Digital American Newsletter

66% of consumers download 0 new apps each month. That’s a big fat zero.

How can that be?

For smartphone owners, their favorite app takes up over half of the time they spend with apps. Three quarters of their time is absorbed by their top 4 apps.

The most popular apps are predictable: Facebook, YouTube, Google Play, Google Search, and Pandora. That’s it. Even Instagram doesn’t crack the top 5.

Consumers’ favorite types of apps are also not surprising: social networking, games and radio apps get the highest engagement. Only 5% of smartphone owners’ app time is spent with retail apps.

App usage is highly concentrated among a core group of Americans. 7% of consumers are responsible for over 50% of all app downloads. These heavy users are driving much of the year-over-year increase in app downloads and usage.

Meanwhile, over 30,000 new apps are released each month on iTunes alone. That should make all of us think long and hard about how much energy we spend developing new apps.

What are the implications for your business?

• Should we be developing an app, or is our time and money better spent somewhere else?
• How can we market our products and services via the current top apps?

For help developing powerful digital strategies that work, compelling marketing strategies that drive results, strategic plans that deliver growth, or new products that consumers love, contact Brandology at 925-417-2253 or Maura@Brandology.com.

Sources: Comscore 2014, Statista 2015

Both smartphones and tablets are becoming quite important in consumers’ path to purchase. But, mobile phones are emerging as the clear leader.

For the first time, Americans are buying more on their smartphones than on their tablets. Over 14% of ecommerce purchases now happen on phones.

Mobile phones are particularly dominant when it comes to buying travel, fashion, and luxury goods. Increasing numbers of consumers are purchasing big ticket items — including stocks and insurance — via their smartphone.

The average owner spends more time using their mobile than their tablet — almost three and a half hours per day — giving them plenty of opportunities to shop.

But, don’t count tablets out yet. The conversion rate for tablets is significantly higher than for smartphones. Plus, Americans spend more at one sitting when using their tablet. Dollars per order on tablets are virtually equal to laptops, while the average order size on mobile phones lags behind.

Consumers are migrating towards buying on smartphones because of ease and convenience. Cellphone screens have gotten larger and mobile websites have improved, streamlining the process to research and buy products.

What are the implications for your business?

• Is your mobile website optimized? Are you sure?
• Do you have focused strategies to drive smartphone commerce and tablet commerce?

For help developing powerful digital strategies that work, compelling marketing strategies that drive results, strategic plans that deliver growth, or new products that consumers love, contact Brandology at 925-417-2253 or Maura@Brandology.com.

Sources: Bankrate.com 2014, Comscore 2014, Criteo 2014, Nielsen 2014

Over 70% of social media sharing occur in ways that marketers cannot see or measure with analytics. These invisible interactions are called “dark social” — defined as sharing social content via private channels like email, Snapchat, and What’s Up.

It turns out that all the likes, shares, and retweets that marketers track (called “light social”) represent less than one third of all social media engagement.

Americans share different types of content via dark and light social. Two thirds of all entertainment content is shared via light social. Only 10% of financial content is passed on that way.

Consumers use light social media at least partially to create the persona they want others to see. Dark social is for private topics and interactions people do not want to impact their image.

Roughly 33% of all consumers only share via dark social. To marketers, they appear to be inactive on Facebook and Twitter. In reality they are quite engaged, but untrackable.

The existence of dark social has huge implications for marketers. If we set our social strategies based purely on analytics, we overlook the majority of sharing activity, and a huge percentage of our audience.

What are the implications for your business?

• Is your social media marketing plan built with the understanding that the majority of social media sharing is untrackable?
• Should your tactics include more ways for consumers to share your content via dark social?

For help developing powerful digital strategies that work, compelling marketing strategies that drive results, strategic plans that deliver growth, or new products that consumers love, contact Brandology at 925-417-2253 or Maura@Brandology.com.

Sources: Media Post 2014, RadiumOne 2014, Stanford University 2014

In-store beacons are delivering beyond marketers wildest expectations, according to early tracking stats.

Before we dive into the details, here’s a quick refresher. Beacons are small hardware devices that send location-specific messages to shoppers’ smartphones while they are in-store. The technology has been deployed in roughly 3,000 US retail outlets — Everywhere from Lord and Taylor to Walgreens.

Shoppers who receive a beacon message in-store are 19 times more likely to interact with the featured product than those who do not. Almost three-quarters of recipients say the messages impacted what they purchased.

Hillshire Farms tested beacons as part of a new product launch and found they significantly increased awareness and purchase intent.

Beacons also influence where consumers shop. 60% of Americans who have experienced beacons now prefer retailers with the technology. What’s more, they are 80% less likely to delete a retailer’s app if it has beacon capabilities.

In order to receive beacon messages, consumers must have a beacon-enabled app on their mobile. About 40 million Americans have downloaded these apps so far. That means results to date are from early adopters. If mainstream Americans follow their lead, beacons will become a very powerful marketing tool.

What are the implications for your business?

• Have you determined how you will experiment with beacons this year?
• Do you have a plan to add beacon features to your app?

For help developing powerful digital strategies that work, compelling marketing strategies that drive results, strategic plans that deliver growth, or new products that consumers love, contact Brandology at 925-417-2253 or Maura@Brandology.com.

Sources: inMarket 2014, MCommerce Daily 2014, Pymnts 2015, Swirl 2014