7 Reasons Why Your Business Should Consider a Mobile App

Have you ever considered building a mobile app for your business? A lot of businesses now are building their own mobile app in order to stay ahead of competition or to simply stay relevant. The biggest motivation could be the fact that users are moving towards mobile at a fast pace. This is especially true in Southeast Asia where access to mobiles devices are cheaper as compared to desktops or laptops. Guided by this, lets dive deeper and look at 7 reasons why you should consider building a mobile app for you business.

 

1. Users are shifting to a mobile-first mindset

According to 2017 comScore Global Mobile Report, mobile accounted for over half of all digital minutes in 13 markets, and over 73% in Malaysia.

Source: https://www.comscore.com/

This trend shows that it is increasingly important for your business to consider building apps as users shift to a mobile-first mindset. Apart from searching for local businesses, users are also using mobile devices to find goods and services that can provide solutions to their problems. This is not to say that desktop is obsolete. Not at all, however, focusing solely on desktop will no longer suffice for your business if you wish to engage customers and generate more sales.

 

2. Add value to users and customers

A mobile app can be considered as an extension of your business that, if done right, will be able to add value to your users and customers. Let’s take MailChimp (MailChimp is a marketing automation platform) as an example. MailChimp users creates marketing campaigns by using MailChimp’s web platform. The web platform offers a variety of functions and users can easily create and edit their campaigns. As an addition, MailChimp also have a mobile app.

Source: http://codest.com.br/email-marketing/

Instead of focusing the “creating and editing” feature, the mobile app allows their users to monitor and overview their marketing campaigns while they are on the move. The mobile app becomes an added value to MailChimp users and creates a seamless experience.

 

3. Enhance communications and engagements

As users move towards mobile, having mobile apps means that your business can enhance your communications and engagements with your customers. Mobile apps can take advantage of the smartphone’s hardware such as sensors and location services. This creates a whole new avenue for you to explore and engage your customers. Imagine an app that utilise the smartphone’s location. As a user approaches your nearby store, the app would trigger a notification along with a promotion and details of that store. This encourages the user to go to that store. The possibilities are endless and businesses can get really creative in finding ways to better engage customers through mobile apps.

Example of location based notification. Source: iTunes

When someone is nearby a store, the app notifies the user with promotions. Source: https://bluedotinnovation.com/technology

 

4. Build up brand and customer loyalty

Many users are performing task and finding solutions through cross-platforms ranging from desktops, smartphones and tablets.

Source: http://www.technobrains.net/mobile-application-development

This makes it important that your business create a seamless experience with your customers in order to build up brand and customer loyalty. Building up a brand and customer loyalty is not easy, but with the right strategy and planning, it can work wonders. One of the ways a mobile app can help is by creating a seamless experience. Users should be able to understand what the app does, and the app should be able to do that task really well. By achieving this, it will become easier for you to retain your existing customers and also make them attract new ones. It’s a contagious cycle!

 

5. Promotional tool for your business

A mobile app can potentially be a good promotional tool for your business, however, it is crucial to do it right.

Domino's Australia have an app specifically for their offers

Source: https://www.dominos.com.au

As the number of mobile apps grow both in the Apple App Store and Google Playstore, it has become increasingly difficult for new apps to stick around. But don’t panic. The number one reason for users to return to an app is through impeccable usability. An app that does one thing really good is better than an app that does many things poorly. With that in mind, it is important that your business think really hard on the purpose of the app and how it can add value to your customers. Once customers keep on coming back to the app, only then the app can be an effective promotional tool as it has become easier for you to market and promote your products and services to them.

 

6. Track useful data and gain valuable insights from users

Having mobile apps means you would have another tool to track your user’s behavior and gain valuable insights that can help you improve your products and services. Since more and more users are turning to mobile devices, your business can gather data and information.

Source: http://www.itexchangeweb.com

The data and information would allow you to generate a better overall view of the problems that your customers are facing and you could in turn, improve your services and products. If your business only concentrate on desktop, you will not have a complete picture and might loose out on big opportunities that could have been discovered from data gathered in your mobile app.

 

7. Additional revenue stream

An app can potentially be an additional revenue stream for your business. One popular business model through app is the usage of “in-app purchases”. This is particularly true with gaming app where players would have to perform transactions within the app in order to obtain certain upgrades or level ups. Another way is through advertising. For example, a media company that generates lots of traffic through their mobile apps are able to offer advertising space and charge premium price.

 

Conclusion

With the mentality shift of mobile-first, it is imperative for you to start thinking of where your users are spending their time. By having a mobile app for your business, you will be able to stay ahead of the competition. Your business can engage users better by providing impeccable value and usability which will then make your brand stand out and create loyal customers. A mobile app will also provide you with data that enables you to learn more about your users. By analysing your user’s data, you can create better services and products to satisfy your customers. Lastly, a mobile app could also become a tool for you to promote your business as well as become a potential revenue stream for your business. Hopefully after reading this, you will have an urge to develop a mobile app for your business! If you don’t know where to start, our team is more than happy to assist.