3 Must-Have Features for Your Mobile Experience
by Katie Huston | Last Updated: May 30, 2019
Lacking bounce rates, minimal click-thru, and less-than-exciting engagement rates...sound like a mobile app you've worked on? We know that customers are on mobile and it can be hard to capture their attention with all of the social ads, music apps, and email notifications. In the midst of all of that, how do you get your customer to access your brand's mobile app and get them to come back? I've got three great features that you can use to get started building a better mobile experience for your customers.
Brainstorm the Purpose
Always a great place to start for any marketer, solving the issue from the top down has to be the first step in creating a cohesive mobile experience that serves a real purpose. Is the purpose of your app to drive leads? Is it converting sales? Is it to direct back to your blog content? Spend some time working with your team to create a vision for your mobile experience and the needs that it serves from a customer view. Some brands that have already been doing mobile well and fitting their mobile experience to their unique brand strategy include IKEA, Disney World, and Amazon.
Focus on Functionality
A mobile app with bad functionality is almost as bad as not having a mobile app at all. Stay away from just shrinking your desktop site and shoving it into a mobile app— design functionality specifically for your mobile app. Some ideas that you can start with for better functionality include intuitive navigation, reducing user inputs, and watching the size of buttons and the menu. Make it easy for them to click through to your best content and organize the pages with minimalism in mind.
Make it Accessible
Although time spent in apps is increasing, consumer studies show that more than 50% of users are downloading less than 1 new app per month. That has lead to a decrease in the number of apps users typically allow on their mobile phones and tells us that mobile users want to access your content, but not take up precious storage space. It may be time to forget the app store download and build on the web with mobile experiences that are better suited for consumers like progressive web apps (PWAs) and accelerated mobile pages (AMPs). Web-built apps don't require an app store redirect or update notifications, making it easier for customers to consume your content on mobile.
Building mobile experiences can be a tough job. It’s time-consuming, takes a lot of iterations, and can burn through a budget faster than you can say “UX”, but these three takeaways will help you get laser-focused on the process it takes to create a mobile app that not only connects you with your customers, but provides value for them and builds loyalty to your brand.