Is a Mobile App Right for You?

Not all apps will be approved and maintenance is required.

Many businesses are trying to find new ways to market their products and services and many have capitalized on the smartphone explosion. If you don’t have a smartphone, you are quickly becoming the minority. Before we discuss this topic, we need to clarify the difference between a mobile app (applications) and a mobile website.

Mobile apps need to be downloaded and installed on your smartphone device. Many of these apps are downloaded from Google Play if you are on an Android operating smartphone or through iTunes if you are using an Apple smartphone device.

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps are often effective for businesses that have tools, utilities, and information that would be conducive to being used in a mobile environment. For example, we have a client who has customers who work in the irrigation industry, and customers wanted something they could use in the field to help them decide the best equipment for their specific application challenges. Our team built a mobile app that has to be downloaded and installed on their device which allows their users to put in specific field data. The app then automatically calculates the best equipment for their specific application.

Many people think that because of the number of downloads and revenue being made from mobile apps that they, too, can capture some of that revenue. For most business applications, this is not typically the primary place to gain market share or revenue generation. Many business applications are downloaded for free to provide a tool or utility that better helps your business serve the mobile customer. On the other hand, if you have a fun, entertaining or helpful app that is in demand and that customers would pay to have, then a custom-designed mobile app might be a good fit for you. We are a great “sounding board” if you have an idea for a mobile app that could go viral.

Mobile Websites

Mobile websites are found via a browser on your smartphone. If you use Google to search from your smartphone then you are probably using a mobile web browser to find information on the Internet via your phone. This is not an installed application but rather a way to access the Internet. This is typically the place most businesses are under utilizing their potential exposure to their customers. Some businesses have almost as many visitors visiting their websites via a smartphone as they do via computer browser. We recommend looking at your analytics to see how much traffic is coming from a mobile device. If the number is more than five to ten percent, then we recommend making sure those customers have an optimal experience by considering how a website looks on a three-inch smartphone screen.

Summary

The bottom line is that we recommend a mobile marketing strategy for most of our business clients because of the ever-increasing amount of people searching for products and services through their phones. If you want to explore whether a mobile marketing strategy is right for your business, please contact us and we would be glad to answer questions you may have about this exploding marketplace.