Mobile apps are a convenient tool for any business, with which you can increase loyalty and audience reach, reduce the distance between the business and the end user, and always stay in touch. If you want to promote your business, increase profits and be one step ahead of the competition, do not ignore mobile applications.

Why Mobile Apps are important for business

If you are in doubt whether you need a mobile application, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the most important advantages for business and make a final conclusion.

1. Strengthening customer interactions

For business, this is one of the main advantages of mobile applications. You will have a marketing channel that allows you to communicate directly and effectively with customers. You will be able to send push and in-app notifications with important information (news, discounts, special offers). If the information turns out to be really useful, you will get more loyal customers who will use the company's services more often.

2. Increasing accessibility

Mobile apps make business accessible. This is relevant not only for the self-isolation regime, but also in everyday life. The client will be able to get detailed information about products or services at any time and anywhere, learn about options for ordering, add products to favorites and much more. Convenience and ease of interaction with business significantly increase loyalty and strengthen the seller-buyer relationship.

3. Convenient loyalty program

You will be able to digitize your loyalty program, forgetting about plastic cards. For customers who have installed a mobile application, you can also offer a one-time increased discount or a gift when buying. The program for receiving special rewards in the app (cashback from purchases, additional discount, free shipping for any purchase amount, etc.) will provide more downloads and regular customers.

4. The best positions in the market

Today, many companies have applications, but most mobile products are not functional enough, inconvenient and do not cause a desire to use them. Order the development of a mobile application that will take into account all the interests and desires of customers, and you will overtake your competitors by a few steps.

5. Transformation of the work format

The mobile application helps to improve the work of the business and master new formats. For example, many types of business can be painlessly fully or partially transferred to the Internet, reducing the cost of rent and wages (if fewer employees are required).

The experience of mobile app customers can also be used in real business, analyzing preferences, anticipating expectations and working with negative reviews.

6. Brand awareness

The mobile app is like an empty billboard on which you can place whatever you want. Your mobile product can be as functional, informative, stylish, shocking as possible — it all depends on your desire. The main thing is that the application should be convenient, with an intuitive, beautiful and branded design for your corporate identity.  This way you will increase brand awareness, establish an inextricable link between your products/services and customers.

Don't be afraid to involve consumers in promoting your business, invite them to share promotions and tag you on social networks, hold various contests that will attract new customers.

7. Unique services and payment

The functions of the application are directly related to the scope of your business. For example, the appointment function will be useful for the service sector. Push notifications will remind you about the upcoming appointment. Restaurants can offer delivery, reservation of a table for any day, and also take into account the wishes regarding the menu (for example, your client does not like onions or is allergic to kiwi).

Mobile payment is a feature that is convenient for customers of all business lines. Integrate payment options into the app and your customers will be able to pay with a bank card online. Modern payment systems are fast, easy to use and secure.

As you can see, a mobile application is not just a fashionable product, but a useful and very effective tool that is definitely worth using if you are interested in business development. You can order the development of a mobile and get the necessary advice right today at Anchante Solutions.

A business that strives for prosperity, increasing profits and wants to be one step ahead of its competitors cannot do without a mobile application. Statistics on the use of mobile devices convincingly proves that you should not abandon the development of the application:

• almost 90% of all the time that people spend on smartphones and tablets is accounted for by mobile applications;
• 85% of consumers between the mobile version of the site and the app will choose the app: it is more convenient, faster and more functional;
• the average user has about 30 apps installed on one device, and he spends 30 to 40 hours a month using them;
• mobile apps account for 42% of all mobile sales of Fortune 500 companies (ranking of the 500 largest global companies based on revenue).
• If you decide to create a mobile application for your business, you need to know exactly what it will take. However, if you are far from mobile development, then it may not be easy to approach the task for performers. It is important to take into account the peculiarities of the market environment and your own marketing goals. We will try to tell you as simply and clearly as possible about the life cycle of application development, about the goals and possible problems.

Analysis and marketing research

You may already have a few ideas for a future mobile app, and that's great, but before moving on to the design and development stage, you need to conduct a study of the business and the target audience. To make the application as useful and effective as possible, answer a few questions:

• What do you expect from a mobile app? How does this fit into the company's marketing plans?
• Who is your target audience (the more detailed you answer this question, the better)? What will customers use the app for?
• Which platform (or platforms) will you use? What budget are you ready to allocate for the development of the application?
• How long does it take to create an application? When do you plan to present the finished product to the audience and how will you promote it on the market?

Do not forget to look at the competitors' applications, evaluate the functions, capabilities, usability. So you can get interesting ideas and understand what exactly should not be in your application.

The answers to the above questions will help the development team to make an application that best meets the needs of your business and the needs of customers.

