Pros and Cons of Mobile App Development for B2B Businesses
If other B2B businesses create apps, should you make one too? A wise mobile app development agency in Chicago uses its knowledge and expertise to help you decide.
Knowing the pros and cons of developing an app also helps you decide. Look into:
- Engagement and customer support
- User experience
- Cost
- Automation and efficiency
- Branding
Let us discuss each below. Let’s go!
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1. Engagement and Customer Support
Pro: If B2C clients are demanding, you can expect more pressure from B2B customers. They want faster customer service, more real-time feedback, easier access to relevant information, and a more personalized experience.
You can design an application that meets all of these requirements, by including these features:
- In-app messaging
- Push notifications catalogs
- In-app purchasing
- Self-service functionality
- Augmented-reality (AR) product demos
- Chatbots
- Integration with social media platforms
- Personalized recommendations
- In-app customer feedback
Con: Even the best-designed B2B application is inefficient if it does not match your target demographic. Your market might prefer to call you by phone or to email your team for customer support. They may also be concerned about security breaches and invasions of privacy.
2. User Experience
Pro: User experience sells, especially in the B2B space. It differentiates your brand from that of your competitors. It helps retain your market and increases revenue by decreasing customer acquisition costs. Users are likely to share their experiences with others when they are happy.
A mobile development agency in Chicago can maximize the user experience by creating a user-interface-rich app. Thanks to multiple options for frameworks and programming languages, the agency can integrate features, such as:
- Configurators and filters to customize products and services according to their specific needs and preferences
- Real-time order tracking
- A knowledge base that serves as a centralized repository of FAQs, product guides, and tutorials
- Voice search
- Gamification features, such as rewards points that can later be converted to discounts
- Customer feedback and ratings
- Virtual assistant that provides customers with a conversational interface to assist them with tasks, answer questions, and provide recommendations
- QR code scanner
Con: When poorly made, the app can be your downfall. Detractors include a slow response time, an unresponsive UI, or unsecured payment options. Following B2B mobile b2b-mobile-appapp security tips and other best practices should help you create an app that customers will find useful and memorable.
3. Cost
Con: Making an app is not cheap, even for B2B companies that might have more money and tools than B2C companies.
Consider these estimates:
| Type of Cost | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Salaries or fees paid to developers, designers, and other professionals involved in the development process | $20,000 to $500,000 |
| Technology | Cost of software, hardware, and other tools required to develop and maintain the app | $5,000 to $50,000 |
| Marketing and promotion | Costs of promoting and marketing the app, such as advertising, PR, and social media campaigns | $5,000 to $100,000 |
| Maintenance and updates | Ongoing costs of maintaining and updating the app, including bug fixes, security updates, and feature enhancements | $5,000 to $50,000 |
| Infrastructure | Costs of hosting, storage, and other infrastructure required to support the app | $500 to $10,000 |
| Legal and regulatory | Costs of obtaining necessary licenses and complying with relevant regulations, such as data privacy laws | $1,000 to $10,000 |
| Project management | Costs of managing the app development process, including coordination of team members, tracking progress, and ensuring that project milestones are met | $5,000 to $50,000 |
Pro: You can better manage the app development cost by monitoring your burn rate (or how quickly you deplete cash reserves). Strive to keep it at 1/12 of your cash, or to make it last for one full year.
- Consider cross-platform mobile app development for a faster time to market.
- Prioritize essential features by avoiding scope creep (increasing project deliverables, changes, and requirements over time).
- Choose the right development team and pricing model.
- Plan for scalability and future updates.
- Optimize app performance and minimize errors.
- Use agile development methodologies.
4. Automation and Efficiency
Pro: Usually, businesses invest in mobile apps to increase revenues and customer loyalty. However, you can also develop internal applications to improve your team’s productivity and efficiency. For instance, intranet apps that function similarly to Asana, Trello, and MS Teams.
With it, you can:
- Streamline processes, such as inventory management and accounting
- Enhance communication and collaboration between team members and among departments
- Integrate existing software systems and tools, such as customer relationship management (CRM), in real time across devices and platforms
- Allow users to work anytime, anywhere, in a more secure network
Con: Besides being costly, creating internal apps is time-consuming. Often, the best decision is to hire a mobile development agency. This way, you can spend more time on other profit-driving critical activities, such as sales.
Employees may also need training and support to use the new app effectively, negatively impacting productivity in the short term. Lastly, internal applications can contain sensitive business information, making them a major security risk.
5. Branding
Pro: Mobile apps can be as effective as Google Ads or social media in building and promoting your company’s identity. In particular, you can incorporate many features that tell an engaging brand story:
- Visual storytelling (e.g., videos and images)
- Interactive features (e.g., quizzes, trivia, surveys, and games)
- Social media integration
- In-app blogs
- Access to exclusive content (e.g., contests, webinars, and guides)
- Interactive maps
- User-generated content (UGC)
Brand stories are a powerful advertising medium, because they offer authenticity, improving your credibility and authority in the industry. With apps, you can tell that you provide real solutions to problems.
Further, these stories help build a stronger connection between you and the audience. They help users share their experiences with others, or offer them another means of contacting your company.
Con: Using mobile app development for branding only works well when combined with other online marketing strategies. These include social media, search engine optimization (SEO), digital ads, and content marketing.
Summing Up
Creating a B2B mobile app is a matter of “when,” not “if.” More studies show that users prefer applications to websites, because they are faster, more convenient, and easier to personalize.
But knowing the pros and cons helps set your expectations right and design an application that meets your needs. Digital Authority Partners is here to help.
As an experienced mobile app development agency in Chicago, we can plan, launch, and maintain cost-effective applications that satisfy your objectives and provide the experience that your target market seeks. Contact us today to set up a consultation.
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