When Does Your Small Business Need To Think About Apps?

Feb 04/16, Toronto, ON - In 2014, Canadian smartphone penetration was 55 per cent. In 2015, that number increased to 68 per cent. In fact, it is estimated that approximately 3 million Canadians purchased their first smartphone in the last half of 2014.

With that in mind it’s important to know that mobile investment doesn't come cheap. When your small business is deciding whether to invest in purchasing, customizing, or developing a mobile app, your current business approach, your call-to-actions, your competitors, and your team's mobility are all part of the criteria.

Customers who are on the go seem more likely to engage with brands if they are localized. For example, if you operate an IT consultancy that serves a local community, you are more likely to get more leads from the people in that region if you have a mobile strategy.

Good customer support is crucial to keep getting new referrals, and mobile apps are an excellent channel for delivering support instantly. It is also a great way to scale your customer support by introducing new channels of communication and delivery directly from the app.

If you want to learn how customers are using your products and services and what they like and don’t like about them, a mobile app can be a simple method for collecting this sort of data. Also, you can learn more about your customers with a well-designed app. Everything from their geographic location, job roles, age, spending limits, and on to infinity. This data could be useful when you're tailoring communications and potential offers to them.

The cost of producing a mobile app can vary widely, but generally, you get what you pay for. For example, there's a significant difference between engaging a freelancer, offshore development team, or an agency. Similarly, having an app that requires a back-end server built or APIs integrated versus one that is completely standalone can differ drastically. Some apps are produced for as little as ten-thousand dollars. Others, over the life of the app can go as high as $750-thousand and beyond. The price almost entirely depends on the goal or outcome desired for that app and the support services that are necessary for the app to run properly and deliver the data it was built to gather or vend.

In any case, the moral of the story is to be prepared. Once again, app development is costly and not necessarily something that your small business must have immediately. But somewhere in the plan your company will have to address the cost need ratio for your small business and get out there into the “wild west” of digital marketing and make “one giant step” for your business by planning to invest in an app for your business that will deliver the performance driven data that your company will need to remain competitive.