The appeal of having a mobile app for your company is obvious. An app has the potential to increase the reach of your business and increase engagement with your consumers. While it’s impossible to do everything right at first, we’ve compiled some of the most common mistakes (and how our platform, Wallaby, can help you avoid them).
6 Common Mistakes Companies Make with Mobile Apps
1. Not Aligning Your Mobile App With Your Strategy
If your app isn’t aligned with your overall strategy, you will almost certainly fail. What you’re doing inside your business, on your website, and in your app, should all support your overall goal and strategy in the same way.
2. Too Much Stuff
Don’t overwhelm your audience with too many features. This makes the user experience confusing, especially since they will only grasp about two or three features at a time. One of the things we recommend to clients with a lot of content is to put a few things on the app at a time. Then, in a few weeks, come back and add more. That way you have a refreshed reason to promote your app and a new reason for people to come back and check it out. People who started using one or two features as habit are now offered something new that will hopefully become a new habit as well.
Wallaby is a customizable, modular platform. These modules help keep the content within your app focused and organized. Modules can be changed or added to give new functionality to your mobile app and offer additional benefits to your users.
3. Not Promoting the Mobile App
Promote your mobile app. All the time. In lots of different ways. Through multiple channels. You should promote your app in a way that connects to users so that they’ll want to open it at that moment for a specific reason.
One way Wallaby facilitates promotion is through the use of push messaging. Sending targeted push messages to your users increases engagement. A survey conducted by Clevertap found one of the main reasons users uninstall apps is because they are not used. By sending out targeted push messages, you can boost engagement and prompt users to remain interested in your mobile app.
4. Poor or Confusing Branding
Make sure you get your branding right. Over the years, we’ve noticed that it’s very easy to let your app become generic or to update something on your website and forget to update it on the app. The goal is to keep your branding as synchronized as possible.
Through the use of XML and RSS feeds, Wallaby keeps your app content synced with your website content. Updates to content on your website are reflected in the app as well, allowing your branding to remain consistent.
5. Poor Usability
Test, test, test! Make sure your app’s functions are clear and easy to find because an app that’s tough to use almost always gets deleted. The items in your navigation should be in an order that makes sense to the user. Everything within your app should align with how you’re talking about it so that when people go to look for a certain item, they can easily find it.
Bottom navigation menus are a key feature of Wallaby. These menus display buttons that guide users deeper into the app and be customized to reflect your content and branding.
6. Not Having the Right Support
Making sure your app is supported is a must. Your app provider should be keeping it up-to-date with the latest OS versions and devices. As you track traffic patterns within your app, keep a close eye on what things are working and, more importantly, what things are not.
At jācapps, it’s all about the end user and that is why we work to understand your consumer. We specialize in helping businesses find the mobile intersection of your brand and your consumer. Our apps are fully customizable and we always support what we sell.
Originally published by Jacobs Media
