The competitive advantage of having an app for your company

A mobile app is a very valuable resource for the company. It helps users to access a single interaction environment and thus be able to receive data associated with customer loyalty and increased sales.

Customer loyalty or attracting new ones, increasing revenue, generating a brand… these are just some of the advantages of having an app. But the reality is that if you offer a valuable app, it can give you a competitive advantage over your competitors. 

The first step is to create the application, or if you already have one with little experience, update it. In the world of apps not everything goes well. Building a quality app requires a budget and the right team. It will be essential to hire an app developer or a specialist company to design one tailored to meet the needs of your company.

What are the advantages of having an app for your company?

The advantages that an app can provide for your company are many. You just have to find a way to provide your users and customers with what your competition does not and thus find a competitive advantage.

We specify here the most important advantages:

1. Obtain important information

Applications allow to obtain users’ data. For example, they allow us to know how they behave and thus obtain important information to prepare our marketing campaigns.

Each company can establish some KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), such as the number of installations, location, age, gender, marital status, profession, time of use, life cycle, sales or subscription data, goals achieved, number of orders made, etc

This information can be key to generating business, either to sell your product or service. Actually data represents your business. 

2. Engagement

With an app you will be able to better understand the needs and it will be easier to improve their engagement with the brand. Communications will be more direct and you will be able to establish yourself in a controlled environment in which interference with the competition will be reduced.

There are many campaigns that are effective through the app, such as promotions or special discounts. Interaction can also be facilitated through resources such as social networks, comments or product ratings.

In any case, with an app you can establish strong communication that helps reinforce brand recall. In the event that the experience has been good, it will facilitate loyalty.

Creating a loyal community can make a difference against your competitors.

3. Creation of personalized and unique experiences

An application can be launched with stipulated objectives, such as achieving the highest possible conversion rate.

It could offer an intuitive and attractive interface, although it might not be enough.

For this reason, more and more companies are choosing to personalize experiences. They feed on the data they collect from the app and analyze it to determine the best time to send notifications, to know which articles or services are the favorites or which are the best messages to get the app opened.

We must not lose sight of machine learning or augmented reality technologies; through them it is possible to predict the behavior of users and analyze them automatically, considering certain variables.

Technology is always a way to achieve a greater competitive advantage. 

4. Launching different types of notifications

There are two types of notifications that can be sent once the app has been installed:

• In-App: are those that appear in full screen and allow information of interest to be sent to the user. It is also possible to find many applications in which you can receive discounts, news, promotions or other types of communication.
• Push: a type of notification that appears on the lock screen of mobile phones. Users can disable them if they wish. Their main objective is to get the user to reopen the app.

5. User loyalty

There are more possibilities of user loyalty in a tailored made designed environment, which meets the real needs of users. However, it is convenient not to forget about another type of methodology, but to use them as complements.

The most interesting thing is to use all the resources that are available, such as combining loyalty through the app with e-mail marketing or SMS.

However, apps have special features that cannot be achieved in any other way: for example, the generation of in-app notifications that help measure the level of user satisfaction and loyalty.

• Through the app we can ask for reviews of the application, to find out what the user thinks about the quality of the service or certain sections.
• We can also offer exclusive promotions, thus increasing the number of downloads.
•  Some metrics can be of great interest to us, such as the number of people who have the application installed and do not update it.

6. Monetization

In addition to the above advantages, with the app of your company you can achieve an adapted monetization system.

For example, we can establish a premium (pay for downloading the app in the store) or freemium (the app is free, but they have some payment options or require a subscription).

This can be an important point in which to stand out from your competitors. Where others do not make a profit from their website, your company can monetize the app to gain money.

Now you know some of the advantages of having an app for your company.