The Importance of Mobile Engagement
What and Why?
When it comes to media use , Smartphones are definitely becoming the go to technology to use when interacting with the digital world. This fact is well documented, with explodingtopics.com stating that around 60% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. As such, there is a large surplus of content that is catered specifically for mobile users. But that then begs the question, In this constant stream of posts, how do i make my own content stand out?
The Answer is through the process of Mobile engagement. Mobile engagement is when you engage with your audience through your mobile app, website, or mobile messaging channels. This Makes your content standf out and gives the users a reason to come back. Your audience engaging with your content is vital, as it delivers your brand experiences, and builds valuable long-term relationships with your audience. So, if you want to increase your Mobile engagement, you need to make your content stand out to your audience.
Messaging channels
A good way to encourage Mobile engagement is by directly interacting with your users through messaging channels on mobile devices, both inside and outside of apps. Three examples of messaging channels that promote engagement are push notifications, in-app messages and message centers.
—Push notifications which are messages displayed on a phone’s lock-screen or displayed onscreen as a banner alert. These types of messaging are good at informing the users of in-app updates or Content notifications. According to Airship.com, using these techniques of “targeted push notifications achieve greater mobile app engagement (approximately a 4-7x higher response rate) than broadcast counterparts”.
—In-App Messaging , as the name suggests, are simple text based notifications that happen inside of the app. These notifications are limited in that they can only reach your audience if they are currently using the app in question. However, this limitation means that they are great compliments to push notifications. A large benefit to in-App Messaging is that, unlike Push notifications, there is not an opt-in function, so these messages will reach a large quantity of your app audience.
—The third Mobile app engagement center that I mentioned earlier , is the In-App Message Center. A message center is a separate area within an app that is included specifically for the purpose of messaging and functions just like an inbox. Airship.com wants users to “Think of it as an easy-to-author content publishing platform that allows you to send the latest offers, promotions and rich content to your audience without having to either update the app or stop users in their tracks”.
Interactive Design
While communicating with your audience is important it is not the only way to get your audience to interact with your mobile content. It is also imperative that your content is visually designed in a way that draws users in and makes the content encourage the user to interact with it. When i comes to mobile, an audiences’ attention is shorter, because content is typically scrolled through at a much faster rate. Because of this, content must be designed in am aesthetically pleasing and captivating way, or the eyes of the user will drift right past it. While what counts as being good design might be a matter of personal preference there are a few tactics that should be kept in mind.
Consistent coloration: When designing content it is important to make sure that the coloration is consistent this gives makes your posts easy to recognize, and creates a brand identity that makes it easier for you users to connect with your content
Make a Module Based design: According to Meghan Tocci in her article on mobile engagement, It is a good idea to design a mobile app an organized card based design. This helps you display the most information in a phones limited screen space while remaining organized and “entices you to keep scrolling”