In this digital age, it’s just as important to have a mobile presence as it is to have a web presence. More and more users are accessing the web via their tablets or smartphones, and spending more time on those devices as well. How do you keep these users engaged and maximize their potential interaction and interest in your brand?
The answer is content managed apps.
Below are just a few of the benefits to using content managed apps in your business or brand’s mobile presence.
Easily Updatable
First and foremost, the downside about producing content-based mobile apps scene is the approvals and updating process. Usually, new versions of apps have to be uploaded to their respective app stores, approved by the powers-that-be, and then subsequently re-downloaded by users in order to see the new content. The entire process could take a week or more, which doesn't lend itself very well to making regular updates with time-sensitive material.
A
content management system (CMS) powering a content managed app would allow admins to update content within the apps directly, without having to overhaul the entire version of it or go through approvals processes. Users would have access to the latest information and iteration of your brand and business without having to overhaul the entire application or download unnecessary updates.
More Immersion
With new technologies comes better UI, user experience and the ability for enhanced user interaction. Gone are simply static text and images that the user scrolls through. Your content can now be presented through fully interactive applications filled with music, video, animations, transitions and various other multimedia to engage the user and encourage them to explore rather than simply read.
Users can pinch, drag, swipe and expand new content, immersed in it because they’re drawn in by the content’s interactive presentation rather than just a wall of information. You can take the content that typically lives on a flat website and bring it to life
with gestures and animations with relatively little effort.
Instant and Offline
The
UX that an app affords is much richer than simply a mobile website’s alone, but it’s also much easier to access. Your users no longer need to launch a web browser and enter the URL to a remote website in order to access your business’s information. The downloaded app simply sits on their device’s homescreen, the information instantly accessible with a tap of their finger.
Additionally, once the app is downloaded onto the device, the information is accessible offline, without compromising the presentation, interactivity and immersion.
Diverse Uses
This approach is great for a variety of different uses. The format is excellent for anything involving lots of information, periodically changing, to be presented in an interactive, engaging fashion, which makes it great for reports and media publications.
Aside from
the basic brand and business information to supplement your website, interactive content managed apps are useful for things such as updatable newsletters and/or media publications, corporate social responsibility reports, and, as described in a previous post,
online annual reports.
Website vs. Content Managed App: Complimentary not Competitive
One last note on this topic is that a content managed app should be considered as complimentary to your business or brand’s website, not superseding it. A web presence is still of utmost importance in terms of analytics, customer engagement (in the form of
social media and
search engines) and networking. A content managed app’s purpose is to provide your users more options for engagement, and to broaden your reach and interaction with your userbase even offline.
Your web presence and interactive app should work in tandem, not against each other.
