13 benefits of mobile apps for business you need to know in 2024

In the past decade, mobile app usage has exploded all around the world.

In 2023 there were about 5.25 billion smartphone users worldwide, and an estimated 1.4 billion smartphones were sold in 2022.

As a result, there is increased demand for mobile apps among big firms and businesses. 

So, if you want to learn how your business and customers can benefit from a mobile app experience, you’re in the right place.

Let’s dive in!

Top 13 benefits of mobile apps for business

There are a lot of benefits of having a mobile app – let’s take a look at some of them.

1. Providing more value to your customers

In this day and age, business owners rely heavily on technology for interactions with customers.

Mobile apps are changing how users shop and satisfy their needs.

And their expectations are also growing – mobile apps are a great way you can meet them.

One of the key business types that benefits the most from mobile apps is retail shopping.

source: Sprout Social

By going mobile, you’ll make your goods and services more accessible to your customers.

Modern customer behavior prioritizes convenience – this trend is evident from a study which revealed that 8% of all retail transactions in 2023 happen online.

Also, there are several other elements you can add to your mobile app that your customers will love, such as:

• Complaints management system
• Online registration forms
• Data-based UX improvement

And that’s just scratching the surface – there’s almost no limit to how much value you can offer.

2. Building a stronger brand

The more value you offer your customers, the more interest they develop in your brand.

But, that’s impossible to achieve without deliberate branding efforts. 

And that’s where branded mobile apps come in. 

Mobile devices are an integral part of our everyday lives – so you can use this channel to benefit your brand.

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The more branding elements (logos, color combination, etc.) you get right within your app, the better the impact on your brand marketing results. 

And you can use the data you collect to better understand your target audience and improve your brand marketing strategy.

A good example is L’Oreal’s Makeup Genius app – they use a customized, branded mobile experience to engage with their users.

3. Quickly connecting with your customers

If there’s one thing that greatly influences customer satisfaction, it’s how quickly and easily they can access information about your business.

Unlike websites and other channels, a mobile app is much more reliable, personalized, and convenient.

Since they can log in with their contact information, customers don’t have to worry about losing track of their support requests. 

Your employees can easily access this information, too. This will help them serve the clients faster and better.

You can also add a live chat support to your app, which will not only boost customer satisfaction but drive engagement as well.

If done right, the near-instant replies from an in-app live chat can have a huge positive impact on your sales and brand in general.

4. Improving customer loyalty

A high customer retention rate is a hallmark of every successful business.

Of course, you can maintain a high retention rate by offering great value to your customers and ensuring that they’re always satisfied. 

But, loyalty programs are a good way to take things to the next level.

While running a loyalty program is a great idea, business owners often create a program that is hard to join. 

Here’s how you can seamlessly integrate them into your mobile app:

• Offer users instant rewards
• Provide timely personalized product recommendations
• Encourage social sharing

Loyal customers are not only useful for direct revenue generation, but they also serve as a marketing channel which can boost customer acquisition.

5. Gaining a competitive edge in your niche

In today’s world, keeping up with your competition can be really difficult. 

And making a mobile app can give you a significant competitive edge – research into the role of mobile apps in enterprises backs that up.

Changing user behaviors are behind this, specifically the demand for instant communication and increased reliance on mobile devices.

source: Lion Vision Technology

As we’ve mentioned earlier, communication speed is vital for customer satisfaction. 

Compared to other channels, mobile apps do a better job catering to the users’ ‘need for speed.’

And in some industries, you may need it just to keep up with your competition.

6. Improving your customer engagement level

One of the best ways to increase brand loyalty and revenue is to increase your customer engagement level. 

If you’re successful, you’ll experience an increase in your customer lifetime value, Return on Investment (ROI), and other important metrics.

So, which features in your app can increase your customer engagement level?

The most important of them is segmented targeting.

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This means creating multiple user categories and controlling the type of content each segment gets.

User segmentation allows you to:

• Send personalized in-app messages
• Give accurate user recommendations
• Understand your customers’ journey better

Some other ways you can increase the engagement level include loyalty programs, discounts, and continuous feature upgrades (innovation).

But, you shouldn’t forget to pay attention to your app’s basic features, too.

Even if you have top-notch features, users won’t engage if you have a bad UX/UI design or poor accessibility.

7. Building a direct and personalized marketing channel

Another area of your business that can benefit a lot from a custom mobile app is marketing.

The data collected from user sessions can be very useful for improving your marketing campaigns.

And this will also allow you to deliver content to your users more effectively.

Here’s how your mobile app makes this direct approach to marketing possible:

• Push notifications: Push notifications on average have a 60% opt-in rate and when you compare it with email marketing’s 5%, the difference is clear.
• In-app clickthrough rates: Ads and calls to action (CTA) always have a higher clickthrough rate within mobile apps.
• Response time: Unlike with email marketing, if you have a mobile app, users will likely engage with your offers or prompts immediately.

While you shouldn’t focus all your marketing on mobile, you definitely don’t want to miss out on its benefits.

8. Social media integration

Engagement is the driving force of the internet. The more time people spend engaging your app, the better it is for your business. 

And when it comes to driving engagement, nothing beats social media.

But, if you want to effectively integrate your app with social media channels, you should promote it on those platforms first.

For this, you’ll need a good social media campaign.

