Literally everyone’s online in today’s day and age. And why that’s important for businesses around the world is because everyone online is be a potential customer.
Building an app is often considered an unnecessary addition to the already hefty expenses of bringing a startup business plan into effect. However there are some things that don’t add up about not having an online, ever-present communication channel that lets your customer interact with you any time of the day!
According to data on Appinventiv, users of a mobile app spend close to 201.8 minutes on a monthly average basis. And on the other hand, they invest less than 11 minutes on mobile web. That’s 18 times lesser than the time spent on apps. In such a scenario, it becomes important for a strategic and far-visioned entrepreneur to really check what’s on the table that makes mobile apps such a great choice for the end users.
In this article, we’ll be talking about exactly that, and we’ll discuss how it ultimately leads to a significant and noticeable increase in startup success rate. But first, let’s find out what are the kind of apps that engage most of the consumers – through this simplified pie chart sourced from Flurry Analytics –
Sales Growth
This is one of the main reasons why mobile apps are absolutely essential for emerging startups. Mobile apps serve as a progressive and consistent revenue series and can turn out to be the most important front of sales growth.
According to data from Statista, as of 2020, there’s close to 4.206 trillion US dollars’ worth of sales generated by retail e-commerce worldwide. It is expected to grow to 6.54 trillion US dollars in a very short span of two years, and this data only points towards an increase in startup success rate.
People are increasingly growing more comfortable with online shopping and redeeming online services that charge affordable amounts. Online sales mean more convenience and less waste of time and energy for the end user. This is why having an app with the tried and tested revenue models of the industry, will give your business a new flight.
Be present, at all times
If someone said this twenty years ago, people would’ve deemed them out of their minds, but it’s the truest thing in today’s day and age – the user is literally carrying your business with them everywhere they go.
Apps help increase visibility and keep the end use constantly in touch with your services. They are just one click away from availing them. And even if they are not constantly getting something done on your app, it’s better than having them visit your website once and forgetting it ten minutes down the line – given the subliminal amount of time users like to spend on mobile web.
Create a Direct Marketing Channel
Through a mobile app, you can assuredly increase your startup success rate since it serves as a direct marketing channel along with the actual functionality. They offer to the customer a lot of promotional things to engage in – from general information about the company, their services and the prices to booking details, news feed and upcoming discounts.
All of this information, that you’d otherwise have to provide them through different resources like direct e-mail marketing, company newsletters, brochures, etc. – is now organized and streamlined in one place – at the fingertips of your customer. This not just reduces the challenges in your marketing strategy, but also make the experience of the customer easier, more sophisticated and more assorted.
Customer Engagement Has a New Meaning
One of the biggest determining factors of the fact that mobile apps help increase the success rate of a startup is that they allow you to notify the end user of yourself! With push notifications, you get a one step closer to their lives and you establish yourself as something they need to attend to.
On top of it, an app serves as the ultimate interface where your customer can interact with your brand uninterruptedly and according to their own convenience. All of this makes it easier for them to associate with the brand and feel like a part of it.
Branding Coherence
One imperative that any success of any business relies upon is the consistency of the brand. Mobile apps help achieve that efficiently because they serve as a one-stop point for any customer to get all the information they need about a business. If your app’s interface and functionality is coherent with the other facets of your business, it really gives out the message of consistency and aids your overall branding.
Increase Your Audience Base Multifold
There’s close to 3 million apps available on Google Play Store and more than 2 million apps available on the App Store. Thousands of apps will be downloaded across the globe by the time you are done reading this article till the end.
Mobile apps help increase the startup success rate because they open the gates of the business for everyone. They help grow your niche audience base and they help you get to more people in lesser time and with limited resources. And for a startup that is just starting, there’s nothing more beneficial than that. It’s a two-way street – through apps, more and more people get to know about you, and you get to know the tendencies of your niche audience better.
And with stuff like app reviews, Play Store suggestions, and word of mouth recommendations, apps make it really easy for you to grow your audience base.
Analytics and Data
With the help of a mobile app, you can easily figure your way into finding important and relevant statistics about customer engagement and overall startup success. There are statistics available about number visitors per day, number of download in a month, most visited pages, time spent on different functionality, most viewed products, most liked blogs, etc.
These statistics make it easier for you to comprehend consumer tendencies and better understand their relationship with your startup. And as you get closer to your target audience, ultimately, it helps you create more streamlined marketing and promotional strategies. It also makes you understand how to expand your product mix and what are the offerings that your business lacks that might benefit the user.
Ease of Monetary Transactions
Many industries in today’s time are relied upon online payment gateways for transactions between them and the consumers. This includes travel, F&B, e-retail, etc. However, consumers are quiet reluctant when it comes to transactions made over the internet. This is because of a looming security threat that comes with website payments.
Mobile apps make it simpler for the consumer by adding multiple layers of security and protection to the bank data that they reveal. Plus, payment gateways on mobile apps are far more compatible than those on the websites.
This is one of the bigger factors why having a mobile app for your startup might help you generate a competent revenue model that pays off well in the longer run.
Add Value to Their Lives
A stable and competent mobile app will help you add value to the lives of your customers in ways that are only remotely possible if you stick to a physical business front.
You can digitize and streamline your entire loyalty program instead of having them collect and redeem points through a card that they get made after procedural hassle and hours of standing in a line. You can later have them collect rewards easily through the app.
App-exclusive vouchers and discount coupons also do the magic. What this kind of a model does, is show them how committed you are to providing them convenience. It’s one of the main factors accounting for the customer loyalty that build around a mobile app.
Conclusion
If you have the right vision, the market is a pool of opportunities at any given situation of the economy, however, because of the steep technological development we have made in the recent years, it’s fair to say that we have never seen this huge of a plethora of possibilities for businesses in the history.
The kind of advanced functionality that you can offer to your end users is just unimaginable. In-house custom made apps provide amazing business and communications solutions with feature-rich interfaces that keep the user engaged for hours.
There’s millions of open source libraries that help the developers achieve this, and there’s so many different platforms you can get it done on, all based on your preferences and functionality type.
In such a time where tech and IT is thriving, it only makes sense to make the most out of it. Building a proficient mobile app for your business will ensure that you have an overall competitive edge in the market and mark an increase in startup success rate and the potential of your sales.
Author Name: Sidharth Jain
Bio: Proud founder of GraffersID.com | Website and Mobile App Development | Trusted by startups in YC | Harvard | Google Incubation | BluChilli | 80% clients raised funding.
