Creating mobile apps for your business offer an effective promotion and sales tool for just about any business.
The adoption of mobile devices is occurring at a rate faster than any technology before it and already a third of visitors to traditional websites are coming from mobile devices and those sites that don’t have a mobile optimised display are already seeing those visitors spend less time on their websites.
Industry analysts, Gartner predict that there will be an additional 1 billion iPad users in the next three years in addition to the 2.5 billion smartphone owners they expect by 2015 so mobile devices are here to stay and all businesses will need to cater to mobile devices in some way or another if they are to be noticed.
Mobile apps provide an engaging and interactive platform that exceeds the capabilities of a mobile website and provides you with the opportunity to garner valuable screen space for your app icon if your users find your app useful and appealing.
Because of the limited space for icons on any users device (without getting lost in folders way down the back of the pile) any app needs to provide the user with a reason to retain it on their frequently viewed pages.
It is critical that your app is appealing in both functionality and design and is going to deliver a tangible benefit to its users and these critical factors need to be considered as a part of the design stage.
Obviously, your app should match your brand’s current design concepts for the logo, colours along with the general look and feel but then you need to consider what functionality you are going to include in your app.
Here are just a couple of features that could be considered when creating mobile apps for your business:
Video Integration & Marketing- Social Media Integration
- Bookings & Appointments
- Sales & Purchases
- Calendar Reminders
- Push Notifications
- GPS Mapping
There are obviously many more features, the list could go on for days but you should also resist the temptation to overload your app with useless features that don’t really serve a purpose.
In addition, when you are using features like Push Notifications in your app, you need to be considerate of the users expectations. While it might seem like a great opportunity to just bombard your users with messages, if they don’t serve a purpose they will eventually become annoying resulting in the user disabling them in the app or worse, deleting your app altogether.
With so many new apps coming onto the marketplace day by day they need to be impressive and serve a valuable purpose for the user in order to retain that valuable front-of-mind space on the users device.
Keep these things in mind when developing your app and ensure you come up with a clear plan during the design phase of your development.
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27 Comments
Andrew
I do agree with utilizing mobile technologies such as GEO coded apps which detect when a subscriber is near a certain location such as your store / office or some other related outlet that sells your products. This type of targeted advertising can be very powerful, but it is not easy for a non developer to implement in a custom way for their particular needs. So you do need a professional company that can customize a solution.
Priscilla
I have been wondering how you would go about consulting an app development company such as this (or any other company) about your app concept without giving your unique idea away to persons with the coding skills who can easily take the idea and develop it for themselves. Are non disclosure agreements appropriate to insist on and if so, how enforceable are those agreements? Can such contracts really stop the theft of an app idea?
James
No secret why: Mobile is really taking off. There are already more people on the planet who communicate with text messages than with e-mail and more people who own phones than have credit cards, The difficulty is that there are many facets of mobile technology. Apps, websites and SMS form the broad foundation. But mobile payments and advertising are rich topics on their own. Where do you focus first? It is daunting to think about it.
Brad Davidson
You are right James, it can be daunting to many people however as the old saying goes, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" and I think that also applies well to the app development process. Without a clear plan from the outset matched business objectives it will be impossible to determine the true return on investment and difficult to know if you are meeting your targets throughout the project.
Larry
It seems that presenting a business case with a solid ROI for a mobile strategy is sometimes difficult to do. And from what I have read in this and other articles, cost justifying mobile solutions is not a simple mathematical formula as there are many factors you need to include in properly assessing mobility. Someone said that for a sufficient ROI payback, consider 18 to 24 months as viable. But is that a typical estimate?
Brad Davidson
Great feedback Larry. Traditionally, businesses are happy with a ROI of 3 years in many cases however mobile has certainly seen this period contract significantly. Every business will need to consider their own ROI calculations and while there are some standard formulas, each business is different and even the most conservative of estimates should still show an ROI result that is attractive.
Eugene
It seems that achieving a positive return on your investment is as hard as it ever has been because every market is just so competitive. We live in the information age and data spreads so rapidly that practically anything that can be invented has been. You really have to stumble across a rare or overlooked need to find a non competitive niche. The information in this article certainly helps you navigate such a treacherous terrain.
Robert
You have a complete line of blog post about the topic of apps and developing them and how they work etc. and you've done some really good work. I'm going through them and taking notes that I think will help me a great deal when it comes time to develop mine and get it out to the public, I know how to do that successfully and it was through your posts that I learned it.
Kevin
I feel like the push notifications is a big deal with apps these days because they are all the time being updated and you want your customer to know the update is out there. I receive a lot of push notifications on games and things like that which are making updates everyday it seems like. Your post is great and gives people a lot to think about.
Ashley
It is no secret how mobile is needed in today's society the more mobile and convenient something is the better off you are. So if you are selling a product or service you need to have mobile capabilities or you are going to get passed over every time by the companies that do have mobile capabilities. Thank you for doing your post this is great information.
