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Sadly for them and luckily for you, most small business owners do not know how much-untapped opportunity there is in this communication tool. Indeed, even for small companies. And especially for local businesses.
If you’re responsible for selling an SME, you’re probably at least wondering whether your business needs a mobile app or not. You might also think the market is flooded with something like 1.4 million applications each in Google Play and the App Store, so why do you bother?
Or perhaps you’ve already prepared to invest time and resources in building a fantastic mobile website, so your customers are covered whenever they want information about your business. It’s meaningful on the surface. But ask yourself the following questions:
⦁ How often does a customer use your website to take a picture of your product and share it on their social sites?
⦁ If a valued customer walks in your door, does your website tell you?
⦁ Can your website give customers with high social influence special benefits and discounts?
⦁ Will your website push customers with coupons and incentives when they are within your store’s radius?
⦁ Does your website customize regular visitors’ shopping experience?
These are just a few instances of your ios app’s intrinsic marketing value on a mobile website. And the options are virtually endless with in-app features such as biometrics, geolocation, alarms, and cameras. Still, wondering if you need a mobile app for your small business? Then look at the smartphone’s function.
Mobiles became King
If you’re in business, you know that there’s mobile at today’s action — just look at the stats. The average smartphone user since 2008 has gone from spending just a few minutes a day on his device to spending almost three hours a day consuming digital mobile media. For the first time in 2014, mobile usage has topped desktop usage, and this trend is only growing year on year.
Even more important: Almost 90% of the three hours spent each day engaging with mobile device apps— just over 10% focused on mobile websites.
You may want to think again if you’re banking on your mobile website to capture the attention of your customers.
Need more evidence? Google published analysis mapping the road to purchase smartphone consumers across nine verticals in November 2013, including restaurants, leisure, lifestyle, fitness, automobile, and home and garden. The findings were surprising: Using mobile search, just 48 percent of users began their quest, far below the number using a web app.
In fact, on an advertised mobile app, nearly three out of 10 consumers began their path to buy. Consumers have shown a preference for testing goods where there were branded apps — a positive result for businesses planning to launch an app. Marketing firm xAD position finds that:
⦁ 42 percent of smartphone users who shop on-the-go items plan to make a purchase within an hour.
⦁ The store will convert 69 percent of these on-the-go users.
Moreover, since 2013, the number of customers who have quadrupled “showroom,” or research products on their smartphone while in the store.
For mobile marketers, the key takeaways are:
⦁ As consumers move along the path to buy, they are more dependent than ever on their mobile devices.
⦁ Consumers expect information on demand — and the key to conversion is proximity; geolocation services allow businesses to anticipate and meet the needs of their customers.
⦁ The key to capitalizing on impulse shopping is mobile marketing by delivering a highly personalized shopping experience.
But I’ve got a mobile site, why do I need an application?
This is a common issue for small and medium-sized enterprises with limited funds and budgets. What’s great is that mobile marketing with websites and apps isn’t either a proposition or a proposition; a mobile website and a native app work together to achieve your marketing goals and promote your income objectives. Look here at both mobile and mobile apps ‘ features and advantages.
| Mobile Website | Mobile App | |
| Marketing Objective | Attracting new customers | Creating loyal customers |
| Mechanism of Use | Open a browser, enter website URL | Tap an icon on a smartphone screen |
| User Interaction | Customer visits, complete an activity, exits. | Open, two-way and ongoing; push notifications to enable on-demand communication |
| Marketing Advantage | More responsive to search queries (in most cases) | Engagement, loyalty, and ease of use. App “lives” on the user’s device. |
Businesses that limit their mobile presence to a responsive website are at risk of “buy and go”: A customer can find you when searching for mobile devices, shops or even buying them forever. On the other, businesses that only focus on marketing through a mobile app could be unable to find new customers.
The most successful marketers use their mobile website to attract and convince new customers to download their app — creating an opportunity for profitable, ongoing relationships through engagement building, loyalty-building, expanding social reach, and delivering highly personalized shopping experiences.
