2021 approaching, the new year business plans are basking on your work table under your constant attention – well, so do we believe. With overwhelming levels of marketing plans to be made, coupled with a budget that’s constantly being torn between a return verses investment tug of war, this phase of time is really scary and uncomfortable for most business owners. Often, aims shoot high, cushioned with appropriate plans, but reluctant budget. As such, making a choice between 2 things that are equally important, atleast on the surface, is complicated. Mobile marketing is one such thing. With a zillion things that you can do with your mobile marketing plan, with a zillion more things constantly coming new to the thought market, you might find yourself stuck between 2 extremely important and lucrative routes — Should I have a native mobile app? OR Will a mobile website be the best, considering my business situation? This article is aimed towards helping you make a fair choice for your business, considering every single factor that influences your regular business decisions. This is a primarily an infographic blog (we don’t want to claim a lot of your time, when you are already slammed with upcoming new year business plans) A lot of things decide whether you should be going for a mobile app or a mobile website. The most common ones have been listed in the infographic above. However, there are a few additional points that you need to ponder upon and a few more that you should have a clear understanding of, before you make decide on your mobile strategy. The foremost question that we want you to ask yourself here is: 1. Does my audience want to see my logo on their mobile home screens? It does not matter, whether you are catering to only New York city or you are catering the entire globe. If your customers or users need to see your logo on their home screens the first thing in the morning, well, a mobile app is where your future lies. Anything but this, trust us, a mobile website will more than suffice. Generally, if you are dealing in some sort of product, whether it is digital or tangible, an app could make a lot of things easier for you. Right from offering personalised experience to each of your customers, to ensuring that purchases and payments are done smoothly…an app helps you throughout. Better yet, apps are the places where you can do a bit of advertising, self promotion, affiliate marketing and stuff of sorts. A mobile website does it offer you that space. If services are what you offer, go the website way…..There is not second opinion required. 2. Does my audience need a piece of me, in their way? Personalised experience rates big time in marketing, any kind of marketing. What could be a better way to personalise your offerings and communication, than on the most personalized device? Mobile apps provide that sweet scope to you. There are hoards of ways to analyse user behavior on apps, including, which feature is being used most, the content that is being most consumed, what time of the day the app is being used most and when does it stay dormant. You can target promotional messages accordingly, through a native app (including the content and the timing of the messages). You can even choose the route of sending these messages — push notifications, emails etc. Through a mobile website, however, it is extremely difficult to offer personalised experience to every single user. 3. My business needs an app for sure, but am tight on budget A very legitimate and common concerns that businesses have — I think we need this, but I think we need more money for this. What do you as such? Heard about PWAs? Progressive Web Apps? They are the safe middle way out. With a loading time, 88% quicker than normal mobile pages, Progressive Web Apps give you the freedom and confidence of serving your audience through a native web app, while still staying happily within the tight budget, that fits only mobile websites. 4. So what are Progressive Web Apps? Let us understand them like this – You have a mobile website. A user X is searching for something that you offer. He stumbles upon your mobile website. This guy X, is a bit intrigued by your business offeings. The next day he revisits your page. Falls in love a bit more with you, revisits again, the next day. So if you have a progressive web app here, your app will know that user X wants more and more of you, every passing day. What then happens is magic. Your website enters his home screen, with your logo, flashing among the used used apps. So the next day, when user X remembers you, he would not have to open the browser, type your website address and wait for your homepage to open. He has your website right on his home screen (and he did that without going to appstores and downloading your app…). When he opens your PWA, he gets his most consumed content infront of him. Absolutely personalized experience, without the hassle of building a native mobile app. We thought this might me really really interesting to you. So now, I am going to stop scribbling over here, and get started on a infographic that talks exclusively about PWAs. Stay tuned and keep coming back to this space for that infographic. We are going to come back in a bang, with extremely useful information about PWA’s. See you guys!