Let’s face it, the overwhelming majority of businesses are not externally funded tech unicorns, and therefore can’t afford to fail when it comes to marketing or technology investments.  

As a Marketing Consultancy providing App, Web and SEO solutions for small medium sized businesses in the UK, my technology partner and I have worked with many small businesses and their marketing teams on these digital transformation projects. 

From experience, I’ve come up with three Must-Haves for a business to generate results within 3-6 months of their app investment. If your business does have these three ingredients and you relish the idea of an app, let’s talk! 

I call them the three Cs of small business app marketing - Content, Community, and Commitment

Content

Let’s be clear: a mobile app is not a website and shouldn’t be treated as such, nor are apps meant to replace a well-designed, fast loading, mobile friendly website

You would be regularly producing fresh, up to date content such as events, news, videos, blogs, special offers or simply want a way to reach out to your customers in a timely, reliable and laser targeted fashion, whilst your customers are on the go 

If you do run social media, email or in-store campaigns, having an app is an asset especially when it comes to collecting customer data, facilitating bookings, payments and selling merchandise  

Community

Ideally, you would have an audience of customers or followers to start with if you’d like to see results in 3-6 months

Extensive research from Salesforce (a customer relationship management platform) has shown Generation-Z, Millennials, and to a lesser extent Generation-X, tend to access a business via multiple touchpoints or marketing channels more, compared with Baby Boomers

The top five popular channels used when communicating with businesses are: Email, In Person, Phone, Online Chat /Live Support and Mobile App. 

In other words, if your audience demographic is mainly Millennials, they will expect your business to be accessible via a few of these channels, or you’ll risk losing new business to your competitors.

Commitment

With the first two Cs out of the way, let’s assume you’ve now built a beautifully designed app for your customers, your followers or your own organisation.

You will need to set aside time, get commitment and possibly a marketing budget to making your digital transformation project work for your audience.

This is the most crucial element in ensuring your app will generate the results that you want

Key questions to ask are: 

- What are your sales or marketing goals for the app? 

- How do you get buy-in from your team and your customers who will use the app?

- Is the app on your marketing / communications plan? If it’s not, it won’t happen 

- Who will be involved in the launch and execution of your app marketing? 

That’s it – if you’ve been reading this article, I hope this gives you some food for thought on the subject.

Like to know more on the subject or view one of our case studies? Please reach out to Joyce here 

MarketingTech | 360 Consulting | App | Web | SEO

About Joyce Ong

Joyce runs MarketingTech, a Marketing Consultancy for small and medium sized businesses, and together with a technology partner, deliver solutions such as mobile apps, websites/landing pages and Search Engine Optimisation services.

MarketingTech is more than an app developer, web developer, or SEO provider – we work with the business providing 360 degree Marketing Advice to ensure you and your team will generate results from your marketing investment.

Joyce has more than twenty-five years of Corporate and SME marketing experience in Singapore, Zurich and London, a passion for marketing technology and uses her experience and skills to champion SMEs and facilitate digital transformation within organisations.