mobile apps - route to next gen mobile consumer engagement
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Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 1
Mobile Apps The Route to Next Gen Mobile Consumer Engagement
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Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 2
Introduction
Brand Alignment
App Engagement Uncovered
Push Technology
The Next Generation
Case Studies and Examples
Conclusion
About Donky
Introduction
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 3
According to ABI Research the mobile app industry
is worth $27 billion, which proves that the market
has reached a level of maturity that demonstrates
that not having an app makes a business one of the
minority not the majority.
Many businesses are now rushing to create an app
to remain in the race, not willing to be the last over
the finish line. Executive teams across the globe are
pushing their teams to develop apps as fast as
possible, often without a clear mobile strategy or
plan in place. Unfortunately, this kind of behaviour
can easily cause more harm than good with research
by Harris Interactive showing that 90% of users had
their experience of a brand tarnished by a poorly
performing app; 75% described annoyance and 69%
frustration. Typically these feelings are driven by
slow or difficult to navigate apps, where customers
aren’t getting the information they want or expect
at an acceptable speed.
In a world where broadband, Wi-Fi and even 3G or
4G speeds are consistent and often lightning fast,
the user is expecting every interaction they have
with their device to occur at the same speed and
with the same quality.
Apps are becoming more and more of a
requirement in consumers’ day to day lives, whether
it’s checking sports results, playing games, looking
at the weather or socialising; they are becoming
reliant on the ever present technology contained in
the device in their pockets.
If an app is not capable of meeting this expectation,
it is likely to fall behind in the eyes of the user, and if
they visit the app again, it will be to uninstall it.
Users’ expectations of business’ online and mobile
presences have been very high for a while now, and
are forever on the up, alongside the expansion and
development of technology. Brands need to focus
on how to identify and meet those expectations
across all their marketing channels.
Introduction
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 4
A business’ app is the personification of their brand;
it represents them in the mobile space, just as a
shop or office does on the high street. Everything
from the interior décor down to the packaging or
bag the customer leaves with reminds people of the
brand and so increases not only brand awareness
but positive feelings among their consumer base
and target market.
When building an app, a brand should be delivering
this same level of care and attention to the user as
they would an in-store customer. They must think
about how they would usually engage their
customer base and increase loyalty, for example;
• Create a personal touch by starting direct
conversations with customers
• Build trust by rectifying mistakes in a timely
manner and taking clearly communicated steps
to prevent them occurring again
• Ask their opinion, regular customer surveys can
provide valuable feedback and suggestions as
well as making consumers feel more engaged
and needed
• Surprise fans with birthday or special offers; go
over and above what is expected
• Staff training and product knowledge is incredibly
important to customer experience, when
customers visit, they need to trust the brand
implicitly
This sort of experience is key to creating a strong
fan base among the customers of the brand.
Businesses everywhere are aware that fans are our
most loyal supporters and are capable of doing far
more to market a brand than any advertising
campaign could even hope for. By encouraging
sharing and discussion between consumers it is
possible to introduce a great way to construct a fan
base which will grow the business and its sales
organically.
Brand Alignment
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 5
Amazingly, apps are reducing the use of even
mobile browsers. A recent Nielsen study showed
that 87% of U.S. consumers spent the majority of
their time on a mobile app rather than a mobile
browser – up from 81% last year and 73% two years
ago. So as more and more consumers want to
spend time on their smartphones in-app, what are
brands doing to deliver a rich and engaging app for
them to use?
It seems not enough, as many are consistently
failing to recognise user behaviours and tailor their
offering to match.
The following app behaviours can be observed in
everyday life, in ourselves, friends, family or even
strangers, but how often do marketers pay attention
to what is happening around them?
• Social apps allow us to stay up to date, not miss
the latest news, photo or story to share with
friends or family; interesting to note that 60% of
twitter users access it through their mobile.
• Gaming apps are addictive, creating a desperate
need within us to complete the next level or
compete with a friend; for example Angry Birds
now has nearly 2 billion downloads.
• Show-rooming has become an almost staple part
of our shopping experience; users are finding the
best products and prices online or in app whilst
on the move.
