Mobile App Accessibility

Mobile app accessibility is the method to make websites and applications accessible for disabled people who use mobile phones and other devices to access the content. This content may be supplied across devices other than mobile phones, and laptops include:

· Internet TVs

· Connected vehicles

· Connected appliances and other innovative home technologies

What is Mobile App Accessibility

Mobile app-accessibility assures that people with disabilities can access different varieties of a mobile app’s functioning as apps aren’t automatically understandable, so they must be designed. Designing is the key to establishing how people can use an app efficiently through mobile app engagement methods.

Mobile app accessibility is different from mobile website accessibility, but testing for both may activate a more user-friendly experience without knowing who your audience is. Some accessibility guidelines that apply to desktop websites may also apply to mobile websites. Mobile apps aren’t automatically accessible, so accessibility characteristics should be built into a mobile phone. Both mobile apps and website apps should follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to create an overall experience, which is verified by testing technique.

Surveys show that people spent 90 percent of the time on mobile devices occurred within native applications. This indicates that it is an urgent need for a more innovative approach to app accessibility.

How to design your App to be Accessible

Designing an accessible app refers to make mobile applications clear. You should design such an app that is helpful to those who want the extra app’s accessible functions. User engagement is important in designing an accessible app. Designing is done for blind, deaf, cognitive, and mobility impairment.

Are you designing an app that is accessible? Here are the following UX design tips for your app to be accessible:

· Create a simple content or layout

· Design a consistent navigation

· Use label buttons

· Use screen reading tools

· Make audio and video accessible

· Use sound to communicate messaging

· Use descriptive language

· Add alt-text to images

· Consider color carefully

· Testing the methods

Optimizing content

Optimizing the content means the content is written in such a way that it attracts multiple people. In optimizing the content, the color contrasts are helpful for blind people. According to WCAG 2.0 guidelines, most images and text should have a color contrast of a minimum of 4.5:1 to make them accessible.

Just like the written content, audio and video content should also be optimized to accessibility. In reality, the sound is something that you use to communicate messaging for blind users. For example, if users go from one navy item to the next, there should be some sound that helps them identify something on the screen that has changed to focus on work. Likely, when the user causes errors or enters the incorrect password, there should be some distinct sound that helps the user to know that something is wrong.

Final thoughts

In making a mobile application with accessibility in mind, you will be able to deliver a good user experience among all users. Accessibility comes with a variety of potential financial, moral, and legal advantages. Android and iOS, both marketing app, use several tools to incorporate accessibility solutions. Hence we cannot ignore the concept of accessibility. Accessibility isn’t only a feature but also crucial for every mobile application.

 

Strategies to Encourage Users to Download Your Mobile App

Developing a mobile app can be an exciting endeavor until it comes to marketing the app. This is where many mobile app developers are stuck. They build amazing apps with great features, but after launch, the mobile app sits on the slabs of popular app stores without a single download.

The problem is that there are millions of apps out there seeking the users’ attention. For the problem your app solves, there may be about ten apps similar to yours.

So, while it is ideal to sacrifice time and energy in creating your app to be attractive and unique, you should always think of strategies to get users to download your mobile app.

So, in this article, we’ll show you strategies to not only drive users to download your app but also boost the in-app engagement of your apps to retain your users.

Let’s dive right into it! Here are strategies you should employ to encourage users to download your mobile app.

#1. Reward Your Users

Everybody loves to be appreciated. Your users have downloaded your app and are using it already. It’s your turn to appreciate them. That’s where the reward comes in. You can get a reward system running to encourage users to download your app or to retain in-app engagement of your app. 

Placing incentives for users to download your mobile app could serve as a competitive edge for you. For example, if the service apps in your category provide are not free, offering a generous discount when users download the app and sign in for the first time could be the move that takes your app viral.

Most reward systems are usually geared towards in-app engagement and customer loyalty. These reward systems are implemented through points, discounts, tiers (that different offer rewards based on a user’s tier), paid loyalty programs, hitting spending targets, and recommendations to friends.

#2. Use Cutting-Edge Technologies

Some of the fanciest technological advancements in our world today are virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), cloud computing, and real-time video calling. Depending on the solution your mobile app provides, if your app doesn’t incorporate some of these innovations, you’re missing out.

If your brand is innovative in its technology, you will stand out from your competitors and win users who would be loyal to your brand. However, it takes so much to implement a marketing strategy for your app that inculcates modern technology.

This is because using cutting-edge technology for your mobile app entails that your app is crash-free, you’re exploring your brand’s unique selling point, you’re working with the right development team, and you’re constantly exploring technology options.

For example, L’Oreal acquired Modiface, an AR beauty app company, to save their customers the cost of trying new products they may not eventually like. To this effect, they launched the Style My Hair app powered by AR to enable users to try on different hairstyles before making their pick.

#3. Personalize Your Application

Personalization for mobile apps is the way, the truth, and the future! Evidence abounds to show that users are concerned about it and that it impacts growth. According to a survey by Forbes and Arm Treasure Data, 40 percent of 200 marketing leaders agreed that personalization impacts the growth of sales.

You want to key in on personalization to get users to download your mobile app as well as to increase the in-app engagement of your app. To implement this, you want to first know who your target audience is and what gets them ticking.

Next, you want to select a personalization option that suits your mobile app and not just any personalization option out there. 

Finally, you’ll have to protect the data of your users. You need to convince them that you wouldn’t share their private data even though their concerns can hinder the implementation of personalization. 

You have to understand that amidst their concerns regarding sharing their data, they would be willing to share personalized information with you so long as it would enhance their experience in the app.

The Art of Storytelling in the Mobile Age

What makes a story unique has not changed, regardless of where you find it –whether in a book or an app. A compelling narrative can inspire and set us in motion. So how does that feeling translate to today’s mobile experience considering the constraints of our attention?

