As of 2021, there are over seven billion mobile users worldwide, and that number continues to increase year after year.
This big of an audience is impossible to ignore for any business. But in order to get in front of a mobile audience, you need to cater to its needs and provide a convenient experience. One part of that is having a responsive website, but that doesn’t offer as much convenience and sales opportunities as developing a mobile app.
And today, when figuring out how to make an app is easier than ever before, even small businesses have no excuse for not providing a better experience to their mobile audiences.
But why should you develop an app in the first place? And how can it help enhance your business performance? Let’s explore some of the key reasons why it makes sense below. But first, let’s look at how simple developing an app really is.
Building an App: Is It Realistic for SMBs?
Most businesses would not mind having an app where they can promote products and engage their audience. But for smaller companies, the expenses of building a mobile app can seem overwhelming, even if they’re not entirely sure how much the project could cost.
And the truth is, the cost of an app can balloon to tens of thousands of dollars, especially if you hire a team of developers, want to add advanced custom features, and invest many resources in testing and refining an app until it is released.
But today, most of those steps are not necessary. Or, at the very least, they can be simplified and adapted to fit almost any budget.
With the help of app builder solutions, even one-person businesses can now have a beautiful-looking app with unique branding and a convenient user experience. What’s more, you can also add custom features that enhance the app’s capabilities, including shopping, chat, and even an online community.
Top Benefits of Having a Mobile App
Now that we’ve established that a business app is accessible to companies of all sizes, let’s look at some of the biggest benefits it can offer.
Improve the Customer Experience
When you only have a website, you have limited options to provide a seamless and immersive experience to your mobile audiences.
Meanwhile, if you have a mobile app, you can leverage the fact that they are designed for smaller screens and will be much more convenient to use. What’s more, apps allow you to add various customized features that would be much more difficult to implement through web design.
Making a purchase, talking to support, leaving feedback, or simply exploring products can be made much more convenient on the app, and you can also add various visualizations that make using the app more appealing.
Build Loyalty
Another big advantage of using an app is developing stronger relationships with your audience and building brand loyalty in the process. After all, when someone downloads an app to their phone, that’s a much bigger commitment than merely visiting a website, which will make the user much more willing to engage with your brand in the future.
And since an app can offer a variety of powerful features, your customers are much more likely to return to it more often, which can result in more sales or at least more engagement with your brand.
Apps also have the possibility of push notifications, which can inform users of promotions, new product releases, and other important news that they might care about.
Gain Useful Insights
Another reason why apps are so useful is that they can provide you with countless insights about the preferences and behaviors of your audience. Apps are an ideal tool for running A/B tests and tracking user behavior, which can help you understand what they like the most and notice any areas that you may need to work on.
Having this information can also enable you to provide a more personalized experience, showing more relevant offers to each user and ensuring that they get the most frictionless experience when using your app.
You can also allow users to customize their own experience, giving them different options for what they’d like to see and what they’re interested in. If your app uses geo-information to provide content, that can also help enhance the experience and make using your services more convenient.
Increase Brand Presence
The majority of people spend around five hours on their smartphones every day. And that means that if you have an app, some of that time can be spent browsing your product, interacting with your company, and getting to know more about what you have to offer.
An app is much easier to keep on your customers’ minds than a website since they constantly see it when using their phone. And if you can also get them to enable push notifications, you can have a constant reminder that nudges them to return and check out what’s new.
Over time, having an app can form stronger associations with your brand, making it more trustworthy and memorable in the minds of your audience, which can be immensely helpful for customer retention.
For growing companies, retaining current customers can be even more vital than attracting new ones. As you increase your customer lifetime value, you can become more aggressive in pursuing new opportunities, which can propel your business growth.
Use More Channels
Staying ahead of the competition is tough. That’s especially true online, where you’re competing with hundreds of companies all around the world.
Having an app can be helpful merely because it gives you an additional channel to engage and sell to your audience. When a person downloads your app, that gives you an instant advantage over the competition, as you can now engage them consistently and familiarize them with your brand and products.
You can also use the app to promote your other channels, such as your social media accounts or website, which can lead to more engagement and more sales as well.
Conclusion
Developing an app can be one of the best decisions for your business. It can provide a new avenue for promoting your company, increase your brand presence, create a better customer experience, and drive more sales in the process.
Nowadays, developing an app is no longer limited to large organizations that can spend tens of thousands of dollars. Instead, even one-person businesses can create apps that their customers will love.
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