Mobile apps are dominating website apps – mobile phone users outnumber desktop users by far. In fact, mobile traffic grew 222% in the last seven years.
It is no surprise then that mobile apps are better than web apps and are taking the world by storm.
Mobile search is redefining mobile apps – mobile apps are so versatile that you can use them for information, communication, banking, entertainment, monitoring smart devices or systems, and running business tools.
It can even be used to monitor your health and allow for doctor’s consultations without having to leave your home. The possibilities are wide.
That is why small business owners need to catch on quickly. A mobile app can take your small business further in terms of brand awareness, lead generation, engagements, and, most of all, conversions.
Improving modern businesses means that business owners take advantage and plunge into new trends to give their brand a competitive edge.
10 Reasons Why Mobile Apps Can Boost Businesses
Allow Offline Access to Your Business
It is probably one of the most important advantages – your users still have access to your business even if they do not have internet access. Web apps cannot offer this because websites function only in an HTML environment requiring the Internet connection.
Basically, you bring your business closer to the people, wherever they may be. As much as physical location is vital for any business, giving your consumers access to your business wherever they may be is a valuable digital space.
Any updates or changes can always be uploaded once the user goes online. Syncing cloud-based services and data for the app also seamlessly happens between offline and online mobile apps.
Mobile websites also run on JavaScript, which is buggy. Mobile applications are written using a faster code and hold much of their data within the device’s main processor.
Increase Brand Visibility
Your brand consists of everything that makes your brand unique among other brands (your logo, colors, design, services, etc.).
Including a mobile app in your digital marketing strategy is a smart way to increase your brand awareness plus you will get the edge over your competitors who do not have a mobile app .
Mobile apps enable you to inject content and promotions to constantly keep your consumers updated and engaged.
In addition, having a mobile app helps your brand’s credibility and authority. When consumers can access your brand easier, it tells your consumers that you are there for them – answer them as quickly and efficiently as you can.
Improve Customer Satisfaction Ratings
Although web apps resemble mobile apps more recently, mobile apps are more user-friendly and provide a more efficient way to complete tasks.
Mobile apps also take advantage of features such as GPS, WIFI, touchscreen interface, camera, internal memory, connection tools like Bluetooth, and connectivity. All these features seamlessly integrate with a mobile app and that is the reason why it delivers much greater user satisfaction.
With mobile apps, consumers can search for information, multi-task and conduct work or play activities without having to log in the Internet or a desktop PC.
Mobile apps can work seamlessly with other mobile apps. For instance, you can include social sharing features, which automatically bring users to their favorite mobile apps. You can also integrate many popular messaging apps if users want to chat with you or join chat groups connected to your app.
Mobile apps just do a much better job of bringing consumers “nearer” to your business, with a much more personal touch than desktop apps.
Enhance Customer Retention
Data security and privacy are more vital now than ever. With a number of cyberattacks and data breach incidents affecting businesses, you need to provide top-notch cybersecurity and data privacy services more than ever.
Security is the reason why most users prefer the mobile payment option – they can transact and pay online with confidence. Since data is stored on their personal devices, it gives them more confidence to provide sensitive information. They can also integrate biometric authentication to add another layer of security to their transaction.
A user can also use payment options like PayPal and similar in a mobile app to make payments more secure.
All these provide consumers greater confidence in using mobile apps, improve UX (user experience), and boost satisfaction ratings. Consequently, when consumers are satisfied and trust your mobile app, you will improve customer retention.
For instance, around 30% of Starbucks’ transactions are now through mobile payments. It provides convenient features such as order-ahead, which increased their sales by 11% in the US alone.
Through mobile apps, you can also inject reward or incentive programs for loyal customers, thus increasing customer retention even more.
Provide Personalization
You can also personalize your mobile app service, which contributes to greater engagement and conversions. When a user can customize any product or service they are using based on their preferences, it allows them to express their individuality.
