Here’s a mobile marketing topic we haven’t yet addressed in these pages: how do brands engage mobile users in-app? It’s surprising we haven’t yet started this conversation as in-app is where all the action takes place in mobile marketing. Well, we mean rands and cents action but that’s really what marketing’s all about, isn’t it?
Making sure your app doesn’t get uninstalled in today’s competitive mobile environment means staying true to the foundations of marketing. In particular, keep in-app communication real and regular. By ‘real’, we mean communication needs to always be personalised and relevant to individual mobile consumers.
You can do this by creating in-app messages that can be set to trigger at appropriate moments. For example, an onboarding message can be created to help users understand their preferences or settings within an app. Paying special attention to the actual wording of in-app messages can also create an environment that feels customised to the user. Don’t use generic terms or phrases like ‘we value your feedback’ or ‘valued customer’. Be creative and come up with brand’s own approach to in-app messages. As brands like Kulula.com and Nando’s have shown, the mundane or routine can be turned into an extension of a brand’s personality.
Also don’t restrict in-app conversations to the usual two-horse, binary type of responses. Try allowing users to respond in more colourful, personalised ways that go well beyond the obvious ‘Yes/No’.
European airline Ryanair used these principles it to build an in-app customer satisfaction survey that triggers upon landing, rather than sending via email at a later date. The survey was kept simple — just three emojis to choose from — and was responsible for boosting response rates from 0.07 percent to over 60 percent!
Tawanda Munyika CA (SA) MSc is a graduate from Edinburgh Business School and a Chartered Accountant with more than 8 years post qualifying experience.
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