... Because it is all about offering exclusive and personalized content to your community, with a Mobile-First experience.
And this can only be done with a quality Mobile App.
We are rushing at an ever-increasing pace towards a Mobile-First and Mobile-Only world, the number of Mobile Users today (67%) are greater than the number of desktop users (33%) !
Users are putting new pressures on businesses to deliver unparalleled Mobile experiences – or else they walk away.
Businesses looking to create Mobile Apps are being faced with the question of whether an App is really necessary, or if a responsive website will suffice. For the beginners, a Responsive design is a single website layout which automatically adapts (changes size, grows, shrinks) to suit the device viewing it. This means that one website can cater for those on large desktops all the way down to smaller smartphones. It sounds brilliant in principle: one design which works for mobile, tablet, laptop and desktop. However, in practice, a Responsive Website fails to deliver in many ways.
Furthermore, if we consider the number of time spent using them, Mobile Apps are the clear winners. According to Emarketer, Mobile users spend 88% of their time on Mobile Apps and just 12% of the time on mobile websites.
Let us look at 8 Reasons Why Mobile Apps outperform Responsive websites. #1 - True Mobile Experience
Just because your current website performs, it doesn’t mean that your responsive mobile website will. Mobile users are, in many ways, unforgiving and demanding. Attention spans are brief, and they won’t appreciate ancillary content, clunky navigation or extraneous information. Mobile users are purpose-driven and if your mobile site does not meet that purpose or need, they will drop your website. Even if it looks tidy. On the other hand, Mobile Apps are purpose-focused. Users prefer Mobile Apps as they are an easy-to-use version of a full website, or because they are a simplified version of a longer process. The ease-of-use and accessibility of a Mobile App turn this process in the habit and are much more present in the daily mobile behaviour of users.
#2 - Increased Engagement and Interaction
As compared to Mobile Websites, Mobile Apps are far more user-friendly, as the interface has been specifically designed with mobile-users in mind. Mobile Apps are usually 2-3 times faster than mobile websites as Mobile Apps are downloaded and installed on your device. With a faster experience, users have more time to sit back and enjoy the Mobile App in the way it was intended. Additionally, Mobile Apps allow for companies to develop more interactive ways for the user to engage with their content. Rather than reading blocks of text, or looking at static images, Mobile Apps can integrate features will enable users to interact with components of an article or an event.
#3 - Mobile Apps Offer Better Personalization
Personalization is about offering tailored communication to users based on their interests, location, usage behaviour, and more. With Mobile Apps, it’s easy to treat users with a personalized experience. Mobile Apps can let users set up their preferences at the start, based on which users can be served with customized content. Apps can also track and observe and use it to offer custom recommendations and updates to the users. Users love highly tailored content according to their preferences. It’s like offering them a tailored communication in the language they speak and understand. User-centric personalization is critical in making their experience delightful.
#4 - Ability to Work Offline
All Mobile Apps offer instant access by a tap. They allow users to consume their content quickly offering seamless experience via storing vital data that can be accessed offline too. Although apps too might require internet connectivity to perform most of their tasks, they can still offer basic content and functionality to users in offline mode.
#5 - Push Notifications and Instant Updates
For the last couple of decades, email has been one of the most widely used communication tool. Businesses have extensively used email to reach out to their users. As a result, email has lost the effectiveness it once had. While Mobile App Notifications (push and in-app notifications) are both exciting alternatives for communicating with app users in a less intrusive manner. The ability to send instant and personalised notifications to users is so desired that it is one of the major reasons why many organizations want to have a Mobile App in the first place.
#6 - Increased security on Mobile Devices
When users connect with a business through the Internet, they are exposed not only to its trackers, but also to all the web’s. With the Mobile App, you can set up better security to protect your user’s data.
Mobile Apps allow further and tighter integration of security such as Digital Certificate or Digital Signature that is not an option for websites. With device security you can safely access, share and modify data on mobile devices.
#7 - Brand Presence
Users spend a substantial amount of their time (3 hours of an average in 2017) on mobile devices. Most of the users encounter the apps they’ve installed on their devices, almost every day. This regular encounter can be viewed as a branding opportunity for the apps. Even when users are not actively using a Mobile App, they are still reminded of the brand associated with the app. The icon of the app acts like a mini-advertisement for the brand. The presence of an app on a user’s device helps influence user’s perception about a brand, subconsciously.
#8 - Personalized and Exclusive Content in a branded App
Your digital content and marketing must be user-centric. Meaning you must provide the right content to the right audience segment at the right time. Plus, as freemium model gets mainstream, you must be able to identify exclusive content that should be behind wall, high value content you want to offer to your chosen community or members.
This can best be done inside a native Mobile App with a personal login or a top-of-the class community web platform (Member Experience Platform by Symantra)