If your business is not optimized for smartphones, you may as well pack up the office now. Recent data from Pew Research indicates that 56 percent of Americans now use smartphones. Presumably that 56 percent also uses mobile apps to stay connected. To stay relevant, your business needs a mobile app to maximize marketing, customer service and a strong social presence. You can do it yourself, or pay someone to do it for you. Either way, the time to start is now.
Maximized Marketing
Marketing focuses on improving the visibility of your business, products, services, and brand. According to the InternetProviders blog, an app is among the best marketing tools a small business owner can use. Customers have instant access to your business 24 hours a day, and you can send push notifications (messages delivered through the app) whenever you want to connect. For example, if you’re promoting a sale, you can alert customers directly. If you have an online store, customers can purchase immediately. This level of access to your customers is unparalleled.
Optimal Customer Service
Customers expect easy and accessible contact whenever communication is needed. Your app gives you a direct line of communication to customers, and customers have a direct line to you. Also, include messaging features in your app. Customers can quickly communicate dissatisfaction, ask for help or share gratitude for an excellent service or product.
Enhanced Social Presence
You should already have a Facebook account for your business, and now you can integrate Facebook with your app. Multiple case studies demonstrate how business engagement increases through Facebook integration. According to the social media giant, TripAdvisor found Facebook users have a 27 percent higher engagement with the travel company. Keep Facebook integration in mind as you build your app. Facebook offers instructions on how to do this on the developer portion of its site: developers.facebook.com.
App Building
Start the app building process by identifying the message you want to convey, understanding your audience, and clearly acknowledging the goals your app will achieve. During this planning stage, target effective marketing, customer service and social network integration. EachScape creates high-end applications and is simply drag-and-drop. It costs up to $2,500 a month. BiznessApps.com creates more basic apps and runs around $59 a month.
Cost depends on how sophisticated you want your app to be and your own capabilities. For most small businesses, a basic app can generally meet your requirements.
Digital Trends
As a business owner, you must remain aware and current with technological and business trends. Business apps are becoming the norm and quickly becoming a standard for any business model. Fortunately, apps are easy enough to create and will begin yielding benefits immediately.
