Smartphones are omnipresent today and along with them are mobile applications.
Times are changing rapidly in terms of technology. Today, we see an app for every possible thing on mobile stores. In such a scenario, there is no other way for businesses but to adapt to this growing technological environment.
With studies pointing out that around 90% of the average mobile time is spent on mobile applications, it opens up great potential for companies to use this to their advantage.
And the lessons on how to do this are everywhere. Looking at any viral app’s marketing and working strategies can be enough to guide a small business towards tremendous growth.
Regardless of whether we’re talking about Public Administrations or a fashion retail company, if you are aiming for business growth, sustainably and effectively, here’s how a mobile app can help you.
-
Lead generation
Lead or sales generation is known to be the most straight and obvious way of business because it directly adds to the company’s revenue. And for the companies who are too dependent on either in-person sales or their website solely for bringing in customers might be missing out on a lot of scope for expansion.
It is high time for businesses to modernize to match their customer base and include smartphone users in their target audience.
A number of eCommerce companies and retailers now claim that around 44% of their total sales come from mobile applications and another 23% are from mobile web, whereas just 33% are the result of the desktop website, claims a study by Criteo.
By reason of the high accessibility of mobile applications, they thrive among users who are always ready to try something new. At the same time, apps are much easier to promote on social media platforms as well. In such a scenario, an advertisement leading to a website can be seen as a clickbait and overall cumbersome.
-
Customer Retention
Every key to business growth in the book has been ticked in green by mobile applications, including one of the trickiest, Customer Retention.
Industry leaders have pointed out several times how mobile applications lead to better customer experience with brands. It makes the customer services more approachable and the transactions easier. In fact, the new-age intuitive interfaces of apps even help customers in navigating through it more smoothly as compared to a website and with machine learning in place; these apps can even virtually communicate with users and advise them on their queries.
With such great enhancements in the area of UX, it naturally enhances customer retention exponentially.
To get started, some of the key points to remember here are:
- Ensure the users of their data’s security and discretion.
- Keep payment options as minimal and straightforward as possible.
The biggest apprehensions that users display in using a new application are about the security of their personal information and the complexity and safety of payment option only.
-
Employee training
Besides customers, the other biggest resource for business growth is its workforce.
Time and again, it has been established that the training of employees is paramount. However, it has also been pointed out more than once that engaging employees in training programs and seeing its positive effects is not very common.
Mobile applications can provide a solution for both engagement and performance tracking. If you cannot afford a customized learning app per se, many SMBs eLearning authoring tools now come with the capability of building mobile-friendly learning courses as well.
The bottom line is that mobile improves the accessibility of training courses and thus are more effective than traditional ways.
Some of the most popular ways that mLearning or mobile apps is being for employee training are:
- Onboarding and compliance training through gamification, where engaging graphics and interactive narratives can be used to engross the learners. This way, learning can be incentivized for higher participation from employees.
- Departmental training through simulations can be achieved with the help of customized mobile apps.
- Soft skills training can be provided with the help of action and target-based mobile apps.
- Product training is one of the most apparent forms of training can be undertaken with mobile apps.
Not just this, but by selecting the right LMS which supports mLearning content development, you can even go beyond simple training methods and implement technologies like gamification, AR, VR, etc. as well.
Last thoughts,
Even though mobile apps, as a solution, for business growth is right in front of us, many business owners are yet to realize its not-so-hidden potential. For boosting productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, retention, even competitive edge, all it takes is one well-made-and-marketed mobile application.