Benefits of Building An App
There are plenty of benefits to building an app and those benefits are not only really good for your business but amazing for your customers too.
Brand Awareness
Benefits to the Business
Increasing brand awareness is an integral part to growing any business. If people don’t know (or remember) your business, the chances are they won’t use it. Mobile apps have a very unique ability to increase brand awareness in a very stealthy manner.
On average we look at our mobile phones over 150 times per day so the Benefits To Owning An App are obvious to see.
The icons on our phone’s home screens are viewed over and over again. Placing your business logo (within an icon) on a customer’s home screen means that they will SEE your brand EVERY SINGLE DAY. This level of exposure is high on impossible to achieve with other marketing methods and on some level (Consciously or subconsciously) this exposure ensures that the customer never forgets your business.
Also – People take a great deal of time and effort in acquiring and arranging the apps on their smart phones. These phones provide the ability to create the ultimate (personalised) collection of your favorite social sites, games, info sites, businesses etc. Now your brand can be part of that collection of ‘favorite things’.
Benefits to the Customer
For most of us these days, our mobile phones run our lives. They’re one of most personal items anyone can own. The Apps installed on our phones are very much part of this personalisation experience. Distributing your app will make customers (and potential customers) feel like they’re part of an exclusive club. They’ll create a real connection, trust and empathy with your brand that is impossible to achieve via any other marketing method currently available.
Build Reputation
Benefits to the Business
Nothing says ‘Successful Reputable Business’ like a business on the cutting edge of modern technology, marketing and social interaction. The current belief is that mobile apps are a complicated and costly asset to run and distribute for free to customers. Until now, only large corporations and successful companies have been able to afford the development of their own mobile apps.
Appy Monkey now makes it affordable for any Small Business to increase their businesses reputation and get ahead of their competition. And effectively the REAL benefit being that you will increase repeat AND referred business by increasing your reputation.
Benefits to the Customer
Reputation is what builds relationships between businesses and customers. The more reputable your business is, the more trust the customer has in your brand. They’ll feel proud to be part of your business and be happy to promote and refer you to their family and friends.
Promote INSTANTLY
Benefits to the Business
Push notifications are like no other marketing tool available right now. Telling people about your business (and your services and offers) via email, magazines, newspapers, TV, facebook, radio etc very much rely on people being in front of a computer, TV, Newspaper, Radio etc. It’s a very slow way to market your business and there’s no guarantee that your message will even end up in front of the right people.
BUT push notifications are different!! Most people are never more than 3 meters away from their phones. For the majority of the day, our phones are in our pockets or bags. They’re at arm reach. They’re with us on the bus, in the park, whilst walking round town, whilst sitting on the toilet. No other medium has that kind of proximity. And when our phones make a noise (or vibrate) we grab them… and READ the message! This is INSTANT marketing! If you’re having a slow day , simply send out a quick message, and you could see results within MINUTES!… Not days, weeks or months!
Are you planning on running an event? Broadcast it a week before, then a day before. Then use a push message to remind people an hour before and then 5 minutes before! Push notifications are unlimited and entirely up to you how you use them.
The only other medium like this is SMS. Which is extremely costly and people tend to only scan read promotional SMS message nowadays.
Benefits to the Customer
There’s nothing worst then finally getting round to opening your email or facebook account, to only find that you’ve missed an event or promotion. Customers will appreciate being in the know regarding what’s happening with your business in REAL TIME!
Always Connected
Benefits to the Business
I’m sure you’ve heard about all the benefits of using social media to help promote your business? And we agree… social media is an extremely powerful marketing tool. And so it would NOT make sense if we did not integrate these services into our apps. We can include ALL of the social media platforms directly into one app. Plug your facebook, twitter, Linkdin, MySpace, YouTube, blogs etc. straight into your app… automatically making your app come aLIVE.
