The Mobile Platform Era Is Here
The number of mobile platform users today is greater than the number of desktop users!
Businesses have realized the importance of mobile platforms to attract customers. They have started new operations (or scaled existing ones) through mobile websites and mobile apps. Here are the top 10 ways businesses are pulling it off!
“Mobile devices have already ingrained themselves into our daily lives and businesses are realizing that this is something that can work to their advantage.”Dean Grey, Entrepreneur, CEO & Founder of Skylab Apps
While businesses with large wallets can afford to deploy both mobile websites and apps, other companies are forced to choose one or the other due to financial constraints. The choice between a mobile app or a website depends on their cost, usability, required features and the audience they serve. That being said, studies show that users prefer a native mobile app way more than a mobile website. This builds a strong case to go with a native mobile app to reach potential (and existing) customers. Here are the top 10 reasons why.
#1 Mobile Apps Offer Better Personalization
With mobile apps, it’s easy to treat users with a personalized experience. Users set up their preferences at the start. Based on what users select, customized content is curated to meet their interest. Skylab Apps calls the part of the user onboarding process “PIIP” (Proximity, Identity, Interest, and Performance). Personalization is about offering tailored, smart tags combined with a Chat feature which completes this experience for the user giving them something incredibly unique.
As a result, the App owner can track and observe user engagement, and use it to offer custom recommendations and updates to the users. Simultaneously, the app owner can also identify the locations of users in real-time to provide geography-specific content.
However, improving user experience is not the only purpose that personalization serves. It can also help improve the conversion rate of apps: When users are pampered with personalized content, they have a higher chance of making a conversion.
“Personalization is critical in making a mobile user experience delightful” Anthony O’Donoghue
At Skylab, visuals and layouts are customizable, but the underlying structure is stable & standard. This creates total control for the client – flexibility within a proven and tested framework. This is a massively-disruptive model.
#2 Ease of Sending Notifications
For the last couple of decades, email has been the most widely-used business communication tool. Businesses have extensively used email (some almost abused it) to reach out to their users. As a result, email has lost the effectiveness it once had; it’s open rates and clicks rates have constantly dropped. Don’t worry, there is an app for that!
There are two types of notifications: push, and in-app notifications. They both are exciting alternatives for communicating with app users in a less intrusive manner. The ability to send instant, non-intrusive notifications to users is so desired, and that it is one of the major reasons why many businesses want to have a mobile app in the first place.
In-app notifications are the notifications which users can only receive when they have opened an app.
Push notifications are where users can receive a message regardless of any activity on their mobile device. There have been instances where the push medium of notifications has delivered click-through rates of 99%. At Skylab, we’ve got the full suite: outside the app, inside the app, and a master control center. Notifications are the primary way users get information about activity in their apps.
#3 Making Use of Mobile Device Features
Mobile apps have the advantage of utilizing features of a mobile device like the camera, contact list, GPS, phone calls, accelerometer, compass, etc.
Such device features, when used within an app, can make the user experience interactive and fun.
These features can also reduce the efforts users would have to make otherwise. For instance, users completing a form on a banking app might need to submit their photograph for completion of the process. The platform allows users to use the smart phone camera of their mobile device to capture and submit a photograph.
“Tech will transform from something we actively use to a more seamless integrated experience that is ‘on’ all the time.” – Daniel Bæk, Co-founder of Nodes
The device features can significantly shorten the time users take to perform a certain task in an app, and can even boost conversions. Add-on: Mobile web platforms can also use some features of a mobile device like the camera, GPS, etc. Still, there are technological constraints in utilizing all multimedia features of a device not running natively on a smart phone.
Skylab has worked in the development of the Beauty Bomb app. We use the native features which had been shown above to create Voting Contest. It’s one of the Gamification add-on features that Skylab can provide.
You can see the most recent posts and -following customizable tabs- the Leaderboard with the actual ranking, your own posts and the winners from the past weeks.
This fun contest renews every so often – admin choose the timeframe – and the winner earns a reward!
Customize the How to Win screen to display the contest info and reward.
#4 Ability to Work Offline
It is probably the most fundamental difference between a mobile website and an app. 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.
The beauty of mobile apps lies in their ability to work even in offline mode.
Let’s use a banking app for example.
The app can provide features like tax calculation, installment calculation, and determination of loan limit. These functions can work even without the help of an internet connection.
Add-on: Even though mobile platforms can use caching to load web pages without an internet connection, they can only offer limited functions.
#5 Freedom in Designing
Even with all the technological advancements in web design, mobile websites have to heavily rely on browsers to perform even the most elementary functions. Mobile websites depend on browser features like ‘back button,’ ‘refresh button,’ and ‘address bar’ to work.
Mobile Apps don’t have any of these restrictions.
A mobile app can be designed with a lot of elaborate functions, based on advanced gestures like ‘tap,’ ‘swipe,’ ‘drag,’ ‘pinch,’ ‘hold,’ and more.
Apps can use these gestures to offer innovative functionality that can help users perform a task better. For example, an app can let users move to a next or previous step using the swipe gesture.
