How In-App Outshines Its Big Brother, the Push Notification

business2community.com

The most effective business strategies don’t focus on push notifications alone to engage with users. In-app messaging is a powerful tool for retention and driving loyalty on mobile.

According to Statista, in-app purchase is the number one source of mobile revenue. When 48.2% of your purchases are from in-app purchases it’s time to take notice.

An in-app message – also known as native app content or in-app notification – is a direct message that displays to your app users only when they are active within the app. In-app gives you the power to react in real-time to your app users, not when databases catch-up 24 hours later.

Our data shows that in-app messaging typically sees higher interaction rates because the in-app audience is already captive. A user doesn’t need to opt-in for in-app, it delivers to your entire user base. It doesn’t even matter if the user is opted-out, in-apps still deliver. You already have your app user’s attention, now is the time to use it.

In-app messaging gives marketers great creativity; the notifications are customisable. They can appear as a banner, pop-up or inline. They are native messages that can pop, slide or blend. They are adaptable to the type of message you want to send; for example, full-screen to let users know about a special offer, or in-line for an app feature. In-app notifications can include images and deep links.

In-app messages and push notifications are usually bundled together. Push notifications are useful of course, but in-app messaging is leading the charge for revenue generation and engagement. Push notifications can be limited in terms of design. Even worse, a poorly timed push can frustrate app users, leading them to delete. Here we’ll focus on some of the benefits of in-app notifications.

In-app provides advantages like few other channels. One of the biggest advantages to in-app messaging is when you can combine it with an event trigger, such as a session open or a purchase. Following the if-this-then-that framework, in-apps can be triggered by a specific user behaviour, tap or an app event. This is real-time contextualisation and hugely valuable for app owners. There is little reliance on vanity metrics like “engagements.” In-app messaging delivers a clear yes or no action providing distinct, actionable results.

The following in-app messaging guidelines come from a lot of experience. Mobile marketing automation is still relatively new. Utilising data from millions of mobile interactions over time, we’ve created a series of guidelines for leveraging in-app to deliver bigger turnover and increase user loyalty.

In-app is a gift for marketers. It allows you to communicate directly with highly engaged users. What mobile customers want most is information and offers about products when they need them. In-app becomes the next best offer at the right time. We’ve outlined some useful tactics to drive better engagement through in-app messaging:

• A clear, definable goal should be your first step for in-app messaging success. Understanding your users and aligning with your funnel stages serves to better your in-app marketing.
• A classic error for marketers is sending in-app messaging to your entire audience with no segmentation. This is a spray-and-pray approach. Marketing is only as effective as its targeting. Broadcasting one-size-fits-all messaging can be an expensive error. It fails to take into account that your users are individuals. Let’s look at a sports betting app example. Where is the value in delivering a message based on horse racing to a user has never tapped on that sport? This leads to churn. We’ve collected more use cases for in-app messaging specifically for sports betting here.
• Keep your messaging clear and succinct. Use a single call-to-action. Make it clear what you want them to do – reload a cart, place a bet or discover a new feature – and make it easy for them to complete it. Broadcast style in-app is just as bad as broadcast style push. It is spammy and puts users off your app and your brand.
• Always, always include a deep link. Make it easy for your user to actually complete the CTA you are giving them. “Buy now” should lead to a product page, “Bet now” should go to a filled bet slip.
• In-app messaging is key to combatting cart abandonment. Remind users to continue shopping, or give an extra incentive to complete their purchase in the form of a discount or free shipping.
• Use in-app to merge your onboarding journeys and share the value your app offers. Onboarding is a prime opportunity to showcase what your app can do. Utilise images and text to educate your app users. Guide them through the best journey of your app.
• Automation is your ally here for in-app. It’s there to do the hard work. Mobile marketing automation allows you to target based on what your users are doing, engage across relevant channels, (mobile or otherwise) and gives CRM and marketing teams the time to focus on A/B testing, data analysis, and mobile journey planning.
• Request an app review. Trigger an in-app after a recent purchase in a retail app or a winning bet in a sports betting app to request an app store review, when they have just had a positive app experience.

With a clear in-app messaging strategy you’ll be one step closer to genuine engagement with your app users and better retention and monetisation results. In-app messaging is geared towards the uniqueness of app users and is flexible enough to serve everyone from generation Xers to Millennials.

5 Laws of Advertising and Marketing That Haven't Changed in a Half Century

entrepreneur.com
The three-martini wisdom of advertising legend David Ogilvy is as relevant in our age of the internet and social media as it was in his time of three TV networks and daily newspapers.

The other day on the subway, I came across an advertisement for the travel app Gett that read: “Uber surges, we don't. Now that we have your attention, sex.” I chuckled to myself and, once I got above ground, immediately downloaded the Gett App.

