How Marketers Should Engage Their Mobile User

In our modern world, the average person has an attention span that lasts eight seconds. You read that correctly: eight seconds. And mobile marketers have even less time to capture the eye of a potential customer, acquire an app install, or win over a brand ambassador; making it essential to drive users to the right content, at the right time.

Think about the last time you clicked on a link in an email or social post on your mobile device from one of your favorite apps. Most likely, that app sent you to a mobile web browser where you had to log-in to find the content you were looking for. Wouldn’t it have been easier if the link you clicked took you directly inside the app, to the exact piece of content you sought?

Optimizing Mobile Engagement

Not only do mobile users have short attention spans, they can be hard to capture long-term and won’t hesitate to discontinue their interaction with your brand. Don’t let this deter you. The fact that 90% of a user’s time on their mobile device is spent using an app shows that the best mobile experiences are inside of apps, making it crucial for mobile marketers to drive app installs, boost engagement, and retain users. We’ve found that there are a few features to do this best: 

1. Deep links: pass data through the app store and make content discoverable—if the app is already installed, deep links drive users directly to app content via email, social, mobile web, etc
2. Deepviews: mobile-web ready previews of your app content
3. Smart Banners: cross-platform banners to deep link users from web content to app content.

These features can be used in marketing strategies such as email, social media, and content marketing to enhance engagement and increase retention of your mobile app:

For instance, users will receive emails and social media posts that deep link users directly to content inside of your app. Your CTAs will become more effective because the customer journey is suddenly seamless, and engagement will naturally improve. Whether your KPI is to drive revenue or increase article views, it’s important to remember that engagement comes in many different forms.

Mobile Engagement KPI’s

Approach your mobile KPIs with three verbs in mind: engage, retain, and refer. You’ll engage users through top of the funnel content that drives brand awareness and app installs. Retain them through the use of deep links and other marketing tools, creating a seamless user experience through content segmentation. And build brand loyalty by encouraging referrals from satisfied customers.

Now, after you’ve permanently engraved those verbs into your mobile marketing vocabulary, here are a few measurable metrics that marketers can set for their mobile apps after an install. Keep in mind that these may vary depending on your industry:

• Number of onboarded users
• Time spent in app
• Pages visited
• Retention rates
• Revenue
• Referrals

How do these metrics tie together? When a user has a seamless experience downloading your app and getting onboarded, the other engagements will naturally follow. Your users will return time and time again, visit more pages, and ultimately make a purchase. All leading up to a referral that will start the process over again.

The Impact of Mobile Users

During the 2014 holiday season, Amazon reported that 60 percent of their traffic came from mobile devices, while Target acquired 2 million new users for their coupon app, Cartwheel, in a three month period. Nearly two years later, the mobile marketplace is a firmly cemented seat at the table of business.

“Mobile is the most personal device we possess, which makes it the best device to market to. In addition, time spent in mobile apps has already surpassed time spent on desktop web, and for some parts of the world, mobile devices are the first and only computer people possess,” writes Steve Olenski.

If there was ever a time for marketers to focus on mobile—and improve the user experience—it’s now. The engagement from your mobile users can almost always be attributed to the quality of that user experience, which ultimately improves app abandonment rates and increases word-of-mouth interactions.

By focusing on your mobile engagement, it will allow you to better segment your content for your users via email marketing, social media, and web to app experiences. Whether you’re a B2B SaaS product manager or as an eCommerce social media specialist, your goal should be to provide the best experience for your ever-growing number of mobile users.

“Mobile is the most personal device we possess,” so make the experience exactly that: personal. Download the Modern Marketing Essentials Mobile Marketing Guide. Find 5 quick tips on how to optimize your marketing campaigns for the mobile world.

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