Tell us about the story behind Covatic: what was the spark that lit the flame?

I realised that it was about more than knowing what sort of things people enjoyed – be it music, sport, food, travel – but about when they enjoyed it. What did their typical day look like and when did they tend to catch up on their favourite content? The secret to finding out that sort of information is ridiculously obvious: their phone. Almost everyone has a smartphone now and it goes everywhere with them. Most people charge their phones overnight, therefore it registers the time they wake up and the time they go to sleep, and everything in between, be it their commute, their media consumption or their calendar. I knew there had to be a safe and non-invasive way to use those windows of opportunity to provide a better way for brands to speak to their consumers. And, as it turned out, there was.

How did you go from initial idea to operational business?
It was a couple of years before I actually quit my job to dedicate myself full time to setting up Covatic. Initially I got involved with Oxford University Innovations, an initiative run for entrepreneurs, and over the following four years we have built up to a 12-strong team with clients both in the UK and the US. Just as we started Covatic we built a comprehensive prototype with the BBC which showed us early on that we had a fantastic product and one that the industry was in real need of.

We have created original tech from the ground up – nothing is cobbled together using bits and bobs from existing tools and intel, everything is based on stringent research and rigorous testing, supported and influenced by copious amounts of expertise from the very best brains in their field.

That connection with Oxford University has also been instrumental in attracting some phenomenal talent. We’re now a team of 12, made up of engineers, data scientists, and analysts with offices in The Custard Factory, the heart of Birmingham’s creative and digital district.

And how exactly does the tech work?
Our offering is driven by our piece of proprietary software we call Serendipity, which is integrated into the host app and builds a unique engagement profile for every individual user by learning and predicting their activities, behaviours and preferences. Our Insight Portal then provides a comprehensive overview of audience metrics – all based around their behaviour, habits and lifestyle. From this data we create user segments – groups of people who fit the same or very similar profiles – and clients can create a bespoke, optimised communication strategy for maximum impact. 

How do you do that in a way that adheres to privacy protocol?
Our tech is driven by Edge AI which sits within the app itself and acts as gatekeeper to the user’s privacy. Everyone with a smartphone agrees to certain data sharing, such as access to location, calendar, analysis of app usage and so on, which in turn gets to know a person’s behaviour. All we do is use the existing data which is already on the device and run our AI to identify the most effective moments to send a notification for that particular user. We never have sight of that information, Edge AI does all the work for us while keeping the user’s data private. All it tells us is the exact moment to share a particular notification. For example, if your phone tells our tool that you go for a run at 1pm three days a week, we know 12.45pm is the best time to serve you a playlist from your preferred radio app. Equally, if your calendar shows you have a meeting from 4-5pm, your favourite pizza place won’t send you a 241 offer for that evening at 4.15pm, they’ll wait till 5.30pm when your day is finished and you’re starting to think about dinner plans.

If someone has your app it means they’re already engaged, doesn’t it?
Not necessarily. It means they were engaged once but that’s no guarantee of regular engagement. How many apps does the average person have on their phone that they never open? Maybe they were prompted to download it and then forgot all about it, or they’ve got out of the habit of using a service they once enjoyed, such as a radio station or meal planning app. A lot of lifestyle apps are downloaded in a moment of enthusiastic resolve – meditation, exercise, meal planning and so on – and then usage drifts. With Covatic those brands have the opportunity to re-engage with people in a contextually appropriate way, be that at the best time of day or during some downtime, in such a way that will maximise the chances of them responding positively.

But it’s not just about bringing people back into the fold, it’s also about adding value by sending them relevant, targeted messages that mean they get the best brand experience possible.

So, what is the art to effective in-app messaging?
Like any effective advertising it all comes down to adding value and not being annoying. And naturally one feeds into the other. If someone has downloaded your app that’s a great start, but to get the most out of that relationship, to drive retention, you need to optimise your communication strategy. It’s not about firing them any or all of your in-app messages, it’s about ensuring every contact you have with them comes at a time of day in which they will be most receptive, based on what you know about their lifestyle. So, whether that’s during their 45-minute commute, on their lunch break, or early evening, you know you’re sending the best messages for them at the best time for them and not spamming them with irrelevant comms where the only action they take is to delete your app from their phone.