There’s no denying it: marketing has changed. Our delivery mechanisms, our strategies, the way in which we try to be clever (“Lucas uses Venmo”, anyone?) have all experienced a paradigm shift in the last decade or two.

But what’s even more interesting is how much marketing has stayed the same. Certain laws and practices have gone unchanged for over 50 years. In 1963, David Ogilvy wrote (arguably) the first book on modern marketing, entitled Confessions of an Advertising Man. For this, he earned the title “the father of marketing” and is most-likely the basis for Mad Men’s Don Draper.

This praise is not undeserved. It’s uncanny how much his original set of rules holds up in the modern world. From his time (when cowboys gave credibility to cigarettes) to today(with our ubiquitous Lucas Venmo ads), Ogilvy’s philosophy endures.

Here are five of Ogilvy’s Laws that live on in the modern era of marketing.

Law 1: “The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.”

While almost certainly sexist by today’s standards, Ogilvy was hinting at a profound truth: companies that value the intelligence of their customers will be rewarded with great customers.

This is truer now than ever before. Before buying a product, 81 percent of shoppers do research online. This means reading reviews, checking warranties, and skewering businesses for the best deals possible. It’s one of the reasons that brand loyalty is fast becoming a thing of the past.  And it’s why ads that reward viewers for stopping, thinking, and asking questions (like “what is Venmo?”) are the ones we remember.

You’re more likely to see this law play out when it backfires. A good example of this is Coca Cola’s recent debacle over a “study” that claimed you could eat or drink whatever you wanted, so long as you exercised enough. It wasn’t long before consumers called B.S. on Coke’s study, going as far as to compare that particular claim to the lies propagated by the tobacco industry.

Lesson learned: your customers are smart, don’t lie to them.

Law 2: “Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.”

Ogilvy’s “don’t play it safe” philosophy resonates in our digital world, with its constant bombardment of commercials and advertisements. To stand out, you need to be bold.

Red Bull is a good case study. Why are they so successful? Bold branding. When Red Bull entered the United States in the late 90’s, they claimed their energy drink “gives you wings.” As this image evolved, they tapped into people’s love of the extreme. Red Bull didn’t just sponsor extreme sports, they created them. During their annual Flugtag events, people built homemade flying machines and broke world records. There was also that time when they sponsored the longest freefall in history, Felix Baumgartner's iconic 128,000 feet dive.

These kinds of bold, confident campaign moves have put Red Bull in the company of immortals.

Law 3: “A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.”

Though this sound more like the words of Sun Tzu than of an advertising man, Ogilvy calls attention to a phenomenon that we take for granted today. Modern marketing is a long game. You have to attract customers, close them, and delight them. But before you do any of those, you have to get their attention.

Consider this: companies that publish 16 or more blog posts each month get 3.5x the leads as those that publish 4 or less. Those are some serious numbers for an organic inbound vehicle. Blogging works precisely because it doesn’t call attention to itself. Blogging is for brand awareness and credibility, not for the hard sell. It’s a slow process, one of the many touches needed to make a sale these days. If you try to sell too hard, it’ll knock your credibility level with consumers down by almost a third.

Law 4: “I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.”

The delicate goal of advertising and marketing is to reach customers where they’re most comfortable and happy, and actually motivate them to do something. Lately, advertisers have been turning to sponsored content to accomplish that.

They inject themselves into high-traffic, high-authority sites (like Shell or Adobe in The New York Times’ T Brand Studios) and offer information, like with any other blog post, that generates more attention for their brand.

And it works. Sponsored content is already 25 percent more successful than display ad units, and generates an 18% higher drive to purchase. People are more likely to trust it because it’s actually helpful (and an ad by itself isn’t).

Law 5: “What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.”

Of Ogilvy’s five laws, this one is surely the most controversial. Many marketers would strong disagree and say that how you brand your product is absolutely everything. But this doesn’t have to be an either/or scenario. It’s both, with more of an emphasis on what you say (over how you say it).

Take Domino’s campaign to make their pizzas taste better. They acknowledged that they had been getting bad press about their pizzas, and wanted to change things. Since then, Domino’s has followed through and their stock has jumped from $7.73 to $105.11.

It goes back to the first rule: transparency is everything. If you are honest, it matters less how you spin it. Just deliver the truth. If the customer trusts you, they’re more likely to buy from you. It’s not only common sense, it’s common ethics.

What the future holds

Ogilvy’s legacy is as strong as ever. To this day, Ogilvy (the agency) uses his face and quotes in nearly all of their posts. Part of the reason for his enduring legacy is because so much of what he did was based on respect for the customer. That means respecting their intelligence, their needs, and their ambitions in life.

Sometimes marketing gets mislabeled as a form of deception. But it’s not. It’s more about empathy and psychology, and understanding how to put your best foot forward. And not being afraid to be a bit bold in the process.

