Salesforce Mobile Publisher: Create Branded Mobile Apps

Salesforce Mobile Publisher allows businesses to create fully-branded mobile apps by leveraging their existing Salesforce environments. It enables organizations to turn Salesforce communities and Lightning apps into native iOS and Android apps, delivering a personalized user experience while maintaining the robust infrastructure and security Salesforce is known for.

In a world where 90% of mobile time is spent on apps, having a branded mobile app is a must for modern businesses. Whether you’re engaging customers, empowering partners, or streamlining internal processes, apps are how people expect to interact with your business. Salesforce Mobile Publisher makes it easy to launch your own branded mobile app by transforming existing Salesforce communities or Lightning apps into a mobile format, all without the hassle of building a mobile app from scratch.

Key Features of Salesforce Mobile Publisher

Branded Mobile Experience

Salesforce Mobile Publisher enables complete customization, ensuring your mobile app reflects your company’s brand identity. You can customize:

• App icon: Create a recognizable app icon with your logo.
• Splash screens: Branded images that display when the app loads.
• Theme and colors: Consistent with your brand’s guidelines.
• Custom domain: Use your company’s domain for a seamless user experience.

For example, a financial services company could use their corporate colors and logo to ensure the app looks familiar to their clients, enhancing brand recognition and trust.

Native iOS and Android Apps

With Salesforce Mobile Publisher, your app will be fully native to iOS and Android platforms. This means you’ll have access to platform-specific features like Face ID for secure logins on iPhones or Google Pay integration on Android. Once your app is ready, it can be distributed via:

• Apple App Store

• Google Play Store

This ensures your users can easily find and download the app from familiar channels.

Seamless Salesforce Integration

One of the key benefits is its deep integration with Salesforce’s backend, meaning you can interact with real-time data, workflows, and custom Lightning components from within the app. Whether users need to:

• Update records in real time

• Submit cases

• Collaborate through Chatter

Everything can be managed directly from the app, ensuring continuity between your mobile and desktop Salesforce experience.

Push Notifications

Keeping users engaged is easy with push notifications. Salesforce Mobile Publisher allows you to send customized notifications based on user behavior, such as:

• Case updates: Keep customers informed on the status of their support cases.
• Task reminders: Ensure employees stay on top of their to-dos.
• Promotions: Send out personalized promotions to drive engagement.

These notifications are fully integrated with Salesforce, so they can be triggered by workflows, ensuring they reach the right user at the right time.

Security and Compliance

Built on Salesforce’s secure infrastructure, Mobile Publisher provides the same level of security as the core Salesforce platform. Key security features include:

• OAuth 2.0 authentication

• TLS encryption

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

• Compliance with standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2.

These features ensure your app meets industry regulations and safeguards sensitive user data.

Look at how we helped Medisafe with Salesforce integration. Read our case study to find out more.

Benefits of Salesforce Mobile Publisher

#1 Improved user engagement

A mobile app that reflects your brand can increase user interaction. Push notifications, easy access to data, and a mobile-optimized interface make it convenient for customers, partners, or employees to stay engaged. For example, a telecom company using a mobile app for customer support could reduce call center inquiries by 20% thanks to users self-serving via the app.

#2 Faster time-to-market

Traditional mobile app development can take months. With Mobile Publisher, you can reduce the time to market by leveraging existing Salesforce components and architecture. On average, businesses can launch an app in 4-8 weeks, compared to the typical 6-12 months for custom app development.

#3 Enhanced business agility

Salesforce Mobile Publisher allows businesses to be more agile. You can roll out updates, add new features, or tweak workflows in Salesforce, and those changes will instantly reflect in the mobile app. For example, a retail company could update its app to reflect new promotions without needing to go through an app store re-submission process, saving time and reducing operational friction.

#4 No-code/low-code customization

Unlike traditional app development that requires extensive coding, Salesforce Mobile Publisher allows for no-code/low-code customization. Using the Salesforce Lightning App Builder, you can create mobile pages and workflows with drag-and-drop tools, meaning even non-technical users can manage app updates and content changes.

#5 Unified experience across platforms

Whether users are interacting with your brand via the web, desktop, or mobile, Salesforce Mobile Publisher ensures a consistent user experience. Changes made in Salesforce reflect across all platforms, so users will experience the same functionality and data, no matter how they access your app.

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How Does Hyperforce Work?

Salesforce Mobile Publisher offers a powerful solution to convert your existing Salesforce communities and apps into fully branded mobile experiences. However, to get the most out of this tool, there are several best practices that should be followed to ensure optimal performance, security, and user satisfaction. Here’s a detailed look at how businesses can maximize their use of Salesforce Mobile Publisher.

1. Leverage Existing Salesforce Communities

If your business already has Salesforce Communities for customers, partners, or employees, transitioning them into mobile apps is both efficient and straightforward using Salesforce Mobile Publisher. Your existing data structures, user roles, permissions, and workflows are preserved, meaning you don’t need to redesign or rebuild anything from scratch.