According to a new study from Localytics, 26% of all
apps downloaded are opened just once, and then
never used again. To ensure an app doesn’t fall into
that group, it’s imperative that it services a defined
user need.
In the last 12 months 51.64% of top app downloads
have been gaming apps followed at some distance
by productivity apps at 16.25%. Branded apps
hardly features here at all, exposing their weakness
in not first understanding a user need before
developing their app.
App Engagement
Uncovered
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 6
Businesses are often only creating what could be
termed “outbound only” apps where users are
unable to engage with each other or the brand. The
need for 2-way communications in every platform
has become patently obvious over the past decade,
so why aren’t brands delivering this to their app
users?
Interestingly, the variation between devices in terms
of types of app used is huge:
Another noteworthy fact is that of the 29 apps
installed on the average device, 10 are used each
month and 8 are paid apps; showing that given the
right set of tools or engaging content, users are
happy to pay. For example, the latest craze of Candy
Crush Saga by King.com has users spending vast
quantities of money on a seemingly pointless game,
just to beat the next level. Further demonstrating
the proposed analysis that users are addicted to
their phones, and all brands need to do is present
them with something useful enough to latch onto.
App Engagement
Uncovered
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 7
Having discussed the importance and relevance of a
mobile app for businesses, and how consumer
engagement with apps is really reflected in most of
their “outbound only” methodologies that don’t
reflect behaviours. It is important to note here, that
there are examples of businesses pushing the
boundaries with their apps and creating new,
interactive and engaging app experiences to help
develop their brand personality in the eyes of the
consumer.
Below are just some of the examples that can be
observed, of companies taking the next stage in
terms of app development.
Audi Augmented Reality
The car manufacturer in partnership with Metaio has
created an interactive manual for their A1 and A3
products, allowing users to browse the features and
functions of the cars as well as details of over 300
different car parts. All the data for the app is pulled
from the cloud, allowing it to be accessed at all
times by the user.
Although the app is currently iOS only and requires
the user to be connected to the internet to access it,
it shows a distinct growth spurt in terms of
producing an application on the basis of fulfilling a
user requirement as opposed to ticking the
proverbial box.
This interactive manual is a fantastic tool to allow
users to lose their battered hard copies in favour of
an entirely mobile alternative. However, the addition
of a forum style connection with Audi might allow
users to ask questions and request information from
Audi; increase the 2-way interactions within the app.
Smart Starbucks
The coffee chain has combined several key mobile
marketing features into its app. It all began with the
store locator, which is still a large component of the
program. The Starbucks app also uses the
smartphone as a loyalty card, making it easier to
manage balances and reload money. In some stores,
the mobile device can actually be used to pay for
purchases.
Case Studies &
Examples
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 8
One of the highlights of this app is the ability to
create personalised drinks. It adds a game-like
element that encourages shoppers to be creative
and explore the full line of Starbucks products. For
the health-minded, the app also includes nutritional
information about its food and beverages. It’s a
good example of how brands can make details
about their merchandise accessible in a fun, new
way.
By creating an element of gamification in their app,
Starbucks has instantly enabled an additional
stream for users to further engage, they could
extend this by creating a user to user
communication environment to allow consumers to
share their newly created drinks with one another.
Also the use of in-app rich advertising could
promote seasonal drinks or offer coupons for
frequent users.
Walgreens Pharmacy
Flurry chose the drug store chain's app for its "Refill
by Scan" feature, which lets customers order
prescription refills by scanning the barcode directly
off the pill bottle. Users can also receive push
notification reminders when prescriptions are ready
to be refilled.
Other features include photo, allowing users to take
pictures with the phone, and then upload them to
their Walgreens photo album and pick up the prints
within the hour, along with more prosaic features,
like a store finder and coupon information.
A great addition to such a 2-way and engaging app
would be a chat function, allowing users to
communicate with the pharmacy to ask questions in
a controlled, secure environment – or arrange
appointments. Walgreens could also consider using
rich advertising to promote offers for photography
or coupons.
