How to Leverage Mobile Marketing for E-commerce | Synerise

In 2017, the volume of mobile traffic surpassed that from desktop browsers. Seizing the opportunities presented in the mobile channel is more important than ever before.

Mobile is one of the most direct communication channels, with open rate reaching 90%. Currently, we are dealing with the rapid development of this area of marketing, e.g. in the form of advanced behavioral targeting. It also allows marketers to track in-app traffic and to personalize messages in the application based on the user’s behavior.

First of all, it’s a must to adapt your site to the RWD version. Otherwise, it will not be supported by Google and be well positioned. It is worth building either a good RWD version or a separate mobile version of the site.

Creating a dedicated mobile application is a good idea for any ecommerce operation with ambitious plans for the future. A well-designed application will allow users to shop faster and be able to easily make purchases through a mobile phone. You also get the opportunity to obtain customer data such as their geolocation, which will allow you to better personalize the offer.

Why is mobile marketing is so important?

• 30% of all e-commerce purchases during the Christmas season in 2015/2016 were made on a smartphone
• 80% of buyers used a mobile phone in a physical store to check product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations
• 92% of those who searched on mobile complited the action and made a related purchase
• According to research, 61% of users will probably not return to a mobile site they had problems with (e.g. long loading time, unintuitive interface), and 40% of them will visit a competitor’s website instead
• The number of emails opened on mobile phones has increased by 180% in the last three years

STEP 1. Encourage Users to Download Your Mobile App

Users who visit a website using mobile devices or mobile browsers can have a banner displayed at the top of the page, informing them about the possibility of downloading the mobile application in the App Store. Based on the operating system, the banner will redirect the user to the App Store or Google Play.

To increase app downloads, you may also send a series of mobile-only deals, 1:1 web push notifications, desktop banners, emails, etc. The pop-up on the website or an email campaign sent to users who are not currently using your app are simply gentle reminders that you can use. You can include personal recommendations based on search and purchase histories and inform users about exclusive personal discounts in the mobile app.

STEP 2. Identify People Visiting Your Mobile App

Identify people from their first visit in the mobile application. After a customer creates an account, you can associate the information obtained about them with a previously created profile in your marketing platform (eg. Synerise), which allows you to create a detailed picture of the customer. It also prevents data from being duplicated in several profiles for the same customer.

In the case of mobile applications, an appropriate client identifier (UUID) is used, generated based on the type of device used to create the account, which allows for generating the same identifier even after uninstalling and installing the application again.

STEP 3. Monitor Users Activities Within a Mobile App

User activity monitoring (UAM) is the monitoring and recording of all user actions, including the use of applications, windows opened, forms filled in, check boxes clicked and nearly every other on-screen event.

You can use this data to accurately target messages in the mobile channel.

What information can you gain from mobile applications thanks to Synerise?

• Identification of app users
• Information about the type of device used
• Interactions in the mobile application
• List of completed actions, including:
• Viewed elements and sections
• Viewed screens
• Time spent in the application
• Number and frequency of opens
• Entered data (search fields, forms)
• Changes in app settings
• Changes in user profile

What do you gain from this information?

This user data is very valuable and allows you to create various automations, like running specific actions based on events in the mobile application (for example, browsing a specific category for a certain time generates a banner display with promotion for this category or sending an email with these products).

You can control what the scenario looks like and whether the campaign is limited to the mobile application, or whether it will combine other channels, like email. Information on what categories and products the customer viewed in the mobile application will also allow you to display dynamic messages on the website. Thanks to this, your recommendation system will take into account what the customer was interested in in the mobile application and in the online store.

Also, this data enriches your knowledge of the customer. Each click gives you a data point about what he likes, what he is interested in, etc. On this basis, you can create segments of application users who are similar in terms of their interests, preferences or based on some other metric.

Wrapping Up

Knowledge about customer behavior will also allow you to optimize your mobile application in terms of how users interact with it. For example, if a certain option or functionality is used very rarely, why not change it?

Originally published at Synerise: How to Leverage Mobile Marketing for E-commerce on 26.06.2019.