How to Create Mobile Applications for Small Businesses?

Mobile applications are not commonly seen for small businesses. Nor is it a priority for small businesses. But having an app can give you a competitive edge over other players and is something you should definitely consider. However, it can seem like an intimidating process if you are completely new to the field. In this article, we will cover the basics of app building, explain how apps can help businesses and share some ways in which you can use your own app to grow your business.

Why do small businesses need a mobile app?

As a small business, it’s natural to be sceptical about investing time, money and energy into building an app. Certain common questions that you would ask yourself may be: Why would anyone download my app? But I have a website already? Will it be too expensive? However, having an app in the initial stages of your business can be very helpful. Here are some reasons why your business needs an app:

1. Authenticity

Having an app associated with your business provides authenticity to your business. With increasing cyber crimes and online frauds, people are often sceptical to buy from Instagram/Facebook stores. An app gives an added level of authenticity and builds trust with your customers, making them more likely to buy from you.

2. Seamless experience

You may argue that if you have a website then an app is of no use to you. But websites are more compatible with desktop-based browsing. While you can build a website designed for phone usage, it still will not give a very seamless experience with regard to payments, page configuration, notifications, etc. On the other hand, an app allows you to integrate payment gateways, provide custom notifications and a smoother experience to your customers. This will ensure that your customers do not leave an order pending due to website bugs. This may seem like a minor inconvenience, but you could be missing out on many customers due to errors like these.

3. Brand Building

An app surely helps in creating a higher brand value for your business. With the immense amount of customisation options that an app provides, it will build a loyal audience for your brand. You can use your app to disseminate content around your business and grow your audience. Apps also allow you to link your social media handles within it, hence you can grow online as well. With customised notifications, you can constantly push your products and advertise them to your potential customers.

The step-by-step process of building a mobile app

Now that you know that your small business can benefit a lot from a mobile application, let’s see how you can build one and run it successfully. These steps are only to guide you and you can customise it as per your requirements.

1. Curate the design

This requires you to research your expected requirements from the app. Determine the goals and boundaries of your app in this stage. You can pick and choose this as per your small business. Do you want your business to promote sales? Or do you want your business to provide content to your audience? What kind of data will you have to collect? Determine the answers to questions like these and you will have an idea of what you want your app to look like. To help determine these, you can look at the apps of your competitors and take feedback from your audience to better understand the market requirements.

2. Build the app

This is the stage that you will have to customise as per your requirements and budget. You can either build the app yourself or hire someone to do it.

3. DIY App Builders

There are much easy software available online, that help you build an app. However, they provide only basic features. Most of them are free and will let you publish and run your app at no cost. So if you have low-budget and simple app requirements, this is the best option for you. If you want to run a more advanced app, you can even learn to code online and build it yourself. However, this will be a time-consuming process.

4. Hire freelancers

Many freelance designers and app developers are available in the market. You will have to pay them according to the work done by them, i.e., on a per-project basis. This is the best option if you have a small budget and have advanced requirements.

5. Hire a full-time developer

If you require constant updates and changes happening to your app, along with all advanced features, a freelancer may not be able to fulfil your requirements. Hence, it is best to add an app developer to your team. They will be accessible to you full-time and you can get all your updates done immediately. However, since you are hiring for a full-time position, it will be more expensive than the previous options.

6. Test run

Once your app is built, make sure you test it multiple times. This ensures you release a bug-free app with no issues. It is important to provide your customers with a seamless experience without any problems. Even minor problems can discourage users from using your app, so you must make sure that all your features are running properly before you release the app. You must test run for at least a week, and test through multiple users.

7. Release

Now that you have fixed all the errors and built a great app, it’s time to launch it. Create a marketing campaign that will create a buzz around your app and will encourage people to download and test your app. You can provide some early bird offers and other perks to give incentives to your customers.

Extra tips to grow your business with your app

Merely having an app and releasing it does not help your business. You need to take more active steps to ensure that people not only download your app but also shop from it.

1. Push Notifications

Build the app in a way that you can send custom notifications to your users. These notifications can be about an upcoming sale, a new product launch, etc. This will ensure your potential customers are constantly reminded about your brand, increasing their likelihood of purchasing from you.

2. App-specific perks

To make users download and use your app, you can provide some perks, which are available only upon downloading the app, such as coupon codes, information, freebies, etc. This will incentivise customers to download your app and use it.

3. In-app purchases

Depending on the nature of your small business, you can add in-app purchases, which will provide your users/customers with some premium features. These could be digital products, early access to sales, free delivery perks, etc. Small purchases like these will not only boost your sales but purchases will also add to your revenue and cover the costs of building and running the app.

Also read:

1) How to Start a Mobile Phone Shop?
2) What is the best form of advertising today in the modern world?
3) Best visiting card/business card ideas for small business owners
4) Print-on-Demand: Business idea to Sell Custom Merchandise
5) OkCredit: All you need to know about OkCredit & how it works.

FAQs

Q. Do I need to know coding to build my app?

Ans. No, it is not necessary. There are many easy apps that allow you to build an app, without coding. While these apps have some limitations, you can get started with the basics with it.

Q. Where do I hire a freelancer from?

Ans. If you want to hire a freelancer to build your app, finding one is not difficult at all. There are many people who freelance in app development and you can find one via your social media. LinkedIn is also a great place to hire, you can post about your requirements and choose. Ensure you visit their existing apps to get an idea about their work.

Q. How much does creating an app cost?

Ans. Many DIY app building apps are free to use and build. So an app can be created for free. But if you want a more advanced app, and choose to hire someone, those costs will add up. It completely depends on your budget.

We hope this helped you in understanding why and how you should build an app for your small business. The ROI in apps is tremendous and can help your business grow tremendously. So what are  you waiting for? Get started on building your app today!