Standards change as technology moves forward, and that’s just a fact. A few years ago, it was seen as progressive for a company to have a website and downright strange to have a business account on Facebook or Instagram. Today, those are bare minimums that companies need to achieve to just stay in business, as the bulk of marketing, advertising and even just searching for products and services occurs online.
The new frontier for business is the use of mobile applications, otherwise known as “apps”. There is a huge market for application development, but it’s there precisely because people like using them, and companies want to appease and please their audience. Not sure exactly what having an app can do for your business? Here are some everyday examples that we run into every day.
- Banking
Being able to do online banking for your mobile device is a huge plus. But you’ll see that almost everyone uses the bank’s mobile app instead of going to the mobile website. Why? Well it gives better functionality, it’s optimized to show up and be used easily on small screens and is fast and more convenient.
- Travel
Trying to tap your travel dates on that tiny calendar that pops up when you want to fill it out isn’t difficult. It’s impossible. That’s why lots of savvy travel companies, like airlines or hotel booking sites, have mobile apps that aren’t just easier to use- they’re smarter. They will store all the information you need about your upcoming travel plans, notify you of any sudden changes, and you always have the contact information up and ready to use if needed.
- Art & Culture
Are you one of those people who like to read the descriptions beside displays at a gallery or museum? Well whether you are or not, there are a lot of us out there who do. We want to know more about a certain artist, painting, animal, or whatever it is that the exhibit is about. This is a perfect opportunity to ditch the paper booklets and forget about the little, hard-to-read labels. An app where you key in the installation’s assigned number or scan a QR code is a much more sophisticated way to go around this. You can include options for sound and even video to make it a more interactive and multimedia experience.
- Health and Fitness
They say that eating well and exercising regularly is something we should be doing all the time on a daily basis. So what better way to engage with your audience than giving them an app with which they can easily use to reference, input data into, or be reminded by? There is huge potential in this sector, from apps that suggest healthy meals made from the food you have in your fridge to an app with workout videos that tracks your success and awards your good behavior. Though there are already many thematic applications out there, there is room for more smart ones that delivers solutions to your buyer persona’s pain points.
So there, can you picture the use of an app for your customers or supporters? Something that will even more intimately connect you with them on an everyday level? But before you get scared and start thinking that this whole application business is out of your league, there are a few things that you should know. Though you can of course hire a company or freelancer to make the app for your company, you can create your ideal app easily with a custom, cloud-based app builder. Now you can be on top of the game, without breaking the bank or a sweat!