Julio
With so many apps coming out everyday if you are going to release one you have to remember it needs to be impressive and it needs to serve a purpose to the consumer, it also has to be convenient for them to use if you want it to stay in the users most used on their device. And when you use "push notifications be considerate of the user and don't make them so frequent.
Tammy
If I understand correctly, there are developers and companies that are now white labeling apps and reselling them to different businesses. If apps work anything like content management themes, then there should be a lower price for apps that get sold to many buyers and a higher price for apps that are given exclusive rights. In other words, sold only to that buyer who pays the premium price.
Sonia
I started a small business a couple of years ago and I have taken the mobile app idea and embraced it to get more growth out of the business. So far it has worked like a champ and business is growing, it is all about the mobile capabilities these days if you don't have that you are going to fall to the way side because your competition is going to pass you by.
Dean
Everything you have mentioned here is right on the money the things you can do with a mobile device when it comes to business is beyond measure. It opens a completely different realm of business for you and the customer loves the ease at which they can do business with you. Being the field as a salesman for many years I can tell you this would have been great.
Sheila
Well I think mobile apps can help with the business that is for sure but is there a possibility that they can hurt the businesses as well? I mean I am just throwing that possibility out there because what is good usually has a bad side to it as well. If you wouldn't mind posting the down sides to this idea that would be most appreciated.
James
Thank you for adding the critical factors in to your post that made it easy to just kind of check off the ones that have been taken care of and it also showed me what else I need to do to my app to get it ready. You have done a great job here and I know it is going to help me as well as a few other people I'm sure.
Barbara
It is important that your app is appealing enough for the user to keep it on their frequently viewed page but it is also important to make it easy to get rid of if the customer doesn't like it. If you know anything about blogs like this it's that your reputation can be ruined very easily and an angry customer can start a blog easily.
Alfred
It is amazing how many people are using mobile apps and smartphones now. Everyone I know has a mobile phone or iphone and it strikes me how much a part of their life their cellphone is. It is so common for most persons to be using their cellphone during every part of their day that some people have a no cellphone policy / agreement among friends when they get together to dine. This reality is good for those in the app development field.
Debra
I love the posts that you have made and I have kept each and everyone of them bookmarked and I am putting them in the order by which you would use them to create you app to selling your app. I have some great idea I think and I look forward to getting started with them. You have given me what I need to make the right decision when I get started, thank you.
Richard
It is good news to me that there is a statistic that says people are coming to mobile websites from apps. This tells me that I can still develop mobile websites and I could also get into developing apps to drive traffic to the internet site. Getting traffic is so ultra competitive that you should use all available avenues that can drive traffic to your site.
Don
One way to use apps is to process payments. Whether you run a delivery service, sell wares at outdoor markets or otherwise work without a conventional storefront, having the ability to process credit and debit card payments directly from your phone helps ensure that you won't miss out on any important sales. A mobile app is one way you can facilitate this process. This is probably one of the more common ways businesses use apps for, no?
Daisy
With how much the mobile apps are growing in the world I would say that it definitely isn't going to hurt the business at all if you have one. I do think there is a possibility that they are going to help the business grow for sure. This was an interesting post, thank you for the information and please keep us updated as this progresses.
Anthony
I have seen and heard so many ideas for mobile apps tied to your business and how beneficial it is going to be. I was thinking about one for my business the other day and I think as a blogger you could probably have a mobile app that would allow you to blog anywhere at any time. This is a great idea and it would benefit the company mostly because I could generate money more.
Jonathan
I have a smart phone, but still, I rarely use it to surf the web. That is probably because I work from my laptop from home and I still use the Mozilla firefox internet browser. I imagine that if I ever start to commute to a job I will then start to use a mobile device to access the web. Most people I know use iphones and they do just about everything from their smart phones.
Thomas
I believe that mobile phone apps help entrepreneurs with the basic functions of running a small business from home. If you listen to the hype, you might assume you could run an entire business with nothing more than your phone or a tablet and a series of apps. Given that Apple now issues basic versions of its operating system through its app store, it's likely that this will become the main way in which people will get at their software over time.
Myrtis
The more I read about how various companies are using mobile apps to promote their business and to improve their customer experience, the more ideas that start to come to mind. You can learn a lot by studying what other companies are doing. So if you find yourself at a loss for ideas, just start reading case studies about other companies. You don't have to limit yourself to studying your competitors. Any company can spark an idea.
Ulysses
I think this age in which we are living in is a very promising one. The consumer has more options than ever before. Customers have the opportunity to be more involved in how they shape the way businesses serve them. The consumer has more of a voice than ever before and businesses are listening. They must if they are to get an edge on the competition. And it is all being facilitated by the mobile device / app movement.