Anatomy: The parts that form a living thing.

Mobile phones have changed everything we know about communicating and staying informed. Rather than gathering around a radio or television for news, people are getting up-to-the-minute content from their smartphone and more and more often by using mobile apps.

New data from Nielsen shows that U.S. Android and iPhone users age 18 and over spend 65 percent more time each month using apps than they did just two years ago. In Q4 2013, they spent 30 hours, 15 minutes using apps, a full half-day more than 18 hours, 18 minutes in Q4 2011.

More than 80 percent of customers prefer mobile apps to traditional websites, according to a study published by Compuware. Brands are waking up to this new era of mobile and realizing that developing an app strategy is no longer a luxury — it is indispensable for remaining relevant in any market.

The number one takeaway to understand: Mobile is here to stay. Also, deliver desirable content to prevent having your app deleted.

Anywhere from 75 to 87 percent of mobile apps are deleted within the first six months after the download, according to the Good Push Index. Stakes are high. Brands must research their target market before launching a mobile app. Avoid creating a mobile app because it’s what everyone is doing. That approach won’t authentically tell your brand’s story. At its core, your story should be the solution that was invented to solve a problem. And the mobile app must adequately convey that story and solution.

By understanding who and why people use mobile apps, you can build a mobile app strategy that offers high value and business objectives. You can also meet other goals:

• Spread brand awareness
• Reach target audiences
• Influence clients
• Retain consumers
• Create brand advocates

A user needs to feel as though their mobile app benefits their life. This tall order isn’t impossible. The Anatomy of a Mobile App User explores the “who,” the “why,” and the needs of the mobile app user. The data will set you free to target users, hone relevant messaging, and keep target markets engaged, or in other words, motivate users to come back for more.

Who Uses Mobile Apps?

Billions of people use smartphones. And millions of people use mobile apps. Heavy users, as defined by Flurry, launch mobile apps more than 60 times a day, which is six times more than the average user. According to Flurry, 176 million people are “mobile addicts,” which is up 123 percent compared to the same period last year.

It’s a popular belief that millennials are glued to the mobile devices in their hands. Indeed, a trip to the mall would turn you into a believer, especially considering that two out of three millennials use mobile apps while shopping at the store.5 But millennials are not alone in their mobile addiction, according to comScore Mobile Metrix data.

Additional evidence proves that the average app user is slightly older than the twenty-year-old persona that many brands use to develop their app’s messaging. A study commissioned by Compuware found that of the 3,534 people they polled, 45 percent of them between the ages of 35 and 45 used a mobile application in the past six months. Out of the 21-34 range, 35 percent used an app. Again, this data supports an app strategy that should include the Gen X demographic

Work Apps

Companies are adopting mobile apps for use in their business, which impacts 132 million people around the world, according to Ina Fried from Re/code.7 The age demographics of the working mobile app user may skew all of the numbers, because they are probably slightly older than the “just out of college” group.

According to a study conducted with over 700 companies, only 4 percent said that they use mobile apps to help with such things as supply chain management, logistics, purchasing, maintenance, service or sales reports. This number is very low, but the study also found that 100 percent of participants believed that the number will jump to at least 50 percent in the next two years

This trend might be fueled with the data that shows that 17 percent of businesses save between $25,000 and $100,000 annually by switching to mobile apps, while 81 percent indicated that their savings fell between $1,000 and $25,000.

The opportunity

People are using mobile apps throughout the day — even at work. This activity turns the smartphone device into a buzzing community in which brands can keep an ongoing conversation with their users by providing relevant content through push notifications or in-app messages.

Device Cost

The price of an iOS mobile phone compared to an Android device plays a part in the purchasing decisions for millennials and Gen X. Mobile device ownership is slightly higher for 81 percent of the people between 25 and 34 who own a smartphone. The 18-24 age group is sightly lower at 79 percent. These numbers represent the income difference between both demographics. This theory is supported when you look at how much the iPhone owner makes and how much more they are on their phones compared to Android users. The median iPhone app user earns $85,000 a year compared to the Android phone user who makes an annual income of $61,000 a year, according to comScore’s The U.S. Mobile App Report.10 The same study found that iPhone users engage with their smartphone a full nine hours more per month than Android users.

The opportunity

Include an older audience (ages 25-35) when developing personas for marketing. Make sure that the tone of voice speaks to the millennials and Gen Xers, because they both make up your audience.

Gender

New app profiling tools have made it possible to get a demographic breakdown that sheds light on a question that haunts many marketers: Who is downloading mobile apps? Much of the data indicates a clear bias in content preferences, according to App Annie data accrued from their Audience Intelligence:

• Men downloaded two-thirds of iOS travel apps in a recent 12-month period.
• On-demand transit apps such as Uber, Lyft, and Easy Taxi users are even more skewed toward men
• Women primarily drive photo and video app downloads (think Instagram and Snapchat)./li>
• Sports apps, including ESPN SportsCenter and Yahoo Sports, are heavily skewed toward males — with over three-fourths of downloads coming from men.