Does your business make sense of an app?
Before we go any further, this is a question you should ask yourself. You may not need to read on if the answer is no.
The reality is that for most small businesses, apps work well, but they’re not perfect for everybody.
You should consider creating a mobile app for your small business if you can honestly answer yes to the following questions:
⦁ Would you be able to reach your clients on a 24/7 basis?
It’s a simple question, right? Who wouldn’t want to reach clients wherever they are? It’s not.
⦁ Can you provide the company with a friendly and successful mobile experience?
For some small business owners to tackle this one will be difficult, but don’t be quick to reply with a no. You can even create a mobile app that combines fun and social elements with rewards and discounts, even if you’re just selling stuff. Once you reject the idea of a mobile app, give this some creative thought. And if you’re not confident, continue to read. Inspiration can hit before the end of this post is reached.
⦁ Would you profit from a mobile app for your business?
This is the easiest question, but perhaps the toughest to address. At all hours, meeting clients may be enticing, but how exactly do you benefit? Once you start on this trip, you will learn, and your aspirations are not unfounded. In the example above of an app with rewards and discounts, the business benefits by encouraging customers to shop over and over again. If you’re a personal trainer, on the other side, your aim might be to develop yourself as an authority or build a community around your brand. The application might actually be in place to support the company, so measuring ROI may not be as easy as that, but you should still be able to define what success means for your application.
Mobile App Marketing Benefits vs Other Marketing Media
People have an average of 26 players on their phones. How does it look about you? You’re competing for attention with 26 other apps. But don’t worry, it’s nothing! Think about how many online sites you’re competing with. Hint: The MILLIONS are there.
Social media vs mobile marketing-
Social media is still a relatively new medium, and many small businesses are just beginning to test their own Facebook and Twitter accounts. This is a freeway for your app to gain exposure. But the market here is intense, and it’s not just about your rivals in the retail sector. Normally, while people are on social media, they don’t want to shop. They’re there to meet friends, check what’s going on in the world, or post updates on what’s going on in their lives. This places your profiles in direct competition with many things that may be more interesting to your audience (sorry).
Email Marketing vs. Mobile Marketing-
Email marketing is an old standby for many companies that still work today. But even if someone signs up for your site, there is no assurance they will see your post. And if they see your email, they will read it without any guarantee. You’ve got something called a “push notification” with mobile apps. These are the updates you get on your smartphone to let you know there’s something new going on in one of your apps. You can get a push notification with Facebook to tell you somebody tagged you in a post or sent you a message.In order to remind you of an occurrence, your calendar can submit a push notification. For any number of reasons you choose, your device can submit push notifications. But while push notifications exist for different reasons, they all have one thing in common. It’s getting read.
According to the study of Silverpop’s Email Marketing Benchmark, the recipient opens about 20 percent of emails and only about 5.4 percent of people click on a link in that email.
Push provider Xtify, on the other side, reported that 30 to 60% of consumers access push notifications and nearly 40% engage with the device directly after the update.
3 Factors you will learn from the creation of a mobile app
Time to answer my question, what’s for me in it? There are more than three potential benefits, but they should make you think about how to get the right app to function for you.
⦁ Earn money – Whether with advertisements or in-app purchases, smart retailers are monetizing their apps to create a different income stream.
⦁ Achieve a fresh set of customers – Hopefully, a good percentage of your current customers can access and use your product, but there is also the opportunity to attract a whole new audience that will discover your brand for the first time.
⦁ Show products and services – While the software is intended to serve the end-user, it will also function as not-so-obvious advertising for your company
Planning a mobile app for small business
Once you’ve determined that an app is the right step for your company, it’s time to get down to designing your app’s nuts and bolts. The typical first move is to create a software manager, a community of members covering the major business roles in your organization, depending on the size of your company. For the most part, this means a representative from the C-suite, your department head of marketing, and someone from IT who understands the process of development and support.
The first step of your development team is to make a list of what you want the device to do. Typically all fall into one of three categories: purchase, dedication, and transfer. Once you have established your targets, find the functionality that your application requires to accomplish them.
