Why you should consider a mobile app for your business:
As a business owner, you’re always looking for new ways to retain customers and provide a better experience to improve your brand’s reputation. An innovative way to add to your sales, attract more clients, enhance the customer experience, and improve your brand awareness is through a mobile app.
Investing in a mobile app has its risks and there are things you need to consider to see if that’s the best fit for your business. In this blog post, I’m going over 7 reasons why you should consider a mobile app for your business.
We’ll also discuss whether your business would benefit from investing in a mobile app. Without further discussion, reason numero uno:
1. Grow your sales
Having an application can help sales growth by putting your app at the front of your customer’s mind. Mobile payments are getting more and more popular and the convenience of using an app to make a purchase will continue to be the preferred payment method.
The pandemic has made online shopping even more popular as people are preferring to stay home and shop while enjoying some coffee rather than venture into the jungle that is the mall. A trend that was growing even before the pandemic.
You can offer promotions, discounts, and coupons through push notifications via your mobile app as well to encourage customers to visit your app and buy your products or services. Anytime you can add a convenient and easy way to reach your customers, it’s a plus.
2. Personalized marketing channel and increased customer engagement
70 percent of people now expect some form of personalized marketing from their favorite businesses. A mobile application can help your business do exactly this! An example is utilizing push notifications and personalizing offers based on recent purchases.
As a business you can also leverage the customer’s location to further personalize the push notifications. You are also establishing trust with your customers as they can easily stay up to date with what is going on with your business. It also provides them a 24/7 resource to find information they need from your business without going to a web address.
This can be great for businesses that offer services like personal trainers, psychologists, nutritionists, restaurant owners, and beauty salons.
3. Improve your business flow and communication
The benefits of a mobile application aren’t just for your clients and/or customers. It can also be great for your employees and for communicating company news and information amongst your staff.
It can be easier for management to make the employee schedule and be an easy place for employees to communicate with management. This could be the way you schedule meetings, onboard new employees, and also exchange files and data.
Creating an easy to use system for your employees and team can improve communication, increase productivity, establish effective systems, and make your business more efficient.
4. Convenience for your clients/customers
The best businesses make the lives of their customers/clients as easy as possible. A mobile app can do just that! Think about how easy it would be for your client to reserve a table for dinner, book a beauty appointment, schedule a personal training session, and have access to their profile information and buying history at your store.
This will be remembered by your clients when they’re thinking about your service. Making it easy for them to book services or buy products from you will go a long way in gaining their trust.
You will also have the added advantage of being able to send push notifications to your clients reminding them of their appointments, what’s in their cart, or their planned workout schedule for the day.
Making the lives easy for your clients is key to the success of your business.
5. Get a leg up on your competition
Creating a mobile app for your business is a risk and one that should be calculated. However, if you do create the app then you will have an advantage over your competitors.
Some businesses still haven’t invested in their websites let alone have taken the plunge into a mobile app. The benefits of spreading your brand awareness and providing convenience to your customers can separate you from the pack.
Your clients will remember and acknowledge the effort you made by utilizing your services. Of course, spreading your branding and working your marketing angles will continue to push your company forward. Taking the risk is worth the investment in the long term. This rings especially true as people have gotten more and more used to buying products and scheduling services from their phone.
6. Create client/customer loyalty
We touched earlier on the ability to offer personalized marketing to your customers. However, it deserves its own section. Your customers appreciate convenience and hard work. If you’re putting in the effort to make their lives easier they will return the favor with loyalty.
You can create loyalty programs as part of your marketing strategy and utilizing your mobile app is a great way to do so. Push notifications are an excellent way to reward customers by customizing specific offers for them and sending them a notification on their phone.
This has been a strategy that has historically worked very well whether it be through store credit cards, restaurant freebies, etc. You can do even more with your mobile application and know for certain that your target customer will have access to it and be more likely to buy from you.
In addition, it provides invaluable data and feedback in understanding your customer behavior and what reward programs are and aren’t working. This gives you a great advantage in your long term marketing strategy.
7. The king of consumer behavior is mobile
The average amount of time spent on a mobile phone is around 3 hours a day. Yes, you heard that right, or shall I say read that right. 3 hours a day! 90 percent of that time is spent using apps!
Of those numbers, 79 percent have made a purchase from their smartphone within the last 6 months. Having a mobile app will give your company a chance to be opened during the day by a customer solely out of boredom. Pretty cool way to raise brand awareness.
Does your business need an application???
All the above reasons sound great, but how much would your specific business benefit from them? It’s important to know that not every business will need a mobile app.
These industries will see the most benefit from having a mobile app:
- Restaurants/Bars: You can use it for reservations, ordering for pickup/delivery without the third party fees, and also pushing promotions
- Personal Trainers/Gyms: Schedule workouts, book classes, track your progress, reviews, and push notifications for promotions or deals
- Beauty Services: Prices, services offered, booking appointments, push deals and promotions
- Health/Wellness: Book appointments, consultations, review documents, access to personalized plans
- Tourism: Search for trips, make reservations, maps, itineraries, and push notifications for deals
- Service industries in general: Can provide easy access for clients to book appointments, push promotions, and have client specific information
Any of the above industries will see the biggest benefit of having a mobile app. Service industries in specific should see the most benefit as it creates an ease of use for clients to book appointments and get access to customer-specific information.
Also, every business would benefit from creating an in-house mobile app as well to improve communication amongst employees and allow easier on-boarding process for new employees.
Conclusion
Mobile apps continue to get more and more popular with businesses as the desire for mobile payments continues to grow. About 42% of small businesses currently have an app with 30% stating they have plans for one in the future.
26% of business owners that have an app say mobile payments are the most beneficial feature. 55% of business owners that have an app are millennials showing more trust and reliance on technology to solve their problems.
Each business is different and you should evaluate your goals and see if a mobile app is best for your business. The investment can often be worth the risk as you can increase customer loyalty, have more brand awareness, and streamline payments 24/7 without having to use labor.
Have any questions about a mobile app? Contact CheshTech for more info and I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have!
