With six billion smartphones predicted to be in use by 2020, and apps quickly becoming the default way of consuming online content, businesses cannot afford to ignore the rising importance of the mobile channel. For many enterprises, rolling out mobile strategies is easier said than done, with lengthy decision-making processes and often prohibitively high costs involved in getting apps created.
However, as with the consumerisation of technology in general, app development is no longer a book with seven seals, guarded by specialist app developers or in-house IT teams. Nor does it require high up-front investments anymore. With the rise of online app creation platforms, people with little or no IT background can now create sophisticated apps easily, quickly and cheaply.
There is little reason, then, not to put in place a ‘mobile first’ strategy, and make the most of the added user value and efficiencies within enterprises that apps enable.
‘Mobile first’ strategies pay off
At satellite broadcaster Sky, with hundreds of communication campaigns every quarter, the marketing team was finding it hard to demonstrate its achievements to the rest of the business. So they created an internal reporting app that could display their accomplishments in a visual and engaging way – using infographics, interactive timelines and campaign imagery - and that was also easy to update.
Marriott Hotels wanted to differentiate the launch of a new steak restaurant in London with a consumer app. As well as giving users easy access to bookings and information about specials, the ‘Gillray’s Steak and Gin’ app offered recipes for cooking the perfect steak, alongside video and other visual content for steak enthusiasts. The app received more than 1,500 downloads in 60 countries and 27,000 screen views. Over 60% of users returned to the app multiple times and spent an average of nearly 3 minutes per session, showing strong engagement with the content. The app also doubled as a sales support tool giving the events sales team a piece of impressive collateral they could use to promote the restaurant at meetings.
Thinking like an app designer
While online app creation platforms are demystifying the mobile channel and rendering it more affordable, they don’t turn a marketer, lawyer or HR professional into an ‘out of the box’ app designer. The challenge is not just to create an app, but to create one which addresses the needs and wants of customers, partners or employees, and stimulate their loyalty.
So to design an effective app, it’s worth bearing in mind some of the following tips:
Know your audience
For marketers, this should be second nature: before creating an app, work out what your ultimate end users would find useful, what is already on offer from competitors, and where there are gaps that you could fill.
Will it get users excited?
It’s easy to design an app with all the bells and whistles but that end users see no point in, don’t use and eventually just delete. Simply because apps are easier and cheaper to create doesn’t mean that you no longer need to go through customer research to come up with a successful proposition. Quite the opposite is the case, given the ever-growing number of apps available.
Make it easy
Mobile users spend around one minute in an app at a time, a very different usage pattern from desktop and web applications. So what you want is for your audience to come back to your app again and again. This will only happen if it is easy to navigate and has fast response times. If users can’t find something quickly, they will give up trying, are unlikely to return and may even leave bad reviews on the app store, affecting downloads.
Conversations, not spam
Modern consumers ‘opt out’ by default – they either bar advertising from their channels or simply ignore it. Firing generic information or sales messages at them is therefore not recommended. Instead, the goal is to open a two-way channel and incentivise users to interact because they benefit from doing so. This could be as simple as a free text box for comments or a VIP invite to a special event.
Start on your own doorstep
The example of Sky’s reporting app shows the great potential of apps for enhancing internal communications, not just external marketing. Are there processes that you use today that could be done more efficiently by an app? A recent report suggests enterprise apps could boost productivity by more than 30%, to name just one example.
With the mobile channel continuously on the rise, using mobile apps is no longer just a ‘nice to have’ but is increasingly becoming business critical. While the cost of creating apps has come down and fewer specialist skills are needed, designing a successful app is no less of a challenge. It boils down to the old adage of ‘know your customer’ – whether internal or external – and responding to their needs. In this way, you can build loyalty not only to your mobile shop front but also to your business.
By Ian Broom, CEO and founder of Fliplet.
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