Marketers are optimistic about apps

warc.com

SAN FRANCISCO: Some 60% of mobile marketers are not concerned about app overload, or have never heard of it, according to a new global survey that suggests the industry can be optimistic about the future of app marketing.

YouAppi, a start-up that specialises in mobile ad-serving technology solutions, commissioned Dimensional Research to survey 327 in-house, agency and ad tech mobile marketers to gauge their views about the app ecosystem.

User acquisition (86%), engagement (68%) and segmentation (55%) emerged as their top three priorities for 2017 when it came to the customer journey, with just 50% citing app re-engagement as a priority.

Nearly four-in-five (78%) mentioned user acquisition when asked what they are using to meet their customer journey priorities, while only 51% cited app re-engagement.

The researchers found this encouraging because a study from comScore last year showed that 49% of US smartphone owners download zero apps in a typical month, which sparked some concern among mobile marketers at the time.

"Those in the trenches of mobile marketing are optimistic regarding the future of app marketing when user acquisition is still the leading tactic as well as the one delivering the best ROI and so few are concerned about app overload," said Diane Hagglund, Founder and Principal of Dimensional Research.

The survey also revealed that video will continue to grow in 2017 because three-quarters (74%) of respondents said they will increase their investment in mobile video. Just 9% plan to lower their mobile video budgets.

Video for social media and in-app video emerged as the most popular ad format (48%), followed by brand video advertising (38%), video for the mobile web (36%) and rewarded video (31%).

For paid social campaigns, respondents said that Facebook delivered the best ROI, with 89% saying that Facebook was the most effective, followed by Instagram (41%) and then Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest.

They also indicated that 2017 would see them investing in data-driven technologies with proven business value and revenue potential, such as machine learning (37%), mobile payments (25%) and artificial intelligence (23%).

Commenting on this last finding, YouAppi CEO Moshe Vaknin, said: "As a data-driven company, we're excited to see that most mobile marketing professionals plan to invest in technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence, which will enable them to better analyse and use their data to improve campaign performance."

Picking Your Mobile Solution: Should You Build A Native App Or Stick With Responsive Web Design?

forbes.com

It’s the new dilemma facing companies looking to beef up their mobile presence: To build a native app or stick with responsive web design. I've stopped counting the number of times I've been asked this question in the decade I've been running a mobile and web development studio.

While the question is always the same, my answer varies depending on each company’s needs and business focus. Each solution has its own pluses and minuses, though I categorically recommend that everyone steer clear of cross-platform frameworks, at least for now. (React Native, the newest and the most promising way to build cross-platform apps, is still in its infancy. This might be an interesting option for the business community in the future, but the technology is just not there yet for me.)

When deciding on the best mobile strategy for your company, it’s important to take several factors into consideration, including cost, speed to market, and how portable it is across platforms. Most importantly, though, never lose sight of your users. The goal is to give them the best mobile experience out there. So let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of responsive websites and native apps.

Responsive Websites

Responsive web products -- essentially mobile-device-friendly web products -- are the easiest, most cost-efficient and fastest to build. There are many libraries that can help the development process move more efficiently, and a lot of engineers can work on the project at the same time. Make one change, and it can be instantly seen on all platforms. The UI is simple and user acquisitions are cheaper than with mobile apps.

On the other hand, overall performance can be slow, especially with animations and videos. You also won’t be able to insert push notifications, which are great tools for alerting users about new messages and offers.

This is a solution that will work for every company but is best suited for content-heavy projects. We've worked on a number of responsive web projects over the last several years, and they seem to work best for content-heavy companies like estate investment platforms. (In other words, websites with lots of long paragraphs and no defined borders.) Consider responsive web your default option. It allows you to update and change your content immediately, unlike native apps, which require you to release an update to the app store that must then be downloaded by your user base.

If your user base does not require your services be available in just one tap, then there is no real reason to consider a native app, which is more expensive and takes longer to develop. To take the above example, it’s highly unlikely that you would be making complex real estate investment decisions on the phone while riding the subway to work, so responsive web would be ideal here. On the other hand, if you want to grab a ride home after a long night of club-hopping, then you’d likely want to be able to order an Uber as easily as possible. In that case, a native app is the better choice.

Common Mobile Monetization Mistakes: How to Choose the Right Ad Formats

adage.com

Sooner or later, most mobile site owners face the problem of monetizing their customers. There are numerous ways to earn money via mobile traffic, but right now we'll talk about publishers that prefer to make all the adjustments by themselves, using automation platforms.

Let's assume that our hypothetical site owner is past registration and integration, and has to decide what mobile ad format to choose. More often than not, publishers pick ad formats according to their personal preferences, plus a vague knowledge about the efficiency of those formats. BUT those personal preferences can be detached from the reality of mobile web advertising.

