Increase Customer Engagement via Branded Mobile Apps

What is the first thing you do in the morning? Even before your first coffee? You’ll most likely check your emails, any updates on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or you may check for any promotions and/or special offers on your favourite retail apps.

What is Customer Engagement?

‘Mobile apps are the face of new systems of engagement’ (Schadler and McCarthy, 2012 pg. 4). Great download figures are meaningless if customers aren’t engaging in the app regularly. 38% of users are likely to download an app when its required to complete an action, but 50% of those will uninstall it right after the action is performed (Neosperience, 2015). The key thing for any business is to keep the customer constantly engaged with the app to prevent that your app simply disappears within the ocean of apps.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING STATICS ABOUT APPS:

  • Users spend an average of 30 hours per month in apps
  • The average app user has 36 apps installed on their phones
  • Only 26% of installed apps are used daily
  • 25% of installed apps are never used
  • Only 19% of daily used apps are retail related
  • Nearly 90% of users uninstall an app if the brand fail to engage them

(Neosperience, 2015)

SO… WHAT CAN YOU DO AS A BUSINESS TO INCREASE YOUR CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT VIA MOBILE APPS?

There are a range of ways for businesses to increase their customer engagement via their branded mobile apps. Below are a few examples:

1 | Create an App Your Customers Will Love

Create an app that is easy for your consumers to use but is also aesthetically pleasing. Offering new features or fresh content will lead to them becoming more engaged with the app. Adding features that no other app has makes you stand out and will intrigued to try out the new feature your offering.

 

For example; GoPro have specifically created an app to allow users to connect their GoPro to their phones, which no other app can do called Capture. This feature allows GoPro to increase their customer engagement as it’s the only way for their photos and videos to be viewed and saved to their phones.

 

 

2 | Use Push Notifications to Maintain Front of Mind

According to Kahuna (2015) the average opt-in rate for iOS devices is 42%, the average Android opt-in rate is 78%. Therefore, companies can you this to increase their customer engagement by bringing their app to the consumers front of mind with push notifications. This can be done via offering special daily/weekly offers and/or offering them a deal when they are near a store using iBeacon. They listen for signals from phones with the brands app from beacons placed in the physical world and sends them local and specific push notifications.

Watch the following YouTube video for more information about iBeacons:

3 | Incorporate Social Hooks

Across all age segments, people spend most of their time on social networking sites/apps. Forrester (2011) found that social networking apps account for 14% of smartphone minutes, that’s more than 25 minutes per day. Adding social elements can improve customer engagement via your app. This will help with your app content to spread on social media and increase the conversations happening about your brand.

FINAL THOUGHTS…

If done right, businesses can increase their customer engagement and usage levels via their branded apps by keeping the apps up-to-date and relevant as well as offering features that is unique to their app and company. However, although these tips have their benefits, businesses need to remember not to activate too many push notifications as this can become annoying to the customers. They must also remember to make it easy to share content onto social media sites.

For more ways to increase your customer engagement via your branded apps, read the following article: Five Tips for Maintaining Branded Mobile App Engagement

 

References

Forrester Research (2011). North American Technographic Telecom and Devices Online Re-Contact Survey. Q3 2011 (US)

Schadler, T and McCarthy, J. (2012). Mobile is the new face of engagement. Available: http://blog-sap.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/15/files/2012/08/SAP_Mobile_Is_The_New_Face_Of_Engagement.pdf Last Accessed: 4th May 2017

What are the Benefits of Personalised Product Recommendations?

Don’t you love it when you walk into your local coffee shop and being asked “the usual”? Or receiving emails that are relevant and personal to your interests?

As customers, we love that personal touch, when someone remembers our names or birthdays. It can make us feel like we’re their single most important customer.

What is Personalisation?

Personalised marketing used to be simple, by adding the customer’s name to the emails they receive from companies. Nowadays, personalisation is so much more – It’s allowing for deeper and more meaningful customer relationships, which encourage higher conversions, increases the average order value and increase customer engagement. According to the Aberdeen Group, personalised emails improve click through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%. Yet, 32% of firms still don’t bother with personalised marketing.

