If you’re a business owner who has already invested in a professionally-built responsive website, you may be wondering if it’s necessary to put down more money into a mobile app. About half of the traffic on search engines comes from mobile devices, but a well-designed responsive website can already serve mobile as well as desktop traffic. So what’s the point of adding a mobile app to the mix? Being optimized for mobile devices and more quickly accessible in just a single tap, mobile apps can make many interactions easier, quicker, and more convenient for customers as opposed to a website. Here are a few compelling reasons you might want to invest in a mobile app even if your business already has a well-designed responsive website.
Building Brand Awareness
An app will play a significant role in building brand awareness. With icons occupying prime real estate on people’s phone screens, an app acts as a billboard. This makes it easy for people to know what your app is all about before even opening it, unlike a website that must be accessed through a browser. You will improve your brand recognition if you can proceed and get an app. And as all marketers know, when people get to know you quickly, they will tend to do business with you more easily.
Improving Customer Engagement
Once a potential customer installs an app, you will be free to send notifications and even get personal data from the customer. It is unlike running a website where it can be hard to get into details with the customer. Imagine you’re a restaurant owner. Instead of requiring customers to visit your website then call to book a table, you can easily make the booking process available online with a few taps. While web apps can also accomplish this, a mobile app will be more easily accessible and better optimized for mobile devices. Your customers will prefer the quicker and easier option!
Beating the competition
Your competitors may still be relying on their websites to handle all of their online interactions with customers. With a mobile app, you can potentially introduce something different and make your business stand out. When your services are available on an app, you will take advantage of potential customers who are ready to get your services online quickly without having to open their browsers and navigate to your domain. Because of this, many business owners who opt for apps on top of their existing websites find it easy to realize the best return on investment.
Cultivating Customer Loyalty
Most business owners are running all sorts of advertisements out there. You need to look for a way to keep the customers you get and turn them into repeat customers so those competitor ads don’t lure them away. An app allows the creation of special offers that you can then send to potential customers as exclusive deals. It is easy for the customers to get coupons and apply them to the app, making them develop some form of brand loyalty. Making customers prefer your brand over others can make your business grow quickly.
Improving visibility
An app can hold a very prominent place on a smartphone’s user interface. People spend a lot of time on their phones, and an app icon will be immediately visible to them anytime they open their phone screens. This makes it easy to improve your visibility if you can get as many interested buyers to install your app as possible, and those interested buyers will readily do business with you if they can easily access your services.
Creating a More Direct Marketing Channel
Like a website, an app can provide general information about your brand. Customers can use it to find prices, search for other services you offer, and access other features. If you want to introduce new features, you can release app updates that will be available instantly to potential customers. Unlike a website, however, an app makes it easy to market services directly to your customers. Whereas websites tend to be impersonal and informational, apps can more easily facilitate personalized interactions between customers and brands.
We hope this article has made you re-think the relationship between mobile apps and responsive websites. It’s not always a one-or-the-other situation; they can both be valuable parts of a robust digital marketing strategy.