Business example:

Let’s say a telecom company uses a Salesforce-powered customer community where customers can:

• View bills
• Make payments
• Open support cases

By leveraging Salesforce Mobile Publisher, they can quickly turn this community into a fully branded mobile app. The mobile app would allow customers to:

• Access billing data from Salesforce objects.
• Pay bills using integrated payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal.
• Submit and track support cases in real-time, while receiving push notifications when case statuses change.

This not only reduces complexity but also lowers development time and cost while delivering a seamless experience across platforms.

2. Optimize for Mobile User Experience

Mobile users have different expectations compared to desktop users, so optimizing your app’s user experience (UX) for mobile devices is essential. Mobile screens are smaller, and users expect quick, simple interactions.

Key optimizations:

• Touch-friendly buttons and navigation: Ensure buttons are large enough to be tapped easily.
• Simplified forms: Condense multi-step processes into one or two screens when possible.
• Loading speed: Optimize images and reduce the number of calls to external data sources to improve load times.
• Device testing: Test your app across different screen sizes and resolutions (iPhone, Android, tablets) to ensure it works smoothly.

Example:

A retail company could optimize their mobile checkout flow by:

• Reducing the number of input fields needed for customers to complete a purchase.
• Adding auto-fill suggestions for addresses and payment details.
• Using progressive disclosure to hide non-essential options unless the user needs them.

By prioritizing these optimizations, businesses can improve user satisfaction, reduce drop-off rates, and ultimately drive more engagement and conversions.

3. Incorporate Security Best Practices

Security should be at the forefront of any mobile app, especially if sensitive customer or business data is involved. Since Salesforce Mobile Publisher is built on Salesforce’s trusted infrastructure, there are several built-in security measures. However, additional steps should be taken to ensure maximum protection.

Recommended security practices:

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Enforce MFA for app logins to prevent unauthorized access.
• IP whitelisting: Restrict access to specific IP addresses, providing another layer of control.
• Strong password policies: Implement password complexity requirements to reduce the risk of breaches.
• Shield encryption: Use Salesforce Shield to encrypt data both at rest and in transit.
• Field level security: Control access to specific fields, ensuring that only authorized users can view or modify sensitive information.

Example:

A financial services company launching a mobile app with Salesforce Mobile Publisher would enforce MFA for all users, especially those accessing financial records, to prevent unauthorized access. They would also use Field Level Security to restrict customer support agents from viewing sensitive fields like Social Security numbers or bank details.

By implementing these security best practices, businesses can protect user data, comply with industry regulations, and ensure their apps are safe and secure.

4. Regularly Update and Iterate

A mobile app isn’t a one-time project; it requires continuous improvement to stay relevant and effective. Regularly updating your app ensures that:

• New Salesforce features are integrated as they’re released.
• Bug fixes and performance improvements are addressed.
• User feedback is incorporated to enhance functionality.

Steps to ensure consistency:

1. Gather user feedback: Regularly collect feedback from users through surveys or in-app forms to identify pain points.
2. Monitor performance: Track app performance with tools like Google Analytics to monitor user behavior, crash reports, and more.
3. Implement changes: Push updates based on Salesforce releases and user feedback.
4. Test thoroughly: Before each release, run the app through a comprehensive testing process to ensure new features work correctly.

Example:

A manufacturing company using a Salesforce-based mobile app for field service technicians can implement new features like offline access or GPS routing based on user feedback and Salesforce’s feature releases. This keeps their mobile app relevant and ensures it continues to provide value.

By continuously iterating on your app, you can ensure it stays up-to-date with new Salesforce features, offers the best experience to your users, and aligns with your evolving business needs.

Case Study: Retail Company Increases Engagement by 30% with Mobile Publisher

A retail company wanted to improve its customer engagement and support services. They used Salesforce Mobile Publisher to launch a fully branded mobile app that allowed customers to:

• Browse product catalogs
• Submit support tickets
• Receive push notifications for promotions

By integrating Salesforce Service Cloud, customers could track the status of their support cases in real time. Within six months, the company saw a:

• 30% increase in mobile app engagement
• 20% reduction in call center inquiries due to customers using the app for self-service.

This not only enhanced the customer experience but also reduced operational costs and improved support team efficiency.

This example highlights how Salesforce Mobile Publisher can significantly boost customer engagement while offering businesses a streamlined, cost-effective way to expand their mobile presence.

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Salesforce Mobile Publisher is a game-changer for businesses looking to provide a seamless, branded mobile experience. By transforming Salesforce communities and apps into native mobile apps, you can enhance user engagement, speed up your time-to-market, and leverage Salesforce’s world-class security and scalability. Whether you’re a service-oriented business looking to provide better support or a retailer aiming to boost mobile engagement, Mobile Publisher can help you deliver.

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