Okay, so you’ve seen the light and know an app can help your business. How do you go about making your app great to ensure that all those great benefits actually materialize? Well, we’ve got five simple steps that will guide you in the right direction and keep the focus where it belongs:
On the users (aka “your customers”)!
Step 1: Figure out what your customers want in a mobile app.
There are plenty of wrong ways to decide what features should go in your app, but only one right way: you need to figure out what features your customers would like to have in your app. A good way to get started is to check out competitors, local or not, and see what their apps do. For example, if you’re a pizza shop, take a look in the App Store for neighborhood pizza shop apps and see what’s cookin’. Or if you’re a real estate agency, review the apps put out by other brokerages.
Once you’ve seen what’s out there, you’ll have a sense of the most common features. From there, you might want to poll customers and ask them directly about what they’d be interested in. You can do this with comment cards or by polling your fans on Facebook. Some of the feedback you receive is bound to be useful.
After this is all done, do your own brainstorming. Think about what your most popular products and services are, what questions are asked most frequently, and what mobile tech can do to help customers out.
Okay, that was the hard part. Now you’re ready for the easy part – creating the app!
Step 2: Create a business app that gives them what they want.
As you may know, Bizness Apps has an unbelievably simple and easy-to-use app builder. It will take you through the process step-by-step. All you have to do is make a few design, text and image choices, and then select the features you want. The rest is done automatically. Once your app is approved by the app marketplaces (Apple’s App Store, Google Play), you’re good to go!
Step 3: Spread the word.
An app with no downloads isn’t going to help you much. Mention your new app on your website, on social media, in your ads and mailers, and in standees at your location. Give people an incentive to download it, like a 10% off coupon or an entry into a raffle. Once your customer base has your app, they can start using it and the fun really begins.
Step 4: Analyze and tweak.
Use analytics after launch to see what users are doing with your app. If the most popular feature is buried, bring it front and center. If some features are going ignored, get rid of them. The point is to get focused on the users’ favorite functions and tailor the app experience to those as much as possible. Don’t abandon your app once it’s out. If you do, so will your customers.
Step 5: Maximize use.
Okay, now you’ve got a focused app that customers are using. You can now work on sending out push promotions to users to drive revenue and communicate about special events and deals. You can use mobile reservations to make things more efficient and convenient if your business is appointment-based. And you can open up a mobile store and take sales directly through your app.
There are loads of functions available, and once you’ve got a great app that offers the right ones, the goal is to make the most of it. Keep working to find the sweet spot where your customers are happy and your business is getting all the benefits of having a mobile app. If you do, you’ll maximize all the awesome opportunities that the mobile world has to offer.
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