Mobile users have now observed the host of mobile apps crowding the screen. But, interestingly, many more are in the Google Play Store, waiting to be installed at the touch of your finger. Have you ever wondered who makes them and why?
Who needs Mobile Apps, more than just industry leaders?
Mobile apps belong not only to the big players like Amazon, Netflix, or LinkedIn. Instead, mobile apps have become an integral part of our lives nowadays, thanks to the ubiquitous nature of smartphones and the internet. From social media platforms to messaging apps, from online shopping to booking a ride, mobile apps are an inseparable part of our daily routine, signifying that every small and medium business is leveraging mobile apps to further their business in this digital era we are living.
According to Statista, in Q4 of 2024, Android users downloaded 27.5 billion apps from Google Play. That’s an astronomical number, indeed!
Why do businesses need mobile app development?
Today, businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to SMBs across the globe, are using apps that give inherent benefits that one cannot overlook in today’s digital world. Here are the top reasons that businesses should consider before developing a mobile app for themselves:
- Creates Brand Awareness and Drives Sales
Every time you pick up the phone, you may use a few apps and not even open the scores of others spotting the screen. Nevertheless, they exist and continue to grab a place in the corner of your mind. Later, you may use any one of them at an opportune moment. With the correct settings and configurations, app notifications help businesses keep their brand or products in customers’ minds. Strong brand awareness can drive digital traffic, outperform competitors, and increase revenue.
Startups and SMBs can use the power of mobile apps to reinforce their omnichannel sales strategy. In addition, they can improve their omnichannel experiences by developing mobile apps that let customers shop and make purchases from their smartphones anyplace, anytime. Thus, mobile apps play a significant role in creating a solid brand presence and awareness.
- Builds A Direct Brand Connect and Aids Brand Loyalty
Apps are a great mode to provide all the relevant information about your product or service. It is a crucial one-way and two-way communication platform to keep your potential buyers updated with product launches and schemes or promotional offers. In addition, businesses can attract repeat customers by offering loyalty card programs, which customers can use to track their earned points. Small businesses can use these loyalty programs to compete with larger companies for customer loyalty.
In short, mobile apps are essential for businesses in driving brand engagement, creating value, and fostering brand loyalty.
- Works as a Powerful Marketing Tool
Mobile apps serve as a powerful marketing tool for businesses. Take, for instance, apps like Uber, Telegram, Airbnb, and many other brands that have affected our lives in many ways. Their apps are the primary platform for sales, marketing and promotion, customer service, upselling, and more.
Mobile apps also help small businesses to launch and test their marketing campaigns’ effectiveness. It allows them to pivot quickly between multiple channels, as running ads on mobile apps comparatively requires less capital than traditional mediums. This can benefit small businesses with small budgets. In addition, it provides marketers a strategic edge to curate and target specific groups with promotional offers to create rapid demand and momentum for their latest product or service.
4. Consumer Insights
Businesses can use the data insights from mobile apps to chalk out their marketing and product strategies based on customer behaviors, preferences, and patterns. Combining this information with data from social media platforms and customer feedback can help businesses understand consumer preferences and behaviors to gain an edge over their competitors.
The above factors highlight that mobile apps are vital in enabling businesses to connect with customers and influence their buying decisions.
The many benefits businesses see in developing mobile apps also explain the surge in demand for Mobile App developers. Backing this surge is the Statista report that predicts that the mobile app industry revenue is estimated to cross $900 billion by 2024.
As expected, mobile App developers respond to this increased demand by developing many apps across categories, including Lifestyle, Social-Media, Utility, Games, Entertainment, and News.
Key Factors Businesses Should Consider while Investing in a Mobile App Development
As a Startup or an SMB, if you are considering investing in developing a mobile app as a business promotion tool, it is worthwhile to evaluate multiple factors to optimize the utilization of your investments.
Let’s examine some key factors:
- In-depth Research
Your target audience and the voice of your customer determine the nature of your Mobile App. The knowledge gained through deep research into industry trends, customer demands, competitor performance, etc., defines the app’s success. Therefore, businesses must clearly define the app’s purpose and the unique features to be incorporated that align with the audience and business needs. Specifying the reason, components, methods, and timing of a mobile app requirement is critical to attract customers and build a lasting connection with them quickly.
- Mobile App Development Framework Selection
This is like ensuring you get the right launch pad to make the journey smooth and seamless. First, decide what platform would meet your business requirement. A native platform like iOS or Android or a cross-platform development framework would allow you to work on multiple platforms and operating systems.
To make the right choice, you must consider your business dynamics, priorities like security, product attributes, UI, UX, the target audience, customer demand, and pricing strategy. Then, striking a delicate balance of all these factors, you can shortlist the most suitable Mobile App Development Framework.
- Plan of Action
Do your homework well before launching the app. App development is costly and time-consuming, and a wrong step can be disastrous. So, before you start, include the typical stages of app architecture design, development, testing, enhancement, and deployment in the plan.
Monitor and track the project closely against your budgeted effort and cost along the stages. Most importantly, release a beta version of the app and test it rigorously before launching the final version.
- Effective and Ease of Use
The ultimate success of the Mobile App in promoting your business depends on the ease with which customers use it and the value they derive from it. Therefore, it must consume minimal processing power and memory space. This encourages customers to download the app and start using it. Ultimately, it must be easy to use and accomplish its goal.
- Market Readiness
Finally, when the app is launch-ready, define an appropriate marketing strategy. Consider your target audience, industry demand, and your business offering to devise a plan that enhances the reach of your business with optimum resources.
Popular Mobile Apps Development Tools and Frameworks for Consideration:
The benefits of a Mobile App Development for businesses can be unprecedented. So, let’s explore some tools and mobile app development frameworks for developing these apps for iOS and Android users. Here’s the list:
- React Native: Developed and supported by Facebook, big players like Amazon, Tesla, Airbnb, etc., use it. Their robust performance, reusability, and compatibility with third-party extensions make them a preferred choice for developers.
- Flutter: Developers love this open framework from Google. Because it supports Not only rapid cross-platform development but also enables engaging visuals, which is so crucial for mobile apps.
- Xamarin: Acquired by Microsoft, it requires only a few lines of code in C#. So, it supports easy and quick development without compromising efficiency and quality.
The above insights tempt you to start building a mobile app for your business. But here’s the catch.
Hiring an excellent mobile app developer can be challenging. You may end up with one who cannot deliver to your satisfaction. The good news is that you can reach out to us at info@clariotech.com. Powered by our high-performing talent pool of mobile app developers, we can take care of your mobile app design and development needs right from idea to the executive at a competitive cost with a faster turnaround time and with complete ownership. Isn’t that a winning mix?
