Your business has a WordPress website, do you need a mobile app?
Mobile apps can help you reach your customers in new and exciting ways, helping to grow your business. Let’s look at 4 reasons an app can supplement your existing website and marketing strategy.
1. Your customers love apps
Everybody loves apps. Your customers use them every day, and search the app store for new ones.
Apps are fun to use, and really easy to access. In fact, they are so popular that they account for 86% of device time, as opposed to only 14% on the mobile web.
Image: Flurry Insights
Without a mobile app, you are missing out on being a part of that 86%.
Let’s look at why mobile apps dominate device usage.
2. They are faster and easier to use
Using an app is easier and faster than going to your website.
Here’s what the experience is like going to your website on a mobile device. Click the web browser icon, wait for it to load, type in a web address or Google search, wait for your site to load, then look for what you want. Mobile websites are not always pretty, so if you go through all that hassle and then the site is difficult to navigate, it’s frustrating.
Compare that to the experience on a mobile app, (assuming the app is already downloaded to the phone). Click the app icon, load the app, find what you are looking for quickly. Much better!
I personally have gone to far too many mobile websites that have a horrible experience. Even if the site design is responsive (optimized for mobile), most websites load too much junk on the page. Ads, email opt-ins, sidebars, unrelated content, large images, etc. I get frustrated and immediately go elsewhere because the experience is so bad. Mobile apps tend to have a much better experience because they are faster and less cluttered.
Apps can be much faster and easier to use than websites due to the technology. A lot of the files that need to be loaded over the web are already on your phone in an app. That means significantly faster load times, which results in a huge boost in engagement with your audience.
3. Distribution
Jason Calcanis, founder of Engadget, has famously given this advice: “Be amazing, be everywhere, be real.”
Getting your business on the iOS and Android app stores is one more way to be everywhere. Your customers have one more way to consume your content, purchase your products, or get in touch with you.
If you have an icon on the homescreen of your customers’ phones, they see your business every time they look at the screen. Even if they don’t open the app, that can be multiple times per day that they see your logo. It’s a great way to stay at the top of their minds.
4. Engagement
If your app allows your customers to get to your content faster and easier, they will engage with it better.
They will know that when you publish a new article, or add a new product, they can quickly get to it. It’s dead simple for them to open your app to see what’s new, so they will come back more often.
Even better than that is push notifications.
It’s like sending a text message to all of your customers at once, even if the app is not open. Have a sale? Publish a new article? Have an upcoming event? Send a notification right to your customers pockets instantly.
That type of engagement can only come from a mobile app.
How to get a mobile app
If you’ve decided that a mobile app is right for you, it’s time to look at your options.
You can either get a custom app or do it yourself. Custom apps can be really expensive, anywhere from $10,000 and up. A tool like AppPresser can help you build an app for much less than that, contact us for more information.