How will the end of cookies impact your business?
Put simply, it won’t. That is the joy of what we do – absolutely no personally identifiable data is released at any stage. It doesn’t rely on cookies or any sort of tracking, just personalised, targeted advertising that will only add value to both parties. Working with our current clients we have identified methods which can result in over 10 times engagement.

You’ve obviously had a positive experience as an entrepreneur – what’s next?
In Covatic, I have realised a long-held ambition to create my own business that services a gap in the market, and it’s something that I know has enormous potential so I’m excited to see where we can take it over the coming years.

But you’re right, my mind is always whirring with the next big idea, and alongside our day-to-day work we are also working with Birmingham City University on a project called iamzero, which is an app that enables users to see what their impact is on the environment, then make amends.

Using similar principles to the tech behind Serendipity, the app analyses your behaviour and calculates its impact on the environment – so whether they drive to work, take the train or cycle, for example – and then notifies you of your ‘green score’. From there it invites you to purchase an offset to get you back to net zero.

We’re incredibly excited about officially launching the app later this year as I think it really taps into a growing demand from consumers who want to be more environmentally responsible.

The post Mobile Marketing meets Nick Pinks, CEO of Covatic appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

AdColony conducted the Car Buying Survey to analyze the decision-making of consumers in the UK. Respondents were asked about how much mobile devices are used when shopping for a car, the effectiveness of auto ads, and the effects of COVID-19 on car buying plans.

Highlights from the Study:

Consumers use a mix of devices when looking to purchase or lease a car — Most respondents (40 per cent) use a mix of their smartphone, computer, and tablet when looking to buy a car. 20 per cent said they use their smartphone the most.

Many consumers believe using a smartphone is essential when buying a car — Almost 40 per cent of car buyers said it is very important or important to have their smartphone with them while shopping for a car. More than half of respondents say they use their smartphones to research prices or research models and specs.

Researching cars online often leads to a trip to the dealership — A majority of respondents (63 per cent) said they are very likely or likely to visit a dealership after researching cars online. Marketers should make sure to tie-in a dealer locator to their ads or website.

Car buyers still favor buying in-person at a dealership — Consumers were asked if they had ever bought a car online and had it delivered to their home using a service. Only 10 per cent have said they had used a service like this, 14 per cent said they would be interested. Auto companies with these services need to gain more awareness and credibility to sway UK consumers.

Auto ads and mobile videos are effective — Car buyers were asked about how they consider and interact with auto ads. Almost half of respondents (45 per cent) said they consider relevant auto ads when shopping for a car. Additionally, 55 per cent said they would consider watching and interacting with a mobile video to explore models and features.

Car buying plans changed for some consumers due to COVID-19 — While many consumers’ plans have not changed, many of them are now interested in buying cars online to avoid visiting dealerships. Some people cite financial issues as the reasons they have changed plans including less money for a down payment and financing needs have changed.

Download the AdColony’s Car Buying Survey Infographic here.

The post Mobiles have become an important part of the car buying journey, but consumers still prefer to buy in-person: report appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

According to market research companies like Statista, the number of global smartphone users now exceeds 3.5bn. With those numbers having risen consistently over the last decade, its no surprise that mobile ad impressions became the foremost target for marketing agencies in search of new audiences. It’s amazing to think that the Apple App Store only launched 10 years ago, and yet mobile advertising accounted for over $129bn in total spending last year. This transition to digital advertising is correlated to a noticeable shift away from print, radio, and TV – where advertisers pay hefty fees for ad space prior to ever seeing a return on investment, sometimes spending millions on fruitless campaigns. Hence, the prevalence of digital advertising has ushered in a new age: the era of performance marketing. Here, instead of paying for unproven ad space, advertisers now pay for successful transactions like sales and downloads, allowing companies to easily measure their ROI. Perhaps nowhere is the effect of this shift more apparent than in mobile gaming, where user acquisition is central to any game developers marketing strategy.

