Mobile Apps, Mobile App

How Mobile App Development Helps Organizations Thrive

Before the advent of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, organizations are encouraged to build a website to establish an online presence. While starting a website for your organization remains to be important today, it often comes with other strategies to make the organization more relevant. This includes launching a mobile app for the org.

Because of this, many organizations are obtaining the services of mobile app development in Lake Mary to create an application that suits their vision and mission. In doing so, they are able to utilize the tools available to them in order to improve their growth and flourish. Wondering how exactly mobile apps help these organizations? Read on.

The Types of Organizations that Benefit from Mobile App Development

Before looking into the ways applications help them thrive, you might be curious as to what types of organizations take advantage of what mobile apps have to offer. Here are some of them:

  • Businesses – Businesses need reliable platforms that customers could use to keep in touch with them. These platforms can also be used to access the products or services offered by a business.
  • Churches – If you think it is ridiculous that a church or religious organization has its own app, then you need to consider that members need a dependable connection with the community for many reasons. This includes propagating announcements, spiritual connections and even saving money.
  • Sports Associations – Sports fans need access to a platform in which they can check for updates, announcements and other similar info on the team they support.
  • Advocacy Groups – Apps are used to garner support for the cause, information campaigns and even announce activities related to the advocacy.

5 Key Reasons that Organizations Use Mobile Apps

Now that you know what type of institutions utilize apps to their advantage, you might want to know why they do so. Check out this list of the 5 primary reasons they use mobile applications:

  • Portability

Smartphones are everywhere. Almost everyone owns one. In fact, there are others that have two or more: one for personal use and others for work and other purposes. This ubiquitousness of the device can be attributed to the extreme portability and accessibility it offers. So, many are opting to launch a tool that can be used with these devices and the best options are mobile apps.

Now, you might be thinking: why go for apps when users can simply visit your site using their phones? The answer to this is because apps offer more convenience as compared to opening a browser, typing your site’s URL and then scrolling through your pages. While your site may be optimized for mobile use, an app offers a more efficient and easy function. Remember, we live in a fast-paced world in which ease and convenience is a priority.

  • Engagement

Look back on the types of organizations that use applications. If there is one thing they have in common, it is their need for user engagement. After all, they can easily lose touch with their members, customers or clients if they fail to engage them. An app offers a whole lot of opportunities to keep the users involved with the organization in one way or another.

In fact, these are effective tools for boosting app user engagement. From directly getting feedbacks and reviews to opening a communication line for support, apps offer a way to engage with your clientele. Moreover, the use of notifications can be a great way to remind users to check out your latest offerings.

  • Enforcing Your Brand

Aside from improving user experience and connection, you can use apps to boost your branding campaign. You can easily convey your brand message using such software. This makes your branding stronger, especially as you have the means to portray the image you want to show to your target market.

Conveying your message and reinforcing your reputation definitely helps. However, you can strengthen your brand by being relevant when it comes to real-life situations and trends. With an app, you can easily deploy infographics and other material that are relatable and trendy, thus, improving your branding.

  • Expand Your Reach

As mentioned, applications immensely help, marketing-wise. If you come up with the best campaign, you can even get more members, clients or customers. In fact, promos such as referral rewards and other perks can encourage users to urge their friends and family to check out your app.

  • Improve Loyalty

When done properly, you can expect your users to be more loyal to your organization. This is true especially if you are able to prove your relevance, value and the other benefits of being a member, customer or client.

Mobile app development offer a window of opportunity for organizations to flourish and improve. From getting more customers or members to making your org more accessible to them, having an app is definitely an advantage.

For more information and good resources on app developers in Florida, check out AppDeveloperListing.com

Effective Mobile App Design Tips

9 Tips for an Effective Mobile App Design

Having a good design makes a mobile app pleasing to use. No matter how advanced the features your application has, it still lacks appeal if it does not give you excellent user experience. So, if you want to invest in developing applications, you need to make sure to provide your customers with a pleasing experience whenever they use your application.

Having a good design makes any object appealing to the senses and easy to use. In the case of mobile apps, competent designers see to it that each element contributes to the overall aesthetics and usefulness of the application.

Mobile App Design Tips

So how can you come up with a fantastic design? Here are some tips your mobile app development team in Jacksonville can employ:

  • Use a grid

Whenever designing something, a person must have a guide that helps organize the elements of the object so that it is pleasing to look at and easy to use. A grid acts as a guide for designing your app. With the help of these little squares, you can get an idea of where to place elements on the screen. Aside from being a guide, grids can also help you visualize the final design of your application.

  • Keep your design simple

The human mind craves simplicity. It doesn’t want too many elements that can lead to confusion. By keeping your design simple, you’re helping users to focus on the things you want them to do, like putting on a button with a color that stands out. Carefully choose the elements so that your customers can only images or text that they need. For apps that need many visual elements, ask your mobile app developers to optimize the images.

  • Make Text Readable

For users, there is nothing more annoying than reading a poorly rendered text. See to it that the size of the text is large enough to be understandable even to people with poor eyesight. You must also choose typefaces that are easy in the eyes. If you need to use fancy fonts, you should only place it on banners and headers, but not on the body.

  • Ensure Compatibility with iOS and Android

To make sure users of different types will use your application, it should run different smoothly on devices. Device compatibility is an important factor that mobile app developers need to consider. So, you need to develop an app that users can easily view or operate whether they use it on smartphones, tablets, or even on Windows or Mac devices. Examine and provide a solution to all possible issues that might crop up when the application runs on different devices.

