The world is going mobile, yet a vast majority of small business have little or no mobile presence. In order to take advantage of the growing trend towards mobile advertising, you will want to understand the differences and functions of the two most popular mobile marketing options – mobile app vs mobile website.
People who are searching on their mobile devices for information on the go are generally looking for specific information that is easy to locate and easy to access. This information includes:
- Contact Information
- Directions to a Specific Location
- Specials and Discount Offers
- Simple Product Information
When choosing between a mobile app and a mobile website you will want to ensure that these features are included automatically. It is the additional features that will contribute to your final decision to go with one or the other.
What can a Mobile Website do for You?
Mobile websites are compact versions of your website offering easy to navigate features that will show you the most important information your clients and customers wants to see. Customers will also be able to access your full website with their devices, but essentially, your mobile site is utilized to focus on the most important features of your business.
The cost of building and hosting a mobile website is much smaller than having a mobile app developed and can usually be achieved with an investment of just a couple of hundred dollars. Hosting of your mobile website can be attached to your standard website hosting or you may wish to purchase a separate mobile site with it´s own hosting in order to keep the loading times to a minimum.
Your mobile website will still need to be found by customers who are searching for a particular product, so all your standard website marketing techniques will need to be implemented in order to ensure your mobile site generates traffic.
What can a Mobile App do for You?
A mobile marketing app is a software built to your companies’ specifications including all the information you have on your website along with additional features that make use of your mobile phones native functionality. Customers can search through your app as well as having access to your complete website through the App. Again your app will focus on the most important features of your business.
The cost of building and hosting a mobile marketing app is far more than that of a mobile website. You can have a mobile marketing app build on both Android and Apple platforms for upward of $350 with hosting costing your an average of $40 per month for quality hosting.
Your mobile app will be downloaded onto your customers phones and will be quickly and easily accessed through your app icon on their device for all your latest deals, products and promotions.
What are the Stand Apart Features of Mobile App vs Mobile Website?
While a mobile website is a great tool to ensure you have an online presence, it cannot achieve the same level of interaction that a mobile app is able to do. Mobile apps also include free push notifications allowing you to send out messages to those people who have downloaded your app to their device for FREE. Having the ability to communicate with a captive audience will ensure that you are heard.
Mobile apps, however, do not send out free messages unless the app is downloaded, so it cannot be used in this manner to generate new customers. Sms marketing is an excellent method to achieve this both for mobile websites and mobile apps.
