Developing an App for Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Many businesses wonder if developing a mobile app could benefit their digital marketing strategy. While apps can deliver value in the right context, they require significant investment and ongoing maintenance. Determine if the following factors justify developing an app for your specific business.

Examine your target audience.

Ask if your most engaged customers would find genuinely useful functionality from an app that enhances their experiences. Would an app meaningfully improve how they currently accomplish tasks related to your business?

Assess your brand’s needs.

Consider if an app could provide solutions to actual pain points or address frequent customer questions in a more convenient, accessible manner. Would an app enable customers to access critical services even when offline?

Evaluate available alternatives.

Explore if a responsive website or “progressive” web app that works like a native app could fulfil needs at lower cost. Also consider partnering with an existing app that offers your products or services.

Estimate required resources.

Creating a high quality app demands developer expertise plus design, marketing and customer support. Budget for an initial build plus ongoing costs for updates, bug fixes and server expenses.

Review app store policies.

Familiarize yourself with Google Play and Apple’s App Store policies to ensure your app concept complies in areas like permissions, data collection and privacy. Request early developer account access.

Determine your target platforms.

Focus your initial app on either iOS or Android based on your audience. Consider a cross-platform development framework to eventually release for both.

Plan for constant updates.

Once live, your app will require ongoing updates to fix bugs, comply with OS changes, and integrate new features customers demand. Release updates every 3-6 months for best results.

Test before launch.

Pilot your app with a small group of target customers to identify areas for improvement before a wide release. Collect feedback and make final changes before submitting to app stores.

In summary, mobile apps strategy present an opportunity to deepen customer relationships through convenience and functionality. But carefully determine if your brand truly needs an app based on customer and business needs rather than platform “hype.”