We are in a world of gadgets, and to such an extent that they have become an integral part of our lives. Our maximum time is spent glued to our smartphones and tablets and some are so obsessed that they never keep it aside for it to rest. This in turn is a benefit for the brand as customers are connected to them almost every minute. Here, it becomes imperative that you make your marketing, sales and testing strategies effective to take advantage of this fact and grab the opportunities available.
According to recent mobile research by Google, 87% of us look at the advertising that adorns our screens when we’re choosing restaurants, playing games and buying clothes, the average user has 25 apps downloaded and 80% of us never leave home without a mobile device of some description. 79% of us multitask; with 39% using a mobile while listening to music, 55% while watching TV and 25% while watching movies! Let us take you through this blog where we tell how to engage your customers.
Know the need of your customer
Firstly, when you ask, what do customers really want?, the answer does not vary. The basic requirements can be:
- Easy access to product and store information
- Help planning and navigating trips
- The ability to communicate in real time
- Relevant and proactive information and services
When you think as a consumer, you would want to download an easy-to-navigate app that delivers a suite of key, functionalities and mobile services through an intuitive, entertaining user interface. They want accurate functions by the app on different devices they use. Consumers also are concerned about geographical locations, they want proactive and relevant information and services within the context of their location at a particular time.
An app has a lot of responsibilities, to engage a customer, it has to push out personalized content, offers and perks based on their interests, while providing the ability to share offers, news and product recommendations virally on their social networks. The forewarning here is that sour experiences will not be ignored. This is the core reason that apps perform at a level that is the highest or at least they are designed to deliver the best.
Check on the behaviour
Performance is booming and has become one of the biggest modes of competition in the mobile market with speed, capability, security and the information available being an important element to customers. Why organisations suffer performance issues is because they are not testing their applications under real world situations. So, consider the customer’s behavior before you kick off on creating your mobile and testing strategies. It is widely accepted that customers are very impatient when it becomes to the app’s responses, if it’s delayed, 60 % of customers resolute never to access the app again.
73% of users have researched a product or service on their device and 39% have purchased direct from their mobile while 87% of smartphone users look for specifically local information with a huge 76% taking action such as visiting a local bank branch, restaurant or retail store.
Tempting or Terrible
The sole intention of an app is to engage the customer as long as possible, may be 24*7. No matter where they are and no matter what they want, they should access the possible apps for any purpose. Here are just some of the capabilities your mobile app needs to have and the associated risks and problems your app strategy will need to overcome:
Customers love real time information and in some industries such as Finance, Banking, and Gambling or in certain business situations such as when you want to show a supplier your current stock levels, it’s essential. This results in Big Data, greater complexity and more opportunity for error so your testing strategy becomes even more crucial to success. Business customers and consumers alike want lightening fast app development and regular, relevant, highly functional feature releases. This accelerated delivery cycle requires an equally fast and effective test cycle, so you need to have the capacity for agile development testing.
Even when your app is a scaling heights there are pitfalls to watch out for. If there is a sudden spike in demand, how easy is it for you to scale up to meet it? You can rely on the cloud to a degree but you also need to be considering factors such as load balancing and your bandwidth capacity, or you will fall foul of the essential performance elements we have looked at.
Security and data protection are not just huge competitive differentiators; they are also of course legal obligations that carry hefty financial penalties when breached. A recent study of 40 of the 60 most prominent global banks revealed that 90% of their mobile banking apps have serious security vulnerabilities, putting their client data and their reputation at risk. In industries where customers feel at risk of important personal data being exposed, giving security top priority in your development and testing strategy will promote great customer loyalty.
You might not always be in the best range of internet, the signals may fluctuate, as a result, app performance drops and customers are more than eager to curse the app. This can intensify if you choose the wrong approach to data streaming. REST APIs may simplify the app writing process but they don’t have the capability to deliver in a constantly changing, real- time information. Here, the key is to strike a balance by examining the type of data the app uses and implementing the most powerful, responsive and user-friendly streaming technique for that specific data.
Take it on a personal note
When you create your mobile and app strategies, also keep in mind ways to maximize your advertising power, integrate your digital advertising and open up additional revenue streams.
46% of mobile users surveys have performed a search on their smartphone after seeing an offline advert, so by devising an integrated strategy, you can drive greater cross channel consumer engagement.
The biggest drawback about these adverts is that they are not directly relevant to their requirements, lifestyle and buying behaviour, with only 30% saying that they relate to the ads they currently see.
The biggest lesson that can be learnt is that the mobile users expect mobile adverts to be highly personalised in terms of their taste, browsing history, the time of day, location and environment as well as being fully integrated with your offline and other digital marketing to deliver a relevant, seamless, cross-channel customer brand experience. They expect it to be relevant to their needs and requirements.
