Mobile apps are very prominent in our everyday lives – it seems like every social media channel, website, and business has their own downloadable app on the App Store or Google Play. Apps are beautiful and function well for users, but they are difficult to maintain and expensive for the people and businesses who develop them.
If you’re trying to decide if you should create an app for your business, you should understand the pros and cons of creating one. Chances are, your website is already performing the functions of an app for you and, unless you have a specific function in mind, an app may be unnecessary for your business.
Assess Your Business’s Needs
Apps are not like social media accounts – not every business needs one to succeed. The most successful apps are useful and fulfill a function that a mobile-responsive website could not do easily. Apps help optimize a certain process, such as customer support or facilitating the online shopping experience.
Before you decide to invest in a mobile app, you should sit down and discuss your business’s needs. Apps work best when they serve a single function, not as an extra website. You will need to identify your business problem and how an app can solve it.
- Is your mobile-responsive website difficult to navigate in terms of seeing products for shopping purposes? You can go one of two ways: you can redesign your website for the best user experience or you can create an app that allows for an easier shopping experience, such as the Walmart or Target apps.
- Are your company’s blogs, newsletters, or other publications not getting enough attention? Do you publish writing frequently? Having a separate blog app can help users easily peruse your writing and alert them of new, relevant content that they might be interested in.
- Do your customers frequently complain about their ability to get in touch with support staff? Having a customer support app can solve your issues. This app can include common help topics, Frequently Asked Questions, and a chat feature to contact customer service agents quickly.
- Do your customers often ask for a loyalty program that they can sign up for, or do you already have one in place? Your customers would likely download an app you create to house your loyalty program, complete with coupons, special offers, and an electronic barcode to scan in-store.
Understand App Costs
Apps cost quite a bit of time and money to launch. You have to have enough staff on hand to develop the app, oversee updates, and provide customer support. You will need to pay multiple people for their services, marketing, servers, and fees. For smaller companies, apps can cost anywhere between $50,000 to $100,000 to create. For larger companies, apps can cost anywhere from $150,000 to $1,000,000.
Understand Your Consumer Base
Before you decide to invest in an app, you should assess whether your customers would actually download and use it. Certain demographics use apps more often than others. If your consumers have any of the following traits, designing an app would be perfect for you:
- Tech-savvy and comfortable navigating smartphone technology
- Regular smartphone users
- Require excellent customer service and often request better communication
- Use competitive apps, setting a precedent for you to launch your own
- Request more content and engage with your company frequently
- Request more options for offers, invitations, loyalty programs, and time-sensitive sales
Understand the Cons of Mobile App Development
Mobile apps are not appropriate for all companies. However, many businesses rush into their development only to fail, wasting thousands of dollars in the process. Before you delve into the development process, understand the various cons that apps can pose for your company.
- You will need to undergo a lengthy approval process to have your app on Google Play or the Apple App Store. You will need to create a different version of your app for each platform, which can take a long time to complete.
- Your users will have to wait for updates, while they are instantaneous on a website. If you spot an issue, you will have to go into the app, fix the mistake, and upload an update for the app. Your users will continue to experience the issue until they download the latest update. In addition, you cannot post updates whenever you want and as often as you want. You will have to wait until you are ready to release the next version of your app, which can be frustrating if you make a new update and notice an issue the next day.
- With an app instead of a regular website, you lose valuable search engine optimization (SEO) perks. When people share, use, and link to your website, you receive valuable data and rank higher in search results. However, you do not have that benefit with a mobile app. SEO does not apply to mobile apps and yours can lose power among a sea of similar apps in the mobile stores.
- With an app, you will need to request special permissions from a user to operate. These permissions can be quite invasive, such as access to the phone camera, the user’s location, their contact book, and other private information.
Assess Your Business Image and How an App Could Help
If you’re looking for a fresh approach and an innovative image for your business, an app can help you achieve this brand. Companies are still catching up with the importance of mobile-responsive websites, but if you already have a mobile-responsive site and a business need to fill, an app can take you to the next level.
In addition, creating an app can help you show your clients that you value innovation over sticking to the status quo. Many companies use apps to prove their cutting-edge qualities, and they can help you stand out from your competitors.
If your competitors already have an app, you probably want to meet them at their playing level. If they have an idea for an app that just isn’t taking off, you can borrow that idea and improve upon it to create your own idea. Just make sure you have a unique purpose and idea for launching your own app – you don’t want to be too similar to the competition.
Understand the App Lifespan
Apps do not last forever and many companies have multiple apps. If you believe that this app will be the first and only app your company will launch, you should avoid launching your own platform for the time being. Apps constantly evolve over time. An app that does everything in one place is not an effective app – the best ones focus on a specific aspect of your company and enable users to use a handful of key features.
If you have another idea for an app, create a separate app. Many companies launch multiple apps per year – in fact, the average company built 10.2 apps in 2017. You will need to have space to manage multiple apps and oversee their development and customer support. Make sure you have the ability to develop multiple apps before beginning your first one.
