47.6% of mobile users used apps! (December 2011, USA).
52% Adults users accessed mobile apps in a store to make a purchasing decision! (2011).
49% Users use their mobile devices to conduct local searches! (2011).
These aren’t just numbers, the figures hold many mobile app development and marketing lessons. For one, the growing numbers of app users is a clear indication for businesses that they need apps that can impress and deliver.
In the last couple of years we have seen almost every brand worth its salt build a mobile application to reach out the growing market of smartphone users.
Smartphones are certainly the new medium of communication-take the simple fact that according to IDC (a research and analysis firm) there will be at least 982 million smart phones floating about in the market by the end of the year 2015. App downloads are also set to touch the mark of 183 billion within the next four years.
So how can you use all these numbers and lessons to create successful mobile application development and marketing strategies? Note what some of the top brands did, and simply take a few leaves out of their app development and marketing manuals.
1. KISS (Keep it spectacularly simple)
As users have begun smart phone apps to make instant purchase decisions, it has become crucial to create an interface that’s spectacularly simple!
A standing example of this policy is the application called StockTouch. This mobile application deals with all kinds of information pertaining to stocks of different companies in different sectors. But the visual display is spectacularly simple.
Tap on a specific stock and you get detailed yet understandable information on the screen. This application uses colours and charts to great effect as well.
2. Promotion With Useful Information
Businesses create apps as marketing tools, but users do not want an app that only sells them stuff! So, if you want your app to work, you need to give something useful and relevant to users (connected to your niche of course). The key lesson here is soft selling with useful information.
Take iFood Assistant for example, the super successful app was launched by Kraft, and not only was it able to market its own products but also give people information pertaining to recipes that were categorised either by ingredients or occasion.
3. Simple Navigation
Every medium has its own strengths, and tools that leverage the same gain the most! When it comes to smartphones, sliding navigation is one of their strongest features.
An app that has played extremely well on this strength is Path. This application used slide outs on both sides of the screen. Sliding in from the left brings up user level notifications and sliding out from the right shows details such as friends and search. In addition to that it also aligns the slide animations to the buttons on top.
4. Quick and Easy Access
The music discovery application called Shazam works to this principle with great effect.
Here’s how it works — The user has to tap on the giant logo of Shazam to identify and play any track of their choice. The app is built on the simple mantra of giving users what they want quickly and easily.
The Final Word
With the world going ‘Appy and smart, businesses need to develop apps that not only have the potential to get noticed, but also hook uses so that they continue to use them. Hopefully, these lessons will come in handy. Good Luck!
0 comments:
Post a Comment