Last week Storyly assembled a panel powered by MMA with moderation from Chris Babayode, MMA EMEA MD, and two insightful panelists: Ali Conker, Head of Tazedirekt & Macroonline, and Faheem Saiyad, Business Development Manager for Storyly. The panel was a part of MMA’s Creativity Unplugged Festival. Chris set the stage for the board to emphasize the impact of great storytelling on brands. At the same time, Ali unpacked the success case of two major online retail apps, Tazedirekt and Macroonline, followed by Faheem on the power of Storyly and what’s next in mobile tech for brand loyalty.

 

Evolving stories and expectations
With emerging social platforms over the years, we can trace the evolution in the art of storytelling. This is especially true for brands and how they formulate their creative content. More and more, brands are more concerned about their ability to tell engaging stories daily in a matter of seconds. They also need to be intelligent and flexible in the way they work with storytellers, today’s influencers, and content creators.

Data says it better: user attention span is now down to 8 seconds! Since most interactions between the brand and the consumer are digital, brand loyalty is constantly tested.

“Content brings us closer to the user and in scale.”
Almost every product at Tazedirekt has a journey, a story about how they are produced and what they consist of. “The consumer is interested to hear the journey behind the products,” notes Ali.

 

Speaking of journey, as a response to frequent feedback about unripe bananas, Tazedirekt devoted a series of videos on app’s stories where their suppliers became the storyteller, informing users about how a banana is made and the struggles about the production and logistics to deliver that banana with minimum waste. The content reinforced their commitment to being transparent and waste-free – all along, a refreshing take on how to address user feedback.

It is evident to Tazedirekt that user engagement in their app largely depends on how they curate and showcase content. Ali is constantly looking for new ways to visually and effectively illustrate its brand essence. The Stories feature, powered by Storyly, has made it possible for them to bond with consumers through their suppliers’ stories.

 

While 42% of Instagram users watch stories, 40% of app users watch Storyly
Emerging from Instagram and the like, Stories have become a compelling form of content. For reference, 1 in 4 millennials looks for stories of the products and services they want to buy. Stories, as a medium, are not as interruptive as other digital mediums, yet they still make the content accessible. To this trend, Faheem adds, “anytime a client adds the Storyly function inside their app, they’ve seen almost a replication of the experience on Instagram with a similar rate of consumption, at 40% because of the social norm.”

 

Faheem led on to unpack the magic behind this game-changing technology by emphasizing the leap from user acquisition to retention: “When people know there’s more and more unique experiences of new content, their willingness to come back into the app and interact with it, is much higher. That’s where you see an overall increase in retention rate as well.” With Storyly, each story can have its own tailored CTA button. Similar to Instagram, you can let them add a swipe-up, heart, and like. These interactive components urge the user to take the second action inside the app. The average retention rate seen via Storyly is a 30% CTR. Faheem adds, “This is much higher than other formats such as carousels and banners, and hence brands are obliging more and more to use Storyly, and serve the audience this new social norm.”

“At Tazedirekt, we are willing to use seamlessly integrated new technologies to simplify the experience cost-effectively. The team at Storyly took the time to understand the complexities of our business; they were hands-on during integration, and they’re still a close strategic partner, working with us to leverage stories the best way possible.”

Showing up differently and with meaning
The second brand Ali unpacked for us was Macroonline, their premium retail brand tailored for a more affluent segment. Ali notes, “Here, our chic-designed stores and elite staff provide our customers a unique in-store experience. We apply the same to our mobile presence.” Therefore, the content and conversation are tailored to create a VIP experience for the user.

“We want to explore this further,” says Ali and talks about a compelling piece of content they are creating now via Storyly, with their grocers and butchers who play in the retail experience. “We will bring the same value and that human touch to our app. Soon we will be hosting a series of staff stories on the app. Each staff member, say, a butcher, will give fun facts or useful tips & tricks about the food they know and love. They will help us tailor the mobile shopping experience with exclusive content and an authentic feel.” That way, a significant in-store value will be seamlessly translated for the user journey on the app.

Tailoring content grounded on insight.
Another exciting way Macroonline benefits from Storyly is pre-determining their stock based on consumer insight – especially for exported premium goods. The app’s stories have interactive components so users can quickly react ❤️ / 👍 to a report of a product. Along with search inputs on the app, these interactive qualities let Macroonline track what is getting attention and favorability to inform product variety and stock decisions.

Finally, Chris wrapped up the conversation describing brands as “great stories well-told.” If you are also looking for new technologies to tell the stories essential to your brand, schedule a call with the Storyly and explore further.

Tell me more

It is time to get creative with your product tags. Sign up for Storyly now!

 

Thanks to the live shopping feature, customers can see and buy products instantly.

 

Statistics & Tips for News Apps In-App Engagement

The world is going digital, and news agencies and magazines are not lagging. The big brands have diversified to mobile channels for their readers, and they are reaping the benefits.

The Guardian, in their 2019 report, revealed that 29% of their revenue comes from users of their mobile app. The New York Times, too, in 2018, reported that the over 3.3 million paid users on their mobile platform generated over $544 million in revenue.

 

From this, you can see that the news app can get you more clients and increase your sales. The problem, however, is not developing the mobile app but keeping your users engaged.

In-app engagement for news app is a journey that never ends. It starts from designing the app and continues through the lifetime of the app.

 

If your news app is engaging, you’ll retain your customers and generate more revenue. This article will show you tips to employ to increase the in-app engagement of your news app but first, let’s intimate you with some exciting statistics for news apps.

 

News App Statistics

According to the Ipsos MORI, U.S. Mobile app research report of 2017, mobile app users spend 31 minutes each day on news apps, and 93% of smartphone owners use apps. This shows that users are willing to read the news, but you have to keep them engaged to spend a longer time on your news app.

 

It may interest you to know that 67% of smartphone users utilize gaming, entertainment, news, and sports apps. And twice and thrice a day is how often some users come back to their favorite games, sports, entertainment, and news apps.

It all depends on how engaging your news app is!

 

Tips for In-App Engagement

Want to make your news app engaging? Here are tips you should employ:

 

#1. Show Users the Most Relevant News First

News subscribers rush to news app mostly to get the latest news and happenings in their location or around the world. It is, therefore, important that you show your most recent or top story first before other stories. 