Case Studies &
Examples
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 9
Push notification systems on mobile operating
systems act as a method of notifying the handset an
installed application has data waiting for it from an
external system. It is referred to as push as the client
establishes a connection into the push notification
servers and only has data pushed down to it when a
notification is pending, therefore avoiding costly
polling. In general data is pushed from external
system to the mobile operating systems push
servers and then down to the handset when
available.
For mobile marketers this means a way to push out
updates, offers, promotions or news to their app.
Not a new technology the service is available for all
major smartphone operating systems and is
completely optional for the end user. It’s reasonably
simple to opt-in/out of any push notification from
within the app settings. This means that it provides
a great way to safely, and consensually
communicate with an engaged mobile audience
with outbound content.
However, push is not without its limitations, it allows
for a very short (small) message to be transmitted
containing only plain text.
Push Technology
Small means a limit of 256 bytes which equates to
128 characters, and although sending a message
this small is perfectly acceptable, in the case of SMS
for example; often businesses might have more
information to share with their users.
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 10
Push is also an outbound only solution allowing an
app to transmit to the mobile but not allowing the
user to respond.
Another and usually unnoticed aspect of push
technology is that it completely lacks any reporting.
How are modern marketers managing without their
usual in depth analytics and information? From
every campaign deployed there should be a simple
expectation of reporting around how engaged our
audience is, and how connected they are with our
brand or offer.
Push Technology
Further to this, push notifications are not usually
stored in an inbox, once clicked or dismissed they
are gone and the user cannot retrieve them if
required. Providing this sort of feature within an app
can dramatically increase engagement and re-visits;
imagine if the service could offer 2-way
communications.
By triggering push notifications based on interests,
location or time-zone (the simplest of targeting
tools) a business can reach its customers with
messages that are relevant and timely. When the
user clicks on the notification they are brought to
the app, where hopefully their attention will be held.
There is no facility for driving consumers to a
specific area of the app; they are just dropped on
the homepage as if they had launched it manually.
Although push is a very interesting tool for
increasing engagement and driving app usage it is
reasonably limited in terms of how much it actually
has to offer marketers and as a result, businesses
should be looking for more alternative technologies
to enthuse their customers.
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 11
It has become clear during this whitepaper that
apps are becoming more and more relevant in the
wake of the smartphone revolution. Consumers
don’t just like apps; they need them. They’re
entertainment, a news source and education. As
people get busier, apps help them stay on top of
things and keep them connected in a world that
moves as fast as they can tweet it.
Mobile app technology of the upcoming few years
must be capable of increased user interaction and
2-way engagement instead of a one way delivery of
content.
Furthermore, simply delivering that content without
a specific targeted approach, personal to the user
will not create the same experience that the user
would receive if they were to visit a brand in person.
Companies branching out into mobile now must
find a way to bring the targeted nature of other
direct marketing techniques (email, SMS) to their
apps.
It’s interesting to note at this stage that research by
SAP shows that men and women have different
expectations when it comes to apps. Women want
simplicity and look for an easy-to-use interface that
takes them to the end result as painlessly as
possible. Men, on the other hand, are interested in
functionality and whether an app properly serves its
The Next Generation
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 12
purpose. It seems that in general consumers are
looking for an app that makes them more
productive, so there would be limited value (if any at
all) in producing an app that does nothing for the
user.
As well as helping businesses deliver and receive
content from the user, mobile technology of the
future must be capable of linking back all that
activity to a central CRM or marketing database,
from which all consumer analytics are calculated.
Businesses need to be able to tie all mobile (as well
as other channel) communications together to
create an omni-channel connection with their users.
Once technology allows everyone to clearly tie the
user of an app to a view on the desktop site or to a
purchase in store, brands will be able to
communicate effectively to their customers with one
united voice. Avoiding a situation with some brands
at the moment, where customer experiences can be
muddled by old data or duplication of contacts.
The Next Generation
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 13
This whitepaper has uncovered that the app
industry is enormous; its value is constantly being
contested between the two biggest players, Apple
and Android. iOS continues to lead the market and
generates over two-thirds of the revenues for
smartphone and tablet. This seems to expose that
although Android apps outnumber Apple apps, iOS
users are much happier to part with money to enjoy
their apps.
