This week we have a guest blog from Tom Hookham at our mobile apps partner, ABC Apps:
Does my business need a mobile app?
With digital marketing tactic and technology developing rapidly, this is a question a lot of businesses need to think about sooner rather than later.
An easier question is; does your business need to stand out from its competitors and offer something they don’t?Although the answer is obvious, many businesses don’t have a plan to do this. Could a mobile app be a way to achieve this? Absolutely.
There are many ways of interacting with your customers; your website and social media through to newsletters and emails. Each has their strengths and weaknesses and my friends at Emerald Frog will say you need to embrace them all as an integrated approach and as part of an overall marketing strategy.
Where mobile apps do differ from other marketing channels is that apps are still relatively new to small and medium sized businesses. They still have their sparkle and are still on trend and cool. Tell someone your business has an app and you get reactions of surprise, excitement and interest. You just don’t get that with a website anymore.
Sure there are over a million apps available on the App Store; you’d be surprised how many have a sole purpose of throwing some rather annoyed birds at pigs in poorly constructed shelters. Business apps, that increase your brand awareness or allow customers to engage or buy from you in a new an innovative way, are on the increase too.
There’s a window of opportunity for businesses to get ahead of their competitors by offering something that’s not only different, but actually improves the way in which they connect and work with their customers.
By no means is an app a gimmick, the corporate giants have proved that these are powerful tools that drive new business and improve customer satisfaction. This fuels the demand from customers for apps and creates a need for every business to raise its game.
The investment they’ve made into mobile technology and in particular apps is huge. It’s no surprise though with projections that smartphones will account for 85% of mobile phones by 2019 on which 89% of media is currently viewed through apps.
With the cost of having your own business app only now becoming affordable to smaller businesses, the opportunity to stand out from your competition and increase revenue by offering an app should be considered as part of your marketing strategy. I believe that in a few years time almost all businesses small and large will have their own app to compliment their website as more and more business is performed though mobile devices. The majority of digital marketing experts agree.
The question to answer today is will you be one of the first? Will you lead the way or will your competitors?
For more information on mobile app development, contact Emerald Frog Marketing.
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