Running a business isn’t easy. Business owners need to keep tabs on everything related to their business. That doesn’t just mean the core stuff that the business does for customers and clients — it also means all of that stuff that needs to get done for the business to reach its customers and do its work in the first place, such as payroll, training, advertising, and digital marketing.
And, these days, there’s even more to worry about. In our internet-obsessed world, business owners need to understand things like search engine optimization (SEO, which is the practice of making a web presence as appealing as possible to search engines) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements.
To that, add this new responsibility: In many cases, business owners need to make sure their businesses have apps. Having an app is a key part of reaching customers in the age of smartphones. Here are a few reasons why, along with some quick tips on getting the right app with the least possible stress and expense.
More people have smartphones than ever before.
Apps are for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. So there’s one simple reason that your business needs one, and that’s that more people own and use smartphones than ever.
It wasn’t always this way. Before 2007, when the iPhone first debuted, smartphones were much rarer and were usually owned by businessmen and women. The Blackberry was the big smartphone back then — and before the Blackberry, smartphones were virtually nonexistent.
But by 2011, 35 percent of Americans were toting around a smartphone. By 2018, that figure had exploded to 77 percent. The trajectory is clear, and the number will only keep rising.
Customers own smartphones, so your business needs to be on smartphones. You need an app!
Apps are good for communication.
You want to be able to reach your customers. You want to be able to share exciting news and promote new products and services. You want to be able to field customer questions, requests, and complaints — preferably in a private chat. Apps can do that for you. Once your customers download your app, your business will have a constant presence of their home screens and will be able to communicate through push notifications and in-app messages.
You can learn about your customers as they learn about you, too. Data from your apps can inform your business decisions as well as your marketing and PR strategies.
Make money.
More and more Americans are doing their shopping online. If your business is working smart, it probably already has a way to take orders, reservations, or other money-generating customer actions online. But does your business have an app?
Apps make powerful tools for payment and billing. You can gain customer billing info or bill customers through their phone, rather than asking customers to enter tedious billing information or relying on them to log into a web profile each time they access your website. Apps make sales sense.
Getting the right app.
You know a lot about running your business, and now you know that you need an app. But you probably don’t know how to create the perfect app from scratch. That’s OK. You just need to turn to a top app development agency. By outsourcing your app design to professionals who really understand app development, you’ll get a better app in a shorter period of time.
Relying on the pros will be the most cost-effective solution in the long run, as you’ll get a more efficient and effective app. And the investment will pay off when you reach more customers, improve your business’ reputation, and make money through mobile customers. Your business needs an app, and now is the time to get one.
