Developing a Successful Mobile Strategy for your Small Business

In today’s digital world, mobile-friendliness is essential for business success. With mobile devices in the hands of almost every customer, handheld devices are influencing every shopping decision. By crafting a mobile presence, businesses can boost their reputation and profits. This isn’t just something Amazon and Google can do; small businesses can also develop a successful mobile strategy.

Optimize Your Website

Before creating a mobile app, focus on easier, more actionable tasks. For example, optimize your website for mobile. This can include removing pictures and videos that slow down the site or text that doesn’t display properly. You can use tools like Google’s mobile-friendly test to evaluate whether your site loads well for mobile. It will also show you what your site looks like on mobile. 

Keep Content Mobile-Friendly

Large chunks of text or images that might work on a laptop browser can be overwhelming on a mobile device. Mobile users will be looking at your site on a small screen. With that in mind, keep your content short and effective. Don’t waste real estate on the non-essential. 

Consider a Mobile App

In addition to improving your website for mobile, consider developing an app. In 2018, U.S. smartphone users spent 88% of their time in mobile apps as opposed to mobile browsers. This represents a great opportunity for your business to engage with customers.

Before you get started, though, think carefully. The first step in your mobile development is to assess the big-picture business strategy. You shouldn’t begin working on an app until you have a clear idea of why your business needs it. What does the app accomplish for your company? Does it increase customer engagement? Provide quick information? Drive sales? Build your company brand? You should have a clear idea of your objectives before you begin development. This allows you to build the app with clear goals in mind, ensuring that it actually does what you want it to do. 

Understand Your Customers

In order to develop a good app, you need to think carefully about your users. Imagine your app from their perspective. Why would they use it? What would they hope to get out of it? Is your app up to par with your competitors or is it difficult and clunky to use? Use these questions to make sure the app meets your customers’ needs. Additionally, prototype your app with users and get their feedback. Your own speculation can only go so far; make sure you ask the customers themselves what they prefer. 

Plan App Monetization

Before diving into app development, consider how you will fund your app. Your app might have a large initial development cost, and you can expect to reach $25,000 for a typical app. Facing such a large investment, you want to ensure that you have a plan in place to pay back those costs and generate revenue. There are lots of ways to do this. You can:

● Sell your app to users

● Use advertising to drive revenue

● Develop a freemium model

● Offer in-app purchases

● Charge an app subscription

You can also offer your app for free. This might be a good choice if you believe that the app boosts your business enough to indirectly cover development and maintenance costs.

Acquire App Users

Creating a great app is only part of the goal. You also need to convince customers to use the app. You have built something great—now tell people about it! Draw in users and let them know how great your product/service is. Think about the best way to market your app. For instance, try promoting it through existing communication channels you have with customers. If your company has a newsletter, announce your app launch there and tell users how to download it. Furthermore, consider spreading the word on all social media outlets. Try offering discounts or promotions in exchange for app downloads in order to attract beta users. You can set up virtual offices with a marketplace to let customers know about your company.  

Keep Data in Mind

After your app is developed, you need hard data to honestly evaluate its performance. From the start, keep data in mind. Measure how users interact with an app. Look at how often they use it, how long they use it in each session, the lifetime value of a user, and user retention. Examine the average loading time and frequency of glitching. Ask your customers to review your app and take that feedback into account. By doing this, you can see how your app is performing and push it to be even better. 

By following recommendations like improving your current site for mobile and developing an effective app, you can craft your own mobile strategy. As more and more customers become dependent on mobile devices, your business needs to adapt to meet their needs. Implement live web chat to communicate with customers in real time.  By improving your mobile presence, you can push your small business to greater influence and profitability. You can keep up with competition and build deeper relationships with customers.

About Nick Rojas

Nick Rojas is a business consultant and journalist who lives in Chicago and his hometown Los Angeles with his wife. His work often discusses social media, marketing, and branding in regards to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).