 

Carousels may look appealing and may actually be functional, but the sad reality of things is that users often ignore them. Notre Dame University’s research on carousels revealed that only 1% of their total visitors clicked on their carousel, and of that percentage, only 84% interacted with the very first slide. The other five slides had close to zero interaction.

Source: Mobiloud News App UX Best Practice Guide

It is no news then why the BBC News app highlights one top trending story rather than using a carousel. This is something you should emulate in your news app to increase in-app engagement. With Storyly, you can highlight your content by using stories in your app. Contact for more detail. 

 

#2. Help Users Find Content with Categories

News items of interest should not be difficult to locate in your news app. Because the readers have different interests, they would surely want to access different types of content on your site. You need to provide an easy way for them to do so, and adding categories to your main menu is the best way to go about this.

 

Rather than take up ample space on the app, as you may be concerned about, categories would instead provide your users an easy way to navigate the app and find what they want to read. Remember that the focus is to engage the readers in the app, and engagement starts when they easily discover what they came for.

 

#3. Keep Users In-App for Longer with Related News

Many news of today is interrelated with past events. Linking these stories by way of internal links or related news will do magic to the in-app engagement of your news app. It provides incentives to your readers to stay and read more.

 

But while this is a great option, avoid adding unrelated content to the “related post” section of your article. This would not provide the result you need, and your users may be forced to look elsewhere for related stories to the one you provided on your site.

 

WordPress-related posts plugins will help you automatically add related posts based on categories and tags, but it is best to add related news yourself.

 

#4. Encourage Commenting

News readers are often opinionated people, and based on your content; they want to express their feelings through words. If you make this possible by adding the comment functionality to your article, your news app’s in-app engagement will increase.

Besides, some readers are encouraged to read certain stories based on the number of comments the article has. So, it may be necessary to highlight the total comments on the article at the head of the article so the reader can see it even before reading.

The New York Times employs this feature, and it works powerfully for them.

 

#5. Increase Time Spent on Page

In all you’re doing to increase in-app engagement for your news app, increasing the time a reader spends on-page is the focal point. Research shows that the average adult in the United States spends 5 hours and 16 minutes with digital media per day. Only a fraction of this will be spent reading your content, so you want to do well to add incentives that would retain the reader on the site.

 

One useful incentive to keep readers reading on news app is Time Indicator. Contrary to what you may think, articles that are over 1000 words don’t scare readers away – especially if the length of time it would take them to complete the read is indicated before they begin reading.

Some plugins for time indicators are intuitive. They show a bar or circle that either increases or decreases as you keep reading. This gives the reader some vigor to want to read through to the end to feel accomplished.

 

This article showed you tips to employ to increase the in-app engagement of your news app and important statistics for the news apps. To learn more about Storyly, which is an interactive way of increasing in-app engagement, you can contact us.

 

Statistics & Tips for Medical Apps In-App Engagement

Since the application of technology to medicine and healthcare, the quality of life has increased. Doctors can easily monitor chronic diseases through the use of health applications on smartphones.

The benefits of apps in the health sector are so numerous that they have spurred creativity in providing healthcare solutions. Entrepreneurs are developing more apps targeted at providing healthcare solutions to people.

While some of these medical apps are targeted at the diagnosis, treatment, and maintenance of medical conditions that no app has been created for, others improve features of existing apps targeted at a medical condition.

This spells competition, and to ahead of the pack, you’d need to increase your medical app’s in-app engagement to keep your app useful and retain users.

We’ll show you just how to go about that in this article and reveal some relevant statistics in mhealth that you need to know to motivate you to improve your medical app constantly.

Medical Apps Statistics

When venturing into creating an app, you want to know whether the sector you’re picking is profitable enough – if it has enough prospects. You need not spend sleepless nights thinking about the profitability of medical apps. Statistics show that the sector has a high yield.

According to Statista, the total global mHealth market is predicted to reach nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. This number indicates a fivefold increase from around 21 billion dollars in 2016.

Here are other relevant statistics regarding medical apps that you should know.

• The total market for mHealth apps is predicted to exceed 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, increasing massively from around two billion dollars in 2016.
• As of 2018, mobile health apps’ leading focus areas were health, productivity, and sport. Over 25 thousand apps were developed globally for these three subsectors.
• As of the last quarter of 2020, 48,608 iOS healthcare apps were available on the Apple store, representing a 6.15 percent increase over the previous quarter.
• As of the last quarter of 2020, there were 47,140 healthcare apps available on Google Play Store, representing a 1.68 percent increase over the previous quarter.
• About 64% of U.S. adults regularly use an app to measure health metrics.
• 71% of patients say it would be helpful for their physician to access the health data captured by their mobile app.

Tips for In-App Engagement

Were you inspired or frightened by the above statistics? Whichever the case was, these tips to increase the in-app engagement of your medical app would sort you out and grow your revenue.

Push Notifications

People can be so preoccupied that they forget they downloaded a specific app for a particular need. Push notification is your best tool to get them back to your app. However, you have to ensure that you send relevant push notifications and at intervals that don’t put in the impression of spamming your users.

For example, if you designed an app to help people exercise, you can send your users weekly notifications encouraging them to jog, walk, or do pushups. Videos on exercise routines or the latest research on exercising, or even notifications based on promotions that would interest your users, can help bring them back to your medical app and increase engagement.

1. Onboarding

Remember getting your new phone or laptop and how you wanted to get right into exploring every single fantastic feature? That’s the same feeling your users get after downloading your app. It is why you should pay attention to onboarding. While it is necessary to guide users on how to use the app during the onboarding process, the focus should be on getting users to experience the benefits of using your app as soon as possible.

If the user doesn’t have to fill in too many forms before getting started, it is easier for them to buy into the app and become loyal customers.

2. Giving Rewards

Giving rewards sound like something that food and drink apps, right? Don’t be deceived; almost everyone loves to be rewarded for using a particular service or reaching a specific milestone. You need to reward your medical app users from time to time but know that you have to be creative about your reward strategy.

