The appeal of having an app when you’re a small business owner might be enticing, but you might think that’s it’s not completely necessary. And you’re right. You can easily run a small business without an app… just like you can, hypothetically, run a business without a Facebook page.
But it’s not effective to do so. As a small business owner, you should be looking for every opportunity to gain the trust and respect of your customers. Your goods and services might be enough to do that alone, but there are others competing with you who, let’s be honest, are also putting out comparative goods and services.
Mobile Apps are the chance to disrupt
All businesses are looking to get an edge over one another. We see this with local pizza parlors taking stabs at each other on their signs outside, and we see this with massive corporations – for example, the Mac vs. PC commercials that were going on for a while.
An app is your chance to get ahead of your competitors without even trying. Is an app going to bring in thousands of customers with no promotion? No, absolutely not. But by saying that you have an app, people immediately associate you with the multimillion (or even multibillion) dollars companies that do have them. And they’re not impressed with your competitors who don’t have them.
The longevity of apps
A website click is just that – a click. The user might go to your website, and they might even order from you, but after that, they are lost.
An app, on the other hand, stays on their phone until they delete it. Which is pretty infrequently – if you own a smartphone, think about how many apps are on your phone that you rarely use.
Each and every time they unlock their phones, your name and logo will be seen by them. Is this going to prompt a call or order every time they see it? Probably not. But it is going to get your name in their heads, so that when they are in the business of ordering something that you provide, you’ll be the first business on their minds.
Apps can promote and close
When a user installs an app on his phone, he’s agreeing to receive push notifications from you. A push notification is basically an alert that pops up on your phone… but the beautiful thing is that you can send them out whenever you want. If you’re a pizza place offering a new special, send out a push notification at 3 PM on a Friday saying what it is.
And then have your app close the deal. When a user swipes right on that push notification, your app will be opened, and if you have a lick of marketing sense you’ll have the phone number displayed prominently on it. Promote to users en masse, send them directly to your information without them ever leaving their phone, and close them on it immediately.
Is an app vital? For some businesses yes, for some businesses no. But it certainly doesn’t hurt, and it propels you above all of your competitors who don’t have one.