Why your business shouldn’t have an app.

– Robert Kruger 27 April 2011

A couple years ago, businesses were paying developers to build iPhone apps because they thought they had to have an app to be trendy. Most of those apps didn’t do much. Very few people downloaded them. Even fewer kept them for more than a couple minutes. But the businesses could (and did) tout the mere presence of an iPhone app on all their ads and direct mail.

That strategy was questionable two years ago. Today it’s intolerable. There are so many apps on the market, smart phone and tablet users can be picky about the apps they keep. Apps need to be worthwhile to the user. If you don’t have something useful or meaningful to put in your app, you shouldn’t have one.

Of course I can’t stop there, because it’s fairly likely that you should have an app. It just needs to have value.

The mobile marketing world is heading in a good direction - mobile apps can bring in new customers and help you hold on to existing ones. The question is not, “Should we have an app?” The question you need to ask is, “What could we offer app users that will make us stand out?”

This is not as difficult as you might think. You should already be thinking about your website in these terms. Websites fail if the content owner simply builds some pages of content and then leaves them to rot. Apps for businesses are the same. They need to do something. The content needs to be fresh. There needs to be a compelling reason to come back to it every day.

Also like websites, your app will fail if you just hire a propeller head code monkey to hack together your app without planning the business strategy behind the app. Building a successful app starts with a meaningful discovery about who you are, what you can offer to app users, who your customers are, and why a customer chooses you over your competition. In addition, the discovery conversation needs to include people who thoroughly understand app capabilities and people who know how to leverage an app to improve business. The point is: if you don’t build business apps for a living, get help from someone who does.

So there are two reasons why you shouldn’t have an app:

1. You shouldn’t have an app if you want an app just to say you have an app.
2. You shouldn’t have an app if you don’t follow the proven process of discovery before development.

 

We have been helping businesses utilize interactive communication tools to increase market reach for over 16 years. Let’s talk. We’re not just propeller heads. We understand how to feed your business.