We've analyzed the data collected by Clickky's self-serve platform to see how the opinion of site owners concerning the best ad formats correlates to profitability.

Determining the efficiency of ad formats

"Which mobile ad format IS the most efficient?" is a tricky question. Any part of the question can be regarded as faulty, once you take a closer look.

• "Which mobile ad format ..." -- there are too many classifications, vague terminology, types and forms, not to mention "new" ad formats (basically old ones but with tricky new names).
• "... most efficient" -- by whom, according to what criteria? (Should we consider how long people observe the ad or how often do they click on it? Or maybe it's more important what they do afterward?)

Here's our reference data:

1. We determine the efficiency of a given ad format according to the number of clicks. We don't count leads because, when dealing with CR from clicks to leads, factors like app ratings and reviews are more important.
2. The efficiency of ad formats is viewed from the standpoint of a site owner who is using automation platforms in order to monetize the traffic

We selected 500 random sites to determine the popularity of different mobile ad formats among the users registered on our self-serve platform, and we studied the efficiency of ad formats displayed on those 500 sites.

Here's what we found:

The ad formats most commonly chosen by the owners of 500 mobile sites are catfish (31.1% of owners prefer this format), native (27.3%) and full screen (13.5%). The least popular ones are dialog ads (8.1% of site owners use such ads), recommended apps (6.7%), rich media (5.2%), expandable (4.6%) and interstitial ads (3.5%).

The click-through rate for each of the formats sometimes does not correlate with the level of popularity it has among the site owners. The catfish ads have CTR rate of 2.33%, dialog ads -- 8.66%, recommended apps -- 0.22%, fullscreen -- 2.55%, rich media -- 3.63%, expandable -- 3.78%, interstitial -- 1.96%, and native -- 1.22%.

Dialog ads, expandable and rich media ad formats have had the highest CTR, while the more popular native and catfish received below-average CTR.

The amount of clickability for every ad format may be represented in the following figures: 35.6% for dialog ads, 15.5% for expandable, 14.9% for rich media, 10.5% for fullscreen, 9.6% for catfish, 9% for recommended apps, 8% for interstitials and 5% for native ads.

Therefore, from the publisher's point of view, the most profitable ad formats are (in descending order of popularity):

• Catfish
• Native
• Fullscreen
• Dialog ads
• Recommended apps
• Rich media
• Expandable
• Interstitial

Nevertheless, mobile site users "voted" for entirely different ad formats with their clicks (in descending order of clickability):

• Dialog ads
• Expandable
• Rich media
• Fullscreen
• Catfish
• Interstitial
• Native
• Recommended apps

Of course, this research is not the ultimate cure, but it provides some valuable information for your consideration. The experience shows that site owners often make mistakes when choosing the most efficient ad formats. Always take into account the characteristics of the site and the mobile app categories. Don't be afraid to experiment -- try working with different partners and new formats. Focus on the solutions that have the widest pick of mobile ad formats. You should also incorporate an additional platform if the one you are currently using doesn't provide 100% of all existing mobile ad formats.

And don't forget about constantly optimizing the monetization process.

The App Sticking Point: Ensuring Success Beyond the Install

exchangewire.com

Imagine you’re playing your favorite game, and you receive a gift card for reaching a certain score. Now imagine this happens when you complete a purchase within a shopping app? Would these rewards influence your continued use of the app? Many mobile marketers have begun leveraging rewards to combat an ever-evolving app ecosystem. As more and more apps are created, app marketers have continually struggled to get discovered, downloaded and, now more than ever, find engaged users. In this piece, Alex Kalish (pictured below), vice president of engineering at Meed, discusses the best way to encourage users to complete an action and ingrain behaviours as habit in the lives of consumers.

In mobile marketing, there is a great deal of emphasis placed on app installs, and rightly so. If your app downloads are miniscule, the potential for success is extremely limited. However, it’s important to realise that the install does not guarantee success. In such a crowded app ecosystem, users are becoming more accustomed to deleting apps that no longer fit their needs and searching for new ones. With so much variety and competition, app abandonment is a serious challenge for developers.

Developers must now work to turn these installs into loyal, monetising users. How many of your newly acquired users are engaging with the app and at what rate? What percentage have the potential to spend money on in-app purchases? Your success rests on your ability to not only acquire users, but to guide them through revenue-generating actions within your app.

Statistics show that some 50% of apps are used less than 10 times before they are deleted. That means that the window to secure an engaged and loyal user is extremely short. It is essential to focus on driving the critical actions, or app sticking points, that let a user see the value of your app from the moment the download takes place.

