By Sahil Miglani
Being a part of digital age how often you have come across this phrase “it’s time to go mobile?” I guess quite a few times. The world is evolving so as the modern technologies. There was a time when mobile phones were just considered as a medium of communication unlike now where it has penetrated in our lives as a utility device.
Mobile devices have become smart, thanks to mobile app development, which has transformed our lives like never before. The evolution of mobile applications has given rise to the world of apps that actually make smartphones, smart. With smartphones available at cheaper prices and accessible to approximately everyone, it has become necessary for not only large scale enterprises to go mobile but also for small business owners.
It can be considered as an alarming time for the owners to launch their mobile apps and indulge themselves in mobile marketing. And if not an app, at least have a mobile friendly website, which Google has also signaled to as a factor for better ranking in search engines.
Here are several reasons which you need to consider to go mobile this year if you are a small business owner.
1. Rise in Smartphone Users
Smartphone users are increasing day after day. The numbers and stats related to the same are certainly staggering. Around 1.5 billion smartphone users were recorded in 2014, which is estimated to rise to around 2.5 billion by the end of 2019. This means about 36% of world’s population will have a smartphone by 2018.
The numbers are enticing for any business owner to plan a mobile app in the coming days especially for a small business owner, which operates locally in a particular area. It is probably the right time to invest money and resources in building a mobile app for your business considering the estimated rise to happen in the years to come.
As reported by Telegraph, around 70% of the world’s population will have a smartphone by 2020. Globally, the rate at which smartphones are being adopted is incredible asking businesses around the globe to act accordingly.
2. Dependency on Smartphones
It is an inevitable fact that users are becoming dependent on smartphones for a wide range of daily tasks. From communicating with closed ones to shopping, from reading books to listening to latest tracks, from banking to trading, from booking a movie ticket to reserving a table at the restaurant, everything can be done via gadget which is smart in every respect. Hence, why would anyone look elsewhere? Smartphone is the thing; we all need today desperately.
With the rise in smartphones users, this dependency will see a new peak and small business owners like you would regret later if you still don’t go mobile.
3. Healthy Customer Interaction
Being an owner of a small enterprise you would like to present a healthy ecosystem to your clientele irrespective of their caste, color, or religion. At no cost you want them to ditch you. You want to create a bond with your customers that can strengthen over time, don’t you? Of course yes, every business wants loyal customers.
A mobile app can serve the purpose brilliantly. You can push customized notifications or special promotions to your customer base with an added advantage of call-to-actions. Marketing budget can be reduced significantly as there won’t be any need to spend huge on newspaper ads, TV commercials or billboards. Call-to-actions can give a boost to your sales as well.
4. Effective Targeting
With considerable data collection, mobile serves as a perfect platform to target the desired audience. According to a research, 68 million searches are carried out every hour across the world on mobile devices, which is definitely an open ocean for you to find prospective clients.
Based on data derived from app users’ browsing history, interests, saved website links and bookmarks, an app owner can effectively plan a marketing campaign to achieve desired results. This means you’ll hit the soft spot right from the word go and your marketing efforts won’t go in vain.
5. Mobile Marketing Produces Impressive Results
Marketing helps you in outclassing competition only if it’s done right. Mobile is booming, which means as a business owner you should invest heavily in mobile marketing. Not only because it’s trending but it produces mesmerizing results.
You can target your set of audience by pushing notifications, text messages, emails, sponsored posts on apps like Facebook, Twitter and more with call-to-actions. This is where mobile marketing stands tall against any other form of marketing.
Approximately 2 billion emails are accessed every hour across the world by mobile users, which means the possibility of your email going unnoticed is quite low.
6. Easy and Affordable App Builders
You don’t have to rely upon giant application developers to build a business app for you, instead, there are multiple small players in the market, which grant to the leverage of building a bespoke app at an affordable pricing. This doesn’t mean that app would be sluggish or lack functionality. Apps created by these app builders are proficient in carrying out routine functions, managing complexities and also come with an added advantage of scalability.
It is a feasible option for any small business owner to get the things started, which later can be scaled up to an in-house dedicated development team.
7. Better Consumer Engagement
Smartphone ownership has already surpassed the laptop ones. The former accounts for 81% while the latter has a market share of 76%. Consumers have found a new and an easy way to accomplish their goals, that is via mobile apps. Going mobile could help small businesses to engage users in a more pertinent way.
They can directly ask them for a valuable feedback, to write a review or propose a suggestion regarding their product or service. They can keep users engaged and informed at the same time with latest updates and trending stories about the industry they operate in.
8. Improved User Experience
Mobile apps can help in enhancing user experience. With the help of an app you can collect necessary details, which can be later churned down to produce useful information related to user’s behavior, interests and time he spends online. This can help you in devising tailored strategies for your customers. Plus, you can also build a strong relationship with your customers by offering them to join loyalty programs, play lucky draws and more such stuff.
9. Services On the Go
As a local service provider, you’d like to capture the essence of the situation then and there itself without leaving it for future. If you are a restaurant owner or a salon owner or a doctor at a private clinic, no matter what your profession is, mobile apps can help you serve your customer base in an efficacious manner. They can grant users an easy medium to locate your office via map integration or book an appointment at the comfort of their couch or make a reservation for a particular service.
10. Mobile Trend Isn’t Fading Soon
With every passing year, the number of smartphone users will keep on increasing. Mobile boom will not be perished anytime soon. So, if you are still not online then it’s probably high time that you should, else you’ll be missing out on a lot of new customers or probably it could be an end of your business within a matter of 10 years, if not earlier.
There are several ways to keep your customers happy, engaged and informed, but with a mobile app, you tend to hold an upper hand against your competition leveraging your customers to get in touch with you anytime and anywhere, that too a screen tap away.
