For you broadcasters, the mobile app gives you the opportunity to build an environment around your brand. The app also presents many monetizing options. But let’s not forget the core asset of broadcast radio: its special relationship with its audience and, in some cases, communities. Consider weaving social networking functionalities, such as a buddies list, into your app and leveraging the power of Facebook or Twitter, for example.  41% of weekly online radio listeners have a profile on a social networking site  (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or other).

Build a strategy, not just an app

Despite the obvious necessity for radio to reach listeners on their smartphones and other mobile communication devices, it’s never a good idea to rush things through. The broadcasting industry’s stance toward mobile applications reminds me of the initial reflex of most media companies on the arrival of the Web: “we have to have a website because we just have to”. This shortcut behavior almost always resulted in failure.
 
The best advice I can give broadcasters is this: take time to build a strategy, and plan ahead in terms of time and resources. Your application cannot only achieve a short time goal (be there) but it can drive mid- or long-term business objectives as well.

The framework I suggest is to define a product roadmap for your mobile presence. Think of your app as a broad, evolving strategy and not as a simple deliverable. Establish goals for this product to reach. Goals can be qualitative and quantitative, often measured through Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

For example, if your goal is to increase general reach, you could use standard indicators like the number of listeners (AQH), or the time spent listening (TTSL). You could also measure the percentage of mobile listeners or total listeners. You could measure how your ads perform, in click-through rate (CTR) or other. Or you could of course measure the number of app downloads over a given period of time.

When establishing your roadmap, identify a 3 to 6 month timeline with some milestones, for each of which you associate objectives and KPIs. At every milestone, your team and your streaming services provider (StreamTheWorld) will assess how well the objectives have been met and, based on the metrics, what new features to develop or what revisions to make to existing product features.

In the end, this process will fine-tune your app, making it serve your business objectives and maximizing your return on investment (ROI).

A project first step: build an app that fits your audience like a glove

What you need to clarify at the start of a project is: who do you target with this mobile app? What part of your audience is more likely to listen to your station(s) on mobile devices? What are their listening habits? What mobile device do they own? You don’t build an app for yourself or your brand after all. You build an app for your listeners – your users.

You might find out that 90% of your listeners are iPhone users vs Blackberry users – or the opposite! You might also find out that you have more potential ‘mobile listeners’ than you thought: one of StreamTheWorld’s clients, a hip hop station, sees 27% of all its online listeners using the iPhone to tune in.

Targeting a specific audience will help you and your service provider build an application that suits your audience’s needs, tastes, and level of sophistication. You now have the chance to engage with your listener individually, instead of relying on mass communication. Don’t miss it! Your listeners will reward you with great loyalty if, and only if, you give them a solution that fits their practical (immediate) or aspirational (deeper rooted) needs.
At StreamTheWorld, ‘Professional Services’ is the team serving clients directly, day-to-day, and on short- to long-term projects. They include business analysts, user experience specialists, interactive designers and project managers. This is the group that will design your custom mobile app and help you define a roadmap for it. They work jointly with the Development team which has dedicated mobile application programmers, some of them certified on specific platforms such as the iPhone, the Blackberry or Android (Google).
Professional Services (PS) will propose a feature set for your mobile app based on your station or network’s brand, assets, business objectives and target audience. They will then prioritize this list of features in order to establish the initial roadmap: feature set for Phase 1, feature set for Phase 2, etc.

A mobile application can take various forms: single station/multi station, live/on-demand, audio/video, or any of these combined. A mobile app can use geo-positioning to propose the ‘nearest station’. Social media, targeted content offer, advertising, games, and news can offer the listener a more complete ‘multimedia’ experience that is centered on your brand. Banner ads, pre-rolls, overlays, song downloads, affiliate programs, sponsored skins, and others can generate revenue streams. And don’t forget personalization: offer your users flexibility. The chance to activate or de-activate some features, change some settings, modify the look of “their” app, so that it fits their own look; so that it’s harmonious with their lifestyle.

Roadmap attraction: the signs of innovation

A mobile app is more than a way to stream your content. It’s a totally unique way to relate to your audience: multimedia, multisensory, targeted, and personalized. The beauty of the Web is that the experience you propose can evolve. Each new version of your app will bring you closer to your audience. Your listeners will feverishly wait for each application update to see what enhancements and new features it offers.

A well planned mobile application strategy and subsequent innovation will result in a product that will grab your listeners, bring you new listeners, and keep all of them happily hooked on your brand and unique content proposal. And combined with the help of social media and its viral spreading ability, the attractiveness of your brand has a great potential to expand. Therefore, your brand becomes even more significant to your advertisers.

Contact us for more information on how that model could work for you.

By André-Claude Potvin, UX and monetization strategist