The global success of certain app’s – think communication apps such as WhatsApp and Snapchat – has led many businesses to seek ways to capitalise on the massive growth of the mobile device market.
Although mobile apps generate billions in revenue every year, not all apps profit equally from this growth. An app that is used and adds value to your service or product needs more than a great idea. Here are three ideas to ensure your app adds real value to your business:
1. Build An App That Extends Your Brand
If your brand’s defining strength is the speediest delivery of local takeout food, your app needs to extend this brand experience. An app that makes the process even more effortless and seamless would be ‘on-brand’. Rather than add novelty features for their own sake, make your app extend your brand.
The point is that an app that is matched to your core business function but makes it even easier for customers to fulfil their objectives will be a success with your existing fans, and could easily win you new ones.
2. Add Depth To The Customer’s Experience of your app
Another important concept for making your app add value to your brand is ‘depth’. If your app deepens the customer experience, expanding the ways you help and delight the customer, it is sure to be a hit.
L’Oreal’s Makeup Genius app is an excellent example. The AR (Augmented Reality) app maps users’ faces using camera tracking to preview makeup styles. The key here is that the app adds value without necessarily requiring any further purchases. The app gives value without being monetised, and this builds trust in the L’Oreal brand by providing a great experience with no strings attached.
By tapping into the existing features a mobile device offers (as L’Oreal did with device cameras) you can add immense value with an app.
3. Place Supplemental Value Above Sales
Many businesses approach app development as a quick-fix monetisation solution. Yet instead of attempting to drive sales, you could build the overall value of your brand and individual products by making your app supplement and expand value.
Car companies, for example, create apps for easily updating and storing owners’ license information, or for remotely interacting with onboard device computers. Rather than offer a mobile app for purchasing cars, they create apps that make their flagship vehicles more desirable to purchase in the first place.
Do you need help strategising how to grow the value of your product or customer journey? Contact Interact today.