Does My Business Need an App?
The app revolution has undoubtedly been sweeping the nation (and the world). There are literally apps available for any feasible function that you feel that your phone could serve. The useful ones can be as simple but sometimes life-saving as something like a flashlight. The useless ones, the ones that often clutter the app markets, grant your devices the ability to fart in different tones.
But as much as apps are intended to provide us with brief, fun distractions, the most useful ones are often that ones that provide us with some sort of utility. Something that provides us with a convenient way to check out our bank account information. Or, in the case of the Dominos Pizza Tracker, a way to gauge the status of our food. But before you create an app, there are a few important questions that you should be asking yourself before you delve headlong into the process.
Question 1: Can I Provide Customers With Added Value?
The first question you should be asking yourself is whether or not you can provide added value with an app. Think about it — what does your business do that could be made more convenient or simpler with an app?
If you’re a restaurant, the answer to that might be in creating a convenient way for customers to order take-out or make reservations. If you’re a fence company, creating an app that provides users with a fun way to customize and possibly even design their own fence layout might be another way.
The fact is, there needs to be something an app can make more convenient that isn’t already simple enough on your Facebook page or website. Come up with 5, 10, maybe even 20 different ideas for your app and determine which of those is the most practical.
Question 2: How Much Am I Willing To Spend On Development?
The unfortunate thing about apps is that, for the most part, intuitive and useful apps aren’t simple to develop. For many businesses, that means that developing an app will often require outside help. But, as you probably know, good programmers aren’t cheap.
What I am obviously strongly hinting at is that creating a good app is going to cost your business money. Not hundreds, but potentially thousands of dollars.
Which means that it’s important for you to not only determine whether or not your business can afford such an investment, but also if the added cost of that app will provide significant enough interest or additional return from your customers. Ask yourself, will it drive additional business? Will people care?
And, most likely, you won’t want to create an app just to ‘experiment’. That’s far too costly. So think about your expenses and particularly your marketing budget. If you feel that you have more enough money in your budget and that your app will drive business, it might be a good bet. But think long and hard about that, too.
Question 3: How Will I Get My Customers To Download It?
This might be the most important question to ask yourself, because creating an app that gets downloaded, like, never, is essentially useless. That would just be a huge waste of your own money and time.
So, whether you are going to provide a call to action with your store, hand out print materials with QR codes or give them an incentive like a free drink or consultation, you need to ensure that you have a firm plan ahead of time. In fact, you should probably use a few different methods to get the message out there. Certainly, advertise it on your website and Facebook pages, but also make sure that customers and clients who visit your business in-store are also made aware of your app.
But still, creating a fun and useful app is arguably the most important motivator in getting customers and download and use apps. And, in creating something that remains on their phone, your app stands as an important reminder to those customers — both current and potential — that your business has gone seemingly above and well beyond other businesses by creating something fun and useful that follows them around in their pockets.
Has your business thought about developing an app?
Source: MSM DesignZ, Inc. is a Westchester based NY web design firm specializing in SEO, social media, web and graphic design and much more.