Abbreviated as ‘UA’, user acquisition consists of data-driven ad campaigns that drive app downloads and purchases within mobile games, with a heavy focus on targeting social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. A company that has found recent success in this space is AdSide Media, a marketing agency that provides creative and UA services to app developers. I recently spoke with their CEO, Evgeny Marchenkov, about the landscape of digital ads, and he shared a number of insights about his experiences, starting with how current marketing trends have evolved:

“I noticed the rise of performance marketing for mobile in 2015 when online metrics finally became good enough to measure the efficiency of our ad campaigns. That’s when cohort analysis became a thing, allowing us to analyze user behaviour to predict a customer’s lifetime value for an app – that was a game-changer. Prior to that, Adside Media mainly offered media buying services, but once the ad technology changed, we switched to running UA campaigns, which turned out to be a better direction for us.”

According to Evgeny, the world of UA has only gotten more competitive each year. Every new mobile game has to compete with hundreds of existing alternatives across the app stores, to say nothing of fickle user preferences that could spell doom for any given app. As a result, UA techniques that were effective three months ago could be obsolete today, and marketing teams have to generate new ads on a regular basis to avoid failed campaigns. This is where smaller marketing companies were once at a disadvantage – due to limited budgets and a lack of production assets, it was challenging for them to maintain a constant flow of ad content, aka ‘creative’, to compete with bigger rivals. They were also handicapped by the expensive ad tech tools that larger competitors used to optimize their reach. But all of this was disrupted when social media companies released their own self-service ad platforms that anyone with decent advertising know-how could operate. Machine-learning algorithms started appearing in recent years that took over basic functions like managing bids and buying media. I asked Evgeny to elaborate on this development:

“Game developers used to pay media buyers to select the countries, gender, and age of their target advertising audiences. But once automation came along, that process became a black box. Google launched Universal App Campaigns in 2018, and Facebook released their Automated App Ads in September of this year, making media buyers obsolete. As a result, todays developers only have to pay for creative, and platforms like Facebook will handle the rest by optimizing their campaigns towards securing app downloads. Theyll even penalize your reach if you insist on managing your campaign manually, which means the AI invariably outperforms anything weve done in the past.”

With this automation in place, many of the benefits of using third-party ad tech have largely disappeared. Forced to seek out a new edge for their marketing efforts, UA managers found the answer in their creative production teams, since the development of assets like pictures, animation and audio are things AI still cant do very well. For Evgeny and his team, this shift of power necessitated an adjustment to their business practices:

“User acquisition suddenly became easier for everyone due to AI automation, so AdSide decided to concentrate more on creative production services over UA. Its actually become the main part of our business since clients know the ad platform will handle the campaign itself. The marketing industrys focus has shifted to securing the best artists, motion designers and animators. Among those, 3D artists are the most in-demand, since its hard to find people who can use graphics engines like Unity and Unreal. But the major game studios are pursuing those same artists for AAA projects, so we have to compete with them in order to secure the best staff.”

That said, simply hiring additional creative talent isn’t a solution in itself. As anyone with marketing experience knows, most ads have an unimpressive shelf life, and their performance quickly declines after people have seen them enough times. Only about five per cent of ads do well enough to justify additional budget spends, and even an exceptionally successful one will decline in performance after a few days. This drop-off in productivity is known as ‘creative fatigue’, meaning only a handful of ads will ultimately become the breakout success that advertisers shoot for. Only by churning out lots of ads while testing them each step of the way can a UA team hope to find the elusive ‘super-creative’ that Evgeny told me about:

“The average lifetime of an online ad is two weeks, but the most successful ones can run up to six months, and thats the kind of super-creative everyone wants. The way to find it is by creating different iterations of your best-performing ads until you narrow it down to the best ones. For example, AdSide conducted an experiment in August where we provided our client with 35 unique creatives, along with 133 variations. We then spent $10,000 on testing them to find the best ones, and two of the five best-performing ads became long-term winners. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, were still running those two ads today, and they both have a positive ROAS.”