Smart marketers need to drive their efforts towards
those iOS users and meet their needs in order to
drive revenue and m-commerce through their apps.
The current rush to develop an app to complete a
task is not an effective way to deliver ground-
breaking and engaging technology to the user, it is
simply not going to meet their expectations and as
has already been mentioned, do more harm than
good.
Users are expecting the same level of care and
attention they would receive in store, they want
instant access and smooth, intuitive design and
navigation. Apps need to work as well as the best
desktop sites, if not better; as they are smaller, more
compact and using a more sophisticated
technology.
Simply delivering a nice looking app is no longer
enough; businesses must meet these expectations
and in fact exceed them to please the user.
Customer service is hugely important to the success
of any business in any sector, and it is the most
appreciated of all aspects of the business;
consumers want to be treated well and are willing to
pay for it. Two thirds of consumers say that a
positive customer experience caused them to spend
more and eight out of ten would pay up to 25%
more for a superior service (thedrum.com 2013).
Although these statistics reference the in-store retail
space, it is not a huge stretch to assume that those
people would also be happy to part with more
money to improve the experience they get in app.
Current simple push technology is not enough to
excite users; it isn’t going to help businesses build
interactions like they would in email or in-store
campaigns and that’s what needs to be achieved.
There are many companies out there already
working on creating apps that deliver the kind of
interactivity the user is expecting, as covered earlier
in this paper.
Conclusion
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 14
Creating solutions that save people time and energy
and make interacting with the brand not only useful,
but fun!
Gamification like in the Starbucks app is a fantastic
way to engage users and keep a brand in the
forefront of their minds; and more than that make
them fans.
Conclusion
More important however, is the fact that even those
who are currently excelling, can be improved upon;
there is always more to offer and brands that lead
the way must always be looking for the next-gen
technology to deliver rich, exciting, engaging and
targeted content to their users, through their app.
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 15
There is a clearly demonstrated missing link within
the mobile industry, where brands simply aren’t
willing or able to tie their in-app experience to that
of in-store. Donky is a new technology developed
for in-app engagement to help businesses increase
consumer engagement and interaction through
their apps, and as a result customer loyalty. It also
offers some particularly unique solutions to increase
app lifespan and make an app one of the 10 that are
downloaded and used every month (if not more).
Simple Push
Donky takes push a step further by using push
notifications as a simple way to notify the user and
bring them back to the app where they can share,
engage and communicate to their hearts content.
By utilising Donky messaging, brands can create an
in-app environment to build engagement, loyalty
and trust with their users and ensure they continue
to use that app over anyone else’s.
Top Features
• Wake up the phone with a notification that must
be read
• Drive traffic back to an app to increase
engagement
• Deploy to iOS and Android phones
2-way Push
Donky begins to demonstrate its power when this
service is used. The “duplex push network” as Donky
calls it, allows 2-way conversations to take place
between the user and the business, using push
channels as a wake up services as opposed to the
delivery system. This feature is actually based on an
OTT network.
Top Features
• Create conversations with users
• Enable an inbox for users to send and receive
from
• Attach images to messages
About Donky
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 16
Rich Messages
The next generation of push messaging; create
personal, rich and engaging content to deliver to
customers. No need to involve a technical team;
simply use Donky’s Campaign Builder to create
HTML app pages containing media such as images,
videos and coupons.
Top Features
• Send rich content out to app users and use
replies to engage them
• Create advertising or offers with HTML and
images
• Drop the prefabricated inbox straight in with
minimal development time
Social Chat
Enable app users to communicate with their
contacts over a dedicated OTT network through the
app. Drive increased engagement within the app
and encourage longer stays in-app by creating an
in-app eco-system where users can chat, share
content and socialise.
Top Features
• P2P in-app OTT network to allow users to
communicate with one another from within the
app
• User tracking and management to prevent fraud
and trolling
• Allow user to share and converse without ever
leaving the app
About Donky
Mobile Apps – The Route to Next Gen Consumer Engagement 17
donky
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