For a business or organization in the modern world, creating an online presence is an imperative aspect of taking their business forward. You need to embrace an online strategy of some sort in order to capture the attention of your audience in this time and age, who spend most of their waking hours online. Therefore this is where you are most likely to be able to engage with them and build a rapport. But even when you are considering this step, your approach has to be an intelligent one, with some careful thought being put into setting up your online presence. Because with the digital marketing a booming business, the options available to you are endless, and you just might end up getting caught in the mayhem, if you don’t make a well informed decision.

With this in mind, one of the most frequently encountered problems, which businesses of all sizes tend to have is whether to invest in a mobile application or a mobile friendly website? As the owner of a business, all you want to is reap in the benefits of a good return on investment, and this is the reason everyone wants to make sure they adopt the strategy that fits their business the best. With this article we hope to shed some light into the field of digital marketing, so that you can come to a well informed decision, as to what is the best way forward.

 

Mobile App vs. Mobile Website. What’s the difference?

Before you try and make the decision, it’s very important that you get a good understanding of the main differences between the two. A mobile website is similar to any other website, in that it can be accessed through a browser and the user can flip through the many different pages that are available, the only improvement being that the display and accessibility is more favorable towards the hand held devices, and fit into those needs. A mobile application is something that your users can download using specific portals such as the Android App Store or the Apple App Store. These applications will be readily available on the users hand held device and information on the application can be accessed while the user is connected to the internet or sometimes even without an internet connection.

 

What’s the better option?

When considering first steps into the digital world, then maybe a mobile website would be the more appropriate choice, because a website has some inherent advantages over the mobile application, such as immediate and easy accessibility to the pages of the website, unlike an application where the user would have to take the time to download the application in order to access whatever information they need. Being cheaper to develop, and the ability to adapt to many user interfaces, mobile websites can be found easily on multiple search engines, have a greater reach amongst the audience and can easily be shared amongst them as well. Plus they are super easy to easy maintain which makes it a favorite starting off option.

Mobile applications on the other hand have the biggest advantage of being able to operate offline, as well as being the more interactive and personalized option of the two. Because communication tailored to the specific user has become of utmost importance when trying to appease the modern day audience. A mobile application also ensures that your brand gets a higher recognition amongst new users, because of the customized ‘’in-app’’ or ‘’push’’ notifications which cannot be blocked by the user, unlike in the case of promotional emails that more often than not end up in the spam folder. And if you are looking to promote your brand via a digital marketing strategy then a mobile application gives you the freedom to play around with new ideas.  Because a mobile app is usually developed with the customers pain points in mind and how the use of your application can make life all the more easier for them. Therefore it is created for the convenience of the user. Plus when the user has an application by the name of your business downloaded on their device, it tends to own its very own spot on the device and is an excellent way of creating brand presence, because even if the user is not actively using the application, there is a constant reminder about your brand on their device.

So ultimately using the above information, pros and cons, the conclusion we can come to, is that there is no correct or wrong way of doing this. The better choice always depends on the business objectives you have in mind, and in most cases than not, you will end up with both, a mobile application and a mobile website, for optimum results.