An incentive that worked today may not work months later. You can reward users for partaking in additional tasks on the app. This is where gamifying your medical app becomes useful. Create your app to take the user through a journey with rewards after each stage of the journey.

3. Personalization

While you want to reach out to all your users at about the same time, you have to understand that they are unique people with varied needs. To successfully engage them, you need to personalize the information you send to them. You can create personalized stories based on your users’ feed, utilize intuitive Storyly templates to showcase and convert your users in the most personal way.

If your medical app automatically keeps track of the personal information your users provide, you can use this information to provide customized features, services, or benefits that would appeal to each user. This way, they are engaged and not leave your medical app for those of your competitors.

4. Connection to Real Consequences

More than rewards and incentives, ensure that your medical app connects positive health changes to real-life consequences. Suppose your app is designed to help patients control their blood pressure. In that case, it’s good to have a journal for recording nutritional information and connects the dots for them between a week of hitting specific health goals and recording lower blood pressure numbers. The app should then offer suggestions for improving numbers over the next week or month too. Nothing beats an app that provides real solutions to problems.

 

To sum up, we shared in this article some relevant statistics in mhealth that you need to know to motivate you to improve your medical app continually. Moreover, we shared some tips to increase in-app engagement. To learn more about statistics and engagement tips for other categories, you can read “Statistics & Tips for Entertainment Apps In-App Engagement”

 

Positive Effects of In-App Engagement Against IDFA

The world of mobile app marketing is changing, and Apple’s recent identifier for Advertisers (IFDA) updates just added a turbo boost to the changes.

 

Now, app marketers who have been reaping greater ad conversions with IFDA are stranded and looking out for alternatives. Like a knight in shiny armor, in-app engagement has come to the rescue, but does it serve as a perfect replacement to IDFA for marketers? 

 

We would discuss all that in this post, but first, we’ll explain everything about IDFA and the impact of Apple’s recent IDFA changes on mobile app marketers and app engagement.

 

IDFA Changes        

      

Apple launched IDFA back in 2012 as a random user identifier assigned to each user’s iOS device. What IDFA does is that it makes it possible for digital ad networks like Facebook and Google to track iOS users’ behavior across websites and mobile apps that the users are using. This then makes visible for networks using IDFA to access individualized data insights to personalize the targeted ads that display on the users’ phones every day.

 

Brands leveraging these ad networks to reach their customers enjoyed more user clicks, higher conversions, and stronger campaign performance. Well, they were enjoying this up until Apple’s recent IDFA update.

 

What’s the IDFA update about?

 

Recently, Apple announced that mobile apps running on iOS 14 would have to explicitly ask users for permission before gaining access to their data. This permission will appear like the existing prompts on iOS associated with enabling push notifications or location tracking. However, this new prompt will be very straightforward. It will explain to users that granting IDFA access will allow the app requesting permission to track their engagement across all apps and websites on iOS. 

Source: Braze Perspectives

 

The apps seeking permission will be able to customize the small text at the bottom (justification) that shows to the users when they’re trying to access IDFA, however. Initially, brands were able to access a given phone or tablet’s IDFA after that user installed and launched their app without permission. Thanks to the IDFA update (on the side of the users) and shame to the IDFA update (on the side of mobile app advertisers), ad marketing agencies can no longer access iOS users’ data.

 

The IDFA changes are Apple’s way of asserting its stance as the leading mobile operating system for security, privacy, and transparency. 

 

Deal with IDFA Changes

 

Now that Apple’s IDFA changes have come to stay, mobile marketers are at a loss. The reason is that without the IDFA, their ads would be significantly less personalized and relevant, which would weaken their performance and make this kind of advertising less lucrative for both them and the ad networks they rely on for IDFA. 

 

Also, without IDFA, mobile app marketers will not be able to understand the impact of their ad spends across various ad networks. As a mobile app marketer, you surely want to know the conversion rate of your paid ads.

 

Apple is very much unaffected by their changes, of course, as there’s speculation that they intend to shake up today’s advertising landscape through their API called the SKAdNetwork. This API would provide an alternative to much of the value that ad networks like Google and Facebook, as well as attribution platforms, are providing.

 

Based on your mobile app marketing strategy’s intention, the SKAdNetwork may serve as a better alternative for you. If your marketing strategy goal is user acquisition, you will be very much affected by Apple’s IDFA changes and may need to look up to the SKAdNetwork.

On the other hand, if your mobile app marketing strategy is user engagement and retention, congratulations, you are not affected by Apple’s IDFA changes. Now, it’s time for you to deepen on improving your user engagement and retention rates.

 

1. The Power of In-App Engagement

Kudos to Apple’s IDFA changes; you’ll be learning now that in-app engagement is powerful to your marketing campaign. In-app engagement strategies such as push notifications, in-app messages, and email marketing are a powerful way to boost your engagement and retention rate, mainly when you effectively utilize them. Storyly is an interactive way to increase in-app engagement.

 

You would have to start utilizing this option because the links you can attach to your in-app engagement ad campaign strategy are not affected by IDFA changes. These deep direct links link people into a specific part of your app or detailed screen or feature without seeking permission from the user. 

 

A standard URL schema, a universal link, or key-value pairs, which your application can parse, interpret and direct the user appropriately when the app is opened, is not affected by iOS 14. And in-app engagement marketing strategies employ the use of such kinds of links.

 

2. The Power of Retention Rate

High user retention rates translate into brand loyalty, something you should strive to achieve for your app. So, while IDFA’s changes affect getting new users, it is time to focus on retaining your users and increasing your app’s retention rate. You can read “7 Mobile Marketing Campaign Types To Boost App Retention” to discover more about increasing retention rate.

 

The beautiful thing about user retention is that when the retained users become loyal, they do the marketing for you. They give you feedback on how to improve your app, share your app with friends (if you have employed the in-app engagement strategy of social shares), and help spread your marketing campaign that includes them.

 

So, you see that while IDFA changes affect user acquisition strategy for mobile app marketers, a higher retention rate from an effective in-app engagement strategy still ensures that you get a good number of new users.