SO… WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

There are a range of ways that personalisation can benefit a company and increase the customers experience with the company. Below are a few examples:

1 | Increase Conversions

When you tailor your messages to your reader, you make the customers feel more important. By remembering past behaviours, companies can present relevant product or

Offers that appeal to particular customers. Personalisation can help to achieve this in several ways via email, including:

  • Subject Line – personalised with the recipient’s name, company’s name, or topic of interest using dynamic tags
  • Email Copy – greet the reader by their first name, references to their prior behaviour using a relevant dynamic call-to-action
  • Landing Page – reiterates the message delivered in the email, and features smart fields pre-loaded with the recipient’s information, such as; purchase information, shipping addresses, or other details

Watch the video below for full information on Conversion Rate with Personalised Recommendations:

2 | Increase Average Order Value

Average Order Value (AOV) is an e-commerce metric that measures the average total of every order placed with a company over a set period. Through personalisation, companies can increase this by having, “customers who brought this, also brought” either at the bottom of the page or at the check-out stage, this is to encourage customers to add products to their basket. An example of this is The Body Shop, when you select a product, at the bottom of the page is ‘recommended products’ that work well with the chosen product.

3 | Increase Customer Engagement

Stated simply, customer engagement is the depth of the relationship a customer has with a brand. Making the experience personal, helps to increase engagement levels and customer loyalty.

Personalised content or messages can keep customers on the site for longer, as the personal edge will encourage them to click or read on. Companies could look at offering deals to certain customers, for example; if they are new offering 10% OFF FIRST TIME BUY or for a loyal customer offering them FREE DELIVERY FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY.

Having the customer’s information saved, increases customer engagement as the customers don’t have to keep inputting their details, such as; delivery address, payment details etc. For returning customers, it also allows companies to show specific messages or content that is relevant for them, so that no same customer sees the same landing page.

FINAL THOUGHTS…

If done right, an e-business can collect enough information on their customers to personalise their shopping experience, which can bring them back again and again, and keep them as loyal customers (Flore, 2001). However, although personalisation has its benefits, companies need to consider not bombarding customers with personalised emails, as this can lose its affect or make sure that the information they are sending to their customers is relevant and in-line with their interests.

 

References

Barsby, A. (2016). 9 Benefits of Personalisation for Digital Marketing. Available: https://www.e-xanthos.co.uk/blog/9-benefits-personalisation-digital-marketing/ Last Accessed: 4th April 2017

Fiore, F. (2001). E-Marketing Strategies – The How’s and Whys of Driving Sales Through E-Commerce. 1st ed. Indiana: Que

Leslie, B. (2016). 5 Reasons Personalised Marketing is Essential. Available: http://figarodigital.co.uk/article/5-reasons-personalised-marketing-essential/ Last Accessed: 4th April 2017

Wainwright, C. (2012). 9 Undeniable Advantages of Using Personalised Content in Your Marketing. Available: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33971/9-Undeniable-Advantages-of-Using-Personalized-Content-in-Your-Marketing.aspx#sm.00000kr6tqj132e1ypmc1dh0h1ge3 Last Accessed: 4th April 2017

What are the Risks of Personalised Product Recommendations?

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Have you ever received personalised recommendations from your favourite brand? Has this lead to you buying those products? Or thinking they were actually good recommendations?

Once you’ve signed up to receive newsletters from your favourite companies, some places think it’s okay to bombard you with emails about information that isn’t relevant to you, some send the occasion email with products that are ‘personal’ to you as a customer. But are they ever actually personal to you? Or is the same email sent to millions of other customers? ‘A survey about marketing messages conducted by Lyrics revealed that 63% of consumers report that they now receive so many messages that use their name that it no longer has any impact’ (Davey, 2014).

Doesn’t it make you wonder how much your favourite brand knows about you? Where are they getting this information from? This blogs looks at the risk/problems for companies who send personalised product recommendations to their customers via email or on their website as the consumer is about to purchase something from them.

SO… WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

Most negativity about personalised recommendations, come from the customer side and this is either due to the products they have been recommended are something they would never normally buy and doesn’t suit you at all or it’s too specific and it’s a combination of products that the consumer has already purchased.

