Your Members Are Mobile - Are You?

The following post is based on a webinar that Results Direct sponsored recently to the association community.  My takeaways are below.

Delivering the right mobile experience.

 

Gen Z is a mobile social & video first generation.  Go where they are to engage.  Their top three platforms, stated by Insider Intelligence, include Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram.  The other platforms include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Reddit.

 

Why mobile?  5 hours a day people are on their mobile devices.  You need to access your members through that device.

 

Your competition is Siri, RSS feeds, etc.  Think about that!

 

What types of mobile apps are there:

 

Native app – uses the device to convert information and are very interactive.

 

Web app – responsive websites converted to a mobile app.  Scale to fit.  Design doesn’t change.

 

Hybrid app – combination of both the native and web app.

 

Action Plan:  Focusing Your Goals

 

• Connecting members more closely with your organization
• Providing personal and relevant experiences
• Providing timely information
• Connecting members with one another
• Optimizing event experiences
• Providing actionable tools
• Enabling direct communication with your members
• Generating revenue/reducing costs

 

What does success look like?

 

• Attracting new members
• Engaging members more regularly
• Retaining more members
• Providing new value
• Saving costs on printed materials
• Operating more sustainably/green
• Selling more products
• Attracting new sponsors/exhibitors

 

Leverage your existing systems.  Don't go out an create a new wheel. For a resource on going mobile go HERE.

Drive Value By Keeping Your Members Engaged

There have been many articles on how to get your members engaged in your organization and how an engaged member is a retained member.

A great way to drive value with your members is by focusing on a SoMoLo strategy.  This is a term I have heard over the years – or in other words, make your connections with your members social, mobile, and local.

Most chambers are using Social Media – (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.).

The key is are you making sure all of your communications can be maximized on a mobile device?

And of course the final piece of the SoMoLo strategy is are you focusing on your community?  Speaking of the local piece, there is a saying at Institute for Organization Management, if you’ve met one chamber, you’ve met one chamber.  All the more reason to focus on your local program of work.

Can your members not only receive but easily sign-up for your programs?  Do you have true e-commerce on your mobile site?

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some stats from the digital space to back-up why it is so important to focus on your SoMoLo strategy:

• 91% of adults have their mobile phone within arm’s reach - every hour of every day!
• 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles. (Wordstream, 2016)
• 30% of mobile searches are related to a location. (Google, 2016) 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Google, 2016)
• Local searches lead 50% of mobile users to visit stores within one day. (Google, 2018)
• Nearly one-third of all mobile searches are location-based queries. (The SEM Post, 2016) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

For a great blog post by Hubspot to get the above statistics and so much more go HERE.

Good luck with your SoMoLo strategy!

3 Ways to Make Mobile Interactions Count

At a recent seminar I attended, the speaker, Adam Hostetter, NotchPoint Consultants, talked about how organizations can use mobile interactions to engage your members.

He started off by talking about "Micro Moments" - a term Google pegged in 2015

Your members have micro moments all the time - little things that can make a difference for your members - think of them as experiences your members have with your chambers over a period of time.

He stressed that these experiences should be consistent whether you're on a phone, iPad or computer - since our members are switching between the three 91% of the time.

He went on to say exclusivity and urgency are key in getting members to take action when marketing - think early bird pricing that ends at midnight not 30 days away.  Time kills deals - get them to take an action now!

Is your next program plugged into Amazon Echo so when your members ask when is the next (your Chamber) event, Alexa will respond?  I must admit, I hadn't thought of that one before.

Are you worth it?  Make sure you continue to deliver the goods during these micro moments.

His final three comments in this fast paced 30 minute discussion discussion, you need to:

• Seamless experience - online and offline.

• Bring it - deliver fast, relevant, assistive experiences.

• Use your data - enable personalization.

His final comment worth noting, if you remember nothing else - "delight and be useful."

For more information on "Micro Moments" go to Google's webpage found HERE.

Mobile: What’s Your Plan?

Are you in the mobile space?

Are you thinking about the mobile space for your chamber?

Let’s start with a couple of statistics (provided by ComServe and SoMobile 2013):

• 42% of phones in the U.S. are smartphones
• More than 110 million smartphone users in the U.S. and Europe access social networks and blogs on their phones

Now let’s add your website to the mix.  Now it’s important to note that you can’t just put your website on a mobile device.

Many chambers are using mobile apps through third party companies or their CMS (content management system).

All the research I’ve read makes the same statement.  Your mobile application must be user friendly.  Chris Brogan recently said "if there’s more than two items on the smartphone screen it’s too many."

I’m not sure I buy into that theory, but you need to really think about what your mobile presence looks like.

One thing is for sure.  Your mobile look cannot be your website on a smaller screen.

In the old days we talked about how your website cannot be your brochure.  I remember those days.  Do you?

We’re transitioning to mobile like we transitioned to websites 10 years ago. Something to think about!

For a list of resources on the mobile web click HERE and for a list of FAQ's click HERE.