Smartphones are among the most widely owned and used devices in Nigeria. Data quoted by Statista suggests that there are between 25 and 40 million smartphone users in the country.
That’s a large audience by any measure– especially for businesses looking for a market for their products or services. If your business has a mobile application, it stands a good chance of reaching this population. This is because an app provides a more direct means for potential customers to access your business than the web.
Here are six ways you can leverage a mobile app to grow your business.
Create An Extra Income Source
If you have been getting sales through your website or at your physical store, you could add to these income sources with a mobile app. You could have your app designed as a digital storefront or point of service delivery that new or existing customers can use.
Enabling access to your business from multiple channels will (potentially) expand the fronts through which you’ll generate income, and ultimately drive growth. This may happen if your app attracts customers who otherwise wouldn’t do business with you.
Boost Customer Engagement
If your business has a mobile app, it could transform the quality of your interaction with customers. Besides making access easier, a well-built app will improve user experience and make its users more eager to engage on your platform.
This isn’t a given. If you’re going to increase your customers’ satisfaction with your product or service, you’ll need to optimize your application for a best-in-class user experience. Make navigation easy, and ensure that each feature is designed to build up to an overall positive experience.
Build A Stronger Brand
Having a website is fine; it could do great things for your brand. But including an app in your business channel options may make your brand even more accessible and attractive. If you’re able to achieve a high-quality user experience with your app, it’ll lift the public’s perception of your brand and encourage more people to interact with your mobile platform.Simply having your application on app stores increases your brand’s visibility and ultimately makes it more recognizable. And if it’s a good app, existing users will share it with their contacts. This will strengthen its recognizability and reinforce the public’s positive view of your brand.
Run A Customer Loyalty Program
One way to drive engagement with your mobile platform via your app is to run a customer loyalty program on it. For example, you may award points for each transaction that your customers carry out on your app, and offer them a gift when they attain a specified cumulative sum of points.
Customer loyalty programs can work quite well on apps because they are made directly available to app users. Customers can track their progress towards the redeemable sum of points or number of purchases required to get a gift, discount, or free product.
Digitize Referrals
It’s also relatively easy to run a transparent referral program with a mobile app. Existing customers who use the app can invite new customers to try it out. If the new customers sign up and begin to use the app, the person who referred them to the app will receive rewards.
Typically, referrals on mobile apps are done with a referral code or link. The code or link is generated on the app and provided to the customer who wants to refer a new user to the app. The customer shares the link with their contact, who then signs up with it. The code or link makes it possible for the mobile platform to credit gains to the customer who referred the new users to the app.
Nurture Customer Relationships
Besides just being a utility tool, your business’s mobile app could be a space in which you’ll nurture and build relationships with your customers. Through your app, you can provide them with content that they’ll consider useful, update them about the goings-on in your business, and connect them with a customer care representative who will attend to their questions and take on their complaints and questions.
Final Words
There are a lot of benefits your business can reap from having a mobile app. If you’re not certain about your need for one, evaluate the current state of your business, and decide whether a mobile app could solve some of its challenges. If your business is growing rapidly, there’s a chance that it does require an app to meet the current and future needs of your customers.
Featured Image Source: LinkedInGot a suggestion? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com
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