1 | Privacy Issues

Some consumers can see it as being invasive when companies use a system that recommends products based ‘on the demographics of the consumer, or on an analysis of the past buying behaviour of the consumer as a prediction for future buying behaviour’ (Zhang et al, 2015). Therefore, running the risk of invading a person’s privacy and this could have a damaging impact on their loyalty to the company.

2 | The Filter Bubble

A filter bubble is a result of a personalised search in which a ‘website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user’ (Bozdag & Hoven, 2015). This is a problem because it means that customers will only be seeing products that are based on what they have purchased in the past and leaving out potentially new products that could equally be as beneficial to the consumer.

Watch the video below for full information about the filter bubble.

 

An example of this, is that within The Body Shop, they have a variety of different ranges of products which use different ingredients and are for different skin types, skin problems etc. However, if you buy from one specific brand range, you only see products recommended within that brand range.

 

Therefore, this is limiting customers to only buying within that specific range rather than them being recommended products from different ranges within The Body Shop.

3 | Accurate Data

 There is nothing worse than getting recommended products that have no interest in you as a consumer and it makes you wonder how accurate the data the company is using. Is there any way you can trust their recommendations in the future after they’ve failed to recommend you anything within your interests?

Sandra McDill, managing partner at iProspect, stated “mistakes often happen when assumptions are made based on data that is incorrect or incomplete leading to a bad personalisation experiences”. Therefore, making sure that the company has a system in place that checks the accuracy of their database before making personalised recommendations is vital.

Netflix had a problem with their recommendation system when if more than one person had access to the account and each had different tastes in movies, the algorithm would be less likely to select things that either liked. However, this was fixed when Netflix rolled out the ability to add multiply profiles to one Netflix account, allowing Netflix to recommend movies and TV series to each individual profile rather than as a whole to the account.

FINAL THOUGHTS…

There needs to be systems in place to make sure that the customers feel comfortable with what their details and browsing/purchasing history is being used for. If the recommendations become to personal, this could put the customer off from using that specific company to purchase. However, it is the companies’ responsibility to make sure that although they need to filter the information for the customers, that it’s not too filtered and that they aren’t missing out on products that could be beneficial to them, even if it may not be within their interests.

It’s always good to try something new every now and again!

References:

Davey, N. (2014). Personalised marketing: the wrongs, the rights and the recommendations. Available: http://www.mycustomer.com/marketing/strategy/personalised-marketing-the-wrongs-the-rights-and-the-recommendations. Last accessed 28th Feb 2017.

Fidura, S. (2015). Why email marketing is still the leader of the pack.Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/business/business-reporter/11127852/email-marketing-platform.html. Last accessed 28th Feb 2017.

Zhang, Y., Qi, J., Shu, H. & Cao, J. (2007). Personalised product recommendation based on customer value hierarchy, IEEE, , pp. 3250.

UNiDAYS or UNiPAYS

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Emailing marketing involves both advertising and promotional marketing efforts via email messages to current and prospective customers (Mohammadi et al, 2013).

Permission-based emails that are sent to customers are increasing as more and more companies use email marketing to target customers, as ‘email marketing campaigns produce approximately twice the return on investment of the other main forms of online marketing such as web banners and online directory adverts’ (Pavlov et al, 2008). It is also an ‘important medium of marketing communication especially for companies seeking to build and maintain closer relationships with customers’ (McCloskey, 2006).

In this blog, I have taken to look at email marketing that I received from companies that I have shopped with previously.  I personally have unsubscribed from majority of marketing emails that I receive from companies as I don’t tend to open them and find them a nuisance with how often they send the emails. However, there are a few that I like to keep receiving due to how much I use the website and to get specific discounts for them. One of those companies is UNiDAYS as it offers discounts for a number of different clothing chains. From these, I have chosen two emails to look at sent by UNiDAYS with two different marketing messages. I will look at how their emails engage and encourage customers to open the emails and links within.

Email Layout

Subject Line

‘The subject line in the email is the first point of contact and acts as the trigger to encourage the message recipient to open the email’ (Ellis-Chadwick and Doherty, 2012).

Email 1: Refer your friend

‘Refer your friends and earn £30! We show you how…’

The subject line triggers the customers to open the email to find out how they can earn £30 just by referring their friends to sign up to UNiDAYS. I opened this email up because having £30 credit put onto my account, is basically free money for getting my friends to sign up to UNiDAYS and it’s always useful to have money for a rainy day when you’re feeling down but don’t want to spend your own money. It’s a simple but effective method and allows them to have a high open rate of the email.

