OMG. We are SO SICK and SO TIRED of STUPID ADVICE.
Especially from so-called industry groups that should know better. Case in point (and the one that’s got us so riled up this morning!) –
How is it that QSRWeb and Networld Media are still trying to sell SMBs on the idea that they need to create, deploy, maintain and lose their shirt by building a standalone app?
Retailers know there is no debate about the need for a mobile app these days, given consumer app use and increasing use of such apps within the retail store environment.
Wow, talk about utter stupidity or outright lying, and we’re not sure which one is worse. Are they being PAID by some app developers to say this tripe? Or do they truly believe their own Koolaid is some other flavor?
[RELATED: 3 Steps to Creating a Mobile Ad Strategy – WORKSHEET DOWNLOAD]
There are more than 2 MILLION apps in the App Store, right this very moment, and all but about 18 of them get no love, no downloads, no installs, no MUAs, or anything else but heartbreak and disappointment for their creators and developers (especially if a dev created the darn thing, then you know they’re crying all the way to the poorhouse).
App development math does not work for 95% of companies.
Why in the world would you build a standalone app that the tiny 1% of your loyal fan base or good customers would use? Do tell. These are already your loyal customers, they’re spending money.
What in the h**l do you need to give them an app that costs thousands of dollars to build, many more thousands to maintain, and then eats at you like a worm in your brain when it turns you into an IT person instead of a retail store or restaurant owner who has better things to worry about than a dumb app that no one uses.
[Tweet “If you do not have 100,000 regular customers that NEED your app, don’t bother building it.”]
Unless you are Starbucks, United Airlines, Pita Jungle or Dunkin Donuts, do not build a standalone app. There is absolutely zero reason to do this. No one will use it. No one will download or install it.
The average life span of an installed app in a smart phone today, at this moment, is 72 hours. Yep, that’s the entire amount of time that someone keeps an app on their phone from download to ditched.
Only an idiot would tell a small business owner to build a standalone app.
Do not confuse an app with a mobile marketing or mobile advertising strategy. They are not the same thing. Not by a long shot.
You need a mobile strategy. You do not need a standalone app.
A properly designed and executed mobile strategy drives consumers and prospects to your business as the final step along their journey. It’s about the end user, not about you, the merchant. If you can’t make the strategy about the WHY – about the end user – then you need to rethink your methods of determining your strategy.
[RELATED: Podcast #9 Mobile Apps vs Mobile Wallets]
If you own a small business, or you don’t have a clearly defined mobile marketing and advertising strategy, we IMPLORE you to sidestep the conversation about how you need to build an app. You don’t.
You didn’t need that $5,000 website back in 2001 that certainly never turned you into Amazon.com, and you won’t become the Angry Birds of haircuts or hot pants by building an app.
You’ll just wake up with a big hangover after going on a drunken spending spree that leaves you wondering why you thought drinking the tequila and Koolaid mixed together would be any less of a problem than just drinking the tequila right out of the bottle…