Not only that, but we can also build an in-app fan wall… exclusively for app users only. Giving your customers and staff a space to interact, review, leave feedback and have fun… regarding your business (and its services).
Customers can also connect with you in a number of other ways…
- Email straight from the app.
- Appointment Booking Forms
- Table Reservations Submit & Contribute content (Videos, Images, Audio etc) straight to the app.
- Subscribe to newsletters.
- One Touch Calling.
- Access to the website.
Benefits to the Customer
For the most part, websites have had their day. They still have their purpose, which is as a tool for serving information. But they tend to remain stagnant and are rarely used to generate any real kind of consistent ‘Buzz’ around a business. That’s why business owners and customers have moved over to the likes of facebook. With social media, you are always connected, and it can be really easy to create a viral buzz about any subject. By containing ALL of the various ways to connect with you and your business neatly in one app, provides the customer with a convenient platform for staying in touch and up to date with everything you are doing.
Sell Products
Benefits to the Business
If you sell physical products then this is a no brainer. People are using their phones to purchase items online (and via apps) more and more. Take into consideration, that by the end of 2013, mobile internet usage will have taken over desktop internet usage, the mobile phone is where your business NEEDS to be. To ensure that you future proof your business, it is essential that you provide customers with the ability to purchase your products from their mobile devices. If you don’t, you’re just leaving money on the table.
We can integrate an existing shopping cart system into your app, or create a brand new one from scratch. Including integrations with Shopify, Magneto, Volusion, Big Commerce and MORE.
Benefits to the Customer
It’s a VERY liberating feeling, being able to purchase items from ANYWHERE! Gone are the days when you were restricted to visiting stores, sitting at a computer or at the end of a telephone. Now you can be stood in a campsite in the middle of Timbuktu and be able to quickly and easily browse, review, select and purchase practically ANYTHING. Provide this service to your customers and they will LOVE you for it.
Live Information
Benefits to the Business
As much as our apps are intended to be fun and engaging, they also serve the purpose of providing up to date information about your business (and its products and services.) This includes; opening times, price lists, staff info, menus, timetables, portfolios, special offers, supplier details, shipping and delivery info, competitions, legal stuff, events, locations, contact details etc etc. Basically ANYTHING that your customer needs to know about your business can be added to your app. There is something really immediate and ‘LIVE’ about mobile apps. The information is served directly from a server… so if you make a change, the app will INSTANTLY update. Which means you can rest easy with the fact that the information that the customer is viewing is the most up to date it can possibly be.
Giving you the ability to make your app go viral… expanding its reach, growing your customer base and increasing your profits.
Benefits to the Customer
In the past if someone was sat at a train station platform and thought to themselves; ‘I must find out the opening times for XYZ business!’. Often you’d end up replying on your memory and the next opportunity to be in front of a computer, yellow pages or even in store, before you could obtain that information. Nowadays, you can simply have that thought; pull out your phone, and BOOM. You’ve got the details you need INSTANTLY. By providing up to date (LIVE) business information in SUCH a convenient way, why would your customer need to go anywhere else?
Showcase
Benefits to the Business
Use your app to SHOW OFF!! Every business owner should be proud of their business. And be able to instantly think of ways that they can showcase the products, service, events, staff etc. If you can’t then your business is fundamentally flawed and you should probably address that first. As a business owner you should be constantly thinking of ways to showcase your business. And luckily there are tons of ways that you can do this via an app. We can include various types of galleries, music players, Podcast libraries, video channels, blogs etc. This type of content not only serves as a way to impress, inform and entertain your customers, but a way to encourage people to revisit the app on a regular basis AND also SHARE the content with Family and Friends! Mobile phones are small light weight devices… perfect for passing around a group of friends in the pub. OR SHARING via Facebook, email, SMS etc. using just a tap of the screen. Giving you the ability to make your app go viral… expanding its reach, growing your customer base and increasing your profits.
We provide an extremely easy to use control panel that you can login too whenever you like and add as many updates as you wish (big or small).
