With numerous updates to mobile technology constantly occurring, it is easy to get distracted by the latest gadgets or flashiest marketing tools. Smart phone apps instantly come to mind. How do you know whether creating an app is the worth the time and resources involved? What if it turns out to be overwhelmingly ineffective in every capacity? Chuck Martin, author of The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile, makes sure to extricate the app from the world of mobile marketing strategy. “An app,” he says, “is just an app.”
Is it right for your business?
Small businesses, generally speaking, do not need apps. They are more likely to drown amidst the hundreds of thousands of apps that are currently available. “The reality is the number of apps that people use is relatively small, so you’re competing with the biggest brands on earth if you think you’re going to provide value through an app,” Chuck says. “There are companies that are spending a million dollars on app strategy, so it’s almost impossible to compete in that arena.” However, if you are not deterred by the challenge, there are three things on the app checklist that would suggest it is worth creating: it should make life easier, cheaper, and more fun. These elements provide value to someone’s life.
What phones do your customers use?
What small businesses should focus on is finding out what phones their customers use—the majority might use iPhones, for example. This provides information on their buying behaviour (as there is extensive research on buying processes through various technologies). Essentially, an app is not always the answer. If your buyers are shopping on their mobiles, as many now do, simply creating or reconfiguring your mobile site is often the best way to engage.
This article is based on an extract from the Marketing Goes Mobile webinar with Chuck Martin, author of The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile. Learn more about Chuck Martin, here. Watch the Marketing Goes Mobile webinar on-demand, today.
This article was co-authored by Elizabeth Rowe. Elizabeth graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) at the ANU and a Masters of Media Practice at the University of Sydney. She is currently completing an internship with the HerBusiness Network.
