Smartphones are becoming a major part of our everyday lives. With the ability to access almost anything and everything we could possibly want with a few swipes of our fingers on a smartphone, it is becoming more and more important that you focus on mobile marketing methods such as text marketing to reach your customers. While text marketing is a method that will work for every business, you may want to consider building a mobile app for your business as well. But is a mobile app really for you?
Do you need it?
The biggest question you should ask yourself before investing a lot of time and money into a mobile app for your business is whether or not you need it. Many companies put a lot of money into mobile apps because 90% of time spent on mobile devices every day is spent in apps. So, they build apps that are essentially an extension of their website. It is just a few pages with information that can easily be found online. This would be completely unnecessary. The only time when it is worth your time to put your website into an app is if the app does something your site cannot, according to Forbes. It needs to be genuinely useful to consumers, or it will be a waste of space on their phone.
Does your app provide easier access?
One of the biggest reasons for providing an app for your consumer is allowing them to have easier access to your business and information. For a company in the healthcare industry, this means providing an easier way for patients to access their health information and send and receive messages from the doctor. It could even be an easy way to access and pay bills. For a bank, this could mean making account access and check deposit seamless with mobile phones. A fast food restaurant can use an app to track rewards points and offer online ordering. The real trick is figuring out whether or not it is worth it for you to get the app if you are simply selling products.
Check your situation
For a small business that has a few strong selling items, an app would be unnecessary. Most of your business is going to come through people who find you while surfing the web or who you send text reminders to about your business. It is unnecessary to have a whole app dedicated to selling your few products (unless your products can sync to the app to provide data of some sort). Companies like Amazon and Ebay, however, that offer a wide variety of products for consumers most definitely should get an app. You have to think about your business and what you are selling in order to determine what is best. Don’t waste money on an app unless it will really help your customers get more out of your business.