Goals and objectives of the mobile application

This is another important step in the application planning phase. You need to know what problems your application will help customers cope with, what functionality it will have (remember that the rule "the more, the better" is not always relevant in applications) and what will make the application as attractive as possible in the eyes of users.

Defining the functionality will help you come to a balance between the development budget, application capabilities and implementation deadlines.

Application framework and storyboard

The next step is visual embodiment. You should have a good idea of not only the functionality of the application, but also how it will look. You can provide the developer with screenshots of applications that you like, tell them about the color scheme (don't forget about the company's corporate colors), discuss transitions between screens and how users will navigate through the application.

It is important to remember here that the app is an extension of your brand. And do not forget that the design should emphasize customer care, be as convenient and intuitive as possible. Ease of interaction with customers should be at the forefront, and not the allocation of exclusivity of services.

Completion of the framework and testing of the prototype

The development team is already fully engaged in this stage. All necessary changes are recorded, the server part is being finalized, the first approval of the application is being held and its prototype is being created.

Prototyping allows you to evaluate the design concept, functionality, usability, identify shortcomings and errors. At this stage, you can attract customers to testing by offering them pleasant bonuses for testing and feedback. This way you will get the opinion of those for whom you are making the application and will be able to create a product that best meets the needs of your audience.

Application design

The prototype has been created, it's the turn of the design. The designer creates the actual screens that will be used in the application, it is important that you look at the finished design, make sure that the project includes all the ideas and wishes that appeared at an early stage of testing. Remember, you are creating an application that should not only be functional and useful, but also aesthetically pleasing. The target audience should enjoy using the app, so UI/UX details are of great importance.

A little more about the development of the application

The development process consists of many steps: creating a design, choosing a solution for data storage, configuring the API and the backend of the application, ensuring data security. All this is handled by the development team. They can also set up accounts for the app stores that you are going to use to promote the finished product. Each of these stages requires a certain amount of time, so it is impossible to make a high-quality application in 2-3 days. It is better to allocate enough time for development so that the team can work without haste, controlling each stage.

Choose the developer carefully, pay attention to the experience, the products made and the degree of comfort when communicating. If you can't find a common language with the performer, no matter how good they are, it's better to look for another one.

When ordering the development of an application, be sure to sign a contract with the developer, a non-disclosure agreement will not be superfluous, as well as the timing of obtaining certain results. So you will be calmer, and it will be more convenient for developers.

Checking and checking again

This stage is one of the most important and exciting for the customer: you have an application that is almost ready for official release. All the tasks have been completed, the text and the necessary buttons are perfectly placed, the color scheme is beyond praise, it remains only to test the application in various real-world scenarios to fix technical flaws and possible bugs.

We recommend not to save on testing, because it largely depends on how fast and stable the application will work. Even if something worked at the early testing stage, this does not mean that there were no errors and shortcomings at the final stage. Testing can be fully entrusted to the developer team or connect users to it who will be able to offer interesting ideas and improvements.

When you are convinced that the application is working correctly in all possible scenarios, and you are satisfied with the result from the application icon to the very last screen, it is time for the last preparations.

Preparing for launch

The steps you take to prepare for the launch of the application can have the greatest impact on its success. We recommend that you involve the marketing department or specialists from the developer's company in the early stages of development. They will select the appropriate keywords needed for SEO and App Store Optimization (ASO), both of which are key to promotion. Market research and keyword analysis will help you choose the name and make a description of the application for the website and various articles about the product.

A full-fledged website or a page on the company's website is an excellent tool for branding and increasing awareness of the target audience. Promote the app on social networks, tell us about it in the news on the company's website. If the company has a blog, write about changes throughout the development process to fuel user interest. Ask for help from popular bloggers, post advertising articles on major thematic resources.

Consider alternative app markets besides the AppStore and Google Play. Submit the app to PreApps — this app store brings together developers and users who are ready to test beta versions of products. So you are guaranteed to get feedback before the official release of the application.

Official release

The release date should be well planned by the marketing department, your customers should look forward to this day. The more actively you stir up interest, the more downloads you will provide in the first days of launch.

After launching the application, do not stop there, because now you need to get the maximum possible number of downloads. Come up with incentives for installation: a one-time discount, a service for customers or a free product for everyone who downloaded the application. Remember that marketing is a continuous process and the more actively you talk about the application, the more effectively it will work for you.

Follow user reviews, respond to their comments and problems. Timely correction or update will help to retain people, increase loyalty and show everyone your good attitude towards customers.

As you can see, application development is a complex process consisting of many stages, each of which is important. If you don't want to delve deeply into the development, call us and tell us how you want to see the application, we will do the rest ourselves.

Do you need our help? Anchante team is more than happy to answer any questions you may have about mobile development and other software development topics. Thinking about getting new software for your business. We are here to help!