3 Ways Mobile Apps Can Boost Your Business
With the advent of smartphone technology, consumers are on their phones more and more. According to a recent Pew Research study, 96 percent of Americans own a cellphone and 81 percent own a smartphone, meaning that a staggering amount of customers are on their devices each and every day. If you are in the app development or phone market, these statistics are music to your ears. But what if you’re in a different industry and are still interested in using mobile technologies to help your business? Developing a mobile app that complements your business is one way to take advantage of the smartphone revolution. Here are three ways that mobile apps can boost your business.
Mobile apps help market your business
One of the best things about mobile apps, according to mobile app developers themselves, is that they help you market your business. Even better, they help you market your company to customers or potential customers who are interested enough in your brand to have opted in by downloading your app. Think of this as a different way of approaching inbound or permission-based marketing. The leads that you have from your mobile app represent a specific demographic of customers and are thus a great resource to market your business. With the simplicity of push notifications, you can reach customers at any time, even when they are in a geofence near your business. Fast food giant Burger King used this type of technology to great effect when they launched a coupon that could only be claimed at McDonald’s, effectively stealing customers who would have purchased from a major rival.
Mobile apps are customer-centric
As you can tell from the previous point, one major benefit of mobile apps is that they are customer-centric. This is because they meet customers where they are: on their devices. This can be a great way to attract more customers, as well as improve the customer service experience. Many apps offer AI customer support so that the customer can receive feedback or access a knowledge base 24/7. Mobile apps can also help the customer service experience by streamlining communications, because using a smartphone app may be easier or more convenient for a customer than finding time or a spot away from work to make a phone call to a traditional support line. Studies show that a third of customers whose needs are not met by positive customer service are likely to switch to another company. Harnessing the power of mobile technologies can help you mitigate these kinds of problems by addressing customers’ needs immediately, ultimately translating to a higher customer retention rate.
Mobile apps help extend your brand
One final vital benefit of creating a mobile app for your business is how it helps you extend your brand. Think of how many times somebody is likely to Google the phrase “cell phone repair near me” when they’re searching for a phone repair shop. This search phrase likely brings up dozens of competitors spending advertising money on traditional display ads. If you had developed an app with GPS-enabled location services, however, your potential customer could just open your app and determine where your closest store was to them, bypassing the possibility that they would also see a list of your competitors. This extension of your brand is huge, because if your app is within easy reach, customers are more likely to select your business over another’s.
As you can tell, mobile apps provide many benefits to business owners who think creatively about how to best use them. From push notification advertising to targeted location-based features, mobile apps can help you attract new customers and retain them longer. If you’re serious about getting into the app market, reach out to a mobile app developer to see what possibilities might exist for your company. You may be surprised at the powerful solutions mobile apps offer your company.