Benefits to the Customer
There’s no getting away from it… we are all living in a ‘content fuelled’ world. YouTube, Facebook, xbox live, the apple app store, Google Play… are all serving engaging and entertaining content to end users. Your customers WANT to see content that showcases your business. People like to browse and research a business, product or service. AND they do it using their mobile phones! People are using the convenience of their phones to check out WHATEVER THEY WANT… on the fly! And by providing a showcase of your business, customers (and potential customers) will be filled with excitement for your services, desire for your products and admiration and respect for your business.
Reward Loyalty
Benefits to the Business
Repeated business is essential to growing any company – small, medium or large. Without it, you find yourself on a constant struggle, trying to find new customers, just to keep your head above water. Some of the biggest companies in the world have realised that rewarding customers for loyalty is the key to repeated business and expansion. You can use this highly effective marketing method within your app. By simply setting up in-app coupons, you can reward customers for performing a series of actions (i.e. spending a certain amount of money, on a certain number of occasions – gets a free reward).
Encouraging your customers to keep visiting YOU (and NOT your competitors), spending money in YOUR store (and NOT your competitors) AND filling in YOUR digital loyalty coupons (and NOT your competitor’s paper based coupons).
Benefits to the Customer
Customers WANT rewards! Especially if they are loyal to your business. By providing an original, innovative and engaging way to serve and monitor loyalty coupons (and rewards), your customers will WANT to collect your coupons and even compete with friends and family to try and collect them before one another. It’s amazing how competitive women can be when it comes it spending money.
Convenience
Benefits to the Business
You may be thinking that you don’t need a mobile presence yet!? But believe us when we say that we are on the cusp of the desktop to mobile switch over! As we’ve already explained… By the end of 2013, mobile internet usage will have surpassed desktop internet usage. It’s a FACT. People’s habits are changing. Mobiles are becoming the ‘go to’ device when it comes to researching businesses and products. This is even more apparent for local businesses. Over 50% of searches for ‘Valentine’s Day Restaurants’ were conducted using a mobile phone. Small local businesses have a PERFECT unity with mobile devises. Both are small, Both provide that personal touch, Both are regularly used, And most importantly… Both are IMPORTANT to the end user.
The second benefit is by establishing yourself on the app stores early (i.e. before your competition), you’ll fair a far better chance of being at the top of all future search results (within the app stores and search engines). Helping you dominate your industry and ensure the future success of your business.
Benefits to the Customer
Your customers WANT to know that you’re here for the long haul. Future proofing your business with modern marketing methods, providing innovative showcasing and connection tools, with second to none convenience, will assure your customers that you mean business.
Future Proof
Benefits to the Business
Convenience is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE benefit to the customer. Which transfers as a huge benefit to your business too? Think about what it means to have your business conveniently tucked away in the comfort of your customer’s pockets. Always just seconds away from getting to what they need. By having an app installed on your customer’s phones, you are breaking down huge barriers between you and them. No longer do people need to search for your information, or be restricted to being in front of a computer. They don’t need to rely on old flyers, menus or year old magazine adverts.
They think about your business (or services)… they pull out their phone… hit an icon… and BOOM! They’re inside your business… and everything they need is at their fingertips. No matter WHERE or WHEN!
Benefits to the Customer
Almost every single benefit that’s been discussed, ties in with the ‘convenience’ aspect. Being able to connect with a business, it’s staff and the other customers anytime you want (and in so many different ways). The ability to purchase products at your own leisure, irrespective of your location. Obtaining important (and not so important) information, whenever YOU need it. Always knowing where your loyalty card is… and not having to route thru your purse of wallet for it. Lying in bed whilst watching fun and engaging videos, stunning galleries and listening to music collections and podcasts etc. Knowing that everything I need from my favourite business is just an easy reach away.
By providing access to your business in such an easy and convenient way … makes your customers decision to use your business just as EASY!
