Are you being hounded by vendors offering to build you a “phone app” for your business? Do you need one? In this video, Eric Spellmann explains the difference between a mobile phone APP and a Mobile WEBSITE.
He gives examples of both and helps you determine if paying for a mobile app is worth your time and money.
Note from Eric: Below, you will find a word-for-word transcript of this video. I provide this as an aid for the hearing-impaired and for those who might just want to read it rather than watch the video. This conversational style is not reflective of how I write. Be nice! Hey I am Eric Spellmann with Spellmann & Associates. And today’s video is gonna be all about mobile apps. I get lots of questions from people saying “Do I need one?” “Do I need to build one?” “Do I need to pay someone to make me one?” Well, we’ll answer that.
The key is to understand what a mobile app is, really. Because there’s a lot of confusion out there. Basically it is a program that runs on a mobile device like an iPhone or an iPad or even a tablet. But it is a program, that’s the key. It is not a website.
A mobile app is not simply a small version of your website. So when you have one made, keep in mind it’s gonna be a program and needs to be used to access something specific that only a program can do. Unfortunately, a lot of the earlier apps that came out and a lot of the apps that are being offered by vendors out there are simply shortcuts to your website. And that’s not good.
And in fact the Google Play Store and the Apple Store are really blocking apps that are simply glorified websites. It’s got to do something that a website can’t or it’s got to make accessing information on your website much easier in order for it to qualify as an app.
A mobile website on the other hand is something you ought to consider. Keep in mind it’s simply a mobile optimized version of a website. It has larger buttons, it loads quickly and it has fewer options. Keep in mind if someone is going to be pulling up your website on their mobile phone lot of times they only need a couple of things maybe a phone number or where you are.
Also, you don’t want to make them have to zoom all the time. So, by creating a mobile version of the website you create large buttons that make it very easy. And also it doesn’t needs to have tons of pictures so that it loads quickly, depending on how fast their data service is.
A good example of this is www.sprouselaw.com, one of our customers. It’s a law firm and if you go to www.sprouselaw.com on a phone, you’ll see that you get an entirely different experience than if you go to it on a computer.
A good example of a real app, if you’re wondering what qualifies as an app is an app that my company created called The Funeral App. Basically it’s the online equivalent of scanning the obits. Fewer and fewer people have access to a paper version or in a newspaper of the obits.
And so more and more are wanting to look from a smart phone. And this app allows that. It’s totally free and it allows you to just select what cities you want to monitor for obits, whether you live in them or not.
And you get alerts when someone passes away and that obit is posted by a funeral home. If you’re interested, go to www.thefuneralapp.com. Little self promotion over there, but it shows you what an app is because that particular program searches a database and it proactively alerts people when a new obit is happened.
So, anyway I just wanted to make sure you understood the difference between what a true mobile app is and what a mobile website is.
As always, if you have any questions please visit me on Facebook or go to ericspellmann.com. I am Eric Spellmann; I’ll see you in cyberspace.