 

Thankfully, engagement and retention strategies are not affected by the IDFA updates because the messaging channels and dynamic segmentation supported by the best-in-app user engagement platforms are generally built on the foundation of first-party data. This kind of data refers to information on user behavior and preferences from your app, website, or physical locations. To discover more about IDFA Changes, you can read “Why IDFA Changes Will Make Things Harder for Marketers”.

 

Statistics & Tips for Entertainment Apps In-App Engagement

If you’re a smart tech entrepreneur looking to break into the highly innovative and lucrative tech space, entertainment apps are areas to consider.

Entertainment apps are apps that offer interactive activities ranging from pure leisure such as music and games to communication such as social media, streaming media, and instant messaging.

The key to the success of any entertainment app is In-app engagement. This is why In-app engagement metrics are the gold standard of the tech world. Not only do they reflect the touchpoints that customers have with products and apps but also, in most cases, dictate the direction of technological development.

So, in this article, we will provide you with all the right statistics you need to help you develop the next big entertainment app as well as tips to retain your users and keep users of the app engaged.

Entertainment Apps Statistics

To effectively develop an entertainment app that would buzz for a long time, if not infinitely, you need to be updated on the statistics around entertainment apps.

Statistics gathered from Google and Ipsos MORI on entertainment apps and in-app engagement shows the following:

• 55% of people who use entertainment apps use them while relaxing.
• 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results, for example through the “click to call” option.
• 93% of smartphone owners use apps.
• 81% of app users say they’re the main shopper in their household.
• 67% of smartphone users utilize gaming, entertainment, news, and sports apps.
• 52% of gaming app users are women.
• The frequency at which some users come back to their favorite games, sports, entertainment, and news apps is 2 times to 3 times a day.

From these statistics, it is clear that almost all smartphone owners use apps and almost three-quarters of users utilize entertainment apps. More than half of the time, these users utilize entertainment apps when relaxing.

Upland Localytics shows us that time-in-app, which is a huge indicator of in-app engagement, has been on a rise for media and entertainment apps. Their graph shows that in 2018, users spent more time on entertainment apps than they ever have before, beating 2017’s record by 12%.

Entertainment App Retention Statistics

Another metric for measuring in-app engagement is retention. Retention measures the percentage of users who return to an app one month, two months, and three months after downloading the app. The opposite metric, which is as well important, is Churn. Churn measures the percentage of people who do not return to an app one month, two months, and three months after downloading the app.

Statistics show that apps can ride buzz-worthy waves but struggle to keep users on board after the excitement has faded. According to Localytics, Media and Entertainment retention for the first half of 2018 settled at 39%, 28%, and 23%, while churn has reached 61%, 52%, and 77%, whereas the second half of 2017 has retention as 45%, 36%, and 32% and churn as 55%, 64%, and 68% churn.

However, you can increase in-app engagement and retention in entertainment app through the use of push notifications. According to Localytics, the push engagement metric, or the number of sessions users complete on average within seven days of receipt of a push, is peaking at 3.28 sessions per user for Android and 4.61 sessions per user for iOS. These numbers represent 14% and 38% increases for Android and iOS respectively year over year.

Opt-In rates – which shows the users who subscribed to the push notification – are not increasing with the push notification engagement, however. As of 2018, Opt-In rates settled at 76% for Android apps and 31% for iOS apps. You should know that that Android automatically opts users in, so its opt-in rate will typically be higher than that of iOS. Anyway, this statistic represents a decrease for iOS (45% to 31%), but a slight increase for Android (75% to 76%) since 2016.

Tips for In-App Engagement

After reading the above statistics, you may be wondering how to increase in-app engagement of your entertainment apps. Storyly is an interactive and customizable way to increase in-app engagement. You can contact us, we are here to help and answer any questions you might have. Here are other tips to increasing in-app engagement that you should embrace.

#1. Make Sure the App Works Flawlessly

The first step to losing the in-app engagement of your entertainment app is to launch an app filled with bugs. To avoid this catastrophe, make sure that your app works seamlessly before the day of launch. There are lots of entertainment apps providing similar value as yours, so if your app is slow, users will switch to your competitors. Instead of launching your app with all the features it promises, consider using an MVP app development strategy. Launch your app with only a few features that work perfectly.

#2. Provide Best Experience

The saying, “first impression matters” does not only work with physical meetings. It also works for entertainment apps! It is no new revelation that almost a quarter of all users abandon apps if they don’t like the design or can’t understand how to use it. These are first-time experiences that should be on your priority list if you want to increase the in-app engagement of your entertainment app.  To navigate through the challenge of difficulty of use of your entertainment app, employ tutorials. They help users figure out how the entertainment app works. Also, ensure to add a ‘skip’ feature to enable customers who already know the system to move on quickly to the app.

#3. Add Social Features

Remember that in-app engagement is a totality of popularity, time-in-app, and retention. Storyly enables you to interact with your users. You can get your users’ reactions and feedbacks constantly and engage them to your app. Add social features that allow users to easily like and share your app with friends and family members. Consider adding features that enable your customers to send content which they created in your app to friends via chat or social media. They should also be able to post this content on their pages or invite friends to the app. Do all these and you may just develop an entertainment app as life-long and engaging as Netflix, Twitter, Tik Tok, and Facebook.

 

To sum up, you need to be sure that your app provides the best experience with an interactive way because the key to the success of any entertainment app is in-app engagement. In this article, we provided outstanding statistics and tips to improve in-app engagement in order to help you develop your app. You can read “7 Push Notification Strategies to Increase App Engagement” to learn more about in-app engagement.

 

Why IDFA Changes Will Make Things Harder for Marketers

Real-time and relevant data is the foundation of modern marketing. Marketers have gained access to customer information, allowing brands to serve up timely with personalized advertisements and messages to their users and optimize marketing campaigns. By accessing the customer data, many brands are able to increase margins, stronger user acquisition, and robust retention rates.

 

However, Apple announced the new update brought some changes to the IDFA, which marketers need to be aware of. How will IDFA changes affect marketers?