Alex Kalish, VP Engineering, Meed

Have you ever thought about what your app’s sticking points are? Understanding these critical actions is key to moving users from trying the app to habitually using it. For games, this sticking point may be completing a level. For a social networking app, it could be making a new connection. Regardless of the app type, it is clear that completing these actions leads to loyalty. However, more often than not, they must be completed multiple times. Leveraging rewards, such as a coupon code, gift card, or free level-up on a game, to incentivise users to take these actions multiple times will help bring them to the point of loyalty. The types of app rewards that could be offered are endless – whether an ad-free experience after watching a video ad up front, a £1 gift code for playing a game, or a free level-up on a game for taking a survey, there are many different rewards marketers can offer to get users over the hurdle and to the point of loyalty.

When working to identify your app’s sticking points, it is important to look for those actions that reveal the app’s value to the user. However, it can be easy to confuse actions that deliver value to the user with actions that are required to use the app, or those that benefit the app publisher. For example, registration might be a necessary step (and provide valuable information to the developer), but completing it does not lead to loyalty by itself. Actions that showcase the app’s value to the user will lead to both loyalty and investment in the app.

Many successful apps, like Starbucks, have found success by leveraging rewards to guide users through these critical actions. For example, Starbucks rewards their customers for using their app to make a purchase. Every time you pay for your Starbucks purchase with the app you earn stars, which can eventually lead to a free drink or food item. This continual cycle of rewards drives usage and keeps Starbucks’ app users loyal.

CPE (cost-per-engagement) campaigns provide app publishers an additional opportunity to leverage rewards. In these campaigns, small rewards are given to users every time they complete a desired action. The most successful of these campaigns are clearly structured around sticking points and are run multiple times for each user. For example, we ran a successful CPE campaign for a Fortune 50 company’s personal finance app. Their app generated revenue when a user paid their bills through the app. Instead of incentivising users too early in the process (install, registration, adding expenses) the company rewarded users each time they completed the critical sticking point, paying a bill. The app was able to encourage deep in-app engagement with the users who really mattered – those committed to using bill pay.

In today’s crowded app environment, success is based on a publisher’s ability to move users from install to loyalty. To do this, marketers must understand the app’s value proposition and help users complete the necessary actions to experience it. The best way to encourage users to complete an action is through the strategic use of rewards. By using rewards to ingrain a behaviour as habit in the lives of consumers, apps can be certain that loyalty will increase over time. The most successful app companies leverage rewards and CPE campaigns as critical components of their broader engagement strategy.

Bridging the Gaps: Measuring Marketing Impact in an Omni-Channel World

martechadvisor.com

The businesses of today and the future require the ability to provide consumers with as seamless an experience as possible when they interact with your brand across different touchpoints. Yet it is not enough for businesses to leverage the many channels marketers have at their disposal. The ability to measure the effectiveness of omni-channel activities, and the ability to act upon the insights gained from measuring their impact represents the holy grail for marketers. Some brands are already increasingly seeking to quantify and qualify their activities across desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and, more recently, even wearables like smartwatches. Yet many marketers are still not adept at measuring even a single channel, much less multiple channels.

To understand this better, the problem of building an omni-channel strategy in marketing and sales needs to be tackled first and then we can explore how and why marketers are still struggling in this area. For instance, 85% of CMOs fail to measure omni-channel strategies, and only 40% of marketers measure mobile app revenue, when in fact the lifetime value of customers (LTV) is higher for shoppers who shop both online and in-store.

For example - a game developer company drove business growth by identifying the channels its best users were coming from and then increasing resources and activities on those channels. On the other hand, a food manufacturer company who wasn’t properly measuring or attributing their activities across TV and mobile ad campaigns eventually realized they could drive a 45% boost in retail sales by using end-to-end attribution across TV and mobile to identify and engage potential consumers.

Here we offer an actionable set of best practices and principles culled from experience in cross-channel measurement:

Become a master of one

Before diving into an omni-channel strategy, a marketer should become an expert in one channel. This expertise will act as a foundation to the more complex problem of measuring accurately across many channels.

Understand the technology

Marketers must learn how to use an advanced attribution platform capable of tracking consumer behaviour across channels. This is the first step to anticipating where consumers are coming from and what they need at that moment.

Determine channel location in the sales funnel

Each channel influences different stages in the sales funnel: from building awareness, to creating desire and interest, to securing the sale. Knowing how each channel complements the other is crucial for providing a seamless experience for consumers.

Personalizing a consumer’s journey

Up to 85% of shoppers respond positively to personalized promotions and coupon offers. Optimizing each stop in a consumer’s journey allows for a personalized experience that will help push them through the funnel and the sale.

These learnings allow marketers to appeal to a new breed of omni-channel consumer, one who increasingly wants complete information and access at their fingertips - including features, pricing, discounts, reviews, payment methods and other product data.

