Marketers are constantly fighting the uphill battle to win their customer’s attention. In a world where information is available in an instant, sustaining attention from any audience is no easy feat. It may come as no surprise that the average person’s attention span is now only 8 seconds - the shortest it’s ever been. To maintain attention, the most successful marketing campaigns are those that prioritise engagement. Now in marketing, more often than not, engagement means mobile. Are you communicating with your customers on mobile? Below we lay out a 5 step strategy for engaging your customers on the platform they use most - their phones.

1. Offer customers real value

A mobile app isn’t a part of your marketing campaign that’s simply nice to have, it’s an essential way of connecting with customers. The average person spends nearly 4 hours a day on their phones, according to emarketer. To ensure you offer a mobile experience that resonates with your audience, offer real value in your app. Whether that means making your app the main channel of communication or setting up registration within the app, set-up your app as an essential part of your brand experience.

2. Build a community

Nothing turns customers into brand champions like a sense of community. Encourage your customers to continue building relationships with your team and their peers through a mobile app. Social walls and messaging features offer opportunities for customers to share their stories and promote your brand.

3. Have a strong promotion plan

People tend to be slow to change their behaviours and understand new ways brands operate. Getting your customers to transition to a mobile app requires a thorough promotion plan to ensure your customers have every push they need to start engaging with your business on mobile. Tweets, emails, push notifications are all important tactics to use when creating a plan with multiple touchpoints. A clear timeline for measuring your results and your adoption rates will help you know how effective your promotion strategy is.

4. Make metrics your best friend

Apps are an invaluable data source for understanding your customers. The more they engage with the app, the more insight you’ll get. Although data on customer behaviour is fascinating, it’s only useful if it can help shape your business. Make sure you regularly analyse the data and use it to improve the app.

Learn more about Guidebook metricshere.

5. Keep the conversation going

Whether your app is for a specific event or year-round, an ‘always on’ approach means you’re in constant dialogue with your customers. Stay responsive on your app and drive conversation. Interact posts, push notifications, and private messages ensure the conversation doesn’t need to slow down. Ensure your app has enough content to keep users talking and engaging. If you’d like to learn more about how an app can improve your marketing initiatives, find the Guidebook team at the Festival of Marketing show 10-11th October in London. This is our 6th year as the show’s app provider and the show is an outstanding example of the type of community you can build through an engaging app. Our Director of Account Management, Stewart Price, will be giving a talk on personalisation in the mobile user experience on 10th October - don’t miss out! Book a meeting with us here.

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