By 2019, there will be over 5 billion smartphone users on the planet. They are customers, employees, business owners and potential sources of valuable marketing information. Being savvy in the mobile marketing can reach a new audience and improve your profits. Here are a few ways your business can leverage the power of mobile applications across all business sectors.
Build Customer Engagement
Although they are important features of superior marketing strategies, customer interaction isn’t primarily about shares, good reviews and stunning marketing campaigns. These elements can attract customers and garner positive attention, but app design features work to maintain the customers your business already has and work to keep customers who are new to your brand.
Most smartphone users spend most of their online time in-app. If they are drawn to your brand and have downloaded your app, then you want to keep them there. You can do this in a number of ways. First, rewarding app users with pre-sale savings, debut products and rewards are a proven ways of keeping users engaged. Push notifications help build relationships with customers, especially when notifications are based on customized, personal preferences. Geo-targeting is another in-app enhanced feature that lets users know when they are nearing a brick-and-mortar location. There are even apps that help you plan events to help grow your business. When planning or attending a function, look for a mobile event app for download and it will help you network with partners and customers to make the most of the event. If your business offers services, like e-commerce hosting or other digital packages, an app can offer free services to new users and convert them to premium users over time.
Design a App
Owning a business isn’t always about attracting and retaining customers. Engaging and retaining talented employees, and increasing their productivity, are essential elements of an effective workflow. In a perfect entrepreneurial world, every consumer-facing app in existence should have an employee-facing app equivalent. Since every employee is also a consumer, employees have come to expect their business app’s features to echo the consumer experience. When this doesn’t happen, employees can become frustrated with business apps and may fail to adopt expensive, mobile ERP systems.
Gamification, visual mapping and other common consumer-facing features can be redesigned with employees in mind. For instance, in-app messaging speeds real-time communication while providing a secure business environment. Visual mapping assists with data analysis, making a quick glance as effective as scrolling through a spreadsheet. By choosing business apps with sleek designs and cross-platform adaptability, you can help your business increase employee buy-in and improve overall productivity.
Harness the Internet of Things
For industries that are dependent on lean inventory practices, service delivery or efficient customer services, the internet of things is capable of handling a variety of supply chain management tasks, agent tracking and retail services. On the consumer end, internet of things technology enables remote access point-of-sale for easy checkouts.
On the business side, IoT devices are typically stand-alone, hand-held devices, or smartphone-enabled devices, that upload information in real-time. This could include pallet location in a warehouse or inventory of stocked items. Once an item is checked out, an IoT enhanced device can wirelessly submit a new stock order through its cloud-based supply chain management system.
For service and utility industries, cloud-based tracking devices allow supervisors to track where service or utility trucks are located in real-time. This assists in ensuring that everything from emergencies to pizza deliveries are met with a quick response.
Apps are multi-faceted, flexible technology options that can be put to use throughout businesses in any industry and across businesses of any size. Investing in app development can improve customer engagement, increase employee productivity and improve customer service. All of these things work together to launch business growth.