 

–      Why IDFA Changes Matter for Marketers

IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) is a device identifier assigned to a user’s device. With the growth of mobile activity among users, many marketers may have expected to get the benefits with more targeted advertising campaigns. Marketers use IDFA to track and target within iOS apps. Also, the IDFA impacts the ad spent. However, these ads would be significantly less personalized and relevant without the IDFA.

 

–      What is Changing?

Brands were previously able to access a given phone or tablet’s IDFA after that user installed their app without permission. However, under this change, mobile apps on iOS 14 will be required to ask users for permission before brands can gain access explicitly.

 

–      Meaning of IDFA Changes for Marketers

Brands that rely on IDFA to power parts of their customer engagement strategy face the need to make major strategic shifts in a short amount of time. It is a challenging and fast-moving marketing landscape. In general, brands tend to split their digital marketing efforts into User Acquisition and In-App Engagement & Retention.

 

• User Acquisition

Marketers, which are currently leveraging IDFA, should expect to see declines in their acquisition numbers about their ad spend across all ad networks. Moreover, there is potential for disruption when it comes to installing attribution to acquire new users.

 

• In-App Engagement and Retention

Marketers had built and maintained a relationship with their customers by engaging and retaining users with relevant, personalized, and timely messages thanks to IDFA. However, marketers’ efforts for in-app engagement and user retention will be greater than before after IDFA changes.

 

–      How Should Marketers Respond?

These changes are going to be a serious challenge for a lot of marketers. You need to plan your marketing and advertising plan carefully. Storyly gives a significant opportunity to increase in-app engagement and user retention. Get more information about how you can create targeted and personalized stories to increase user engagement and retention.

 

To sum up, Apple’s changes to IDFA will affect marketers and cause serious challenges in advertising. Marketers should carefully analyze and plan their advertising activities and ensure to increase in-app engagement and retention.

10 Mobile App Development Trends in 2021

According to the data obtained with the best mobile application analysis, the applications in the popular application categories in 2020 and will be trending in 2021 are a remarkable list for mobile app developers.

Mobile and Fitness Apps

With the pandemic process coming into our lives, Mobile and Fitness Apps is the leading mobile app downloaded the most in 2021. Fitness apps, which are very useful both at home and in outdoor sports, contain many features, save lives, and provide users convenience. Mobile and fitness apps, which will be very mobile app trendy in 2021, are at the top of our list.

Online Tutorial Apps

The pandemic we are in has reshaped the entire education system and transformed education systems into online tutorial platforms. The best part about online tutorial apps is that it brings teachers and students together very easily. Mobile apps that bring students and educators together provide commissions with these meetings.

Book Sharing Apps

It’s like a social media platform where book lovers meet. Budgeting for books is difficult these days, and not everyone is lucky enough to have a library. It is a book sharing app for readers who love books and want to make a library. App users can share the books they own both online and offline. Besides, the app allows readers located nearby to chat and meet. Especially during the pandemic period, the mobile user’s demand for book sharing apps will increase.

Virtual Travelling Apps

The current pandemic process prevented international and domestic travel and trips. Virtual travel apps and virtual reality technologies are straightforward, and you can make realistic virtual tours. Virtual tour apps can bring travelers together or encourage those who are bored of sitting at home to take a virtual tour. Also, visiting museums has become very popular during the 2020 pandemic. During the pandemic process in 2021, we want to worry about our loved ones and give gifts on special occasions even when we are away from them. Gift delivery practices greatly alleviate the difficulties that countries pose due to restrictions. Such apps seem to be a mobile app trend for a few more years.

Gift Delivering Apps

During the pandemic process in 2021, we want to worry about our loved ones and give gifts on special occasions even when we are away from them. Gift delivery practices greatly alleviate the difficulties that countries pose due to restrictions. Such apps seem to be in trending app categories for a few more years.

Virtual Health Check-up Apps

Virtual Health Check-up Apps offer the opportunity to follow our health records, especially in diseases such as COVID-19. Such apps, such as quarantine situations, that monitor patients virtually at home and facilitate communication with them will be top-rated. Virtual healthcare monitoring apps provide an essential convenience by using artificial intelligence technology.

Motivational and Inspirational Apps

Apps that inspire users to do something creative are among the apps people need most. It is among the most trendy apps, especially during the pandemic process. Today, people of all ages are looking for inspirational ideas. Many people have the idea of starting a start-up and are looking for inspiration. Especially in 2021, this number will increase with COVID-19.

Women Security and Alert Apps

Security and security practices of women are among the most important and trending apps. There are many trend apps, including live location tracking, reaching security forces with a warning button, listing the users’ communication information and keeping them in contact with them, and the color of the location’s security level.

Event and Party Planning Apps

An event and party planning app helps you plan and share your day, week, even monthly schedules. It can also help them hire the musicians, decorators, and employees required when planning an event or party. You can manage a budget quickly and easily. You can provide locations for events and parties. It will be handy for companies and people who will work from home during the pandemic process.

Parking Space Finding Apps

Especially big cities suffer from heavy traffic and excess of cars. Therefore, parking lot finding apps are extremely convenient for users living in big cities. Also, these apps help users reserve a parking space, access parking hours information and prices. Also, apps integrated with Google access GPS and traffic analysis data. It is shown among popular mobile apps in many cities according to population density.

Increasing your app engagement and retention is easier than you think, check out Storyly now.

 

The Impact of COVID-19 on Daily App Usage

Since the Covid-19 pandemic started to dominate our lives, people’s habits changed dramatically for every country and individual. Mobile channels became the only option for social connection between people because Covid-19 made in-person interactions nearly impossible. During the lockdown period, people tried to explore new ways to do shopping, stay connected, stay fit, be productive, stay entertained, etc. Therefore, there has been an enormous surge in mobile interactions.

 

Trends Across App Store Categories and Industries

 

Some apps try to survive. On the other side, some apps thrive during this global Pandemic, with the largest consumer spend ever occurring. Pandemic-thriving applications have seen a substantial boost in app usage during the Pandemic, while pandemic-proof apps have continued more or less, as usual, pandemic-rebounder apps have slowed down compared to daily usage before the Pandemic. Storyly analyzed different app categories to understand the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic to app usage.