My takeaway from speaking with Evgeny was that as AI continues to monopolize ad technology, the only real control advertisers will have is in how they develop their creative. Considering that, the money spent on social media ads is predicted to hit $52bn in the US alone by 2024, it’s clear that creative development of display and short-form video ads will continue to dominate across the likes of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Needless to say, this is likely where many agencies like AdSide will be focusing their resources and efforts in the coming months and years:

“To be honest, AdSides operations are only limited by the size of our production team. Given our current capacity, our services are actually sold out until the end of the year, and were constantly hiring new designers and 3D modellers to keep up with the workload. We expect the demand for creatives to continue growing in the next two years, so if I could give any advice to new mobile game developers, it would be to prioritize creative production. There are three options for that: you can build an in-house production team, hire freelancers or outsource the work to a creative agency. The first option is the hardest, since its difficult to find competent designers. If you publish a job ad for a 2D artist or motion designer, youre likely to receive over 500 applications, but only two or three of them are actually capable of delivering. Thats why you need an Art Director who can source the right candidates for you. Additionally, salaries can get very expensive, with 3D designers being more expensive than 2D ones. And if you cut costs on creative talent, inevitably you have to lower your expectations of the final result. Or you can just use agencies like AdSide Media, who are gurus with UA field experience after having worked in it for several years.”

The post Creative ads: the new lynchpin for mobile app growth appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

In this interview, Amber defines what omnichannel means, looking at it in terms of the way that consumers can communicate with a brand and explaining why it matters.

She discusses the issues that businesses can have when looking to achieve this omnichannel experience and how Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solution can help to overcome these challenges.

Finally, she guides us through what we should be looking for selecting a CPaaS provider. You can catch the podcast here.

The post Podcast: How CPaaS enables real-time omnichannel customer communications appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Consumers hold brands to higher marketing standards than ever before. It’s no longer enough to rely on a ‘one size fits all’ advertising approach. In fact, when consumers view a consistent message across multiple channels, they increase their purchase intent by 90 per cent and improve their perception of that brand by 68 per cent[1]. In many ways, marketing has become a two-way conversation between brands and consumers. Companies that leverage SMS as part of their omnichannel marketing strategy are better able to build relationships with customers and prospects, and ultimately make more sales.

Text messaging is considered one of the strongest marketing channels but leveraging it as part of an overall omnichannel strategy makes it even stronger. Compared to email and social media, SMS has significantly higher deliverability and engagement. However, using multiple channels together is always the strongest strategy because each no single platform is ideal for all types of messages. SMS marketing, for example, is best for time-sensitive and/or short messages with a simple call to action. Longer copy or heavily visual campaigns may work better over email or social media, respectively.

Customer satisfaction rates are 23 times higher among brands with cross-channel strategies[2] because omnichannel marketing enables companies to deliver messages that are customized to demographic, device, and purchasing intent. Here are some strategies for leveraging SMS and email together.

• Grow lists by asking users to sign up for text via email or social and vice versa
• Enable customers to choose their preferred communication channel by opting in/out
• Use SMS to follow up on email engagement with a limited time offer
• Send a text to ask customers to submit user-generated content (UGC) on social media as part of a campaign or contest
• Leverage social listening tools to understand trends that can be used in social and email campaigns

These are just a few of the ways leading brands are using SMS to drive results with an omnichannel marketing strategy. So, what are the steps to getting started?

1. Encourage SMS sign-ups via social, emails, and your main website
2. Implement targeted marketing practices. Create segmented lists by demographic, industry, purchase intent and any other information you’ve gathered on customers and prospects
3. Evaluate the results – Are you generating a return on investment from these services? Continuously monitoring results and pivoting based on trends is crucial to omnichannel success.

Like any new marketing strategy, adding SMS marketing to your omnichannel marketing strategy may take some trial and error. However, SMS has demonstrably better marketing results than many other platforms and should be part of any well-rounded marketing campaign. Still don’t believe us? Hear from our partners at Oracle:

“We are proud to have mGage as part of the Oracle Responsys SMS Public Aggregator Network (SPAN). mGage can help global brands by providing them with the support and expertise required to realize the full value of mobile as part of an omnichannel strategy, rather than an individual channel.”

– Dave Helmreich, GVP, North American Sales, Oracle Marketing Cloud

To view a demo or speak with a mGage consultant, get in-touch with us today!

[1] IAB

[2] Aberdeen Group

The post SMS as an essential component of an omnichannel marketing strategy appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

In the interview, Uffe discusses the transition from call centers to contact centers and how the emergence of different communication channels over the years has led to this.

He explains how important it is for enterprises to prepare for the future of digital customer interactions and addresses the impact of COVID-19 on contact centres, looking at how enterprises are coping and can continue to do so.

