Commencing a business means, you find yourself in charge of many things; right from finances to managing different projects, communication channels, marketing and so forth. Encountering issues from one or more than any of these departments are what we call a typical day at the office. But have you ever wondered coming up with mobile apps can make your life much easier and your business more successful?
Business owners often don’t realize the fact that how much-untapped potential lies in creating a mobile app. Like it or not, but building one is a valuable investment. With already investing ample time and resources into building an amazing mobile website, all the relevant information required by your customer is covered so why bother in creating a mobile app? Over the surface, it entirely makes sense. But do you really think like that:
- Your website will notify as soon as a customer walks in your store?
- Can your website customize a regular visitor’s shopping experience?
- Would they enjoy taking pictures of your product with your website and share it on their social sites
Guess not! And more importantly, with in-app capabilities like biometrics, geolocation, sensors, and cameras; possibilities which offered by smartphones are endless. In 2014, the use of mobile topped over the use of desktop for the first time, and that trend is growing among years. About 90 percent of those 3 hours each day is spent interacting with the apps on the mobile devices—just over 10 percent is spent on mobile websites. According to a relevant source, we found that
- 42% of smartphone users who search and browse products on the go plan to make a purchase within the timing of an hour.
- 69% of these on-the-go users will likely to be converted into the store.
Further, I would like businesses to get acquainted with certain benefits of building a mobile app.
#1 Increase in Customer Engagement– With the aforementioned stats, I am sure you must be convinced with the fact that mobile apps are the best way to engage with your end customers in a different way such as offering notifications for sales, remind customers regarding relevant appointments or reservations, in-app scheduling, loyalty programs and what not! In fact, it may quite interest you to know that around 85% of customers are more likely to opt-in to receive push notifications if the notifications offer discounts.
#2 Personalized Interactions with Brands– These days’ mobile app developers endeavor hard to come up with something that provides personalized customer interactions. For instance, a fitness company named YogaGlo has come up with a mobile app that allows end users to mark their favorite Yoga classes and access right from the main screen.
#3 Brand Recognition and Awareness– Do you know apps have the potential to boost brand recognition? Just by recreating your brand image- colors, logo, type and tagline things can work pretty fine. However, most of your customers think that color increases brand awareness and thus having a consistent, recognizable design for your app is a must-have. Have a look at Facebook, Instagram, and Google Maps.
A Few Mobile Apps to Take into Account for Your Business
1. QuickBooks– Do you wish to know where you stand. Monitoring your company’s current financial condition could provide great help. With the help of QuickBooks’s accounting software, you cannot just keep an accurate track of your company’s revenues and expenses but also have a close look at company’s financial statement, send payments to staff and business partners. In addition to this, you can also add upload images of invoices from your mobile device. Moreover, the mobile app makes it easy to file your taxes accurately.
2. SmartLine– With SmartLine you can convert your smartphone into your business. Technically speaking, the app lets you use a second number on your phone due to which you can even answer business calls. Moreover, this does not require carrying two devices all the time. Its key features include:
- See whether incoming calls are for a personal or professional purpose
- A business number can be used to either make or receive calls.
- Set specific business hours
- Also, you can forward calls to voicemail afterwards
More importantly, you can also try the app for free for one month.
3. Skype– Did anybody mentioned free video calling? Skype is the solution worth taking into account. There are 74 million Skype users globally besides businesses can have a video conference call with up to 25 users for free. The app also features chat, file sharing, screen sharing and more. In addition to this, you can also consider Skype for Business that incorporates services to conduct large meetings and seamless integration with office apps.
4. Insightly– Whether you wish to manage contacts, create projects and even assign tasks, track the progress of tasks, and a lot more, Insightly is best to take into account. In fact, you can import your contacts straight from your mobile device. Here you get to save contact information and project status while keeping operations on schedule.
5. Hootsuite- Having social media accounts have become a must-have thing. Hootsuite allows to schedule and shares your posts across social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more. In addition to this, you can even measure the impact of your campaigns. This app in particular surely improves your marketing strategy.
Author Bio
Barry Allen is working as a Content Manager at Tatvasoft Australia a .net and web development company. He loves to solve business problems through efficient analysis of data. He is a result oriented Business Analyst with problem-solving skills well experienced in understanding business issues/requirement and challenges and providing solutions also.