Associations that have resisted making their membership mobile often echo the same excuses for not doing so. However recent statistics from Facebook’s user demographics and ad revenue shoot holes in these tired old adoption myths.
Excuse #1: "Our members are too old-school and probably won’t use a mobile app …"
Not so. The fastest rising demographic among Facebook’s 1.62 billion daily active users is the 65+ crowd. 66% of Facebook’s users are active every single day and 78% rely solely on the mobile app to engage. As the most successful platform in the world, Facebook is the app to look to for trends, but broader industry stats also support the idea that non-digital natives spend a good deal of time in mobile apps:
- The 45-54 age range spends 2.0 hours per day and 62.7 hours per month on apps
- The 55-64 age range spends 1.8 hours per day and 55.6 hours per month on apps
- The 65+ age range spends 1.6 hours per day and 42.1 hours per month on apps
Excuse #2: "We don’t see how we can justify spending money for a tool that won’t bring in any revenue …"
Statistics show that 94% of Facebook’s revenue now comes from mobile ad revenue. Furthermore, new data from Sensor Tower shows that consumer spending on mobile apps and app installs grew significantly during the first half of 2020, generating $50 billion worldwide. And forecasts predict that the mobile app market will generate up to $581.9 billion in revenue by the end of 2020.
An organization doesn’t need to be the size of Facebook to monetize its app. There are a myriad of ways to generate revenue with a mobile marketing strategy. Offering in-app sponsorship opportunities to industry partners allows associations to offset any development costs and presents a significant new stream of non-dues revenue. These can range from standard banner ads to more interactive tactics such as sponsored content, polls, push notifications and resources.
It’s a Mobile World – Time to Hop on the Train.
Taken together, these statistics offer a compelling reason to cast aside these old excuses for resisting mobile. Older generations can adapt to new technologies and apps are no different- they do use them. Organizations need to be where their members are in order to engage with them—and that place is their phones. Time to follow the money and the data and hop on board!