 

• Travel

Since most countries apply some travel restrictions, travel apps usage decreased dramatically. Besides the decrease of daily usage of the airline industry, the lodging industry’s app usage has been decreased.

 

• Food & Drink

Food and drink apps have seen an industry-specific impact. The impact increased more if they do not offer drive-through or take-away options.

 

• Online Delivery & Grocery

Because in-store grocery shopping has been affected, the mobile grocery order has dramatically increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online delivery apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, GrubHub saw a 60% bump in early March, and DoorDash says that the application has boosted the highest number of new U.S. users with 150,000 added in April.

 

• Shopping

With lockdown imposed by the governments, everything but essential services closed. Retailers had to concentrate on their mobile apps to survive. According to JMango360, retailers’ mobile apps saw a 36% increase in mobile app download and a 54% increase in-app purchases in September 2020 compared to September 2019.

 

• Health & Fitness

Since gyms and fitness centers are closed or restricted within the time limits, many consumers now rely on fitness apps to exercise at home. According to Pew Research, the Pandemic has encouraged 18% of Americans to participate in online classes.

 

• Education

Statista says that education is the second most demanded app category during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Not only the compulsory education has been affected, but also the demand for apps that offers creative, musical, communication skill education.

 

• Content & Media

Social media is essential for people to stay connected during COVID-19. Since the beginning of the Coronavirus Pandemic, social media engagement has increased by around 61%. Moreover, the number of daily sessions increased by 73%.

 

• Gaming

In April, 40% of app users reported playing mobile app games more frequently, and Verizon stated a 75% increase week-over-week in gaming app usage. Apart from the puzzle and word games, new installs of Candy Crush, Peakgames, Subway Surfers were up to 95%.

 

• Entertainment

Many people have begun to use media services and television apps to occupy their free time during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In April, entertainment apps had an overall increase of 25%, and music apps were used 21% more frequently.

 

• Lifestyle

According to Statista, the lifestyle category was one of the most popular categories in the Apple App Store in August 2020. However, the usage of lifestyle apps may vary between different apps because the lifestyle category is so broad, and some of them were affected positively. In contrast, the others were affected negatively during the Pandemic.

 

• Finance

Investment apps peaked in 2020 since January with seeing an 88% growth. Especially in the lockdown period, users have begun to use banking and payment apps more often than before. Therefore, the cost of acquiring new users also fell by 77% between February and May.

 

To conclude, apps’ usage of the most apps among different categories have been affected positively during the Coronavirus Pandemic, especially during the lockdown periods. As an app owner, you need to take benefit of this opportunity. To boost your app’s retention, you can also read “7 Mobile Marketing Campaign Types to Boost App Retention”.

 

Top 20 C-Level Mobile Leaders To Follow

By following the mobile leaders on Twitter and Linkedin, you can have heard about industrial news, resources, events, tutorials. Besides, you may have a chance to engage with mobile leaders. We have compiled the top 20 C-Level mobile leaders to follow on Twitter and Linkedin.

 

Here is the list of the top 20 C-Level mobile leaders to follow.

1) Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey is an American technology entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Twitter. Also, he is the founder and CEO of Square, which is a mobile financial payments company. He is listed as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35, according to MIT Technology Review Magazine.

2) Young Sohn 

He is the corporate president and chief strategy officer at Samsung. Young Sohn is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He is passionate about building businesses and excited about emerging technologies that have a positive impact on transforming lives. He served as CEO of two successful Silicon Valley public companies and on boards of Arm, Cadence, Cymer (ASML), and others. Sohn is an investor in innovative companies, such as Berkeley Lights, Fungible, Zoom Video, and TTTech.

3) Ren Zhengfei 

Ren Zhengfei is VP of Huawei Group Chief Supply Chain Officer Office. Zhengfei was Group Vice President in the telecommunications industry. He is a strong operation professional with an MBA focused on the College of Business from Colorado State University.

4) Lei Jun 

Lei Jun is a Chinese entrepreneur and investor. He has co-founded Xiaomi, one of the largest smartphone and consumer electronics companies in the world that in June 2018 raised US$4.72 billion. He was named an honorary professor at Wuhan University, where there is also a scholarship in his name.

5) Emre Fadıllıoğlu 

Emre Fadıllıoğlu is the co-founder and CEO of App Samurai, Storyly, and Interceptd. He graduated from METU Business Administration department in 2004. He had worked for PWC, Oracle, and some other companies. His first start-up is Netvent, which is still active and operates as a digital marketing agency in Turkey. After his first start-up experience, Fadıllıoğlu founded App Samurai in 2016. App Samurai were listed as Europe’s Best 100 Hottest Start-ups in 2018.

6) Will Kassoy 

Will Kassoy is the CEO of Adcolony. As a CEO of Adcolony, he has built the company from pre-revenue to an exit to Opera Software for $350 million in 3.5 years. AdColony was recognized on Inc 500’s list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America in 2 back to back years, 2013 and 2014.

7) Adam Foroughi 

Foroughi is the CEO and co-founder of Applovin, a technology platform with integrated solutions for developers to grow their businesses in one place. Since 2012, it has helped mobile games grow around the world. Thus, a rich mobile gaming ecosystem and higher quality games for people have been provided since 2012.

8) Tomer Bar Zeev 

Tomer Bar Zeev, co-founder and CEO at ironSource. By overseeing the growth of the company, he is determined to make ironSource a truly global company, lead its international growth, and open offices on five continents. Bar Zeev, was named one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.

9) Christian Schmalzl 

Christian Schmalzl is Co-Chief Executive Officer / Member-Mgmt Board at Stroeer mobile performance. Stroeer SE & Co. provides out-of-home media solutions. The company offers branding, digital publishing, marketing, advertising, and other related services. Stroeer operates in Germany.

