By Aisling McCarthy

According to a 2016 study by hxt.africa, there are 26.8 million South Africans actively accessing the internet on a daily basis – which constitutes just under half of the country’s population. Of those who access the internet using their mobile phones, there is an average time of 2 hours and 59 minutes spent online on a daily basis. With those kind of numbers - why wouldn’t you want to tap into that market?

Why businesses should invest in apps

Apps offer a simple means of communication, where businesses can reinforce more traditional means of marketing, whilst allowing customers to engage more frequently and experience more personalised access to products and services on the go.

Jonathan Vass, managing director at DreamWeave Digital, explains that apps can be vital to a business’s success, as it creates a direct link between company and consumer, “[allowing] a business to live in the palm of their customer’s hand”.

He further explains that apps can offer a far more personalised experience for consumers by using push notifications. These allow the business to communicate with the user based on where they are or what they like. Some applications also offer offline content, which can allow the user to access the app even when they have no signal or data. This makes the business content available more often and is much easier to access, especially in third world countries.

Social media expert at Dragonfly Marketing, John Mark, echoes this sentiment, adding that apps can assist business in numerous ways, “from sales tools to efficiency platforms". He further states that apps can make businesses run more effectively by taking pressure off some areas and “allowing you to focus on more important tasks”.

Mobile friendly site vs an app

Businesses are ensuring their websites are mobile-friendly, but Vass believes that apps trump mobile-friendly sites as they have presence on the home screen coupled with ease of access.

“Rather than accessing content through a web browser, the user is able to access content at the click of an icon and because the icon has higher visibility, it encourages more frequent access.”

Mark seconds that, highlighting that websites are a place to temporarily visit for information, whereas apps are a constant part of our lives.

“Whether they provide information, business tools, games, or anything else. Great apps help us run our lives effectively, without the need for far away information or tools.”

Ensuring your app’s success

Getting customers to commit to downloading your app can be the tricky part though, as Donny Reynolds, writing for Medium, says that due to shrinking attention spans online, downloading and installing and app, which once was a simple experience, is now an act of commitment for many.

“You won’t believe how many people demand a convincing reason, your heartfelt speech, and your first-born child just to get them to try out a new app.”

Mark believes that the key to success is in clearly stating what it is, what it does and why it’s better than other, similar apps. This will ensure that people know what they’re getting into, as he states that no one will be willing to download an application for something that they will only use once.

“Uniqueness is key. If you build a great app that’s easy to use, and people love using it – they will tell their friends, give great reviews and the app will grow. If you do a quick, cheap, complicated job of it, the opposite will happen.”

However, functionality and user experience (UX) are the most critical elements in an app’s success. Vass states that “It’s more important that something works than it looks good but under-delivers in function.”

Avoid the typical mistakes

Often, businesses make grievous errors when creating apps, which can ultimately lead to their failure. According to both Mark and Vass, the most typical mistake is trying to include too many features, rather than focusing on the core elements of the app.

“It’s very easy to get caught up in the ‘nice to have’ features that don’t actually contribute to the app’s primary objective,” says Vass. “Often, simplicity is key – focus on doing a primary function well and then develop future features as you gather real market feedback about what users actually want, rather than what you think they want.”

Getting caught up in these “extra” features can be detrimental to the app, according to Mark, as it escalates the costs involved, delays the release of the product and, essentially, increases the probability of problems arising.

Marketing is another area which Vass believes in under-utilised.

“You cannot expect people to find your app by mistake in a crowded app market. You need to tell people about the app, what it does, why they need it and where to get it.”

The future of apps

Considering how quickly technology is evolving, apps themselves will need to advance in order to remain relevant. Smartphone capabilities have become more complex and we increasingly rely on them in our day to day lives.

With the emergence of virtual reality (VR) and immersive media, apps are likely to move towards that sort of augmented reality. Mark believes that apps will utilise VR as well as artificial intelligence to give apps a more ‘human’ element.

“It will be a few more years, but apps – and software – will become more and more humanised and interactive through technologies like these.”

As the labour market shifts towards a skills-based economy, Vass asserts that apps will create marketplaces where individuals can freelance, selling their skills “on a virtual platform to real life buyers”.

He adds that employees will move away from working for a single company to offering their skills to a global market, saying that this will be “particularly attractive to South African workers because [they] are extremely competitively priced globally when the market is paying in Dollars and we are charging in Rands”.

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