The marketing technologies tend to make headway, bring about drastic changes and set the new trends. Indeed, businesses have to keep up with these tendencies to remain competitive in the market. As things stand, a mobile development has become a cutting-edge solution for business promotion. Apart from being a means for getting revenues and performing a specific function, mobile applications have become a self-contained and useful marketing tool.
It must be owned, but mobile applications have become an integral part of people’s daily routine. A typical morning starts with a turning off or snoozing an alarm-clock on the smartphone, checking messages and e-mails or scrolling news feed on the social network, etc.
Whatever a person does, the matter is that a user associates his/her activities with mobile applications. Given this, why not take advantage of this fact and turn an app into a powerful promoting means for your brand, store or services? Those businesses that made bold to experience this practice saw for yourself that mobile development is a prosperous area for auspicious digital marketing. The following article coverages four reasons why a custom mobile application is a must-have for the latter-day marketing purposes.
Key points making mobile applications viable
- Continuous brand promotion
- User’s engagement
- Valuable consumers’ data
- Immediate communication channel
#1 User’s attention capture
For a record, nowadays there are more than 2 billions of smartphone users worldwide. This number, however, is expected to be on the increase by the year 2019. Moreover, applications take on 90% of the overall smartphone activity. It is not much of a leap to realize that people’s addiction to constant connectivity plays into the brand marketer’s hands.
In fact, a mobile application serves as a means for generating not only a particular value for customers but also brand advertising. This way, a custom app can make your product more viable for your target audience and contribute a lot to the better brand awareness.
Nevertheless, the application only is not enough for the successful marketing strategy. Nobody will download this app if it’s not on everybody’s A-list. For this reason, it is essential to run a kind of the app advertising campaign. It must be available both in App Store and Google Play, mentioned in posts on social media, listed on front pages, covered in blog articles, encountered in paid ads when searching. Keeping all of these options in mind, you will be able to capture lots of user’s attention, thus making your brand more viable for a broader target audience.
#2 Brand ‘stickiness’
It should be noted that 77% of the app users tend to delete the app having used it for three days. If you are not going to run into such issue, your application must generate a special value for customers. In fact, a user gives a hoot about the brand itself. At the same time, he/she tends to care more about the help the application provides.
To make app users more engaged with the brand, the application must be useful and easy-in-use.
What makes users more engaged with a brand
- Useful content
- Outstanding interface and user-friendly UI/UX
- App notifications
- Loyalty and reward programs
Mobile-friendly content
The app content must be readable, and well-structured to make your customers come back again over the time. For this reason, some brands give priority to the bite-sized content since it is more straightforward and provides a user with information on the subject. The app content must also be consistent with your website. The link between the app and the brand websites should be filled up with one theme and perform a specific function – informational or entertaining one. Moreover, a mobile-friendly content must be adjustable for any screen size and designed to keep user’s attention.
Immersive interface look
Compared to desktop browsing, the user experience seems to be far more interactive. In such a manner, there is a tendency to create a user-centered app that has a web magazine look. Via tap, touch and swipe a user should also get a splendid user experience with the superior performance. Thus, when an eye-catching interface is combined with the spiffing functionality, а customer is more likely to keep using the app.
On-time notifications
In fact, many customers aren’t likely to check websites regularly to keep abreast of the recent updates and deals. Besides, email notifications are also not efficient, since they tend to be sent into the spam folder. For this reason, to give your users richer experience, you may provide them with push-notifications.
Customer loyalty boosting
To keep customers loyal to your brand, it makes a reason to set up a rewarding programme. It may serve as a means for generating additional value for your clients. People are more likely to check every update of the application and recommend your brand to the others if they regularly get promotional deals and discount coupons. As an option, you may present special offers only for those who download your app. Thus, there is merit in setting up such programmes as an additional marketing method for your brand.
Taken all round, having implemented these features in your application, you motivate customers to stay more with your app. At the same time, this makes your brand ‘sticky’ in users’ minds.
#3 Advantageous data
A mobile application is a goldmine of insightful and valuable users’ data. In fact, when a customer interacts with the app, he/she spills information on user’s preferences that can work in marketer’s favor. If you know how much time customers spend with the app, which device they use and where and when they lay out money, it will be easier for you to build an impactful marketing strategy. There are several means to collect user’s data:
- Onboarding
This means involves filling up a small registration form by a new user. It will contain primary information on customer’s age, country, and focus for interest that is purposeful for specifying and narrowing down your target audience.
- In-app behavior analysis
When customers make purchase, search for some products, leaves feedback through your app, they produce information on their preferences which can be subsequently used for optimizing your expenses along with a marketing strategy.
- Quiz
If your application provides a bonus program, a quick round of questions on customer’s preferences for special offers would not be out of place.
This information can be actionable for retargeting purposes. Indeed, user’s data tracking will help you make an intelligent decision when a customer leaves an app without finishing his/her order. With users’ preferences in mind, you can realize what customers expect from your app and meet their requirements.
#4 Two-way interaction channel
A custom mobile application is a direct channel for keeping in touch with your customers. In fact, personalized mobile experience influences significantly clients’ purchasing decisions. For this reason, ask users to provide their feedback. This is one of the most compelling ways for building a much better experience. If a user’s feedback is a positive one, ask him/her to rate the app on App store or Google Play. In case your application got a negative response, ask a user to fill up a fact-finding questionnaire. Having the data on customer’s satisfaction with the quality of service you provide, you will be able to assume the most effective measures for modifying your marketing strategy.
In such a manner, a mobile application is the best platform for making the customers more engaged with your brand. When your client is comfortable with the app, he/she is more likely to make several purchases and recommend your brand to others. Thus, if you managed to create a positive brand experience through an app, you wouldn’t deal amiss having chosen a mobile application as a marketing tool.
Author
Helen Morrice is a technical writer and researcher at IDAP Group. While its developers are creating awesome mobile and web applications, Helen is creating engaging content on app dev. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