Finally, he presents a guide to how best to go about choosing a contact centre provider – and whether enterprises should choose a cloud or an on-premises solution. You can catch the podcast here.

The post Podcast: Bringing Contact Centers into the 21st Century with CPaaS appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Even if it wasn’t good for much else, lockdown was always likely to be a fertile time for competitive gaming – known as eSports – as stadiums fell silent and the world looked online in search of engaging sporting entertainment.

And so it proved. Twitch, the Amazon-owned platform mainly dedicated to live streams of gaming tournaments, served 5bn hours’ worth of viewing in Q2 – a 2,662 per cent increase year-on-year – while footballers and pro gamers played high-profile FIFA 20 tournaments and virtual versions of the Grand National, Nascar and Formula 1 stood in for the real thing.

With the world on pause, eSports enjoyed a tailor-made moment in the sun – albeit without the raucous arena events that have helped to drive the sector’s remarkable growth – and emerged from this strange interlude with more mainstream interest and the close attention of numerous excitement-hungry brands.

That process has, in fact, been a steady one in recent years. Marketers, once sceptical, are now fascinated, as they process the fact that eSports commands a global audience of 453.8m – most of them hard-to-catch 18-to-34-year-old young men, many of them affluent – and is on course to generate $1.8bn a year in sponsorship and other revenues by 2022.

Mainstream brands – known as non-endemic brands, in contrast to the endemic kind that market gaming-related products – are in demand as sponsors of leagues, tournaments, teams and players, with McDonald’s, Mastercard, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Adidas, Vodafone and Red Bull among their number. But naivety and cluelessness are not tolerated by eSports fans. Brands need to know where they are and what they are doing there. For those just arriving at the party now, lured by eSports’ increasingly mainstream profile and the current lack of outdoor opportunities, here are some tips.

This is sport, but not as you know it
It would be a mistake to imagine that eSports are simply some sort of rainy-day alternative to the offline kind. For one thing, in spite of increasing interest in eSports from the sporting world – and vice versa, with Twitch recently acquiring some European football, NWSL, NHL and UFC matches –  the comparison is not a perfect one. In practice, the most popular esports are first-person shooting or fighting games, practised by skilled professional and amateur players and watched by legions of adoring fans.

eSports is a universe of its own
The transparent aim in eSports is to build leagues in the vein of their traditional sporting equivalents, and there are more than 40 of significance, including blockbuster ones for games such as League of Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch and Counter-Strike. In practice, the category of eSports is as diverse, complex and distinct as sport itself, with stables of teams, pro players, independent gamers, stories, passion, global variety, numerous audiences and strict cultural rules. Remember, also, that eSports is about watching, not playing, so mobile is a key channel for esports audiences.

These are tough crowds
eSports fans are growing up, but they are resistant to opportunistic brands and fiercely protective of their culture. Blunders and unwelcome brand overtures stand out a mile, and brands that treat esports as a convenient pandemic-friendly media buy or an easy route to young male eyeballs will fail to impress.

There are many ways in
eSports are consumed in different ways across numerous channels, from Twitch to YouTube to Reddit and Discord. Brands can advertise broadly across eSports through familiar channels, but those seeking to make a genuine and authentic connection are more likely to find it in more bespoke settings, such as player, team or tournament sponsorships. Brands need to find the right eSport – and audience – for them. In many games, in-game advertising is also becoming established. This summer, Riot Games’ League of Legends has added ‘Summoners Rift Arena Banners’, allowing brands to advertise regionally or locally on heraldic military standards on the fringes of the game. Adverty serves seamless in-game ads in realistic outdoor locations in the popular mobile eSports first-person shooter Critical Ops – a game with over 80m installs worldwide.

Benefit the space, not just the brand
Brands have a golden opportunity to enhance the maturing esports space, and prove their commitment, by creating content around gamers, streamers, teams and events. Brands that offer real value to fans, rather than simply promoting themselves, may be surprised at the acceptance they find in this outwardly daunting space.

eSports are here to stay
In the long term, the key reason not to regard eSports as simply an alternative to suspended sporting opportunities is its sheer potential. Its metrics may be evolving, its properties, audiences and brand opportunities likewise, but while eSports may only now be emerging into adult consciousness, its growth and hold on audiences are enough to make traditional sporting businesses distinctly nervous. Smart brands should start building their equity now.

