The mobile apps industry is still very new.  In 2010, the word of the year was “App”, but in all actuality, apps are still in their infancy.  New technology is being developed everyday to make apps better and more exciting – all while marketers are finding new useful ways to integrate apps in our everyday life.

Golf Web Design builds apps for golf courses that utilize the most up-to-date technologies – one of them being the ability for our customers to update their app. Yes, you read that correctly. We build apps that YOU, the customer, can update. Similar to a website built on a content management system (which gives you the ability to update the website without knowing any HTML or fancy programs), our apps can be built with the ability for you to update them.

Why do you need to update your app?
There are a million different reasons of why you would want to update your app. Let’s take a look at a few fundamental reasons why updating your own app can be so beneficial:

• Your customers want NEW, FRESH INFORMATION delivered directly to their phone.
• You don’t have to pay us everytime you want something updated within your app.
• Your app won’t lose it’s appeal because it has new content (the average time an app is used for is only one month)
• You can send push notifications which will notify your users with ANY kind of information you want.

Here are some practical applications for a golf course to regularly update their app:

• Update your golf course calendar – add member events, course closures, big events, tournaments, golf shops sales
• Update your news feed – keep your membership (or the general public) informed as to what the latest news is at your course. Announce tournament winners, recent holes-in-one, upcoming sales, weather conditions, etc.
• Send push notifications to alert your users about important notices. These can be very powerful marketing tools for you to advertise a sale in the shop, tee times that need to be sold, and more. Push notifications have a tremendous impact on user interaction with your app. A user must interact with your app if you send a push notification.

Now you can see the importance of being able to update your own app. It’s a benefit that no one else in our industry is offering. We are working to develop easier ways for you to market to your target audience and bring more golfers through your doors. Mobile app technologies keep growing and Golf Web Design plans on making them a powerful marketing tool for golf courses.

Bonus Frequently Asked Question: How is an app different from a website?
We get asked this question all the time. A website is only viewable from your mobile device if you are connected to the web via WiFi or a data plan connection (such as a 3G network). A mobile app does not need to be connected to the internet in order to work. That is one of the biggest differences! An app can also play very nicely with all of the other built in functions of your phone, such as it’s accelerometer, GPS locating system, camera, phone dialing capabilities, your contacts, touch and swipe gestures, and more. Websites are much more limited with how they can use the native functions of your phone. Now, there are a lot of apps that DO require an internet connection in order to work, so there may be parts of an app that work OFFLINE, and parts of the app that only work ONLINE.