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MOBILE LANDSCAPE: compelling consumer trends

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mobile apps can add value to your consumers’ experiences. The days of one-way communication are long gone, and consumers are looking to voice their opinions and interact with the companies, charities and other institutions they interact with.

With a simple-to-use app, businesses can provide their consumers with surveys to encourage product ideas and to leave feedback. A mobile app will also provide you with the ability to engage back, answering any questions or concerns.

Some compelling trends are becoming more apparent as the mobile landscape continues to dramatically expand, already eclipsing desktop browsing and now on the verge of outpacing television viewing.

Read on to better understand the mobile landscape and how you can capitalize on its dramatic growth in popularity.

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© Copyright 2014 Zweemie, LLC. All rights reserved. Tell Ask Sell is a trademark of Zweemie. Android, Google play, Apple and the App Store are registered trademarks of Google and Apple. YouTube is a registered trademark of Google.

Mobile landscape: compelling consumer trends Whitepaper

INTRODUCTIONIf you haven’t been stranded on a deserted island for the last three years, you probably realize the use of mobile devices has sky rocketed.

How much you ask?

From 2011 to 2013, there was a 21% increase in smartphone ownership (35% to 56%), with global mobile traffic accounting for 15% of all internet traffic. More importantly, the way consumers are using their phones is strongly trending toward mobile applications.

In 2013, 80% of consumers used mobile apps compared to only 20% using the mobile web. In 2014, users are already making a climb in mobile app use to 86%, and 64% of app users say they view brands with mobile apps more favorably.

If that’s not enough to give you a clear picture, here are a few other dramatic statistics.

• In 2013, 102 billion mobile apps were downloaded. • Mobile apps are rivaling television: 127 minutes per day on mobile

apps vs. 168 for television.• Mobile search will generate 27.8 billion more searches than

desktop searches by 2016.

It’s pretty clear that a heavy majority of consumers are using mobile phones, and many of those users are downloading mobile applications.

QUICK AND EASY SHOPPINGFrom all the advantages provided by having a mobile app at your consumer’s fingertips, the most favorable amongst users is its quick and easy accessibility. In today’s on-the-go society, consumers are using mobile apps to do their shopping at lightning speed, whether at home, at work, waiting in traffic, etc.

Rather than having to find a store, walk through aisles and deal with a long line at the checkout lane, customers can use a mobile app to get all of that done with a few screen taps.

In 2013, 80% of consumers used mobile apps compared to only 20% using the mobile web.

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Providing your potential customers with the availability to do their shopping at your store on a mobile app is a huge advantage. Paypal has already charged $27 billion dollars via mobile payments during last year. During the holidays, imagine being able to offer your promos with the tap of a button to drive specific information to your mobile app.

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTMobile apps can add value to your consumers’ experiences. The days of one-way communication are long gone, and consumers are looking to voice their opinions and interact with the companies, charities and other institutions they interact with.

With a simple-to-use app, businesses can provide their customers with surveys to encourage product ideas and to leave feedback. A mobile app will also provide you with the ability to engage back, answering any questions or concerns.

Providing two-way communication between your brand and your consumer can help create loyalty among your customers. This, in turn, expands your marketing efforts through word of mouth from those customers.

BRING YOUR BUSINESS TO THE FOREFRONTMost people have their phones on them or at their side throughout the day — 79% of 18-44 year olds have their smartphones with them 22 hours a day. This is a fact that should be used to your advantage, and a mobile app can do just that.

Once a user downloads your application, push notifications come into play. So what exactly are push notifications? You may think it’s just an alert, but it’s much deeper than that.

Push notifications will notify a user of anything that’s new — a message, a sale, change in hours or location, etc. While a push notification is an alert, it also brings your business to the consumer’s attention. These alerts can instantaneously be sent to consumers’ home screen, bringing your business to the forefront.

Mobile landscape: compelling consumer trends Whitepaper

Recall how often people carry their phones on them? This makes push notifications a golden item for businesses, putting their products, sales, etc. directly into their customer’s pocket.

GET USERS TO MARKET FOR YOUThere’s nothing like free marketing! And that can happen if you show your customers that you care about them by providing excellent customer service.

One of the strongest forms of marketing is word of mouth. Once your users are talking about your product or app, you know you’ve got it right. Before you know it, your users become an integrated network of marketers for your app and you.

This can be done by providing great customer service, which just about everyone talks about. If you care about your customers and provide them with great customer service on your app, your happy customers will be sure to let others know about it.

COLLECT DATAOne of the most powerful tools with any online marketing campaign is acquiring the ability to gather specific information about your users.