Skylab gives you the ability to modify colors/branding + actions + bottom/side menu navigation.
#6 New Branding Experience
Since a mobile app is distinct from a company’s website, it has the liberty of offering a new branding experience to users. It means that the company can experiment with new branding styles for the app, which can be different from the regular brand style of the company’s website (or the company altogether).
Going a step further, companies can build mobile apps specifically to transition into a new brand style for themselves. Mobile apps can be used to create a distinguished brand for your product/service. Additionally, a mobile app can also allow users to customize its appearance, as per users’ liking. This can further help on the personalization front of the app.
Add-on: The concept of microsites work on similar lines. Microsites offer a distinct brand experience to users, as compared to their parent sites. They are often used to promote a sub-brand, an event, or a newly-launched service.
Skylab can implant a social media page and any website directly into the app. This enhances User Experience.
On this screenshot of the Allysian app, the Action-Buttons can be set differently and the different tabs at the bottom of the app as well
Allysian Science is One of Skylab’s Clients. It’s mission is to maximize human potential through advanced science and education, enabling people to become the best at whatever they choose to be.
Skylab provides to the Admin a wide Platform Settings Control as seen in the previous point. Admin can optimize and change the display as they wish.
Different courses and lessons about Allysian
The Brand’s story, aspirations, clients & partners, testimonials, and others branding experience can be available with great refine design and layout in the app. New users can easily have access to those in the Training tab. Each lesson gives credit to the reader by just indicating that it has been completed. Each completed lesson will be displayed on the Recognition Wall where every user can like, comment and access it.
#7 Users Spend More Time on Apps
Mobile users spend 86% of their time on mobile apps and just 14% of their time on mobile websites. Moreover, the average time users spend on mobile apps is also increasing — rising by 21% in 2015 from 2014.
“In today’s market, in order to be a successful company it is essential to go mobile”Dean Grey
Note: A point to consider here is that users spend a majority of their time on gaming apps and social media apps. Skylab has merged both of them to create a Gamified Social Media.However, we also don’t have data telling us which mobile websites users visit more often (out of the 14% of their time mentioned above). Hence, it’s not possible to make a comparison.
#8 New Stream of Conversions
If you’re looking to increase conversions, mobile app platforms can be a great medium to push users down the conversion funnel. Mobile apps can be used to acquire both top-of-the-funnel (ToFu) and bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFu) users.
For instance, utility apps can bring in ToFu users, which can be later nurtured into BoFu leads. On the other hand, apps like eCommerce already have BOTF users, who have a higher possibility of converting.
Add-on: Since mobile apps are much more targeted in nature (through their content and utility), they can be used to tap specific users in the funnel. Mobile websites, in contrast, reach out to a diverse set of audience.
With Skylab, you already have a community of BoFu and ToFu. Those Users will jump on your app when it is launched! Companies focus on capturing new customers, but successful brands know the importance of retaining & rewarding existing customers.
If your user base does not feel a compulsive need to check your app multiple times a day, you are unable to compete. We leverage this need for frequent engagement, exploration, and unpredictability.
#9 Brand Presence
Users spend a substantial amount of their time on mobile devices. It’s safe to say that many 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. For the record, a study shows that U.S consumers spend 5 hours on their mobile each day!
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.
“Mobile app icons can work like innovative ad-banners.”
The Allysian Logo is it’s Brand’s Identity
Logos become their own Brand Presence
This user behavior can be linked to the Signal Detection Theory, which suggests that users process even those ads which they’ve ignored at some level in their minds. With Skylab platform, we have implemented a Gamification Engine with gamified features to add value to what is already on the mobile market. This increases the company’s value.
#10 Apps Can Work Faster Than Websites
A well-designed mobile app can perform actions much quicker than a mobile website.
Apps usually store their data locally on mobile devices, in contrast to websites that use web servers. For this reason, data retrieval happens swiftly in mobile apps.
Apps can further save user’s time by storing their preferences and using them to take proactive actions on user’s behalf.
There is also a technical justification as to why mobile apps can work faster.
Mobile websites use javascript code to perform most of their functions. And the framework that mobile app users can run is almost five times faster than a javascript code! Mobile websites are technically slower than mobile apps, and users spend more time in native apps than browsing a mobile web browser.
While all this is happening in the background, users get to complete actions quicker on the front-end of mobile apps, again contributing to a delightful user experience.
Mobile App v/s Mobile Site — What Should You Choose?
Developing both the mobile website and mobile app for your business can prove to be a costly affair. You might have to choose one of the two channels, based on your budget and business goals. While both channels have their own pros and cons, mobile apps, especially, can help you get higher conversions. Mobile apps offer greater personalization and operational efficiency, along with many other exclusive features.
At Skylab apps, we provide Mobile & App platforms according to the client’s needs. We also bring an essential interest to the native features and add-on features which mobile platforms can provide and support (Smart Chat, Notifications, Smart Tags…). Skylab has truly understood and incorporated all of these points we’ve just gone through.