of the major benefits you’ll find if you develop your own app – as well as exploring ways to ensure you’re picking the right kind of company to help you develop your new application.
1. Improve your Visibility
It’s useful to think about an app as being the ultimate bookmark – a reminder that’ll sit on your customer’s phone or device at all times. The importance of this can’t be understated – where a browser requires some effort to deliver a customer to your site, an app doesn’t – one touch and they’re with you, straight from their homepage.
With this in mind, it’s clear that an app puts you in front of your customers in a far more prominent way than your website ever could – but this delivers results that go way beyond just time spent enjoying your app or looking at your products.
Studies show that mobile users don’t even need to be using your app for you to see benefits. From a psychological point of view, customers will view your business as being more trustworthy, simply if you’re on their phone – and that drives referral business – and visibility in app stores.
Also Read: How to Build a Relationship with Customers for an Online Business?
2. Customers Love Unique Features
Apps give you an opportunity to develop new ways of engaging with your clients, even if they don’t know they want that engagement!
In truth, the world wasn’t calling out for Facebook, JustEat, or Uber until they showed up and started marketing their services – so don’t assume that you have to fill a current need for customers to buy into what you’re doing. Instead, look at innovating – and, if customers enjoy the unique features that you bring to the table, you can expect to see your app fly. In return, you get to enjoy the businesses benefits that come with having your app on thousands (if not millions) of customer devices.
3. A Direct Marketing Channel
Although it’s not something that’s talked about widely, an app gives you a direct channel to your customers; and it’s the kind of targeted marketing that’s worth its weight in gold.
Generally speaking, apps you download will require access to push notifications – system messages, attributed to your app, that pop up on your customer’s devices – with no need for them to open an SMS or email. The thing is, people, love picking up their phones (we do it an estimated 100 times per day!) – and upon hearing that chime or beep the tells us we’ve got a notification, we get a dopamine hit that’s comparable to winning a prize.
Customers love to get notifications – and, you’ve now got a direct way of giving them what they want. Time to employ the services of a good direct response copywriter and start dreaming up offers that your customer base won’t be able to say no to.
Also Read: Hyperlocal Business Model
4. Encourage Repeat Business
Some of the best applications turn the interaction into a game. Sure, this is the case with many mobile games – but there are also a world of shopping and social media applications that offer incentives for frequent opens/log-ins.
In truth, the top of any sales funnel revolves around customer interaction – so, the more you can encourage your customers to look at your app, the more meaningful interactions you’re likely to get when it comes to ordering your products, services, or generally interacting with your brand.
Consumer psychology is hard at work here. We love rewards, even if they don’t mean a great deal. In truth, a 10% of voucher might not be worth the time that we’ve invested to get it – but that’s for your customers to decide on – for you, you’ll just need to work on the way of incentivizing interaction.
5. Grow Brand Recognition
If you want your customers to do business with you, you need them to trust you. It’s this very reason that big businesses have such consistent branding – the more customers see you, the more trust they have in you.
Apps can offer enormous help with this. Okay, your customer might not see your logo on every street corner like they might a bank – but they will see it every time they open their phone, which, arguably, is more effective (since we now know they’re likely to be doing that 100+ times per day).
Put your brand in front of people – and trust in your business will grow. Even if they’re not actively using your app or buying your products.
Finding a Good App Development Partner
So, we’ve explored some of the ways that having a branded app will offer value to your customers (and bring more business your way) – but these are benefits that’ll come after you’ve rolled your app out. The question is, how do you find a company that you’ll be able to work with to get your app to market?
The first step is based around defining the project. You’ll want to make sure you’ve got a clear vision for what you’d like your app to do – even if you’ll potentially be building on this with the help of your app development company. There are plenty of companies who’ll put their hand up to help you – so a clear brief will help them understand if they can deliver what you’re looking for.
Also Read: How to Protect Your Online Business?
It’s also worth seeking out a company that understands what you’re doing – and can approach development with your users in mind. This sounds pretty simple – but understanding your specific demographic requires a fair amount of research, so it’s worth seeking out companies that have some experience in the same field as you already.
Ultimately, you’re going to want to be working with a company that considers you a partner – not just a customer. There are plenty of businesses who’ll take your money, develop your app, then hand it over – but with such important business-boosting benefits at stake, it’s vital that you find a company who will carry on working with you – helping you to grow, develop, and improve what you’ve got.