If you think that it is only the big corporations that can have their own mobile apps, think again, as you may well be missing out on an excellent opportunity to grow your business. Plenty of small to medium-sized companies are beginning to develop their own apps and making the most of the mobile trend for building incredible customer experiences.

Small businesses want to be ahead of the game and their competitors and choose mobile developers who help them create their own dedicated apps to help them stand out in their field. By coming up with and developing some simple app ideas, they are taking their marketing strategy to the next level and giving their customers another convenient platform to engage with.

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Here are six reasons why your business needs a mobile app.

1. An app serves as a direct marketing channel

A well designed app can serve a multitude of functions. They can give customers valuable information, allow them to book services or purchase goods, a messaging service and chat forums, amongst other things. However, the most important benefit of having a mobile app is that all the information that a business wants to provide to their customers is right at their fingertips.  Push notifications can be used to remind customers about the brand directly.

2. They build brand awareness

The mobile app will work as an advertisement on the smartphones of customers. Apps can be functional or stylish, or both, but the main thing is that they are easy to use and serve a purpose. The more often that your target audience interacts with your app, the sooner they will be likely to buy your product or service. This is called effective frequency rule, which essentially means that potential customers need to see or hear about your brand around 20 times in order for you to stick in their minds.

3. They can boost customer engagement

Ok, so developing a mobile app is not cheap, but it gives your customers an additional platform on top of your business website and social media pages to reach you and engage with you. They are great because they give your customers flexibility when it comes to interacting with brand content.

 Have a think about how your customers like to communicate with you and implement this into the app to boost customer engagement.

4. Apps help to encourage customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is another excellent reason to invest in a mobile app. Customers are constantly bombarded by advertising all day long – on social media, on the television, billboards, through email marketing and direct mail, websites etc., so it can be easy to lose impact due to the sheer amount they are already surrounded with. Instead of sending emails that never get opened with coupons for money off or loyalty cards that remain in a purse forgotten about, have a QR code or voucher codes sent through on the app. You can also have push notifications that remind them if they haven’t bought something for a while or if there is a new product that their previous purchasing history suggests they will like.

5. Apps bring you a lot of insight into customers

Data is always going to help you when it comes to moving your business forward, and mobile apps allow brands to receive detailed information and data about their target demographic. You can also directly ask for feedback from customers within the app. From that data, you can identify new business trends and opportunities, look at where you can improve and continue to develop your customer service to meet the demands of your customers.

6. Get Ahead Of Your Competitors

While mobile apps are rapidly gaining in popularity, they are still yet to be implemented by many companies, especially if you work in a more niche field. By making sure you have one, you are one (big!) step ahead of your competitors and make you look more professional and more forward thinking.

Even small businesses can now build and test mobile apps easily and relatively cheaply, meaning that they can take advantage of the many benefits that a mobile app can bring in terms of attracting customers, converting clicks to sales and building a brand. Before long, they are going to be a standard part of business marketing, so make sure you are ready!