In today’s digital age your WordPress website plays a significant role in your business’s online presence. Now more than ever it is important that your website is highly responsive and optimised for all types of devices – both desktop and mobile. A responsive website is useful for presenting all of the important information from your regular site in a simple and mobile-friendly manner. However, this isn’t always specific enough for mobile users. Here, we’re going to take a closer look at whether or not you should consider investing in a specific mobile app for your WordPress website. Nowadays, this can be a simple process and you can go about getting a mobile app by using an affordable WordPress plugin.
Does Your WordPress Website Require a Mobile App?
For some businesses using the WordPress platform having a responsive site isn’t enough to ensure their customers have a positive experience. Here are some of the top ways consumers will use mobile apps:
- Notification of upcoming sales
- Special deals to use when shopping in-store
- Managing loyalty program
- Digital coupons that you can’t find anywhere else online
- Product scanning so you can save items you see to a wish list or shopping cart
Now you need to think about how you use mobile apps. You will likely be familiar with a number of mobile apps that are used for purposes other than simply supporting online shopping:
- If you own a car, chances are you will have a GPS app.
- If you’re the kind of person who likes to keep up-to-date with current affairs you will have likely downloaded a number of news apps on your mobile phone.
- Like to stay in contact with friends and family? Chances are you will have Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
- There are, of course, social media apps that you can use to post and engage with other online users throughout your day.
It’s easy to see that there are a number of different reasons why people use mobile apps and a number of different ways you can jump on the mobile app bandwagon.
Plugins That Can Turn Your WordPress Website into a Functioning Mobile App
If you’re currently thinking about turning your WordPress website into a functioning mobile app, then chances are you are already aware of the costs involved in creating a new app from scratch. If you don’t have the skills to build your app yourself, you will need to outsource this to an agency or a develop and even the most basic app will set you back a lot of money.
Instead of incurring high costs by building an app from the ground up, why not take a DIY approach and use a WordPress plugin? It’s important we stress that this won’t create the same functionality as a custom-built app. However, you will still have a brand-new mobile channel available for new mobile customers to use. Some of the best WordPress plugins include the likes of Androapp, AppPresser and Blappsta. Androapp is a good option or content-driven WordPress sites as it takes your news feed and turns it into a mobile-friendly layout. AppPresser is a mobile app builder that will integrate with WordPress and enable you to create a mobile app from your site. This can be a little tricky, so it is probably a better option for developers. Blappsta will also help turn your WordPress site into a mobile app and is compatible with all Android and iOS devices.
Thinking of turning your WordPress website into a functional mobile app? Let us know in the comments section below.
