Why Digital Apps Are The New Sales & Marketing Collateral
According to a recent study, investors assign higher valuations to organizations that embrace emerging technologies, such as big data, social media, the Internet of things and mobile, to connect to the world around them.
Many businesses, especially private ones, do not recognise how much technology has improved in the recent years and the positive impact it can have on how they run their business. But sooner or later though, all businesses and industries will have no other route but to digitise. And if you’re smart, you will realise the quicker you do it, the better competitive advantage you’ll have.
Traditional sales and marketing collateral just fall by the wayside, and get dusty in your stockroom waiting to be shredded. When you don’t evolve with new marketing strategies, you spend more money and get these unwanted results. The costs are increasing but you are losing the opportunity of optimal return you need to make your investment worth it.
Digital apps offer businesses a means to boost visibility and revenues, as well as enhance customer experience. Whether your business belongs to the more traditional industries such as manufacturing, you can grow your company just by adding, say, a digital catalogue or sales brochure app to your model.
Below are seven reasons why your business needs a digital app. The list is lifted from Melanie Haselmayr’s article in Forbes, wherein original context talks about why businesses need a mobile app. We find that these can be true to why your corporate publishers and catalog marketers should build your business collateral on such platform.
It is without a doubt that creating digital apps is an epoch making step. However, whether your business has already put together a digital strategy or it’s just now that you’re realising how important such a strategy will be, you should act quickly.
Digitisation is the future of business and it’s not yet too late to join the race to get ahead of the competition.
1. Be Visible to Customers at All Times
Statistics show that the average person spends more than two hours a day (!) on his or her mobile device. While probably only a handful of applications make up the bulk of this total usage, it doesn’t change the fact that each user has to unlock, scroll, and scan their device for the apps they’re looking for. Being “in the way” can be an advantage to your company, as our mind unconsciously does record every image and text (or well-designed app icon!) it comes across — even if it happens unnoticed.
2. Create a Direct Marketing Channel
Apps serve many functions: they can provide general info, prices, booking forms, search features, user accounts, messengers, news feeds, and much more.
One of the biggest benefits of having a mobile app is that all the information you’d like to provide to your customers – including special sales and promotions – is right at their fingertips. Through push notifications you’re getting even closer to a direct interaction, and can easily remind customers about your products and services whenever it makes sense.
3. Provide Value to Your Customers
Talking about on-hand information, how about digitalizing that loyalty program you have in place? Instead of sticking to the old point-collection card, make it possible for your customers to collect their rewards via your mobile app. The result? More downloads and more return customers.
4. Build Brand and Recognition
A mobile app for your business can greatly contribute to your brand awareness. I’d like to break this topic down into two aspects, the combination of which will make your app a true winner:
- Brand. A mobile app is like a blank billboard sign. You can do what you want with it; you can make it stylish, hip, functional, shocking, or informative. But what you really want to do is create an app that has features your customers will love, while at the same time is well branded and beautifully designed.
- Recognition. The more often you can get customers involved with your app, the sooner they will be inclined to buy your product and/or service. In advertising this is called the “effective frequency”: as a rule of thumb, hearing and/or seeing your brand approximately 20 times is what will get you truly noticed.
5. Improve Customer Engagement
No matter whether you are selling flowers or spa services, your customers need a way to reach you. Having a messaging (or help desk) feature within your app can really make a difference in the way you communicate with your customers. Think about it: Open Table, for example, built its entire business model around this principle. Instead of calling a restaurant for a table, you can book it with less than five clicks on their platform. Now think about it: How many customers would prefer to communicate with you via text than via phone?
6. Stand Out From the Competition
These days mobile apps at the small business level are still rare, and this is where you can take a big leap ahead of your competitors. Be the first in your neighborhood to offer a web-based mobile app to your customers. They’ll be astonished by your forward-thinking approach!
7. Cultivate Customer Loyalty
Last, but not least, the most important reason why you should consider building your own mobile app is customer loyalty. With all the noise out there — roadside banners, billboards, flashing signs, newspaper ads, flyers, coupons, websites, website banners, Facebook ads, and email marketing — we slowly lose our impact on customers because of the immense amount of advertising surrounding us all. It’s time to go back to making a true and sincere connection with your customers, and making them a loyal lover of your product and/or service. I am not saying a mobile app is going to save your business, but it can be a way of staying closer to your customers, and being just a “fingertip” away at all times.
Read Melanie’s full article (Here’s Why Your Business Needs Its Own Mobile App) here.
Now that you have gotten a peek at the major advantages of a mobile app for your business, the question is –how do you start?
Realview can help your business jumpstart to going mobile so you can reach more people worldwide. Start today and you can see your own mobile app come alive for free!
