Every company that enquires about a mobile application wants to know the ROI. A few weeks ago, we covered “ROI – There’s an App for That, Part Two: Apps That Reduce Costs,” which revealed the ways a mobile app improves employee efficiency and reduces costs. Well, there’s still more to mobile apps than generating revenues from the app itself and reducing costs. Mobile apps can also be used to enhance marketing and customer service. These types of apps are designed for the customer and provide a sort of value-added service.
Apps for marketing and customer service do not generate revenue from the app itself. In many cases, depending on your type of company, you wouldn’t charge customers a fee to access features in your app, much like you wouldn’t charge customers to access features on your website. Similarly, you wouldn’t display other company’s ads in your app, much like you wouldn’t display ads on your company website. Again, this all depends on the type of company you operate.
Like any marketing campaign, you advertise with the intent to improve awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, or adoption of your product. There is obviously no revenue being returned from these advertisements. Mobile applications for marketing are very similar in that they include the brand’s logo, colours, and more to improve consumer interest, evaluation, trial or adoption.
Consumers won’t just download a marketing app though. They will download a customer service app (which uses marketing). CollegeMobile has created many of these apps for credit unions and retail organizations. These mobile apps might provide customers with access to a company’s services, or information on a company’s products.
There are hundreds of different uses for a mobile app, so you will need to use your imagination. What kinds of mobile apps do you think your customers would use?