Some of today’s most popular features of the app include:
⦁ Push Notifications
This is one of the most useful capabilities of the device, as it makes prompt, appropriate, on-demand contact (which will not be captured in a SPAM filter). Push notifications can provide a specific personalized experience in conjunction with location-based messaging.
⦁ Geolocation and Map Integration
Learn the clients just where they are and send them detailed directions on how to reach you. If a VIP customer visits the shop, take advantage of location-based discounts or rewards or alert employees.
⦁ Mobile Shopping/Mobile Payments
This is a must-have feature for most mobile apps — make searching for and ordering the products and services as easy as possible for your consumers.
⦁ Integrated System of Loyalty
Use your mobile app to manage your loyalty program to allow customers to easily acquire, monitor and redeem their points using the mobile device.
⦁ Social Integration
Integrate all your social media platforms to make it easy on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. for your clients to communicate and engage with you.
⦁ One-Touch Contact
This should be clear, but note to include all your contact information: calling, emailing, and social connection in one-click. Why not use a single tap to incorporate step-by-step directions?
⦁ Virtual Reality
Have you ever wanted to show a customer how to look in a new hairstyle? Or perhaps convince a customer that his living room’s black leather sofa would look great? These interactive features are a huge marketing tool and a way of building engagement for some businesses.
⦁ Smart Sync and Smart Updates
Automatically send notifications and synchronize material with your mobile app across all the digital channels.
After defining what you want to do with your device and the functionality you want to include, it’s time to answer key questions like:
What application are you going to use for your app? Google Analytics should give you insight into your customers ‘ apps.
What is your start-up timeline? Are there any special events that would dovetail with the introduction of the device, such as opening a new location or introducing a new product or service?
What’s your budget for the app? Include in your planning both development, support, and marketing costs.
How are you going to build your app and support it? Most small businesses can use a platform such as BuildFire to build full-featured, attractive apps, but some prefer to hire app development.
The answers to these questions should drive the path for app development and future decision-making.
Marketing your mobile app on a budget for small businesses
Creating your mobile app is just the first step; it requires just as much time to get your consumers and potential customers to access and use it. You need a creative approach to selling the product on a small business budget that maximizes the resources you have.
Your first move is to build a landing page to advertise your app, which can develop into a website over time. You’ll need this after launching on mobile search for device discoverability and SEO. Make sure you link your mobile website and social profiles to your app landing page and display the most unique and useful features of your app with compelling screenshots and video demos. Using customer ratings and reviews to build it up as the product becomes more accessible.
Tap your existing customer base to give them an invitation to access the app; these enticing deals are a free sample, savings voucher or a couple of loyalty points. Don’t hesitate to also ask your users to rate your software, as this impacts both ASO and discovery.
Get in touch with social influencers and ask them to review your application. This offers strong visibility, traffic and backlinks advantages that improve the search results. Note that ASO and SEO work hand in hand with the exploration of mobile apps; don’t just focus on app store reviews to get your device in front of your clients.
Be careful about best practices for optimizing the app store, too:
⦁ Research keywords and get a snappy title.
⦁ Design an icon that attracts your attention.
⦁ Include images that are convincing.
⦁ Write a description of top-notch.
⦁ Work to obtain good ratings.
Marketing the product is a cycle that is constant, but one that pays off on investment return over time.
Bottom Line-
While you may be an early adopter among your mobile marketing colleagues, it is crucial that you realize there is nothing to deter your rivals from getting started. All you really need is some creative thinking and strategic preparation, and in almost no time flat you will have your own business.
And by using resources such as those we’ve created, you can create an app for a tiny fraction of the time and it would take financial investment to build one from the ground up.
Isn’t it about time someone got up in your business and created a little chaos? Disrupt Google Ads ‘ norm and travel sandwich boards. Build your own mobile app and get your viewers involved today. We never met a business owner who regretted their decision to build a mobile app, and you probably aren’t the first one.
Thank you so much for reading!
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