Why Now and How To Build a Mobile App for Your Brand?

Most of your potential customers have gone mobile, and hopefully, by now, your site has also. If you don’t worry, check out Google’s search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly to quickly get started, it’s fast and easy.

Just like in 1996, when companies realized that they needed a website to remain relevant, history is now repeating itself with mobile. Consumers have already begun spending more time on mobile apps than on the web. 

According to the reports, consumers spent 81 minutes per day using apps, compared to 74 minutes of web surfing. The shift comes from tablet and smartphone sales surpassing desktops and notebooks for the first time. You might have noticed yourself buying or saving up for a new iPod or replacing your first-generation tablet. 

While creating a mobile-friendly site seems like an easy way to remain visible in this fast-paced environment, another option now is to create your app. Chances are if you don’t have a mobile app, your competition already does or is working on one.

Before we get started, let’s take a look at budgets. 

A few years ago, this wouldn’t have made much sense to do, but app costs have quickly dropped. According to Infinite Monkeys, the average cost of creating a mobile app is around $10,000, mind you; more in-depth developed apps can run you into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now that your expectations are more grounded, it’s time to look at your two options, either the iOS or Android markets. 

The iOS platform is standard and allows you the opportunity to create a nice appealing app. However, with iOS, you’re entirely at the mercy of Apple. Let’s say you raised the money and spent 8 months developing the app, and Apple can still reject it on the spot. Nowadays, this isn’t so bad since there are tools out there like Appcelerator’s Titanium platform that let you translate your iOS app into Android at a low cost. 

So why choose Android? Android has a bigger potential audience. It has claimed more than 50% of the worldwide market since August.

Once you work out what platform would work out better for you, it’s time to look at the design. The best advice I can give you is to keep it simple. Your app should only do a handful of things (about 4 or 5 things) and do them well! 

Key questions to ask yourself in this process include:

• How will your customers interact with your brand? 
• Do they need directions or store locations? 
• Shopping? 
• Tutorials?

Even if you have a large budget for your app, remember to incorporate a minimalist design approach. People’s attention spans are minimal when on a mobile device.

About the Author - 

ESage Digital a leading Mobile SEO Company in Jaipur, India, which helps Small to Medium Businesses to grow, develop, and succeed. Get in touch to grow your business.