If you are in two minds about getting a mobile app to support and promote your business, it is perhaps the lack of proper knowledge responsible for your confusion.
There is a variety of broad questions about app development probably running through your head:
- Does your business need a mobile app?
- Why should apps use smartphone technology and nothing else?
- How should we plan and implement app development?
- How much should we invest?
Well, here are some answers to some of these questions.
Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App
According to analysts, there are more than a billion smart phones being operated worldwide. Of these, 1.2 billion devices are being used to operate mobile applications at the end of 2013. The usage of applications is expected to grow by 29.8 percent each year and thus amount to 4.4 billion users by the end of 2017.
What is evident from these statistics and general patterns of mobile application usage is:
- Mobile app technology is here to stay. Creating an app would thus be a long-term investment and not short-term marketing measure.
- If designed intelligently, mobile applications can help boost brand awareness and affinity.
- Mobile applications can integrate several business objectives including business marketing, consumer engagement, customer service, promotional activity and more.
Thus, theoretically speaking, mobile applications are, amongst other things, effective business tools that can help an enterprise expand and grow. Having said that, it is also important to highlight that there is a lot which goes into creating an application, which succeeds in its business objectives.
So, unless you are prepared to invest much time, effort and funds into developing a well-functioning mobile application, the probability of obtaining the desired results is fairly low.
How to Go About Mobile App Development
Once you decide to give mobile app technology a shot, you must settle on the platform(s) you’ll be targeting – iOS, Android, Windows or Symbian. The next set of decisions would concern the design and development of the application. To this effect, you’ll have several options:
- Hire a technical development partner who will provide you with inputs from content experts to create a successful ass pitch.
- You can contract a technical expert, freelance app developer or an established development agency to make your app.
- Consider developing the app yourself using Do-It-Yourself development tools that can be used by people who are tech-savvy but not experts.
- If you want to take things slow, you can enter into the world of mobile apps through advertising on free apps which redirect traffic to your mobile website. Depending upon the consumer response, you can then decide whether to make an app or not.
Budget/Time Required
Clearly, creating an application for your business is a time and money consuming process, that is, if you want to create a good app that is capable of generating the desired result.
In terms of budgeting, there are two cost-cutting measures you may consider
- One, do not try and implement too many elements of your mobile strategy all at once. Go one at a time based on the outcome and experience of each element that you put into place.
- Two, consider creating the app yourself or employing amateur app developers instead of hiring costly app development agencies. If the latter option appeals to you more, make sure to have a look at the amateur’s profile and portfolio before employing – you don’t want any ugly surprises later!
With regard to timing, do not look for shortcuts. Expend as much time as required for developing and implementing your mobile strategy; anything done in a hurry is hardly going to bear good results.
About The Author
Vishal Gumber is the founder of Appsquare—an app development company based in Sydney that creates innovative apps, provides part funding for selected app ideas and also helps app developers get funding through its network of Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors.
Image source: https://designbeep.designbeep.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/mobile-business-app.jpg
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This is a timely post, Vishal! Thank-you! (And thanks to Jayme for hosting your guest post!)
A couple of questions:
1) Which Do-It-Yourself development tools do you recommend to people who want to try developing their own app?
2) If a reader here has an idea for an app, how should he (or she) protect his idea from being stolen by an app developer he hires? I wonder how many people never see their possibly-great ideas come to fruition because they’re afraid of that!
Speaking of apps for businesses, I just got an email this morning from the grocery store I frequent, asking me to download their new app. The lure they used to get me to download is a list of extra discounts available only on the app! I took the bait. Hopefully the extra discounts will keep coming.
~Michelle for NEM
New England Multimedia Morning, Michelle! I hope Vishal stops in from Australia. Great questions. Thanks.
Vishal, thank you for your thoughts about mobile apps for business. I have two other thoughts/questions for you.
Does it really make sense for EVERY business to have a mobile app? What, for example, would Jayme need a mobile app for? To me, it makes the most sense for her to have a mobile-friendly blog (which she has)…what value does an app add for someone like her?
Another key consideration is audience. I highly recommend checking the site analytics and seeing if traffic is even coming in through mobile devices before creating an app for those devices – why build it if they don’t want it?
New England Multimedia I am so sorry for dropping in so late. I had marked this as a task in my calendar, but it just fell through the cracks. With DIY tools one can develop very simplistic apps. What any user would find useful though too is rather subjective. Anyhow, Appsbuilder and Appmakr are some user friendly tools that one could try.
I would recommend signing a confidentiality agreement with a developer before sharing your idea. Most reputed app developers have complete confidentiality and secrecy systems in place.
Hope this helps. Please accept my apology for the late response.
jennwhinnem Hi and really sorry for late response. To answer your question whether or not your business needs an app depends on your market and your business goals. Essentially, if you are selling something and want an instant connect with your target market a mobile app could be very useful. Again it can also prove to be an effective branding tool for businesses in the retail as well as services space. In the service sector for instance, if you have an online product to sell, offering it’s app version can be a good idea.
Hope this helps.
You know that mobile market is exploding, companies want mobile apps for their businesses. It’s time today to get your members to the next level and make apps for them. It’s not even necessary to have any programming knowledge to create an app, lots of platforms out there like snappii.com