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Why You Need a Website and NOT an App

android, applications, apps

While I, myself, am a big fan of the convenience applications offer me, apps are not always the best way to go. Do not get me wrong, apps are gifts sent from heaven above and they make our life so much easier. I cannot even begin to tell you how many apps I have installed in my phone right now because it would take us quite some time. They are quick, they are easy, they are convenient and so much more.

So basically an app is supposed to serve a particular purpose. If it fails to do so, it is not considered useful. The logic is that, an app needs to satisfy something that a regular website cannot. If an app is just an exact clone of the website itself then it is just redundant and pointless, right?

There are only two reasons you need an app:

1.) The company building the app has considerable brand recognition.

Take big companies as your example, they have apps that allow you to gain rewards and such to pay back for your loyalty to their company and of course for marketing advantages. They develop apps that relate their products, making customers patronize their products more. This does not mean that when you want to purchase their product you need to install an app first, this means if you want to avail extra services and benefits that relate to their products, you need to install a specific app that they developed for that particular purpose.

2.) The company’s product/service is the app.

Here’s where the app is vital to the business and that is the app itself is the business. One great example for this is the much beloved SNAPCHAT app. I cannot even begin to tell you how many users have this app installed on their phone. This is because snapchat is the business itself. It cannot function through a mere website, it needs access to almost everything on your phone, which is why you need an app to access its wonders.

If none of the two applies then why bother investing in an app when you can just strengthen your website responsiveness game and you are good to go.

The reality in the app business is people rarely ever download an app. People download apps that have gained an enormous reputation for themselves like Facebook, Instagram, etc. If your business or content is not as big as their brands then you might want to rethink the app thing.

If in case people ever decide to download your app, you must bear in your mind that the average retention rate for downloaded apps is roughly 3.2% so you do the math.

Basically, if they ever decide to download your app, there is no guarantee that they will continue to use it. Let us not get ahead of ourselves and think that apps are the best thing to jump at because that is not always the case. Sometimes, you just have to improve you website, because people normally search in search engines for service providers, they don’t go searching for “best restaurants near my area” in the app store, right? So, if it is not imperative to your business, then just continue developing your website and make the most of what you already have.

Four Best Mobile Apps for Business

Smartphones with notifications

Mobile apps that will help you work.

Who said you can only work on a desktop computer? Work is now doable on mobile. You can collaborate with your colleagues while you are on the go. As long as you are connected to the internet, these applications will help you work using your very own mobile device. This list varies from security, communication, and social networking applications.

Flowdock

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore

Price: FREE!

Flow dock is a great team chat app. You can stay connected with all your colleagues at work. The wonderful thing about it is that you can create several chat groups. There is no need for the whole team to crowd in one single channel. You can divide the chats by department (or it is really depends on you.) The people under the marketing team will not be notified about updates on the HR department and you can tag the people involved in that specific task. It is near impossible to miss an urgent chat when you focus on your designated channel. You can also integrate Twitter to it. This is an excellent choice if your business is active on Twitter. You will get notified when your scheduled tweets go live. Flowdock is perfect if your focus is social media. Best feature of all? It is free!

Hootsuite

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore

Price: FREE!

There are so many social media platforms nowadays. When you are away from your desktop computer, it is hard to keep up on the latest news. You need to download various applications on your mobile phone and you have to constantly switch from one app to another. Thank God for Hootsuite because you can now integrate your social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn – in one place. You can stay updated and post status updates in all your accounts simultaneously. The remarkable feature of HootSuite is that you can schedule posts for Twitter and Instagram. If you want to get more of your content out there, Hootsuite is a fantastic business social networking tool.

Hotspot Shield

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore

Price: FREE with in-app purchases.

When you are always on the go and working at different public WiFi spots, security is a main concern. Hotspot Shield will take care of the WiFi security for you. You can disguise your online identity with this encryption app. You do not need to worry for hackers snooping into your business. This is a free app, but there are other features available when you choose to purchase it. Aside from keeping your mobile activities safe, hidden, and anonymous, Hotspot Shield also allows you to access blocked sites like YouTube or Netflix since it utilizes most of the bandwidth allocation.

Blue Jeans

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore

Price: You can try it for FREE.

With Blue Jeans, you do not have to worry about video conferencing. This is a universal app allows you to conduct video calls with your colleagues even if  they are using a different system like Cisco, Microsoft Lync, Skype, etc. You can host a call or join an existing conference from practically anywhere. With the free service, one conference call can have 25 participants and you can have up to 100 people if it is premium service.

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