10) Christian Henschel 

Christian is the CEO and co-founder of Adjust, which he is involved in all aspects of business oversight and development apart from the technical side. Henschel has been involved in the digital area for major media companies for over 12 years. Before founding Adjust, he worked for several years in the management team of m-advertise and headed up the digital revenues department at MTV Networks.

11) Alex Austin

Alex Austin, co-founder and CEO of Branch Metrics. Branch Metrics was founded in 2014 with his partners. It provides development tools and kit/app programs for mobile app companies and marketers to gain and retain users.

12) David Heuer

He is the Co-Founder, CEO, and COO of ayeT-Studios in 2015. With ayeT Studio, they create the offerwall network that helps both publishers and advertisers achieve their goals. So they can monetize their audience using SDKs or APIs. Heuer has previously worked in many crucial mobile marketing platforms. He is an expert in mobile marketing.

13) Alicja Borucinska

Alicja Borucinska is the Co-Founder & CEO of Nutzz Media. Currently CEO at Users Digital Users Digital is a modern marketing agency specializing in recruiting personalized users for online services and to deliver performance-oriented results.

14) Ziv Elul

Ziv Elul founded Inneractive in 2007. He is also the CEO of the company. He has 15 years of industry and management experience. Ziv deals with the local high-tech and start-up ecosystem, advises young entrepreneurs. Also, he is a CEO at Fyber. Fyber is an advertising technology company. It allows app developers and digital publishers to optimize ads.

15) Elad Natanson

Natanson, CEO and founder of Appnext. He is an entrepreneur with 18 years of experience. Appnext sets the strategic direction. It provides the experience of developing advertising promotions and making money. He founded and managed many technology companies such as Elad, Prime Gaming, USAGC.org, Appnext, Active Labs, Whoislive.

16) Bill Stone

Stone, CEO at Digital Turbine. Bill became CEO of Mandalay Digital Group in 2014. Before becoming CEO of Mandalay Digital Group, he was the CEO of Digital Turbine Group, Inc for two years.

17) Perry Lyndon-James

James, Head of Product & Marketing – Founder of WINR. Media technology company WINR supports the AdGate platform, which is a paywall for advertisers while providing revenue streams to digital publishers.

18) Brian Fox

Fox, CEO at Adaction. AdAction serves to increase sales and app downloads. He is an expert in Mobile App Marketing, SEO, Digital Strategy, CRM. AdAction Interactive partners in order to create performance marketing campaigns.

19) Jeff Drobick

Jeff Drobick, CEO at Tapjoy. Tapjoy helps mobile publishers monetize their apps. He has ten years of experience in mobile devices. Advertisers reach approximately 1 Billion monthly active users.

20) Robi Ganguly

Ganguly is the CEO & Co-Founder at Apptentive. Apptentive helps companies large and small to develop deep and meaningful relationships with customers.

 

We have compiled for you mobile leaders who are C-level on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can follow them, and learn a lot of things about the mobile world.

Mobile App Marketing Tips For Holiday Season

The holiday season should not be underestimated by the companies. As a mobile app marketer, you should compete for more app downloads, engagements, and sales for your company. 

 

Mobile app marketing requires careful preparation, organization, and strategy for the holiday season. Your app also should adapt to this marketing environment. We have prepared the following recommendations on preparing your app for the holiday season. Is your mobile app ready for Holiday Season? Let’s start!

 

Main Holidays List to Consider

 

If your main audience is the US, of course, thanksgiving and the winter holidays come to mind. Black Friday for shopping apps. But you should consider other holiday periods if your business works globally. 

 

The list of holidays to consider for specific campaigns:

November 11 (11.11): Chinese Singles’ Day and Veterans Day

November 26: Thanksgiving

November 27: Black Friday

November 28: Small Business Saturday

November 30: Cyber Monday

December 1: Giving Tuesday

December 10: Start of Hanukkah (Ending: December 18)

December 14: Green Monday

December 14: Free Shipping Day

December 24: Christmas Eve

December 25: Christmas Day

December 26: Start of Kwanzaa (Ending: January 1)

December 31: New Year’s Eve

January 1: New Year’s Day

February 14: Valentines Day

 

From the list above, you need to think where the holiday season opportunities lie for your specific app and, you need to prepare your app according to these holidays. If your app is specified on dating and valentines, you should consider Valentines’ Day. However, for some mobile apps like shopping apps, all of the holidays need to be considered.

 

Start Early

To be prepared in the particular holiday seasons, you need to start early. If your clients began to search for Christmas gift ideas at the end of the summer, you should be prepared before that time. You need to adjust your app and may change some structures accordingly. The banners and contents need to be ready. You can use Storyly to create personalized and customized story contents for your mobile app.

 

Check Your ASO Before Holidays

App Store Optimization (ASO) can be crucial for your holiday user acquisition strategy. When you make paid advertising activities, it will increase app installs, and bring a healthy stream of organic users and make your user acquisition efforts more profitable. Therefore, you need to check app store optimization and make sure that you put the best foot forward with the best icon, screenshots, and description to help convince users to install your app. If you jump out of app store optimization, your organic app downloads can suffer, although you expect the most organic results to come out. Moreover, your advertisements will be resultless and go waste.

Use Holiday-Themed Push Notifications

Users need to be pushed to take aimed action, especially in the holiday seasons, when there are so many push notifications from different apps and brands. Storyly “countdowns” in the stories can be eye-catching to instigate users to take action for your holiday season announcements, discounts, and reveals. However, it would not be the best to overwhelm your audience because it reacts negatively and decreases your mobile app users.

 

Use Holiday-Themed Offers & Campaigns

Do not forget thousands of advertisers will be competing for the same pair of eyes. To get users’ attention, we suggest you create a unique icon, an attention-grabbing image, and a video that defines your app and the main benefits of it. Creativity is the key, especially in these seasons. Via Storyly, you can use different sources and feeds to generate your stories for your apps. Storyly allows you to customize your stories via tailor-made coloring, texts, and more features in line with your branding. You can announce special day offers, sales, events, etc. to capture your users’ attention in a user-friendly way.