Search for an industry where there are no mobile apps of some kind and you’ll be looking for the rest of your days. Mobile apps are common in many industries today and are helping professionals get all types of tasks done and businesses to run much more smoothly, whether it’s a communication app, a human resources app or other app.
Ecommerce, healthcare, logistics, travel and tourism, and education are all big areas where app usage is heavy. Below is a look at the benefits of apps for businesses, why apps need to stand out, how app reviews can help your business stand out and improve your search rankings and at how app reviews benefit app developers.
The benefits of using apps
If you run a business but don’t use apps or have an app for your business, you’re missing out on a heap of benefits.
First of all, apps help customers engage with your business and are your chance to offer them a personalized experience, which can encourage them to engage with it even more and make you more sales.
Secondly, providing an app makes your services and products more accessible to customers. Apps offer them a high level of convenience and give you the chance to capitalise on any spontaneous desires they have, whether that’s ordering a takeout, booking a trip or holiday or other wants or needs. The app can also enable you to steal an edge on competitors.
Thirdly and finally from a business perspective, as well as being a way to help you make more sales and get customers engaging with you, apps are a plentiful source of data. If you integrate analytics into your app, you can gain insight into customer behaviour, purchase patterns and preferences. You can then use this insight to make informed decisions for your business.
The need to stand out
More and more people are using smartphones, and in lots of industries competition between businesses is tough. Just as your business needs to stand out, your app must stand out too, but that’s also no easy task when there are at least a million apps on app stores. A well-designed app gives you the chance to do this, however.
When people are searching for apps, often they’re looking for one that meets a specific need. They’re also likely to be looking for one by a familiar, reputable brand. Brands can capitalize on this by placing an icon that reflects their brand in the listing of their app. Small businesses, however, should try to make sure they’re at the top of the category to stand out.
Using reviews to help you stand out
One way of standing out is to earn lots of positive reviews of your apps. Consumers are faced with so many choices today and are becoming more and more sceptical of just about everything, including apps. They want apps they can trust and, before downloading your app or even considering buying from you, they’ll read the reviews to decide whether your app is worth investing time and possibly money in.
This is especially true when it comes to choosing an online casino mobile app. Players need to know that the casino operator is legitimate and that using their services is safe, so they’ll read the reviews before creating an account and venturing into the digital casino.
A good app rating can help enhance your brand reputation, whereas if you have a low app rating, people may form a negative impression of your brand. They’re less likely to download your app, either because they don’t trust the app or because they don’t think it’s any good.
Boosting your rankings with app reviews
Positive app reviews do more than just build your brand reputation, however: they help your business and its app to become more visible in app stores. If Google observes that an app is getting lots of positive reviews and ratings, it understands the app is valuable and places it higher in its app store.
The search engine also indexes the words in reviews, so if a review features certain category keywords, there’s also a chance it can move up the rankings in app stores. The app can even rank for keywords that, had it not been for the reviews, it might not have done.
Helping developers
Customers aren’t the only people who appreciate apps. When writing reviews of apps, users will discuss the good, the bad and the ugly, which gives app developers valuable feedback on what users like about the app and what the developers could do to improve the user experience, functionality and other features of the app.
Apps are intensely popular. Almost everyone is using them, either in their business or in their everyday lives. Providing a well-designed app is an excellent way for businesses to stand out, encourage customers to engage with the app and, best of all, generate sales.