Email 2: Big discount

 ‘This is BIG: 50% off Missguided’

As the usual discount for Missguided via UNiDAYS is 10%, be able to get an extra 40% off clothes is a big and effective way to get customers to open the emails and find out more about the discount and make sure that there were no loop holes to getting the discount. I opened this email because of how big the discount was as it’s very rare that UNiDAYS offer such big discounts via their emails.

Personalisation in the emails

Neither of the emails are personalised to me specifically, they both go straight into what the subject line was referring to and how I can receive the offer/money from UNiDAYS. However, this didn’t prevent me from clicking on either of the links within the emails as they we’re both short and to the point and that is the sort of emails I would rather receive.

Refer your Friends critique

The body of the email had all the important information without any of the waffle, it was straight forward and to the point and didn’t confuse me how easy it was to refer my friends to start using UNiDAYS. The use of animation was eye catching and made you want to read what was within the circles when they changed.

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‘Animation is the most prominent attention-giving device in web-advertising and is far more effective than static advertising’ (Sundar and Kalyanaraman, 2004).

However, I had to scroll down to the bottom of the page to receive my unique link to share with my friends and before I could get there, they informed me that the voucher was only redeemable on 4 brands: ASOS, iTunes, New Look and feelunique.com. therefore, this prevented me from referring any of my friends as I didn’t really use any of those websites where I would need £30 worth of vouchers. The overall artwork was a bit busy with the use of a maze to draw your attention to the bottom of the page as I feel they were trying to incorporate a lot of information is a short space and this can get confusing as to where to look and what to focus on.

50% off Missguided critique

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The discount emails that I received from UNiDAYS are very different to the refer your friends email as they are to the point, with a link to the website with the code to get the 50% off. The use of animation of the model in Missguided clothes, drew my attention to the centre of the email where in big, bold words said ‘50% Off’.

However, the link on the image doesn’t work and you have to click on the ‘Go Go Go >’ button to get the voucher code to use on the website. This is misdirecting and can prevent people clicking on the correct link as they might assume it doesn’t work. If UNiDAYS are going to use links within their animation, they need to make sure it works. There was also only a 24-hour window for the discount which is in bold but is much smaller than ‘50% Off’ and could be easily missed by customers opening the email and therefore, it could lead to annoyance when they click on the link and the discount is no longer available.

Landing Page

‘The typical call-to-action statement is the pitch that will encourage a customer to act immediately’ (Mohammadi et al, 2013).

Email 1 – referring your friends

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The landing page link took me straight to Rewards page on the website, where I could get my unique email just like the email said it would. However, before I could get the link it explained to me again how to refer a friend and how I would earn my rewards, which was already within the body of the email. Repeating the process again can get annoying and is a bit too much, it should take me straight to the ‘Invite Friends’ tab when you click on the link within the email.

Email 2 – 50% off Missguided

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The landing page took me straight to where I could redeem the online code to use on the Missguided website. I did have to verify my account as I wasn’t logged on, even though they knew I had an account with them as I wouldn’t have received the email if I wasn’t. (Due to the 50% deal being a limited time only, the landing page screenshot is showing the discount that they are offering on Misguided at the moment).

Within the background, you could also see other companies that UNiDAYS are offering discounts on which encouraged me to go back to the UNiDAYS website and have a look at other discounts I could get and to carry on shopping online with them.

 

Resources:

Ellis-Chadwick, F and Doherty, N. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research. 65 (1), p843-848.

McCloskey, W (2006). E-mail data source. New York: Retail White Paper.

Mohammadi, M; Malekian, K; Nosrati, M and Karimi, R. (2013). Email Marketing as a Popular Type of Small Business Advertisement: A Short Review. Austrialian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. 7 (4), p786-790.

Pavlov, O; Melville, N and Plice, R. (2008). Toward a sustainable e-mail marketing infrastructure. Journal of Business Research. 61 (11), p1191-1199.

Sundar, S and Kalyanaraman, S. (2004). Arousal, memory and impression–formation effects of animation speed in web advertising. Journal of Advertising. 33 (1), p7-17.