Industry experts are predicting that the growth in mobile phone use will continue a fast-paced trajectory through to 2017. Undoubtedly, mobile phone apps will follow the same course, having increased 115 percent in the past year.
Propelled by the growing adoption of smartphones, especially in emerging markets, global smartphone users are expected to climb to 1.75 billion this year, with global mobile phone users predicted to reach 4.55 billion. Today, everything including commerce, trading and payment is handled on mobile.
Developing a mobile app and promoting it among YOUR users is thus extremely beneficial to further your business. It can help you reach many more customers than using a traditional website alone, helping you to nurture and engage with existing customers and allowing new users to find you more easily, especially when integrated with major social networks.
Indeed, mobile apps are now part of every conceivable business, irrespective of their size and number of customers. It is especially the case if you run a small business and would like to reach more customers via the mobile channel.
Showcase your products and services
Apps give your customers instant and direct access to you and give you a platform to showcase your products and services. You can keep updating your app, to feature different new products periodically, presenting users with interesting offers and discounts to encourage them to visit you more often and spread the good word as well.
Monetize your app
Some small businesses shy away from creating mobile apps, considering them to be too expensive and complex. On the contrary, the development process is quite straightforward and can be broken into four main steps: idea, layout and planning, design and going live. With the right planning, mobile app development is affordable.
Remember that the aim is also to recoup the cost of developing an app which can be done in a number of ways. Clearly paid apps are designed to make money easily but free apps are generally ad supported. Businesses have to decide which ad network to go with to maximize revenue. The largest player is Google but there are other large competitors such as Millenial Media, as well as others that serve particular niches.
You can also think about partnering with companies that offer discounts and deals to help pull more customers towards your business. For this, you need to develop two versions of your app – one free “lite” version and the other, a more advanced paid app, offering premium features and content that “lite” users cannot access. Offer your free app for promotional purposes and then inform your subscribers about the advanced, paid version of the same.
At the end of the day, mobile marketing does not involve investing an arm and a leg and needn’t be complex. At Measure Marketing, we are fully equipped to build your mobile marketing strategy based on an analysis of your brand’s needs and your target market. We can either work alongside you or independently. Please give us a call on 1-888-569-3032 today to schedule your mobile marketing consultation.