Why it makes sense for your business to develop a local business mobile app and why it may not!
You might have been considering if it’s advisable for your business to invest the time and money required to develop and implement a mobile app for your local business. Does a mobile app even make sense for your business? What would it cost? Who’s going to update it? These and several other questions need answers in order to really make a well informed decision. Let’s look at some of what you need to know.
The Pros and Cons of creating a mobile app for your business
Pros:
- More than 50 percent of adult Americans use smartphone technology
- Enables you to brand your products and services more easily
- Increases customer retention and loyalty, as the app is always in front of them
- App users typically spend far more time on apps than on mobile sites
- Usually load faster than mobile sites
- Available offline, though they would need to login to order, or perform almost every other action
Cons:
- A mobile app needs to be developed for each platform, iPhone, Android, Windows, or any other platform
- Mobile apps require regular care, both as regard fresh content along with technology updates
- Mobile apps are not as easy to optimize as a mobile website
- Mobile ads could well serve the same purpose
- Can be wildly expensive! While there are a few Do It Yourself solutions, they are minimal in functionality and hard to update.
There are more apps than you could ever imagine, but some are more useful than others. Here is an example of how apps were developed in the health care market. Count the expense of making your app versus the usefulness and appeal. While we are convinced that you definitely need a mobile version of your website, the question of whether or not you need a mobile app is one you need to carefully consider.
