Thanks to advancements in mobile technology, apps have made it easier for brands to encourage customer engagement. In the old days, companies had to track audiences down before they could send them a message. This may have meant advertising in local newspapers, airing commercials during a popular TV show, or even writing a message in the sky. But these days brands don’t have to go to such lengths to reach targeted audiences. Everywhere people go, they carry the perfect tool for receiving marketed messages—their smartphones.
Thankfully the old days—that is, anytime before smartphone use exploded in 2010—are over. People have their smartphones with them all day long, no matter what they’re doing. They glance at them every spare moment they can get; whether it’s during a work break, while riding the subway, or while waiting in line at the grocery store. This makes smartphones, and the apps people find so addicting, an excellent way to deliver marketed messages.
Brands looking to take advantage of the ways in which consumers use their smartphones to shop should look into partnering with an app to encourage customer engagement.
Why You Should Use an App for Customer Engagement
If an app is popular with a targeted audience, brands can use that app to stimulate customer engagement. Research shows that the share of Americans who own smartphones is now 77%, up from 35% found during Pew Research Center’s first survey of smartphone ownership conducted in 2011. Smartphones can easily share info; anytime, from anywhere. This makes it easy for content to trend or “go viral,” for example. Brands should leverage these capabilities by partnering with an app that allows them to directly interact with their audience and encourage brand awareness through easy information sharing.
Mobile has overtaken desktop as the predominant marketing and sales channel because it is more easily accessible. Smartphones have capabilities that make mobile marketing easier, such as:
- Mobile accessibility: This one is the most obvious and most beneficial for mobile marketing. Since most people carry their phones with them, they’re readily available when people turn to them to research products before making a purchasing decision.
- Location-aware: This allows for the enabling of location-based marketing. For example, upon entering a store, a customer could receive a personalized mobile greeting that encourages them to look for a particular product in the store for discounts or rewards.
- Push notifications: Push notifications have a very high response rate. Instead of waiting for a customer to initiate engagement, push notifications prompt people to use an app and can get them to take action, such as visit other marketing channels or take advantage of promotions.
Thanks to these capabilities, mobile marketing has been proven to be more successful and cost-effective than traditional methods.
How to Start Engaging
Increasing customer engagement through in-app advertising will generate the results you want, but it must be used correctly. When creating mobile advertisements, brands must remember to keep content as simple, engaging, and interesting as possible. Mobile advertisements should be designed for those on-the-go. Use short sentences, phrases, and headings that stand out. Remember, you’re on a small screen, so use content that’s easy on the eye; like videos or infographics. The goal is that when consumers are ready to make a purchase, the engagement that they’ve experienced with your advertisement will keep your brand top-of-mind.
The Perfect App for Customer Engagement
The perfect app for engaging customers is one that enables them to interact with your brand in a fun environment that offers rewards. Shopkick is an app that’s easy to navigate and offers users reward points, called “kicks,” whenever they make a purchase, scan a participating product’s UPC, or simply interact with branded in-app content. Customers can redeem their kicks for free online gift cards. It offers a positive, one-on-one experience and is a great way to get customers to interact with your brand.
The perfect app for engaging customers is one that enables them to interact with your brand in a fun environment that offers rewards.
If an audience shops, you can reach them through Shopkick. It’s a powerful app for encouraging customer engagement.
Shopkick helps our partners engage customers through our easy-to-use, popular app. To connect with our users in a meaningful way that leads to higher sales, contact us.
Image courtesy of Antonio Guillem
