Are You Building a Mobile Application? An iPhone App?

We are! In fact, we’re working on more of them everyday! We used to tell most clients who inquired that they were often too expensive to generate a satisfactory ROI in the marketing world. However, we are generating localized apps with national quality that are affordable enough to be a solid investment. And of course we are only doing them when we first plan a genuine strategy.

When planning a mobile app, a “strategy” is not jamming it full of “cool factor,” i.e. games, snappy features, etc. The app should accomplish two major things: First, the app should provide something of actual value to your prime customer. This is often best accomplished through making that person’s life easier, saving them time, or saving them money. Second, the method by which the app provides that strategy should be tied directly to your business’s core competency.

Let’s look at an example. If you run a chain of urgent care clinics with seven locations and want to build an app, then keep in mind the two things that app should accomplish. First, it should provide value to the customer/patient…in this case, the patient is most likely in a hurry since you are an urgent care clinic, similar to an emergency room at a hospital.

So, why not design your app so that anyone can log in at anytime, instantly see the wait times at each location (people don’t only get hurt at home so they may be closer to a location they don’t know about) and then make an immediate, informed decision about which location to visit. Then, ensure the app is tied to the core comptency. Well, you manage an urgent care clinic of which the mission is to provide quality, fast, convenient care to everyone in need. The app does reinforce that. Take it a step further? Allow the app to take a photo of your insurance card and store it, in case you do need to visit on the go and do not have it with you. Now you’ve just doubled down on proving easy, fast care. That is a successful app design!

So, next time you or someone you know is thinking about an app, call to brainstorm! We are one company who does not require any financial commitment to work through an app design strategy with you.

On a side note: as I was preparing this post Friday, I checked the mail. I received two magazines and just inside the cover of both, I saw app ads. Incredible how fast it is still growing!