Running social media campaigns on popular platforms such as Facebook and YouTube is a great way to get your app all the attention you want immediately after launch. 

Then, you should encourage new users to sign up with their social media accounts.

Next, you want to add social media buttons and other shareable CTAs to your app.

You can also boost user engagement by integrating the app with social media feeds.

9. Instant customer service

Instant communication with your users is essential for a good customer experience. 

Most users nowadays use mobile apps to communicate with companies – 82% of them, in fact.

Mobile customer service benefits both business owners and customers in a number of ways:

• Customers get the chance to find answers for themselves
• Customer service personnel receive fewer questions
• You improve your overall customer experience

However you consider it, a well-implemented mobile app is always good news for customer service.

10. Finding valuable user insights

If you want to have a winning marketing strategy, it needs to revolve around actual customer behavior. 

And your mobile app is a reliable and valuable source of user insights.

Customers are often willing to share some important information with you if you offer value in return.

Analytics tools like Firebase and UXCam are a great option for getting in-depth customer insights.

Some commonly tracked metrics you should look at are:

• Daily/weekly/monthly users
• App downloads and uninstalls
• Retention rate
• Session length
• Conversion rate

There are numerous entry points where you can track these insights. In most cases, a form during onboarding is the best option.

Also, you can offer bonuses or rewards when you want users to complete a survey or fill a questionnaire.

Starbucks is a great example of this.

By using data from their mobile app, they were able to get more than 17 million active subscribers to their loyalty program.

11. Having more control

Having a branded app gives you control over how you run your business.

And there are several areas where you can make the most of that level of control:

• Branding

When it comes to how customers view your brand, your app’s design is crucial.

From the logo, transition effects and all other animations, you can use your app to tweak your branding strategy as your business evolves.

• Security

Security is the foundation of successfully doing business online.

If you use a multi-vendor app or any other channel you have less control over how secure your business transactions are. But, with your own mobile app, you’re fully in control.

• Scalability

When your business begins to expand, mobile apps generally allow you to add more power to the mix. 

However, this may sometimes depend on the development technologies or agency employed.

• Engagement and customer interaction

Mobile apps are also great for building and improving long-term customer relationships. 

You can nurture these relationships by consistently sending personalized updates about your products and services.

In the end, all this control gives you more room to significantly improve your business processes.

12. Providing unique services and features

To stay ahead of your competition, you need to offer your customers unique services.

To achieve this, all you need to do is add new features to your mobile app — and you’re ready to go! 

A good mobile app packed with unique, interesting features can give you the edge.

If you’re building a mobile app, here are some must-have features for delivering services to your customers:

• Rich push notifications: Push notifications are a tested and proven way of getting users to keep coming back to your app services.
• Click-to-call and click-for-direction: Integrating these buttons in choice locations in your app will help you convert leads to sales much faster.
• Analytics: Analytics help you understand your customers’ behavior and make a great difference in your marketing results.

Though these features aren’t unique or service-specific, they show how your app’s features impact how you deliver your services.

13. Getting user feedback

Mobile apps are one of the best ways you can capture user feedback.

Let’s take a look at some customer feedback mechanisms you can include:

• Widgets: Widgets are great for generating open-ended responses about a specific element of your brand.
• Surveys: In the same way, you can add surveys to your app. But, you need to ensure they match the context of your app and show them only when convenient.
• ‘Rate my app’ prompts: App ratings not only inform you about customer satisfaction but also boost your app store optimization efforts.

In a nutshell, mobile feedback mechanisms often have higher response rates, are available around the clock, and require low maintenance.

Types of mobile apps you can make for your business

Here are some of the most popular types of mobile apps we’ve observed in the market.

Task resolution apps

These apps help users execute tasks or enjoy services your business offers remotely and conveniently. 

Most mobile apps often include task resolution as a basic element. 

It could be a tool for remote workers to access customer databases, an app car owners use to control their cars remotely (BMW), or even a shopping app.

Loyalty apps

Mobile apps can also be a great way to boost loyalty among your customers.

Brands like H&M and Starbucks run loyalty programs and offer incentives to reward loyal customers.

source: Netguru

As a result, the customers keep coming back to the brand in exchange for those benefits.

Entertainment apps

Apps aren’t always aimed at performing tasks alone. 

By entertaining your users through your brand’s app, you can also keep the majority of your users hooked, even without outright offering incentives. 

Coca-Cola and Red Bull do so efficiently with their Coca-Cola Freestyle and Red Bull TV apps.

Customer service apps and chatbots

These apps serve as a bridge between brand employees or software and users for troubleshooting purposes.

The customers can report the problems they’re facing and find solutions, while on their part, the brands can notify users of updates and new services.

Content apps 

Celebrities and service experts also use mobile apps to share their content in a digital space they control. 

A good example is the Sidekick app by Sorted Food, which contains photos, videos, and explanatory cooking guides.

But, keep in mind that these are just some of the types of apps you can build to benefit your business.

The possibilities are endless, especially if you hire the right mobile app development company to help you make your idea a reality.

Ready to reap the benefits of mobile apps?

Are you struggling to improve your business processes and boost your profitability?

A mobile app might just be the missing link – and we can help you build yours.

We’ll take care of your app’s development from start to finish, from validating your idea all the way to post-launch support and maintenance.

If you want to learn more, feel free to reach out and we’ll set up a quick call to discuss your needs in more detail.