Did you know that the average smartphone user logs a minimum of 4 hours a day on their smartphone? According to eMarketer, mobile is likely to exceed TV in average daily screen time this year. Unlike TVs, our smartphones travel with us everywhere we go. We use them at work, in transit, while we walk, exercise, socialize, eat, and relax.

When consumers are on-the-go, they prefer a fast, intuitive and optimized mobile experience. It’s critical to make it as easy as possible for customers to engage with your company and advocate for your brand. Modern businesses are laser-focused on improving the customer experience on mobile. They know that in order to activate their communities and engage with their customers, mobile isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s table stakes. The rest of the world has already gone mobile—it’s time for your advocate community and advocacy efforts to do the same.

 

Access prime advertising real estate with a mobile experience

There are already activities we engage with more on our phones than anywhere else. 55% of engagement on social media is now done on mobile.  This points to a common theme: we’re spending more time on our phones than any other device and the best companies and brands are using this to their advantage.

Owning real estate on a user’s screen is like owning a permanent billboard that goes wherever your customer does, with the added bonus that you don’t need to rent it. The “billboard”, in this case, is the app’s icon and one tap away is your platform.

 

Drive valuable acts of advocacy anytime and anywhere

Apps are the most efficient way to propel continuous engagement from your audience. The foundation of this engagement comes from the easy access users have to your platform and the calls to action (CTAs) you supply. When it comes to mobile, these CTAs come in the form of push notifications. Notifications allow you to capitalize on your free real estate and give users reasons to re-engage with you throughout the day, week, month and year. This engagement with your company has a direct impact on your business and the most valuable kind of engagement is what we at Influitive call Acts of Advocacy. These acts can include anything from writing you a review on third party sites like G2, to volunteering for case studies and speaking opportunities, to sharing your content on social media. Performing these actions rarely requires access to traditional computers, which means advocates can contribute wherever they find themselves when opportunities appear.

We actively participate in a variety of communities both virtually and in real-life and many of these communities have their own apps (which is no accident). Whether using Facebook, Instagram, WeChat or Reddit, a significant portion of time spent interacting within communities is done on phones and in apps.

Another type of community with a lot of mobile engagement is in the world of mobile gaming. Apps that leverage gamification are more fun to receive notifications from, because the thing they’re trying to draw your attention to is something you would actually like to do.

Gamification, when combined with advocacy, is a proven way to improve the level of engagement with your customers and drive critical business results. Mobile gaming is becoming increasingly popular with all age groups, so there’s no reason for applications with gamification built-in to only serve B2C markets when they can also serve B2B markets.

 

The value of mobile-first design

In fact, B2B needs to focus on mobile now more than ever. Why? Because millennials now make up the majority of the labour force in America and smartphones are the electronic device with the highest rate of ownership among millennials. It stands to reason that mobile is going to be a critical component of any strategy designed to engage this group. Applications built through and informed by mobile-first design principles create a high-quality mobile experience that users can participate with anywhere, anytime. 

Mobile-first design is the idea that product teams use the mobile experience of their product as a starting point, which enables them to prioritize their platform’s most essential features and deliver a user experience that is clean, simple, and efficient. When creating experiences of the product for larger screens such as desktop, designers can then expand on these essential features.

Moments of advocacy can fit into everyday life—and the experience matters. We at Influitive firmly believe applications that support advocate communities are an essential aspect of making the experience of engaging with your business more enjoyable and more valuable for everyone involved.

Here’s what you should take away and apply to your own customer engagement and advocacy strategy:

  • Branded apps give organizations a way to own real estate in the app store and on users’ phones.
  • This improves brand affinity and discoverability by leveraging App Store Optimization (ASO).
  • Applications provide more ways to drive engagement through push notifications and they give companies the opportunity to interact more fluidly with their customers, while they’re on-the-go.