Think Your Municipality is Too Small for a Mobile App? Think again.

Info Grove’s Municipalities App Specifically Designed for Populations Under 5000

Are you a small municipality looking for a better way to improve resident engagement? Perhaps you have a website, a printed community paper or newsletter and are looking for something that gives you an opportunity for two-way communication with your residents.

A mobile app might be the answer, even if your municipality’s population is very small and your budget is limited.

More Cost Effective Than You Think

Traditionally, mobile apps were developed from scratch for each mobile operating system. This meant that each feature had to be developed for every client, requiring many hours of development and testing, leading to prohibitive costs for most small municipalities.

When it became clear that many small municipalities across North America couldn’t afford to create their own customized apps, Info Grove had a solution.

The challenge was that most municipalities need an app that is complex enough to be informative and engaging, but cheap enough to afford. Driven by a mission to build an offering that was accessible to even the smallest of municipalities, the Info Grove Municipalities app, a stand-alone app specifically for small municipalities was built.

Mobile Apps for Even the Smallest of Municipalities

The City of Center, North Dakota successfully launched a mobile app using Info Grove’s Municipalities app and they have a population of only 700 people.

Representatives from Center saw the mobile apps of other towns and municipalities in North Dakota and wanted their own. They needed something that was quick to build, easy to use, could be updated at a moment’s notice and built within their tight budget. Our Info Grove Municipalities app was exactly what they needed.

After subscribing to the app, they were able to create their own unique page within it for the City of Center. They could customize the look and feel of their page with their own content, logo and icons.

To use the app, residents need to download the Info Grove Municipalities app on Google Play or the App Store. Once they’ve done that users can then open the app and select their municipality from a list.

From there the app takes the user to the municipality’s customized page where they can find information about events, city council, parks and recreation, sports and tourism, pay their bills, and more.

Complement Your Existing Engagement Channels

Many municipalities already have several ways they engage with their residents including a website, a printed community paper and/or social media channels. While some municipalities do choose to cut the printing costs associated with a community paper when they launch a mobile app, many decide to use both.

We encourage municipalities to view their mobile app as another engagement channel. It has capabilities that more static channels like a website or a newspaper do not, notably, push notifications. Push notifications are helpful for sharing information instantaneously like last-minute updates or important information during emergencies.

A mobile app is also an excellent way to keep your municipality’s communication channels relevant as demographics change. Younger generations are more accustomed to getting information on the go–municipalities often find a mobile app works better to stay connected with younger residents.

Don’t Count a Mobile App Out

While many small municipalities don’t even consider building a mobile app because they feel it’s not worth it for their smaller population, it is possible.

If you are a municipality with fewer than 5000 residents, before counting a mobile app out, check out Info Grove’s Municipalities app. You could have a mobile app in fewer than six weeks

If you are a small municipality on a tight budget, but interested in creating an engaging and easy-to-use mobile app please contact us to learn more about Info Grove Municipalities.

Karim Mansour is an Inside Sales Representative at 14 Oranges, the creators of the Info Grove platform.