The post eSports: More than a lockdown sporting substitute appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

We all know by now that there have been silver linings for some lucky brands this year. Amazon’s net sales leapt by 40 per cent year-on-year to $88.9bn in the second quarter of 2020, while Apple also experienced a positive uplift, with CEO Tim Cook putting the company’s performance down to the brand’s ‘relentless innovation’.

Maybe your enterprise has been equally well positioned and has found booming growth in a time of widespread hardship. But for most, marketing budgets have taken a hit, and for a while at least, advertising will have to work harder than ever if it is to drive revenue.

In the quest to improve the impact and engagement of online display, over many years the industry has pushed ever larger formats to grab user attention. Consumers, however, have long been losing patience with interruptive formats, so pushier, more aggressive advertising clearly isn’t the perfect solution. But in the process of facing new challenges and changing circumstances, many people have welcomed new digital habits into their lives, whether in the form of an increased use of smart speakers and web conferencing, or a new openness to message businesses in apps and ‘chat’ technology to avoid long waiting times on the phone. The consumer environment has changed, that much is clear, and advertisers need to change too.

We believe conversational advertising is one format that is set to grow, because it allows for a true multi-variant ad experience, focusing on user control, relevance and deep engagement over one dimensional measurements such as click rate.

Uniquely, conversational advertising does not broadcast a brand message ‘at’ a user. Instead, it enables interactions that are closer to human dialogue – the advertiser controls the content of the conversations, but the user controls the direction, making the information they access about advertisers’ products or services relevant to their needs.

The design, tone of voice and overall feel of traditional banners are set in advance and delivered to the selected audience in the hope that they strike a chord. In a conversational banner, the needs and preferences of the consumer can be weighed as the interaction develops and the creative execution changes in real time, allowing for genuinely personalised ad experiences.

The applications are diverse, enabling conversations across numerous digital ecosystems. Conversational advertising is already transforming and releasing the true potential of online display, but the customer journey is a multi-faceted one. The global conversational advertising ’cloud’ is finding its place in messaging apps and voice services – both areas in which advertising has struggled to find an easy fit. It also makes a natural home in the world of social, where conversation is expected, but the challenge for brands is being there at the right time.

Use-cases for conversational technology have been easy to spot in recent months, and it is telling that they come from a range of areas, not simply commercially-minded advertising. During the pandemic, healthcare providers, government agencies and brands have all experimented with conversational mechanics to offer help to users – answering questions, responding to concerns and imparting useful information at an unprecedented time for everybody.

Before the pandemic, this year was earmarked in the marketing world for finding targeted alternatives to non-effective or intrusive cookie-driven advertising. We need digital advertising that doesn’t depend on invading privacy to communicate accurately. Advertising that doesn’t need to know who you are in advance, because it can learn about you in real time, surely has a role to play in this existential transformation of the digital advertising business.

These are testing times in many respects, and they require innovative responses. Not all of us have Apple-style reserves of relentless innovation to power our businesses. But conversational advertising that focuses on the frontend user experience and listens and responds to their interactions is proof that sometimes innovation can instead afford to be gently ingenious.

The post Coronavirus is reshaping our approach to media, brands must innovate to stay ahead appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing is consistently proving to be one of the most successful communication channels for marketing campaigns. We wanted to share some of the key insights from our webinar on the Best Practices in mobile marketing.

How to Get Started

Define your Mobile Marketing Objectives:  Your target goal will affect your messaging strategy, so it is essential to have clear objectives for your mobile marketing campaign. Whether its increasing acquisitions, improving retention, or maximizing customer satisfaction, these varied objectives will require tailored messaging to engage your mobile database effectively.

Design your Successful Campaign: You must identify your target audience first, which will allow you to develop your strategy and create content for your campaign. Short codes, keywords, message wording/layout, and the message timing, will differ based on the audience.

Build your Mobile Database: Promote your keywords and short codes for your campaign by using other marketing channels. You can promote your short code in email marketing, print marketing, websites, or on social media. Make the opt-in process clear, concise, and easy for people to sign up.

