Mobile applications are no longer associated solely with large companies with big budgets; if you’re a small business and you don’t have a mobile app yet, you’re lagging behind the competition that does. Entrepreneur.com reports that “40 percent of American mobile subscribers accessed downloaded apps in June, 91 percent of respondents said apps expose them to new things, 77 percent compared apps to personal assistants, and 83 percent of daily mobile app users reported believing they’re ‘addicted’ to apps.”

Developing an app no longer requires a complicated, expensive process, and the benefits are endless. Mobile applications increase brand awareness, enhance marketing strategies, and speak to the current generation of users who no longer want to rely on a punch card to receive reward points from your business. So how can you make your business mobile? Follow these six easy steps!

  1. Set a Goal

Anyone will tell you that before you jump right into a new project, you need to have the end-game in mind. It’s very easy to get excited about something and start right away, but it’s also easy to lose focus after a while and drift off on a tangent that won’t lead you down a path to meeting your goal. The best way to avoid this is to know before you begin what you want to accomplish with the app, and then stick to that plan. Consider these important questions: What do you want your app to do? What message do you want it to send? What problem will it solve/how will it help your business? How will it appeal to your audience? Your goal should in some way answer most, if not all, of these questions. Don’t get started on the small details until it does!

  1. Plan Your Layout

Planning the layout of the app is another step you should do before diving into the logistics of creation. After you’ve determined what your goal is and how you want the app to accomplish said goal, think about how it should look in order to do this. Consider things like color, font, page layout, number of pages, what content you want to display, etc. Keep in mind that this is an app, so it should be mobile friendly; if you want to display every little detail about your business, you should be creating a website and not a mobile app. You can, however, link the app to your website so you can direct all your new customers to additional information about your business. Planning a layout is just as important as goal setting; it will help keep you on track throughout the creation process so you don’t get lost in the minor details and forget about your initial plan.

  1. Understand Your Audience and Purpose

Your app should be designed with a purpose in mind, and that purpose should be geared toward your target audience. All your hard work will go to waste if it doesn’t appeal to the people who are already interested in your company, or to those who may be interested in the future (it should be relatively the same group). If you’re not sure yet who your target audience is, don’t go any further. Read this article before continuing to develop a mobile app. If you are familiar with your audience, then consider the purpose of your application. Do you want your app to convey general information (store hours and location), sales, special promotions, user accounts, etc. or all of the above? Your app is a way to communicate directly with your audience, especially if you utilize push notifications, so make sure you’re communicating information that they are interested in. Check out your competition and try to provide something unique that they don’t. It’s also not a bad idea to survey your target audience and ask them what they look for in a mobile app. If you don’t do that at this stage, definitely pay close attention to number six on this list.

  1. Provide Value to Your Customers

This step goes hand in hand with number three. Like I said before, a mobile application is a way to get very close to, and communicate with, your target audience. This can be good or bad, depending on whether or not you are successful. If your app doesn’t immediately add value for your customers, they’re going to be turned off by it–and most likely by your business in general. It’s just as easy to lose customers with a mobile application as it is to gain them. It’s ok to use push notifications (and even encouraged), but don’t abuse the trust of your audience by overusing them. Nobody wants a ton of notifications from the same app every day. They’ll end up turning them off, and then they won’t be notified about the stuff that they actually care about. On the other hand, an app is a great way to build customer loyalty. Lure people into downloading it by promising them special promotions that they wouldn’t get just by shopping on your website or in the store. Have them create an account, and then give them reward points that build up every time they make a purchase. Ask customers for their email address when they sign up, reward them for giving it to you, and then use that to enhance your email marketing campaign.

  1. Choose Whether You Will DIY or Contract a Developer

This is where it gets technical, and potentially complicated…but it doesn’t have to. Now that you know what your goal is, how you want the app to look, what information you want to communicate to customers, and how you’re going to entice them to use the application, you’re ready to start building. There are A LOT of options out there for how to physically create a mobile application. First you need to decide whether you are going to do it yourself, or hire help. If you’re somewhat tech-savvy and on a small budget, you might want to consider going it alone. If the idea of doing anything technical-related scares you, or you have a large budget, and/or your app is going to be a big part of your marketing strategy, you may want to think about hiring a freelance contractor or developing agency. There are tons of resources available for both. Check out this article for more in-depth information about all the tools and agencies available to aid you in this process.

  1. Test It Out

Regardless of how the app was created, you definitely want to give it a test run (or several) before releasing it out into the world. Call on your friends, family, and trusted customers to try out the app and give you honest feedback for how it can be improved. Pay attention to how they use it and any problems they run into that they may not know to communicate to you. It’s okay to go back to the drawing board once, twice, three times, or more! It’s better to perfect it in the beginning with a forgiving audience, than to send out a faulty app to your customers and lose their business in return.

If you’re looking for more of an in-depth guide to the technicalities of creating a mobile application, you might be interested in this article on allbusiness.com. Regardless of how you choose to go about it, opting to have your business go mobile is one of the best decisions you can make, as long as it’s done correctly. So how are you going to begin creating your own mobile application? Have you used any specific tools in the past that have worked well for you? Comment in the section below!