5 Ways To Breathe Life Back Into Your Mobile App

As your mobile users start to suffer from mobile app fatigue, here are some best practices you can implement to re-engage them.

Blog one of a series.

As smartphone owners begin showing early signs of app fatigue, businesses across a variety of industries are finding it increasingly difficult to engage customers.

According to Business Insider, a typical U.S. smartphone owner uses approximately 27 apps, a number that has stayed fairly constant for the past four years.

In order for your company’s app to be part of that 27, it needs to be more useful and effective than other options out there. Breathing life back into your app can be done with a little work.

Below, we have outlined five best practices:

Best Practice #1: Provide a Meaningful Service that Customers Want

Many companies continue to follow a strategy established at the end of the last century: build a website that is static, one-way and disconnected from the needs of the individual user.

Unfortunately, there are far too many apps that are “tiny web” equivalents of the company website. User needs don’t come first and, as a result, apps are used once or twice and then deleted.

A key ingredient to a successful mobile strategy: Beautifully designed, easy-to-use apps supported by a business model that provides a service customers can’t live without.

Providing a service that customers can’t live without requires a unique feature or selling point.

Let’s consider Uber as an example:

• Has a unique selling point – Order a car at the touch of a button
• Offers a solution – No longer have to wait on the curb for a taxi
• Appeals to users – Clean, modern cars with friendly drivers
• Differs from competitors – Extremely competitive prices and easier payment model
• Makes it easy – Simple and personalized, it fits naturally into our daily lives

What is your app’s unique selling point? What value does it give to your customer? Does it make life easier by offering a new solution, a new way to connect, or a new way to be entertained?

Best Practice #2: Embrace Analytics to Truly Understand the Customer Journey

Far too many apps lack an analytics engine that helps digital teams understand how customers use mobile apps. Operational analytics powered by customer usage data is the secret ingredient for serving up personalized experiences that accurately predict what users want.

For some, it’s about analyzing mobile usage patterns to understand which features drive the highest customer engagement. For others, it’s about identifying the most frustrating features that contribute to users exiting or deleting the app from their phone.

Savvy companies like Uber are using analytics tools such as Localytics, Crashlytics, Google Analytics, Flurry and others to better understand how to engage with customers across a multitude of devices.

Best Practice #3: Monetize Mobile Moments with New Business Models

Many digital teams bemoan the lack of a business case to justify further investments in their mobile app. Unlike Silicon Valley startups, most companies are looking to make a return on their financial investment, and mobile projects can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A better way to demonstrate the return on investment is by giving your customers the option to purchase new products and services that are developed, marketed and distributed in entirely new ways.

#Mobilepayments and digital wallet technologies are becoming a “must have” for driving more dollars into the mobile channel. @centric #ConquerAppFatigue

The emergence of mobile payments and digital wallets from Apple Pay, Google Pay, Chase Pay, Square and others have also created huge new opportunities for micro-payments and micro-finance transactions. Mobile payments can be a great way to experiment with digital business models without the heavy investment of e-commerce platforms and technology infrastructure.

Best Practice #4: Refresh the User Experience

The user experience and visual interface of mobile apps and websites has radically changed in recent years. How we interact with our mobile devices has changed with the emergence of voice-controlled digital assistants such as Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Now.

Advances in indoor mapping and navigation, micro-proximity sensors and mobile notification services will continue to influence both our personal and professional lifestyle.

The importance of human-centered design is often perceived as applicable only to consumer apps. Unfortunately, many business-to-business and employee-facing apps underestimate the importance of having a well-designed app that is informed by usability research, process redesign, workflow automation and experience design principles.

Best Practice #5: Promote and Market Your Mobile App

With an increasingly saturated mobile apps landscape, it’s never been more important to market your app. While app stores such as Apple iTunes and Google Play remain the most important channel for distributing apps, more people are now discovering apps from websites, digital ads and traditional media ads.

Another emerging trend for mobile-savvy marketers is the use of App Store Optimization (ASO), which improves the visibility of a mobile app in the app store. Think of ASO as the mobile cousin of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for traditional digital marketing. This highlights the importance of having a marketing plan to create awareness and educate users about your app.

There are a few simple things you can do when creating your marketing plan:

• Build a landing page on your company website – This will help make people aware of your app. You will also be able to drive prospective users to your website through digital marketing campaigns and keyword pay-per-click campaigns.
• Grow email subscribers – Adding a subscribe button on your website will help you start building an email list of interested potential users. You can also use this contact list for future app updates and new feature announcements
• Get influencers on board – Build relationships with influential writers, media outlets and bloggers in your industry. They can help with promotion. If you can get a few to review your app, it will go a long way.
• Use social media – Use social media channels to showcase your app’s functionality, give users ideas on how to use the app, and connect with others to expand your visibility and audience.

Which of these best practices can you take advantage of? Is it time to give your app an update or is it time to let it go?

In our next article, we’ll explore some additional best practices our digital team uses to determine whether a company’s mobile app is obsolete or in need of improvements.