Maximising Mobile: Why mobile matters more than ever

Why does mobile still get missed?

It’s surprising just how many brands still don’t understand mobile, or the value it can hold (when done right).

In boardrooms, mobile is too often considered as a ‘channel’; a re-skin of your existing website and a box to tick. But mobile is so much more than all of those things.

It isn’t just a channel, it’s the touchpoint that lives in your customer’s hand or pocket. It goes everywhere with them. It’s the last thing we look at before we go to sleep, and the first place we go to when we wake.

It’s a place where your customer browses, buys, re-orders, and re-books. Mobile is the front line because it’s constantly with your customer, and where they spend 4-5 hours on average each day.

A mobile app can be your biggest store ever - but only if done right. The revenue, the customer insight, and the ability to influence behaviour, whether that’s repeat purchases, engagement frequency or visits to a bricks and mortar venue, mobile can massively influence a brand’s success.

Here are some of the most common reasons why mobile is still getting missed, and why moving past these misconceptions matters more than ever.

We have a website, customers don’t need a mobile app as well

Something we hear often from businesses that are looking to grow and scale, is that they already have a web or mobile-web experience which is working well, making a native mobile product unnecessary.

This was something Apadmi’s client GigPig experienced - having quickly established a web presence by early 2023, the business was already growing steadily on this platform. The web experience allowed for venues to book artists with basic functionality and booking management. However, GigPig recognised that their web experience could only take their growth so far, and that customers were expecting (and demanding) a more intuitive, mobile-first experience.

Apadmi advised GigPig on the benefits of a native app - especially the ability to introduce push notifications. Previously, GigPig had relied on SMS notifications to communicate quickly with artists about new gig opportunities, costing around 3p per message.

This was a cost that could escalate significantly with continued business growth, especially given that a single gig might be sent to up to 1,000+ artists. However, moving to push notifications allows for instant, cost-free communication, making this a more sustainable and, most importantly, scalable option for GigPig’s business model.

The purpose built app allowed for increased functionality and features for users such as automated invoicing, calendar management, lightning-fast gig filters and much more.

With this mobile-first strategy, the business has experienced impressive growth and engagement across their artist community. Artist sign-ups surged by 20% month-on-month, and in just three months, over 70% of active artists adopted the app as their primary tool over the web.

The app also quadrupled user interactions vs on web, highlighting the app's impact on user activity, and showing just how powerful of an engagement tool a good mobile experience can be, when done right.

Mobile is more than just a cost centre

Too many businesses still treat mobile as a cost centre, but the best mobile apps are revenue engines.

Of course investment is required to create the initial product, but the strategic objective has to be based on value and return on investment - whether that’s in absolute revenue terms or added value through increased customer engagement.

The Co-op membership app created in partnership with Apadmi delivers personalised rewards offers to more than 6 million customers every week and Co-op has seen a 12:1 return on investment for every pound spent on developing, enhancing and evolving the app.

Great mobile experiences should reduce friction, increase satisfaction, and unlock lifetime value. If your mobile experience is poor, customers will bounce. If it’s brilliant, they’ll stick with you – and spend more while they’re at it.

We have a functional mobile experience - but it’s not driving growth

If your mobile product is a lacklustre reskin of a web experience, or a white labelled product lacking personalisation or optimisation, or was developed years ago and then left to sit in the App Stores with no CRO, testing, iterations or updates - you’re stifling growth potential.

When Apadmi first started working with Domino’s - they were looking to evolve their existing mobile app to become the focal point for their digital customer engagement. The brief was to build a new experience that didn’t just make ordering pizza easier, but to actively increase frequency and value per customer.

Several years on, the result is a platform delivering record-breaking uplift in repeat orders through mobile, driven by thoughtful design, platform-native performance and customer insights influencing every design choice made.

Continuous optimisation, feedback loops, user research, and design and development iterations ensure that the app continues to be the primary choice for customers (with over 80% of orders now through the app), where they can enjoy a highly personalised experience, whilst the business enjoys greater customer lifetime value.

How should the narrative shift enabling mobile to unlock value?

The first step toward unlocking mobile value is seeing the potential. The mobile market is growing 19% year-on-year and spending is only set to increase.

Great mobile experiences can be used to solve business problems, but they don’t happen by accident. It’s a deliberate decision to lead with mobile expertise, not a generalist compromise. The brands who get this right are already miles ahead.

We’d love to help with how mobile could make a difference to your business. Get in touch.