You can also gather important data from how users customize your app. Appropriately using their data, with their consent, allows you to personalize your service further and provide products or services they actually need or want.
It focuses your App Store Optimization (ASO) on efforts that are more likely to produce a new lead or a successful sale.
Provide On-demand Delivery
On-demand businesses are able to serve their clients with the help of mobile apps more effectively.
If you are a small business, you need to have a mobile app to stay in touch with your consumer base – even during a global pandemic, you don’t have to be out of the loop and close your business.
Move your business online and create a mobile app where you can still reach your consumers and deliver the best on-demand service you can provide despite the circumstances.
For instance, there was a massive rise in logistics apps and food delivery apps since people were confined to their homes due to strict social distancing regulations. It became an opportunity for small businesses to compete with big brands to meet consumers’ needs amidst the global crisis.
Provide better UX
Mobile UX design is creating user interfaces specifically for mobile devices – it includes handheld devices like smartphones and wearable devices such as smartwatches etc.
The requirements and features for mobile devices differ from that of a desktop – there should be a different configuration meant to cater to this difference.
That is why businesses must ensure their websites are mobile-responsive because the majority of people are on their mobile phones rather than desktops.
When it comes to mobile apps, these solutions are already created for mobile devices from the ground up. They already meet the specific needs and constraints of mobile users, such as fingertip size.
Attention spans are short in mobile UX – users want quick results with minimal effort and no issues as they’re often distracted. Signal and power loss are frequent worries. Typically, mobile users are micro-tasking, searching for local events and services, or passing the time.
Designers must focus on making apps usable, searchable, and efficient for a highly on-the-go consumer market.
Mobile app developers have raised the bar in UX design. For instance, mobile apps also use gestures to improve UX and allow users to do app-related tasks with ease.
Enhance Digital Marketing Strategies
Mobile apps can be easily integrated with other Internet marketing strategies. For example, you can easily integrate mobile apps with different social media platforms to enhance brand placement.
Your users can easily become your own influencers and advocates as they share your app with their peers and family. When app users connect with other app users, this increases publicity for your app and your brand.
As you generate leads from your mobile app to your website, it improves your SEO digital marketing strategies.
You can also use features such as push notifications to send personalized or localized promotions or information to our mobile app users, tying other marketing campaigns to your app.
Builds Customer Loyalty
Business owners must pay careful attention to customer loyalty and how to build it around their brand as it is a crucial factor for long-term business success.
The customer is the heartbeat of every business.
Without a customer, the business will not survive – learn how to build loyalty among users effectively and continuously improve Customer Experience (CX) to turn users into loyal brand advocates.
Mobile Apps are perfect for building customer loyalty – you give the impression that you are personally attending to your individual customers and you can better engage and interact with them.
For instance, push notifications are more likely to get a response from users that converts than desktop ads through your website. Although email campaigns get around a 30% open rate, mobile app push notifications get a staggering 90%.
Generate More Income
Since mobile phones dominate the market, it’s not surprising that Google Play and App Store generate billions in combined sales through mobile and gaming apps.
In fact, both app stores raised $39.7 billion in total user spending in 2019, and this number just continued to increase, especially in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. The pandemic not only caused an increase in apps development and installs but also in engagement and app dwell time rates.
You can earn in different ways like in-app ads and purchases, subscriptions, affiliate programs, or sponsorship, among others.
The revenues through mobile apps are expected to rise to $935 billion by 2023.
You need to bring your small business to the next digital marketing era by making your business going mobile.
Conclusion: Mobile Business Growth
The simplicity of mobile applications provides excellent business benefits.
For example, Microsoft 365, which used to be only available on the desktop, is now making a powerful smartphone app more user-friendly for its customers.
Mobile applications can improve business and customer service, especially when connecting your mobile app to your website via an efficient landing page. It increases your lead generation and sales strategies even more.
Mobile apps are an expanded platform for your company – if you want to expand your business, you cannot do without a mobile app.