Mastering Mobile

Let’s back up for a minute and explore further how to “become a master of one,” as mentioned earlier. This is a brief guide covering what marketers need to know about how to measure the bottom line of mobile activities.

Revenue Measurement

Lifetime value measurement is centered on two key components: the amount of incoming revenue an average user generates and the cost required to acquire an average user.

When it comes to the first part, focus on measuring your total revenue broken down by source. Armed with information will put you in an ideal position to properly optimize your revenue streams and ultimately increase your average user’s LTV.
To get things started, define and measure revenue events with your mobile attribution partner. But what exactly is a revenue event and what types can be measured?

Let’s break it down.

1) Standard in-app purchase event: It goes without saying that of the many in-app actions you should measure, a purchase event is a must as it is the largest source of revenue for most apps. Proper purchase reporting is necessary when running CPA-driven campaigns where the action is a purchase.

2) Rich purchase event: Measuring purchase events will only scratch the surface of the data that can be retrieved. Granularity is always important to get the sharpest insights, but this is especially true for purchase events. For proper revenue optimization, it is highly recommended to have an in-depth knowledge as every cent counts. This is done by adding multiple parameters to the purchase event so you’ll know not only that a purchase event took place but also buying what - with great detail, by whom, when and for how much.

3) Custom revenue events for paid apps and subscriptions: A custom revenue event will enable you to measure incoming revenue from this source, With, a more predictable stream of revenue, subscription apps can be more accurate in their LTV modeling but this can only be done if you know what to expect and that comes from measurement. The key thing here is that when one knows more about money that’s expected to come in, spending on marketing becomes that much easier. Deduping activations from different devices that go through the same account is also important because charges are mostly done on the account level, not the device level.

4) Out-of-app revenue events: LTV calculations will be significantly impacted by purchases performed in other touchpoints like the website, mobile website and even a brick-and-mortar location. As such, if a user that was acquired by the app from a specific source goes on to make purchases outside the app, that user’s LTV and the LTV of the acquiring source obviously change, and with it your performance data. That’s why connecting any out-of-app revenue events to your app marketing data is an important part of measuring LTV. How is this done? By setting up a server-to-server In-App Events API, which will allow you to automatically send these events to your measurement partner.

5) Revenue postback: It is highly recommended to allow your measurement partner to pass on revenue data to your media and service partners (analytics, A/B testing, automation providers etc.). This will enable them to take advantage of the data for better optimization and its use in advanced audience targeting campaigns like personalized retargeting and lookalike targeting.

Connecting the dots

How important is it for app marketers to analyse ad spends with returns and optimize for the channel or channels they’re leveraging? Mobile activities need to be measured through any of the above mentioned ways. These methods gain significance when one can connect the dots through multiple touchpoints and measure the impact of their cross-channel promotions. The early adopters of mobile measurement understand the benefits and acknowledge that it is the best measurable ecosystem ever created. With multiple identifiers, any app marketer can accurately measure their campaigns from start(impressions) to finish(ROI).

FIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES SMALL TO MEDIUM BUSINESSES SIMPLY CAN’T AFFORD TO OVERLOOK

dynamicbusiness.com.au/

The business landscape is constantly evolving due to the emergence of new technologies and trends as well as changes in consumer behaviour. Against this backdrop, the challenge for SME marketing teams is to remain both relevant and competitive, and so attract new customers while retaining existing ones. 

Here are five strategies marketers cannot afford to overlook in the pursuit of customer growth:

1. MOBILE APPS

At the end of 2016, mobile marketing research produced by comScore showed that a prediction back in 2008 by Mary Meeker, which stated that mobiles would overtake the use of fixed internet by 2014, had come true. Globally the number of mobile users, as opposed to desktop users, went past what was called the “mobile tipping point” in 2014. Fixed Internet global user rates started to flatten out in 2015 but the mobile user rate went on an upward trajectory to nearly 2,000 million users.

The rate of mobile technology development is having to keep up with the demands of global consumers. Businesses should now be way past the point of just having a mobile friendly website when it comes to mobile devices and marketing. Getting a mobile app is going to be the one thing that a business needs to invest in if they are going to do anything mobile related in 2017. In the past this has been restrictive, especially for the small to medium enterprises (SME), due to the cost, but there are a number of reasonably priced and appropriate options to get your company mobile centric this year.

Ensure that you are offering mobile payment options because consumers want to tap and order, and tap and pay, and if you can advertise this as an option, you will not be losing out on much needed revenue. Plus it’s a great marketing tool as well.

One of the up and coming trends is the rise in mobile-only apps. Looking at the increase in downloads of apps these are certainly in the forefront so a mobile app, not available on desktop computers, like for example Facebook is, can be a really great way for an SME to market themselves. If you can offer support, trialling or development opportunities to an app developer, it could be even more cost effective in the long run.