Overall, women spend more time using mobile web and/or apps, and one-half of women versus one-third of men use social media apps in a typical week, according to a study conducted by Burst Media. The breakdown of the survey gives us a high-level view of popular mobile destinations.

The differences between men and women’s mobile app behavior don’t end there. Unsurprisingly, shopping is approached very differently between the sexes. Women are more likely (one-half versus 37.1 percent of men) to access coupons in a retail location, while men (42.6 percent) are more apt to compare store brand prices than women (37.4 percent) with their mobile device.

The opportunity

This data gives brands ideas for a holistic mobile app strategy that speaks to both genders’ shopping behavior. Offering the user coupons and price comparisons is an effective plan for drumming up more engagement. One way to get your message out is through beacons. Beacons are Bluetooth enabled devices (set in specific locations) that can trigger push notifications to a person who has downloaded a particular brand’s app, such as when retail stores use beacons to send messages to passing consumers’ smartphones. Honing the content to fit two frames of mind is important as you discover your brand’s target market.

The Gender Landscape

The mobile app ecosystem is only slightly dominated by women who hang out in apps such as social media, weather, games, entertainment, books and shopping. But when it comes to fitness and health, women spend twice as much time as men in this category14, while men outnumber women in news, music, sports and maps.15 As more consumers move to mobile apps, our ability and need to track their behavior within the app will increase. It’s crucial to obtain user data — as quickly as possible to understand how you should be shaping your content. Remember, most apps are deleted within the first six months that they are downloaded.

The opportunity

There are many different strategies that you can take to thoughtfully engage both your male and female app users:

• Use audience segmentation to send personalized messages;
• Track a customer lifecycle to get an overall view of a user’s experience from the day they launch to present day;
• Send targeted in-app messaging to direct the app user to pages that will do the heavy lifting and provide relevant insights for messaging.

Income

When you look at the numbers, both the iPhone and Android app user is more affluent than the median household income of $53,891. Affluent mobile app users, as categorized by Statistic, has a household income that is $75,000 and higher. Statistic’s study goes on to investigate what verticals affluent income brackets spend their time in:

The opportunity

By building a highly engaging experience for your affluent mobile app user, you develop a strong and valuable connection. The majority of wealthy app users download information on products and services, according to Steve Smith from Media Post. In fact, 71 percent of mobile app users report that their app made them feel “better connected” to high-end brands. This ongoing conversation could take place in a message center where articles, loyalty points information, product pages and coupons can be stored for the user.

Lower Income Numbers

Affluent income brackets don’t paint the full picture of the mobile app landscape. Lower income households may not be consuming content on mobile apps at the same rate as affluent people, but the trend is definitely turning. Mobile app adoption is gaining traction for lower income ($30k and below) brackets, especially among the younger age range of 18-29 at 78 percent compared to the 30-49 group at 41 percent. Young adults use mobile apps at a higher frequency than people in their 30s and 40s. This early mobile apps adoption actually presents a great opportunity for establishing brand loyalty.

The opportunity

Establishing brand loyalty should be one of your primary objectives, especially when you are marketing to younger generations who are mobile reliant and social. This means you need to be where your consumer is and start an ongoing conversation. Delivering real-time content via relevant push notifications to the app user is your best strategy. How do you figure out what kind of content to send your mobile app users? First, look at users’ motivations for using mobile apps

User Motivations For Using Apps

When it comes to mobile apps, everything you need is in your pocket, which is why people check their phones 150 times a day, according to a Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’s annual report. The capacity to connect and be productive is an attractive driver for app usage. According to a study conducted by InsightsNow for AOL and BBDO, there are seven basic motivators that drive people to using mobile apps.

• Self-expression
• Discovery
• Preparation
• Accomplishing
• Shopping
• Socializing
• Me time

If you were to write a screenplay about your mobile app user, who would you cast and what would they do? For example: Molly wakes up and checks her weather app before hopping out of bed. She slowly trudges to the shower while looking at her news app. After getting ready, she takes a look at her map app for traffic updates. Once at work, she takes a peek at her social media app before starting her day.

At lunch, Molly orders a sandwich through a local restaurant’s app. As she walks down the street, she takes some pictures capturing the beautiful weather and posts them on her photo-sharing app. To her delight, her sandwich is as huge and yummy as it was reviewed on a restaurant guide app. She takes a picture before posting it on her social media app with the hashtags #livinglarge #SoLucky #TryGyroHouseSub. Before heading back into work, she adds her lunch to her food diary app.

