8 Tips to a Powerful Mobile App Strategy

A lot of small and medium businesses have embraced mobile apps in a strong way. Many SMEs have established their mobile presence with an app. But, not everyone has thought of it as a way to establish a unique presence in the market. A perfectly compiled mobile app strategy can give the SMEs their due presence, and position them as they want in the market.

There is a wide gap between knowledge regarding need for a mobile app and the actual implementation of a mobile app strategy in case of SMEs. This gap needs to be closed, and here are a few tips that offer a powerful mobile app strategy, thus closing the gaps within.

Work with Paid Social Media

According to statistics given by Flurry, users spend around 80% of their smartphone time on apps, and rest 20% is spent on browsing the different sites using the mobile browser. These stats should be enough to establish the importance of having an app to engage your users. Social media, specifically Facebook is where most of the app actions occur. While Facebook has become an important element for engaging your users, gone are the days when organic advertising caused heavy impacts and engagement. Now, you need to consider more on the lines of paid advertising. The feeds are part of the phase one of engaging your users on Facebook, while the second phase includes promoted posts.

Assemble Social Media Insights

There are many websites and applications that offer insights into the social media usage for the different social media sites. Who is your target audience, and what are they doing on the different social media sites will help you understand the audience better. This social media intelligence will help you engage with your audience real time. You can easily rope in these insights across different team activities.

Integrate Business Processes with Customer Engagement

Users define the way brands should reach out to them. Mobile, due to the high levels of accessibility it offers has become a major source of connecting and engaging the consumers of a brand. There are two critical elements for a business which wants to improve conversions and engagement: customer engagement and business process. Personalized settings, and user friendly designs will help you maintain better customer engagement. If you can manage your business processes perfectly, you can rope in better sales, as you would be able to deal with customers and their needs in a more articulated manner.

Test then Launch

After having developed a mobile app, you will need to deliver it bug free to the app stores. For this, you should ideally test the app before launching it. The whole coding as well as other aspects of the app, like design should be tested before you can send it across to the users. The main reason being you don't want bad reviews, or users leaving your app. Pilot testing is essential if you want to retain your clients.

Establish a Mobile Team

It is not enough to have a mobile app defining your business. You need to invest in managing your mobile app, so that it manages every step of your business process. You need resources that can see to it that your mobile app matches the business needs defined by you. Your team should manage the budgets, develop consumer insights and integrate them into the idea, and get more insights based on surveys and other consumer discussions

Work on App Store Ratings

App store ratings are important for consumer engagement. Your consumer will check the ratings, and download the app based on good reviews and ratings. These ratings are again consumer based. To get favorable ratings you should ideally work on your user insights, and ensure the mobile app matches the insights stated.

App with Sites

Don't make the mistake of just having an app; build a mobile friendly website along with your mobile app. Mobile apps are for those loyal customers, who believe in engaging with you faster while mobile websites enhance your overall shopping experience. You need to cater to different experience and interface needs, which is why you need to create both app and site together.

Strategize Multi-Screen Experience

With the rise in multiple smart devices, many people enjoy multiple devices at the same time. You will see TV and mobile browsing at the same time. You need to capture into this experience, but leveraging the multi-screen experience. You should adjust your campaigns in a manner that can capture the users' attention across the different screens.

Conclusion:

There is a surge in the usage of mobile devices. You need to engage your consumers on this platform, without compromising on the positioning or experience. SMEs have acknowledged the need to go mobile, but are unable to offer a capable way of transferring their knowledge into their capabilities. Engaging customers, and attending to their needs should be ideally put together when offering a capable mobile strategy that converts into a good app. Hire mobile app developers who can offer a strategy and app that will fine tune your needs and give out a good mobile engagement.

Deepa is a technical writer with Semaphore Software.