2. UNDERSTAND AND USE SEGMENTATION

A customer can be anyone and anywhere on today’s global marketing platform. Having a small consumer base means a business knows its customer base very well and is quick to react if there is a problem. As customer numbers increase it is not realistic to expect customer relationship managers to monitor all events and interactions in order to ensure a positive experience for all. As the consumer base grows a marketing team has to use customer segmentation to manage customers at scale.

Ensure that segmentation is part of the marketing strategy, by dividing consumer base into separate segments based on their characteristics. These can be by size, by industry sector, geographical area, consumer activity and so on. Use this information to scale and target your marketing message by sending out to one whole segment rather than separate individuals, leading to economy of scale.

3. INVEST IN GOOD SEO CONTENT AND ROI

Google have upped their content algorithms, searching out poor and badly written content as well as plagiarised articles. This means they are checking regularly over a period of weeks and months, and their preference is for the longer 800-1000 word articles. This will demonstrate that a business is prepared to look at topics or blogs and articles in more depth.

Newsworthy items, high quality information and relevant links, in fact anything that is going to provide a service or “go to” page for the consumer and that will enable a business to grow their online audience is a must for 2017. Google have also announced that they are making their search index “mobile first”, so keep an eye out for some big changes.

Build in an evaluation of your business’s content marketing and understand the return of investment or ROI in this area. As there is going to be more focus on “rich” content it is important to know that the company is getting a good return for its investment, and hitting the spot as far as getting consumers onboard is concerned.

4. BEHAVIOURAL EMAIL MARKETING AND SPAM

There are still a number of companies who are not taking a strategic approach to email marketing and this is tantamount to leaving a lot of untouched revenue out there. As David Newman remarked, “Email has the ability many other channels don’t; creating valuable, personal touches of scale.”

The ongoing battle for attention when it comes to the customer means that if you have an email contact for them, you should use it appropriately. Improve the design and layout of emails (link to the brand as always) and personalise your approach. Use emails to deploy an invitation or link to the next big marketing campaign you’re running in 2017.

Combine this with a link to larger channels such as social media to supplement your efforts and use creative visual graphics and animations. More importantly, as 2017 is the year of clamping down on junk email and spam, make sure you have a marketing tool that will help break through the blocks.

5. HANDS FREE SEARCH

Finally, voice activated search optimisation such as Amazon Echo, or Windows Cortana, is really taking off for 2017. Along with Google Home, these home connected devices are bringing something very new to the table and as yet there is not very much data or analysis out there to review. Keep in the loop as more information comes out because your marketing department will need to think about voice driven search functions as we get further into the New Year.

Android users more engaged, iOS users strong buyers: study

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A new study from Apps Flyer suggests that only 10 per cent of the users actively use an app after it is installed and 30 days later


While developing a mobile app is a crucial task, what’s more important is to ensure that the app retains its initial prominence. This is among the most difficult obstacles for app developers and marketers to overcome.

A new study from Apps Flyer suggests that only 10 per cent of the users actively use an app after it is installed and 30 days later, the number drops to 5 per cent.  In today’s app marketing ecosystem, the install is no longer the most important KPI marketers optimise against, notes App Flyer.

 An app download is an important stage in the funnel, but focus has shifted from quantity to quality, from acquisition to engagement. The goal: Getting users to engage with an app over time and in a meaningful way so that they can be properly monetised.

The same study further goes on to suggest that while Android users have been found to be more engaging, iOS users are more likely to buy an app than engage with it. According to the report, Android users are 4 per cent more likely to spend money on incentivised apps, iOS users are 25 per cent more likely to do the same. This might explain why most app developers appear to target iOS users first, followed by Android users.

Another interesting observation that can be made from this report is the fact that users have a tendency of engaging more with apps that they download from ads and other such platforms rather than those that they download from Google Play Store out of sheer curiosity.

The report also found that Latin America with an average of 0.07 in-app lifetime purchases per one install over the course of 90 days, is the cheapest followed by India. India is also has the lowest install-to-buyer ratio with 0.84 per cent.

Marketing Your App with User-Generated Content

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There are so many new marketing techniques out there: experiential marketing, viral marketing, cause marketing, relationship marketing, evangelism marketing, cloud marketing… the list is endless (and inspiring). One of these newer strategies involves the use of user-generated content (UGC) to advertise and market your company.

What is user-generated content?

TINT describes it best: “User-generated content (UGC) is defined as any type of content that has been created and put out there by unpaid contributors or, using a better term, fans. It can refer to pictures, videos, testimonials, tweets, blog posts, and everything in between and is the act of users promoting a brand rather than the brand itself.”

A great example is Starbucks’ White Cup Contest. Customers were asked to doodle on their Starbucks cup and submit pictures on Instagram or Twitter as entries. The winning entry became the template for a limited edition Starbucks cup. In just three weeks, 4,000 customers had submitted entries. The creative contest earned Starbucks a lot of publicity and demonstrated that the company values customer input.