  • Keep an Eye on Trends

Good designs evolve. The collective preference or trends of your users is always changing. Expect that there are new ways to create different looks and designs of your app based on their taste and introduction of new technologies. By keeping up with fresh and innovative trends, you can help mobile app developers in implementing new ideas that can let you reach out to new users and new markets.

  • Follow Marketplace Guidelines

Mobile apps must follow a set of guidelines imposed by the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. While you can freely experiment with navigation and other user interactions, you must always consider the standards by these marketplaces. These guidelines ensure that developers will implement UI design that focuses on core features over minor ones. Failure to comply with these specifications may mean disapproval of getting your apps into the stores.

  • Observe Consistency

Part of a memorable branding is the consistency of the colors and elements you use. One good practice is once you have defined an element, repeat it throughout the application.

Let’s say you’re designing the home screen. Once you set a color and font of a particular button, that same button should have the same font and color on every other page. This practice creates reinforcement and gives users an association with a button or any other element in the application.

  • Understand Market Needs

In developing your application, understanding your customers is a must. You should keep in mind the needs and wants of your target audience. Users want a personalized touch that reflects how mobile app developers value their particular requirements and interests as a demographic. The best way to know what your users expect in your app, you need to conduct thorough research before and during its development.

  • Test It with Your Customers

Designers and developers might have many testing methods they can use. But still, getting user input is perhaps the most significant and an industry standard. This method allows you to tweak the application’s design easily. It can also help you detect glitches even during the early stages of mobile app development, which can save you time and money.

Creativity is not enough to come up with an excellent design for mobile apps. You need to follow a set of guidelines such as the ones above to help you develop an application that your customers will love.

Mobile App Engagement

8 Best Practices to Boost Mobile App Engagement

As more and more people use smartphones, mobile applications are now the hottest means to get connected to the Internet. Since the use of handheld devices overtook desktops in terms of connecting to the Internet, the demand for downloadable applications has been growing significantly.

While increasing demand for apps might be good news if you want to cash in from your mobile app development efforts, it may also act as a challenge. As the number of apps increases further, you need to make it more engaging to ensure that your customers or users access it frequently. Faced with millions of apps, users have the luxury to delete poorly performing apps and install a better alternative. To avoid seeing your app gets uninstalled, you need to make it as entertaining and useful as possible.

Ways to Boost Mobile App Engagement

There are many techniques and strategies to make your application more enticing to use. Here are some actionable ones that you can apply at once:

Establish constant communication with your users

As a mobile app operator, you need it to communicate with your users continually. If you rarely send a message or chat to them, it may imply that you are ignoring them. Take time to initiate conversation or communication with them by sending relevant, educational, or entertaining messages via multiple channels. You can ask them for a rating of your app through in-app messages, or remind them of another feature or event through push notifications.

Send timely and relevant emails

Another way of initiating a conversation with them is by sending them old-school emails. Even though this channel may seem old-fashioned, it remains significant in conveying information and sending personal greetings. Aside from sending a welcome email after a user downloads your application, you can also send them an email for these purposes:

  • Encourage them to explore an unused feature
  • Introducing a new feature or product update
  • Notifying them of new promos or freebies
  • Greeting them in their essential dates such as birthdays and anniversaries

Personalize Your Content

Smartphones are designed to deliver private messages. It is not the proper device to consume formal and generic content. So, see to it that you communicate with your user on a personal level. Use words that directly interact with them at a personal level. You may need to hire a copywriter devoted to craft personalized messages as if you are talking only to a single user. Moreover, you may need to tap a mobile app development company to ensure that your messages are delivered in-app or through push notifications.

Use CTAs (Calls to Actions)

Your content is only a one-way conversation unless you request (or instruct) your users to participate in your monologue. You can guide your users on what to do next by placing CTA buttons. Many apps fail to draw reactions from users for the simple reason that they don’t contain CTAs. When correctly worded and designed, these buttons can persuade users to buy a product, respond to a message, subscribe to a newsletter, or take part in a conversation.  Also, make sure to place the button (or buttons) to strategic places in your app so that users can notice them quickly.

Use Analytics Tools

Activities in your app can be tracked using different tools. With these mobile app tracking tools, you can use the data you’ve gathered in making adjustments, updates, or tweaks in your application.  With this set of information, you can have a glimpse of who are your users as categorized by gender, age bracket, nationality, and frequency of app use. The tools can also give you information on what they are doing when using your application.

Encourage Social Sharing

Social media is the hottest tool for communication in the digital age. Make your app social media-friendly by incorporating icons of popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and others so that your customers can easily share your content. You can also think of ways to encourage your customers to share their experiences by giving them incentives or rewards. They can win a freebie (useful e-book) or get coupons or discounts if they like, share or comment on your social media posts.

Offer In-App Customer Support

Many customers, especially first-timers, might have difficulty operating or navigating your app. Others may want to ask for help. One way to help your customers is by integrating live chat assistance within your mobile app. Through this tool, your customers can chat real-time with your support team in times of need.

Try Advertising

Advertising is a useful way to attract user engagement for your mobile apps. You can use display ads to help you show rewards, discounts, or notifications to select applications or website. Investing in search ads lets you engage with potential customers who are looking for what you are offering on search engines. Meanwhile, retargeting allows your ads to appear on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms. These are just a few examples of how you can use different types of modern digital advertising types to improve user engagement.

Having a high user engagement is key to the success of your application. With the help of reputable app developers in Pensacola and other professionals, you can make your application more relevant to your customers.