The upward surge of mobile apps appearing everyday is creating a new breed of savvy marketeers says Peter Bowen, Managing Director of First One On that launched their mobile app and mobile website offerings at the beginning of 2012.
Recently at the Mobile Media Summit held in Chicago we learned that mobile is starting to have a serious impact on traditional advertising mediums such as television, print media and online based on consumers’ adopting smartphones worldwide. Apple reported more than 2 million pre-orders for the new iPhone 6 when it was released recently
There are an estimated 4 billion mobile phones in the world of which 1.3 billion are smartphones and the number is growing daily. In the UK for example OFCOM reports that there are a staggering 33+ million smartphones capable of receiving online content. Therefore mobile is becoming the centre of future advertising and marketing strategies.
When smartphone users search for content or scan QR codes they are directed to mobile versions of websites or in some cases websites that have not been optimised for mobile viewing and just don’t display correctly.
For some types of business the mobile website offers all of the required information for the user to either learn more information about a product or service or to provide answers before making a decision to purchase.
There is an increasing trend to use QR codes to drive consumers to specific mobile optimised pages. These pages offer an immediate result or offer to “buy now” as a method of attracting users to engage and react to the offer or call to action. However once the user has opened the page and moved on they may never return to that mobile webpage ever again unless they are motivated by a need to either search or be directed by a QR code.
Say hello to the Mobile App – a slightly different mobile media version than the mobile website. Yes it displays information and offers plus a whole lot more besides. It resides on your smartphone as an app with its own icon on your desktop and can be easily accessed at any time.
Mobile apps attract new customers and help to increase on-going engagement by building a community for brand loyalty – a loyal fan base of users that will be far more receptive to marketing messages that you put out because they have given you their permission to receive your marketing message.
Mobile apps help to attract new customers, increase engagement and drive conversions, by ensuring that the user keeps coming back for more.
Now the business owner of the app has control of their customers in a way that they never had before and can in effect drive customers in to buy, engage or interact in the way that has been designed to deliver the end result – sell more stuff!
Some of the built-in features and offers that the app provides will be enough of an incentive for users to react to the offerings but at other times the user might need a gentle little push or persuasion.
Peter Bowen says “mobile apps have the ability to receive incoming text notifications that are called ‘push notifications’ and as their name implies the message is pushed out to all users who have the app installed on their smartphone”. “There is a misconception that this type of communication could be considered as spam, this is down to a few who are abusing the privilege of communicating directly to end users”. “As long as it is not misused, push notifications are an effective way of engaging consumers and delivering brand loyalty”.
Recent research has revealed that push notifications can deliver:
- 500% increase in daily app opens
- 3x faster response time than email
- 30% increase in social sharing on Facebook and Twitter
- 97% read rates compared to email at 5-10%
Push notifications should give consumers the information that they want in small doses, not a blatant advertising or hard selling approach, after all the user has installed the app to enable them to get some value out of what you have to offer. The message must be meaningful and have a compelling call to action otherwise you are not going to be able to convert their reaction into a potential sale.
Push notifications can draw consumers into your brand and create the brand loyalty that you want, so that when they are ready to buy they will have a sense that you care about them.
