This is a guest post from Krister Ungerboeck, the CEO of Ungerboeck Software International.
The most successful event planners have started using mobile technology to more quickly connect with customers and meet their needs. New mobile applications can drive business to their websites and help them provide better service. Yet, current mobile technology has several deficiencies that make it not only expensive to implement, but it also limits the types of devices that can access a particular app.
HTML5 coding aims to change all of that. By developing websites and applications using HTML5, marketers will be able to interact with all mobile users, regardless of the device they are using. This brings many benefits to event planners and others in the industry.
Better Connection Between Companies and Customers
HTML5 will allow for more interaction between users and websites through more dynamic interactive apps. This means that companies harnessing HTML5 technology will have a better opportunity to connect with their clients through mobile applications. For instance, a company can create a virtual personal assistant to help their customers plan events. Event planners that provide such a service to their clients will likely convert them to repeat customers.
Immediate Access for Users Across Platforms
HTML5 is compatible with all devices and operating systems, giving every customer with a mobile device access to the app and thus increasing its effectiveness as a marketing tool. Instead of creating an app that can only be used by a certain mobile device type (Android, iPhone, etc.), creating an app with HTML5 ensures that every customer has access, no matter what mobile platform they have.
Better Linking Capabilities
One of the primary problems with native apps is the difficulty of deep linking from a specific part of the app to another. Linking in apps and on mobile web devices is almost non-existent, yet it can be a valuable tool for marketing. HTML5 allows linking to be integrated into apps as easily as on a traditional website, which provides many more opportunities for the events industry to use mobile apps.
Search Engine Inclusion
Creating a traditional app for your company is valuable for your business because it keeps your organization connected with your clients through their mobile devices; however, it doesn’t provide any visibility for your site with search engines. The major search engines do not crawl through these apps, so they do not help drive organic traffic to your website. In order to get that traffic, you need a secondary HTML version of the content contained in the application. You can bypass that extra step with HTML5 apps, as the HTML code is already contained within the app. For example, when a user uses Google as their mobile browser and your app is HTML5 based, it will be ranked higher in search results because Google can understand the code.
HTML5 is still relatively new in the world of mobile apps, but it appears to have a strong future. Those event planning companies that want to make their mobile apps as accessible as possible to all potential customers should embrace this new platform when creating mobile applications to connect with customers.
Editor’s Note: As someone who has attended conferences that developed native iPhone and Android event apps, the benefits of HTML5 are very intriguing. App development is much more expensive, especially for a short duration event. HTML5 is likely a faster and cheaper application development option.
This is a guest post from Krister Ungerboeck. Krister is the CEO of Ungerboeck Software International, a trusted provider of comprehensive event management software solutions.
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