You can see that in Part I we laid the critical groundwork as to a) if you even need an app for your particular enterprise; and b) how to think about finding the most actionable parts of that foundation.
Now we launch forward.
We Have the Strategy of a Successful Launch, but Are the Tactics Right Leading Up To that Launch?
Remember your first attempt--in-house or paid--at your website?
I, too, personally cringe with the question.
An app, just like your website, needs SPECIFIC data bits. And that that data should get transformed and refreshed with a certain frequency.
What does that mean in street language? Basically it means that you need the data massaged correctly or accurately enough so that your customers can experience a positive result with your app.
This is where design starts to take shape. You need start branding the screens so that your customer is constantly and continually aware of the wonderful app that a like organization has is so easy to work with. There is where the word intuitive must start to form in your design. OK?
This is called in some circles spec-ing the app. Which means getting the technical butterflies to fly in formation.
We are making a lot of words come in for processes which, for the most part, may happen sequentially or in parallel. Then we are ready to construct how content will appear to the user.
Content really is the form and function of your end-user app shape. This is where a pencil on a piece of paper does wonders. You are deciding on what content goes where, strategically, on your screen that will give your users the best result. And 'best result' for you is dollars in the account.
If you don't know it by now, there really is a difference between a programmer and a developer. They have different paradigms. (Kind of like the difference you may have heard me write about between consultants and business coaches.)
Programmers are basically old school. Developers, once they know parts and how all things will fit together, should have 90% of the components and templates and they can tie it all together in your customer-facing app by utilizing small amounts of code.
Now, there really are uses for programmers when you build apps from scratch. And it could really be a lot more efficient to use a programmer when, after your strategy session, you see that ready-made components and templates will not serve your customer purpose.
If You Are Hiring Your App Done...
You need to really be spending the time in-house in both planning and strategy sessions so that when you do hire your app developer, you can lay it all out for them in a cogent manner. (And not have the developer fire you as a client for all the frustration you've caused them!)
Mostly, to keep costs down, you need to focus on hybrid apps as opposed to native. The bottom line is Web code so that your developer can push the buttons to get your app approved for app stores.
Obviously, a church is going to have different needs than, say, a wholesaler or motorcycle dealer in their app. But each can be developed into a very 'unique' customer-facing app by using pre-developed components designed well so that your brand remains foremost in the app's use.
Who Ya Gonna Call to Keep Your App Updated?
The additional bottom line (and yes there are several bottom lines to building and launching a successful launch APPlication), is that probably about 97% of all apps need regular updating. This figure goes to 100% for customer-facing apps.
Now you CAN have your developer do the oftentimes tedious job of updating. It depends on whether or not you have someone hired to do that work in-house. Updating content is critical so the person doing the updating must be constantly looking at your app from the customer's point of view.
The Bottom Line to Keep In Mind When Considering Apps
These days, customers are not clamoring for another icon for their business or home screens. Most of us got over that novelty about 2004 or much earlier.
Your app HAS to matter to your customers. You must give them something they cannot obtain elsewhere. And all the talk in these last two Quad State Business Journal columns about native, hybrid, custom to cookie-cutter style in in-put and output comes down to this sentence.
Remember the term customer enrichment I've used in other articles in QSBJ? I wished I would have coined the term, but the mental image is the same with your app.
Content is Still King--But Content Marketing Is the Crown.
Apps do well with content marketing. Your quality content is what pre-sells the customer. Some marketers have customers who read between 30 and 100 pages of content before a purchase is made.
Your business offers your customers, patients, donors, members and students a solution. Your app therefore is front and center on the front lines in your marketplace reminding customers and potential customers that YOU have the information. All they need is to come in, click a link, fill in their e-mail information, download this book--any activity that can move them closer to a buying decision.
There is something has to matter to your customers by giving them something they can’t get elsewhere. In the end, native or hybrid, custom or cookie-cutter, that is where the rubber meets the road, where you deliver something of value. How you translate that value into increased sales is a whole other question.
But as Marcus Sheridan showed with his fiberglass pool customers, the ones that had absorbed the most of his content on the product (at least 30 and in some cases over 100 individual web pages!) were the customers most likely to make a purchase.
Apps give you the opportunity to present your products as solutions to your customers’ problems, even if only by suggesting that you are a master in the domain of that problem.
The one thing that a lot of marketers do in the digital age is try to sell with every bit of content. That turns off people in 2014. You simply do not want your customer/potential customer that they are being marketed--at least aggressively so.
Your app should be like a gift to customers. Your solution is now right in front of them with your app. Now, how can you make that attitude happen to the great joy of your bottom line?
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Article first appeared: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com
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