Why Every Small Business Deserves an Excellent Mobile App

Most small business owners think having a website and social media page is enough to promote their companies. They are unaware that increasingly small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use mobile apps to reach their customers and promote their products or services.

An expert mobile app development agency in Chicago recommends that every small business develop a mobile app because it:

• Offers customer loyalty perks.
• Improves sales and increases revenue.
• Enhances brand recognition.
• Provides services and payments.
• Collects customer data.

Find out more about mobile apps in this guide. Let’s go!

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Offers Customer Loyalty Perks

Small businesses often must compete with larger, more established companies for customers. This is where offering loyalty perks and promotions is effective. They help attract and retain customers who may not have tried your products or services. As such, they help increase business awareness and bring in new revenue.

Offering perks and promotions also builds brand recognition and creates a positive image for your small business. This increases trust and credibility, allowing you to establish a long-term presence in the market.

A mobile app can help small businesses to:

• Provide loyalty programs with points systems, discounts, or other rewards that customers can view using their apps every time they purchase.
• Send push notifications, which have a higher click-through rate than email, to inform customers of upcoming promotions, sales, or other special offers.
• Use in-app purchases to offer digital products or services delivered through the app.
• Personalize the customer experience by offering customized promotions or recommendations based on their purchase history.

Improves Sales and Increases Revenue

The lifeblood of small businesses is sales and revenue, without which they cannot cover expenses or remain financially stable. Consistent sales and revenue ensure that your business has the funds to operate and grow, making it more attractive to investors. 

By demonstrating consistent growth and profitability, your business can secure funding to invest in new initiatives, expand operations, or pursue other growth opportunities.

A mobile app helps revive small businesses, build websites, and consequently increase sales and revenue by:

• Enhancing customer engagement through in-app purchases, targeted incentives, and loyalty programs to stimulate repeat purchases and business engagement.
• Improving marketing effectiveness by sending push notifications and in-app messages to customers.
• Expanding marketing reach by appearing in app stores and search results to attract new customers beyond their local area.
• Increasing revenue opportunities from in-app purchases, subscriptions, or advertising.

Enhances Brand Recognition

Strong brand recognition is crucial for small businesses in today's competitive marketplace. Customers tend to trust and choose brands that they recognize over lesser-known ones, regardless of the cost. This trust connection gives small businesses an advantage over their competitors.

Brand recognition and positive brand experiences increase customer loyalty. Mobile apps can help boost recognition, especially if the brand has strong app store visibility. Optimize your app to: 

• Appear in app stores and search results to attract new customers who may have yet to find the business through other channels.
• Maintain consistent branding across all touchpoints with the same logo and color schemes in the app and other marketing materials.
• Offer personalized experiences that align with the brand.
• Make social sharing easier with buttons or encourage customers to post their experiences.

Provides Services and Payment

A dedicated mobile app lets businesses sell services and easily get paid. For instance, a local deli's food ordering app lets customers browse products and services, place orders, and pay. All this speeds up the transaction and gives customers a positive experience. 

The two-factor and biometric authentication features that mobile apps offer make purchasing safe. Users, therefore, can also rest assured that their financial and personal data is secure.

Creating a mobile app that handles payments and other services can be complex, so working with an excellent mobile app development agency would be a wise choice. This agency can:

1. Determine the purpose and features of the app by understanding your target audience, their needs, and the specific services and payment options.

2. Choose a platform and development approach, including native, hybrid, and web app development.

3. Set up a team of experts for seamless mobile app creation.

4. Design the user interface and experience.

5. Integrate payment gateways and other APIs to enable payment processing and other services.

6. Test and launch your app to ensure that it works as expected.

Collects Customer Data

Collecting customer data is essential because it helps personalize your marketing efforts and tailor products and services to individual customer needs. For example, by analyzing customer data, you can identify pain points in the customer journey and take steps to address them.

Customer data gives your small business a competitive advantage over its rivals. You gain insights into your customers, identify opportunities for innovation, and improve products and services.

Collecting customer data is among the most essential parts of mobile development. A mobile app can efficiently, quickly, and securely collect the following:

1. User account information: as users sign up for a mobile app, they provide their name, email address, and other personal information.

2. In-app behavior: mobile apps track user behavior within the app, including the features they use the most, how long they spend on the app, and how often they purchase.

3. Geolocation data: apps collect geolocation data to suggest location-based services and recommend or target advertising.

4. Payment information: apps that manage payments and collect information, such as credit card details, billing addresses, and transaction history.

5. Third-party data: mobile apps can collect data from third-party sources like social media platforms or other apps.

Collecting user data comes with great responsibility. You must collect data ethically and follow relevant privacy laws and regulations. Developers must use features like opt-in consent and anonymization to ensure that users know what data they collect and how they use it.

Summing Up

Small businesses benefit greatly from having a dedicated mobile app. With it, they can offer customer loyalty perks, improve sales, increase revenue, and enhance brand recognition. A mobile app is a portal for services and payments and can effectively collect customer data, which businesses can use for marketing and product development.

Find out how a mobile app can benefit your small business by partnering with a mobile app development agency in Chicago. Contact Digital Authority Partners (DAP) for excellent mobile apps today.