5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs an App in 2021

How many minutes has it been since you’ve used an app on your phone?  For many of you, you’re probably reading this on your phone right now!  Mobile smartphones are the way of the world, and in the U.S., Americans spend upwards of 5.4 hours per day on their phone.

So if this is the case, then why hasn’t your business recognized this opportunity you have to get into the pocket of your clients, prospects, and referral partners? Mobile apps are the way to do it, and much more so than websites, social media, and other engagement tactics, they also offer value in many other ways.

Here are just a few that you need to consider.

1. Apps Increase Brand Awareness

One benefit of mobile apps for business is their capacity to build brand awareness in tandem with your other marketing initiatives. Having a mobile app can even be more effective in this regard. Once the user installs your app on their device, you can be certain that they’ll encounter your brand multiple times a day, especially if you create built-in features that encourage your users to engage with you consistently.

2. Apps Provide Added Value to Customers

Digital accessibility is perhaps the most important trend of our time in the business world, and mobile applications fit perfectly into that mix.

Customers don’t want to have to call your store to re-order a product. They prefer to make an order with the tap of their finger from the comfort of their couch. They don’t want to have to send you an email to address a customer support issue. They want to be able to immediately speak to your customer success team via your application’s chat feature.

In the past, the easiest way to contact a customer was to email them or call them. Nowadays, you can send a notification that appears on their lock screen, a method that’s simultaneously more direct than an email and less disruptive than a call.  Even simple things apps offer (like never having to log in) remove friction and add value to customers.

Loyalty programs, geo-location features, coupons, pre-ordering and more from your app can simplify the process for your clients and thereby adding more value.

3. Apps Increase Customer Engagement

There’s already a slew of ways to increase customer engagement with your business. Email marketing is a tried and true method, as is social media, but neither of those mediums is as personal or direct as push notifications.

Whenever your business has a special mobile app offer that you know your customers will love, you can schedule a push notification that pings their device to bring it to their attention.

You can also set up automations that ask for reviews or ratings whenever a customer makes in-app purchases of your products and services.

Having an app for your business also grants you the opportunity to deliver a more controlled and complete brand experience to users.

A business website technically already brings your brand to your user’s screens, but it’s too easy for them to get distracted by the countless other tabs they have open. Mobile apps, on the other hand, enable you to facilitate distraction free browsing, as users are limited to viewing one app at a time.

And what if a customer has a complaint regarding your products, services, or even the app itself? Having a mobile application streamlines customer service initiatives.

4. Apps Improve Customer Service

A report from Dimensional Research stated that “52% of consumers say they have made an additional purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience.”

We all know that customer service is critical to business success, and one of the most important aspects of customer service is respecting the customer’s time by responding to their inquiries quickly.

With the right mobile app development, your business should be able to provide all kinds of useful customer service features such as in-app messaging, call and call-back buttons, easy directions to your stores, RSVP capabilities, and of course, customer feedback options.

Mobile applications also give your business another place to provide an FAQ both for current and potential customers who are thinking of buying your products or participating in your promotions.

5. Apps Build Stronger Relationships

One thing that was so revolutionary about the rise of online stores was that anyone from enterprise businesses to mom-and-pop shops could suddenly utilize website analytic data about their customers.

In that same way, large and small businesses alike have the opportunity to acquire even more data about their users with mobile applications. For instance, with mobile apps, you can access a user’s location if they enable location sharing with your app, which is something you can’t do with a mere website.

On top of the feedback users typically leave for you on the application (complaints, comments, reviews), you can analyze behavioral data, such as what users search for most often, which FAQs they consume the most, and how long they stay on different pages within the app.

All of this information, if analyzed properly, can lead to insights that you can leverage to level-up the user experience (UX), strategize ad campaigns, and create better products.

Mobile apps are the future of strategic marketing.

There are reasons big and small brands alike used to do whatever they could to get their stores into shopping malls and other high-traffic spots: money flows wherever the customer goes.

However, the golden age of malls is and has been fading for a while; online stores saw to that. But now, especially with COVID-19 concerns, it’s not just retail that’s affected.  Mobile apps are disrupting all traditional brick and mortar businesses.

A report from eMarketer indicated that, in 2019, 90% of the time people spent on the internet went towards apps, not websites.

This point alone makes it worth considering the potential benefits a mobile app could bring to your company, but if that’s not enough, keep in mind that many of your competitors are already putting time and money into the development of their own mobile applications.

By investing in mobile apps, you pave the way for better brand experiences and, in turn, happier customers.

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