See transcript on improving the customer experience below:
The top priorities for creating the perfect mobile customer experience
As we all know personalization is essential, but we need to go beyond the basics of first name, as these sorts of elements are expected now. So for example, one Iterable customer has this great abandoned cart series where they check to see if the user is an existing customer or not. And if they aren’t they offer them a 10% discount, to try and help get them over that first purchase line. They’re using the data available to them to personalise the journey.
Cross-channel is another really key area in today’s world. Delivering the same consistent messaging across all channels for that same customer experience is key. For example, if I’m predominantly interacting with your brand via a mobile app, then contact me via mobile channels, as this is clearly where I’m most engaged. Listen to the signals that are being collected.
Another very important one for brands is just to be likeable. Let the customer know what your company values are and how you’re living these values. A good example is skincare brand REM, which is trying to reduce all non-recyclable bottles in its products. They are changing how their products look and work, and they’ve been really vocal about why they’re making these changes, and the positive impact that they want to have so that users can clearly understand their values as a brand and how product usage is part of this.
As a brand, you want to let the customer know how their actions are contributing to the company’s values. Make the user feel good about their contribution, but part of this is also being honest as well. If something bad happens, for example, you need to be open and honest with the customer as quickly as possible. So let’s say their order was accidentally cancelled or the website crashed. Just be truthful with the customers and this will help to build trust with them.
What is user sentiment and how can it be used in mobile marketing campaigns?
To start with it is important to first look at brand sentiment. Brand sentiment is primarily how a user feels about your brand, and you can track this through data. This includes yes scores, app reviews, tracking customer usage purchases, et cetera. Iterable has built an AI model to gauge users affinity for a brand by looking at their engagement signals across email and mobile.
It’s really important to track this customer sentiment across all of your customer facing experiences, mobile, social, email, whatever it might be, because customers engage differently with brands on mobile than they might do on desktop, web or tablet experiences. At the end of the day, all entry points to your brand, build up to only one customer sentiment. Some examples of how you can use this data include; loyalty programmes, asking for app store reviews, and refer a friend programmes.
Do you want to create these workflows and automate them again with the data that you have?
Reviews are really important. If a customer leaves a good review, or even better a great one, give them a discount code or ask for more feedback. If they leave a bad review, try and find out more and aim to change that score within your nurture programmes. Another Iterable customer asks their users to review the service they received, and in a second purchase nurture workflow, they actually check to see the latest review score they left, and if they left a bad review, they enter them down a much more nurturing flow to try and get them to make another purchase. They do this because they know it’s going to be a much more potentially difficult to sale to make.
User sentiment also has a huge impact on your acquisition efforts. These good reviews are social proof and will improve your conversion on your listings.
How can personalisation play a part in a successful mobile customer experience?
Personalisation is only as good as the data that you have access to. Any personalisation strategy should start with a review of the data that you currently have, and an assessment of how hard it would be to pull in additional data points that will elevate that customer experience even further.
Firstly, you need to show the user that you know them and that you care about them. A good example here is a skincare brand that was sending a 20% off code, and they kept emailing reminders to use it before it expired but I’d actually already used it on day one. Really simple things like this can be changed if you’re collecting and using the right data.
Another Iterable customer is Fastic, an intermittent fasting app, that allows you to track loads of metrics such as step count, water intake, fasting time. They send a push notification when a user hasn’t done those things for the day, because they know that the more that the user tracks them the more sticky and engaged they are with the app. They are strategically personalising the journey, based on actions that have or haven’t been taken yet.
The key takeaway here is to personalise the customer journey, exactly to the user’s needs. It is important to determine what will help them take the next step in that journey. Another generic example is looking at customers in a free trial period. These customers need to be treated differently. It is by paying attention to the behavioural signals that you can identify the more engaged customers who are ready to convert. On the other hand, customers who aren’t taking certain actions might need a bit more hand holding or nurture down those flows. All of this points to why it’s so important to have access to all of the right data in one place and make it accessible to use.
How to leverage brand authenticity in app marketing campaigns
Why should your customers listen to you and trust what you as a company say and do?
You need to show them why.
Whatever that story is that your brand is telling, make sure it’s consistent across all channels. If you’re a mobile-first brand, let the customer know where they can find the detail they need to know, provide a link to a blog on the website where you’re discussing how your company is demonstrating trust with its customers, or remind them to check their emails to find a feedback survey because you actually want to hear their opinion.
Iterable recently ran a study to find out how marketers have altered their messaging priorities in the past year. 500 b2c marketers were polled and it was discovered that 74% said that it’s likely their brand will change its consumer trust strategy over the next year, which just shows how much importance brands are putting on authenticity now. For mobile-first companies, sometimes when you download the app as a user, it’s not always quick and easy to understand and see your brand’s core values and who they are. You want to make this really easy and accessible to your customers.
Finally, you need to be really sensitive to what’s going on in the world around your customers. Again this is where data comes into play to try and accurately know where your customers are. For instance, when there are natural disasters happening in various parts of the world, be sensitive to what type of messaging you’re sending those customers who you know are based in these locations because they may not be as receptive to your holiday discount code message when they have other things on their mind. Ultimately you want to build a conversation with your customers through social media, mobile, feedback survey sharing news, answering questions, whatever it might be, but that conversation is really important to build brand trust and authenticity. That conversation is built on a solid data foundation.
If you want to find out more about how improving the mobile customer experience can impact your app marketing campaign or you have any app marketing questions feel free to reach out to the Yodel Mobile Growth Team. Additionally you can sign up to our newsletter for exclusive industry updates and app marketing insights. Want to find out more about optimising your app? Make sure to subscribe to our Mastering Mobile Marketing video series. Follow us on LinkedIn, chat with us on Twitter @yodelmobile, and join our #AppMarketingUK LinkedIn group.
