Web development has come a long way since the early days of internet use. A website is now an essential part of any business’s online footprint in Nigeria, even for Sole Traders. Some might argue that in our predominantly digital society, a business isn’t really “proper” without its own website. In the past, simply having a website would have been considered a progressive step towards being an innovative company. But, we are long past those days, and now the real question is – not whether you should have a website, but whether your website is mobile-friendly and working effectively to drive customer loyalty and engagement levels. In a 24-hour society like Lagos that’s always on the go, allowing customers to access your products and services via an app can have a hugely positive impact on your bottom line.

What Is Having A Mobile App Presence Worth To A Business?
Firstly, an app allows you to have a constant presence on someone’s phone – the thing they carry with them anywhere and everywhere they go, morning, noon and night. A recent study showed 82% of smartphone users consult their phones while deciding what to buy. The average smartphone user spends around 2.25 hours per day on their phone using apps and visiting mobile websites, often browsing for leisure particularly during the commute, or spending time in front of the TV.

Brands that are only accessible via desktop websites miss out on this casual traffic and usually rely heavily on fuelling a constant budget for pay-per-click and email marketing to remind customers to check their website for new products. An app has permanent residence on your customer’s phone unless they opt out and delete it, and it’s likely they’ll scroll past daily, receiving a constant yet subtle and non-intrusive reminder of your brand identity. The term ‘effective frequency’ refers to the idea that, as a rule of thumb, hearing and/or seeing a brand approximately 20 times is what is essentially needed to be remembered by new customers. Having an app on their phone is a good way to start, with the temptation to open it made even greater by push notifications.

Engaging With Your Brand Via An App Becomes Habit For Your Customers
Push notifications have been a very successful way of increasing app engagement and guiding customers into habitual use. Think for example about the Health based apps, in particular, sleep monitors. These are used on a daily basis before bed and first thing in the morning, and will remind the user to “Go to bed”. Shopping apps flash up with “Secret Sales” and “Flash Sales” tempting the user to log on, and Hairdresser apps are reminding their clients that it’s “time for a trim”.

Mobile Apps Increase The Value That Your Customers Gain From Your Brand
By building a relationship with your customer through a mobile app for your brand, you will be able to add value for them by turning the best parts of your traditional offers and loyalty schemes into digital versions, and possibly even gamifying and rewarding regular use of your app. The more interactive the user-experience is, the better engaged your customers will be. You could also incorporate social sharing in the app, helping you to grow your number of leads by referral.

A mobile app affords you the opportunity to get better insights into users’ behavioural patterns in a more realistic way than website analytics can, helping you to tailor interactions to make the user experience much more personal. If you can earn a user’s trust with an app, then they will allow you a wealth of information that will help you provide them with services they want and need, and it will create a better relationship for the both of you.

Mobile Apps Make It Easier To Pay, Can Improve Cash Flow And Recover Abandoned Sales
Digital purchases have become such normality; we think nothing of waving our smartphone over a contactless card machine with Apple Pay, and many brands have used the same technology to allow customers to collect points on loyalty cards too. Customers are more than comfortable making purchases through apps at a touch of a button, storing their payment details for a quicker check out experience. It makes impulsive purchasing incredibly easy!

If you are interested in developing a new custom app tailored to your business needs, then you have to contact the Just Some Coding team – with 6 years experience and a track record of over 60 apps developed, we have the required expertise to make it happen