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/starbucks-300x228.jpg.jpg

UGC is a great tool to increase engagement amongst your existing consumers and to get people talking about your brand. Your initial thought might be that generating UGC is difficult and time-consuming, however the opposite is true. It is human nature to express our opinion: if you ask for it, they will come.

How can user-generated content benefit your business?

Not convinced yet about the power of UGC, here are 10 impressive statistics:

1. 76% of social media users think UGC is more trustworthy than branded content.

2. 86% of millennials say that UGC is a good indicator of the quality of a brand.

3. UGC-based ads get 4x higher click-through rates and a 50% drop in cost-per-click than average.

4. Brand engagement increases an average of 28% when users are exposed to a combination of user created product videos and professional content.

5. Consumers between the ages of 25-54 create and share 70% of all UGC.

6. User generated videos on YouTube get 10x more views than content created and uploaded by the actual brand.

7. 93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchasing decision.

8. 87% of brands use UGC in order to share “authentic content” and 72% believe (correctly) that it helps them engage their audience.

9. Sites with featured UGC saw a 20% increase in return visitors and up to a 90% increase on the time spent on the site.

10. 70% of consumers trust online peer reviews and recommendations more than professional content and copy.

How will user-generated content help with the marketing of your app?

Word-of-mouth referrals are the best kind of referrals, even in the digital age. More than 50% of consumers want a brand to tell them what type of content to create and share, but only 16% of brands actually do. Take advantage of this willingness to share and use it to in your mobile marketing strategy. Implementing a UGC strategy for your app is easier than it seems, as users can create content on their phones (e.g. pictures, videos) and instantly submit them to your app.

If executed successfully, your UGC campaign will:

• Increase authenticity: By adding authentic and trustworthy elements to your app, you will be able to capture users. Research shows that 78% of millennials prefer photos of real customers over professional photos created by brands.
• Increase app engagement: By involving users in your campaign, you are convincing them to use your app over and over again. Users are engaged with your brand, as they become content producers.
• Increase app reach: A creative campaign will generate significant word of mouth, which will attract new app users. Your contributors will become brand ambassadors, who promote the app for you.
• Increase brand loyalty: It might take some more effort on your customer’s part to post content for your brand, but when they do, it builds loyalty and a stronger sense of community around your business.

How can you run your own user-generated content campaign?

The campaign shouldn’t feel like it is promoting your brand or your app, users should be the ones in the spotlight. To this end, your UGC campaign should embody these things:

• Put the customer front and center: The campaign should speak to your customers, it should their values, passions and emotions. It needs to create a wave of excitement amongst your audience.
• Be authentic and creative: Do not simply copy other brands’ campaigns, use your imagination to let your brand’s personality shine through. Anything goes as long as it is relevant to your brand and its app.
• Create a community: Instead of it being an “us” against “them” situation, where you are trying to win over consumers, your UGC campaign should bring audiences together. Participants should feel like they are part of something special.

You can let your creativity run free, but make sure to consider these 6 requirements when you set up your own campaign.

1. Tailor the campaign to your users

Create a campaign that your users are willing and able to participate in. Keep in mind that not all types user-generated content works for all target audiences. For instance, submitting photos and videos might not be something your users want to do. Instead, you could ask for the submission of ideas, letters, poems, art, testimonials and so on.

2. Use your app as a platform for UGC

The type of content you are requesting should be compatible with your app. Your app will become the platform where all submissions are collected and displayed. You can incorporate social media platforms, just make sure that customers come in contact with your app at some point in the campaign.

3. Request entries that you can use in the future

Even though the campaign is about making customers feel special, it has to be beneficial for your business too. As Hubspot states, “you want to end up with something tangible that can be repackaged and used in your future marketing materials.” Take this into account as you design the campaign and what types of entries you will be asking for.

4. Reward your customers (appropriately) for their effort

You should offer a prize to encourage participation, but it should also align with the amount of effort you are asking customers to put in. By offering a big reward, you can ask your participants to contribute something of value (that you will be able to use for marketing).

5. Make it easy to participate

Even if you are requiring effort from your customers in terms of UGC, it should be easy for them to participate. Entry instructions should be straightforward, submissions should be easy to navigate on your app, and there shouldn’t be any unnecessary sign-up requests. Use your company’s website and social media accounts to promote the campaign and point directly to your app.

6. Iron out any legal issues

Before launching your campaign, you need to consult legal counsel on two issues: the rights you’ll hold over the content submitted to your promotion, and the restrictions that govern giveaways. Regarding the former, participants need to be aware of what will happen to their content after submission. For the latter, your country or state might have specific laws about contests you need comply with.