With a mobile app, you can set up a registration form for users to fill out in order to further market your business. By gathering email addresses or phone numbers, you’re allowing yourself more marketing channels to let your potential customers know about upcoming promos, events, major sales, etc.

You can also set up weekly, monthly or yearly email blasts that can be sent to those users who filled in an email address on your registration form.

SALES TEAM SUPPORTImagine having your entire store catalog at the tip of the fingers of your sales team. With a mobile app, you don’t have to imagine it anymore.Providing a mobile app as a sales tool to your sale force is a great way to assemble all of your product information in a single, handy location that will make your people look even more polished when meeting

Push notifications pop up on the phone’s screen, similar to a text message and can include links to specific items within an application.

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with customers. Additionally, this also saves the salesperson time from having to lug around costly and sometimes outdated print materials.

Instead of customers having to visualize your product in their head, they can now view your product directly on a mobile phone. This helps make sales trips smoother and quicker all while demonstrating your strong level of organization and professionalism to your customers.

THE COST OF TECHNOLOGYThe traditional path of defining a mobile app that relies on custom coding by a developer requires time and money that many companies do not have. This cost can be compounded by the need to support multiple operating system formats. Additionally, as information changes, there is additional cost and time investment to update the application.

There are many cases where a custom app may be overkill and the requirements can be fulfilled using an app service. Today, there are many software providers with online offerings that enable companies and individuals with little technical skill to create, launch, and maintain their own mobile app.

Most of these providers offer a Software-as-a-Service subscription model, where subscribers pay a monthly fee to create and maintain content within a Content Management System (CMS) framework. A key advantage of this approach is the ability for the application to have content easily updated in near-realtime. Changes are made in the CMS and that information is immediately available to the users who have the application on their mobile device. This provides the agility needed in today’s fast-paced world to enable easy updates in response to changing market drivers and trends.

79% of 18-44 year olds have their phones with them 22 hours a day.

Mobile landscape: compelling consumer trends Whitepaper

A LITTLE ABOUT TELL ASK SELLWith the landscape of marketing shifting towards a digital market, Tell Ask Sell provides subscribers the ability to optimize their digital marketing with the use of a customizable mobile app, text and email messaging, surveys and push notifications.

Building an app with Tell Ask Sell is very simple and can be about, and include, almost anything. Subscribers can quickly load it with videos, PDFs, text, web links, images, surveys – you name it. The resulting app is universal, so it will run on smart phones, tablets, computers and can be published to the Apple App Store and Google Play store.Tell Ask Sell’s web-based software allows users to create their own mobile app to best suit their business, team, club, church or any organization. And, it is very affordable. The subscription rate is only $24 per month and there is no set-up fee. Additionally, there is a free subscription offer for interested companies.

Tell Ask Sell equips business with the tools to TELL their audience what they do, ASK them about what they like and SELL through easy-to-use mobile technology.

Tell Ask Sell puts the control of the digital market into your hands and allows you to meet the needs and demands of your consumers.

Go to TellAskSell.com and start today for FREE

© Copyright 2014 Zweemie, LLC. All rights reserved. Tell Ask Sell is a trademark of Zweemie. Android, Google play, Apple and the App Store are registered trademarks of Google and Apple. YouTube is a registered trademark of Google.

SOURCESFrom 2011 to 2013, there was a 21% increase in smartphone ownership (35% to 56%), with global mobile traffic accounting for 15% of all internet traffic. (http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-2013-mobile-growth-statistics/)

In 2013, 80% of consumers used mobile apps compared to only 20% using the mobile web. In 2014, users are already making a climb in mobile app use to 86%, and 64% of app users say they view brands with mobile apps more favorable. (http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/01/mobile-app-usage-increases-in-2014-as-mobile-web-surfing-declines/)

In 2013, 102 billion mobile apps were downloaded. (http://blog.shoutem.com/2014/06/18/why-small-business-owners-need-a-mobile-app/)

Mobile apps are rivaling television (127 minutes per day on mobile apps vs. 168 for television). (http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/mobile-applications/8-statistics-every-business-should-know-about-mobile-0363048)

Mobile search will generate 27.8 billion more searches than desktop by 2016. (http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/mobile-applications/8-statistics-every-business-should-know-about-mobile-0363048)

Paypal has already charged $27 billion dollars via mobile payments during last year. (http://blog.shoutem.com/2014/06/18/why-small-business-owners-need-a-mobile-app/)

Most people have their phones on them or at their side throughout the day (79% of 18-44 year olds have their smartphones with them 22 hours a day). (http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/smartphones_b39001)