How many times have you heard that "it's the year of mobile"? It seems that every year someone makes this claim, but nothing seems to happen that truly transforms how consumers engage with brands on mobile. Until now. 2018 will be the year that brands finally start changing how they engage with consumers on mobile. Let's call it the year that brands start to think differently about mobile. Here are our predictions for what will happen in mobile this year:
Smart Activation Drives Increased Mobile App Adoption - With 49 percent of smartphone users not downloading a single mobile app a month, it's become more evident than ever that it's time for a fundamental shift in how consumers access mobile apps. That's why we believe 2018 will be the year that brands finally take advantage of all that smart activations have to offer. The declining mobile app adoption rates coupled with the recent inclusion of QR codes in the native camera and Near-Field Communication (NFC) accessibility in iOS 11 makes this the perfect time for brands to rethink how consumers access their mobile apps for the first time.
Mobile Becomes Truly Personalized - Personalization always seems to be a hot topic for marketers year after year, and we’ve seen brands make significant advances in personalization on a variety of channels such as email, web, ads, direct mail, etc. over the years. However, mobile hasn’t seen the same amount of personalization as other channels, but we believe this will change in 2018. This year, brands will utilize all of the information they have about their customers to deliver highly-personalized mobile experiences. This will include mobile apps that provide only what a customer needs based on the moment of activation of the mobile experience as well as dynamic mobile app content that changes according to customer data, behavior, and preferences.
Mobile Becomes Exponential - This year will be the start of when brands start thinking about mobile exponentially. Instead of building one “bloated” mobile app that does everything for everyone, brands will transition to delivering a large number of mobile apps that are designed for specific points in time in the customer journey. Gone are the days of trying to fit everything into a single app. 2018 will be the year that the ongoing shift in mobile tech makes it possible to easily design, deploy, and manage an unlimited number of mobile apps.
Cloud-based Mobile Apps Are the Future - 2018 will be the year brands ditch the download and move from native mobile apps to cloud-based mobile apps. With the look and feel of a native mobile app and all of the same functionality, cloud-based mobile apps provide consumers with an app-like experience without the need to download or update. Using Google’s Progressive Web App (PWA) guidelines, cloud-based mobile apps create mobile experiences that are both lightning fast and engaging. In fact, Garter analyst Jason Wong said, “By 2020, progressive web apps will have replaced 50% of general-purpose, consumer-facing mobile apps.” With innovative brands like Starbucks, Lyft, Twitter, and more already moving in this direction, we believe 2018 will be the year that all brands start planning and implementing their transition to cloud-based mobile apps.
Create digital experiences for every touchpoint in the customer journey from product packaging to product registration to onboarding to customer support and so much more. What do you want to create first?