After work, Molly texts her friends to see if they want to meet up. Her friend, Paul, wants to go to a new place so she looks up a good review on a restaurant guide app. Before confirming with him, she glances at her bank’s app and transfers some money. She finds a cool place across town and accesses her bus app to find out the schedule. Once on the bus, she listens to her music app and plays a game on her smartphone. Molly remembers that she is out of dog food and orders a bag on her grocery app to have delivered. Right before meeting her friend, she posts on her social media app where she is to see if anyone wants to meet up with them.

You get the picture. Mobile moments are occurring throughout the day. We see situations that reflect “selfexpression” time (posting pictures of the weather), “discovery” (finding a new hangout), “preparation” (getting a bus schedule), “accomplishing” (filling out the food diary), “shopping” (buying dog food), “socializing” (social media), and “me time” (listening to music and playing games).

Use this exercise when constructing your brand’s mobile app strategy. If you don’t know who your consumer is or what their motivations are throughout the day, it will be hard to engage your customer or find out what kind of content to send to them. Imagine that Molly is walking down the street to work and she receives a push notification for coupons on dog food from her grocery app. Her brand loyalty and appreciation is going to be much higher than if she gets a random notification for checking out grocery deals. #howdidtheyknow

Where And When People Use Apps

Even though our little tale of Molly follows her throughout the day, the real story for mobile apps usage starts at night. Peak mobile app hours are between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. People aren’t using tablets or laptops when they’re at home at night. Obviously, this is somewhat of a surprising fact. The timeframe before sleep is often enjoyed as “me time.” It’s during this time that social media, gaming and entertainment see an uptick. Most “heavy duty tasks” that need to be performed on a laptop aren’t needed during these peak hours at night, which creates opportunities for mobile.

What other types of apps receive heavy traffic during the day? The morning sees heavy mobile app usage for news, weather and travel in the morning. Daytime usage shows a preference toward music, business and finance.

What’s Our Takeaway?

Mobile app users exhibit a pattern of usage that should not be ignored. You can pair engagement strategies such as in-app messaging with push notifications to meet users while they are following these daily patterns. This approach makes your app more effective, engaging, and relevant to the user. As far as creating the ultimate user experience, be there for when your user wants to show up for a dialogue.

What Do Mobile App Users Expect?

There are some basic needs and wants that mobile app users have come to expect from their mobile apps:

• Speed: 78 percent of people expect their mobile app to launch faster than a mobile website
• Easy Browsing: Users want an app that is simple to navigate
• Access to Information: Basic details about products and stores should be easy to find
• Help Planning Trips: Users prefer utility travel services
• Make Life Easier: 50 percent of mobile app users feel like mobile apps are more convenient than websites
• Relevant Information: You must deliver something of value to get people to think of your app
• Functionality: Users want to easily browse an app and take action with an intuitive interface

Why Make An App?

Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky is often quoted as saying, “Skate to where the puck is going to be.” The reason to invest in a mobile app is similar: companies need to go where customer trends are going — on mobile. Building a strong mobile presence is the most effective way to drive engagement and, ultimately, revenue.

Mobile is not the future — it’s already here. Companies that successfully engage their customers on mobile boost their brand’s awareness, affinity, and business growth. The key elements behind a successful mobile app are not a mystery: audience understanding, valuable content, ability to communicate, and functionality. Keep in mind that this association is not one-sided. Foster a symbiotic relationship between you and your consumer that both serves them and allows you to monetize the app:

User pain points are addressed/problems solved

Alaska Airlines uses mobile wallet to allow users to store boarding passes and stay up to date with their travel itinerary. In addition, the app sends push notifications to give real-time flight alerts (flight delays, changes to seating arrangements, gates, departure times, etc.).

You can take advantage of analytics

Oregon Public Broadcasting’s OPB app uses push notifications to encourage users to listen to live broadcasts, which resulted in a 483 percent increase in listeners for one particular broadcast.

Ease of use drives revenue

Airbnb allows hosts to connect with renters and manage their listings with push notifications that act in real-time.

Because of the “always on” nature of mobile, notifications helped facilitate bookings eight times faster than traditional web/email systems

You can market anywhere, anytime

U.S. Open used macro- and micro-targeted location -based push notifications paired with messaging and beacons to send fans a day guide or itinerary of events. A beacon is a Bluetooth-enabled device that communicates with smartphones when set in a specific location such as a venue or storefront. As a result of delivering highly targeted content, the app received a 53 percent open rate for streaming video messages and 32 percent clickthrough-rate for last minute ticket offers.

Conclusion

Mobile, in many ways, is better equipped to fit our on-thego culture than desktop. Apps serve our constant need for relevant content in a way that is more effective than mobile web. Brands obviously must seamlessly shift to mobile apps for their consumers. There can be no bigger gulf than the one created by a brand that does not know its user, and thus delivers random content.