Send Marketing Campaigns: Leverage SMS, MMS, and RCS to share relevant content to capture and maintain your customer’s interest. Brand your messages to add an identity that will be recognizable to your clients, reducing the likelihood that they dismiss your messages as spam. RCS is an excellent tool for sending branded messages as a verified sender. Be sure to include clearly defined opt-out instructions.

Measure Success: Define your KPIs to help measure the success of your campaign. Some KPIs for your mobile campaign will be the number of opt-ins/opt-outs, the sales/ revenue generated, and the URL click-through rate.

Best Practices

Test, measure, and learn: Everybody has a different customer base, so it’s essential to test, measure, and learn. Test out new content, or test time of day you are sending messages and see how your audience reacts. Measure the success of your campaign by paying attention to the number of opt-ins and opt-outs. The number of opt-outs is a good indication as to whether the content remains relevant to your audience.

Keywords are Key: We always suggest you use the keep it short & simple (KISS) approach for keywords. Customers want to receive messages that are easy to read and digest, so keep it simple and avoid special characters. Choose keywords that won’t be autocorrected and be sure to choose keywords that are straight to the point, i.e., OFFER, DEALS, SALE, DISCOUNTS, and others.

Be very clear: Clarity is essential at all stages of your campaign. Be upfront and set the proper expectations, so customers know what they are signing up for. Be sure to inform them of the purpose of the campaign, the type of messages you will send, and their frequency. Make sure you include how to opt-out of every message. Being upfront and setting your customers’ expectations will give them comfort in knowing that you will not be spamming their phones.

Offer Incentives: The best, and easiest way to drive opt-ins to a text-based marketing campaign is to offer incentives. Coupons and sales are always great options.  68 per cent of consumers feel that coupons build brand awareness and generate brand loyalty. However, you can also incentivize the customer with experiences, to get them to opt-in, i.e., text to see a new offer or preview a new product launch.

Final thoughts

Leveraging mobile marketing should be a part of any successful marketing campaign. These are just some of the best practices we would suggest for your mobile marketing campaign. For more in-depth detail, contact us today and speak with one of our consultants.

The post Best practices in mobile marketing appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

All of us at mGage hope you, your teams, and your families are staying healthy and safe during these unprecedented times.  We understand your business is likely facing a lot of challenges amid the global coronavirus outbreak. Customers shuttered at home and not out shopping; events cancelled; these are all unexpected challenges to normal, day-to-day business functions.

Just when you think your marketing and advertising strategy is obsolete, consider the fact that with most people working from home – and glued to their mobile devices for news updates. Shifting your outreach strategy toward cost-effective SMS messaging can help you stay in front of existing customers and potential new ones. Here are some ways your brand can use text messaging to help minimize the impact of social distancing on your business.

Stay connected with your customers

Communicating effectively and efficiently is going to be vital in maintaining customer relationships. Use SMS messaging to let your customers know that it is your top priority to keep them informed of any changes your business may incur that will affect them. Tangible examples of how your organization is working to support “business-as-usual” can reinforce customers’ loyalty to your brand over your competitors.

• Deploy SMS chatbots – manage the most common customer inquiries automatically while your call center may be understaffed.
• Share essential updates – let customers know about store hours or policy changes that may be occurring
• Offer appointment scheduling/rescheduling – easily allow clients to reschedule an appointment for a future date

Leverage SMS to Find New Ways to Adapt

Restaurants, fast food, beauty, along with many other industries, are being hit the hardest and must close their doors temporarily. With the new guidelines for social distancing, these businesses can no longer function like before. Mobile messaging is a cost-effective way to adapt your business strategy to try to find ways to make sales during this challenging time.

• Offer curbside pickup – customers can text when they arrive, and you can bring it out to their car, minimizing human contact.
• Offer delivery – the delivery person can send a text message when they are a half-mile away to confirm drop-off directions.
• Provide knowledge – Send industry-related text messages with tips and advice. (i.e., recipes, hair care, skin care tips)
• Buy now, use later – Send texts to encourage customers to buy gift cards now and redeem once the social distancing guidelines have been lifted.

We’re Here to Help

Throughout this challenging time, we’re happy to help brainstorm customer engagement methods and share how our clients are effectively communicating with their customers using SMS. Contact us

The post Minimize the impact of social distancing on your business with SMS appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.