Yet many businesses struggle. Average retention rates have barely budged for years, despite ongoing growth in app downloads. Gaps across the mobile app customer lifecycle result in The Chasm of No Return — where new app users drop off, never to return. Most consumers will use an app only once or twice before deciding to delete it or not. First and second impressions are everything.

On the other side of the equation are customers. Customers continue to use brands’ apps primarily because they simplify their lives and save them time. Other benefits, like saving money and earning rewards, are farther down the list of reasons that keep them coming back — even in today’s economic climate. 

While apps are not new, an end-to-end focus on life after download is — and that’s where Masters of MAX: A Mobile App Experience Podcast can help. Every few weeks, executives and managers responsible for mobile apps can get the inside story on how brand leaders and experts are navigating the twisty path to mobile app experience mastery. In every episode, our guests will share their strategies, advice and hard lessons learned, helping to inspire and ignite others on their own MAX journeys.

Our first episode features Hasan Luongo, Vice President of Global Marketing for Chipper Cash, which is working to unlock financial barriers in Africa and beyond through its app-only approach. In this episode, Hasan talks with our host, Thomas Butta, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Airship, about the challenges of being mobile-only in a world accustomed to conventional banking, the importance of trust in the finance space, and the critical role of transparent communications with customers.

Besides being a coffee aficionado, Hasan is an entrepreneur, marketing leader and product leader with an extensive background in building and scaling high-growth technology companies and teams. Chipper Cash, which is ranked in the Fintech 50 by Forbes, has focused on personalization at scale — among other strategies — to serve more than 5 million app customers in five markets and process more than $1.5 billion in transactions per quarter. 

If your goal is to deliver extraordinary value for where your best customers choose to engage with your brand, Masters of MAX is the podcast for you. Never miss an episode by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or Audible.

Please tell us what you think of the first episode, send us your topic suggestions and let us know if you’d like to be a guest on future episodes.

The post Airship Launches Podcast on Mobile App Experience appeared first on Airship.

“Life gets better with better mobile app experiences, and for most people, this literally applies to their health and well-being,” said Airship’s Thomas Butta. “Brands that earn a place in customers’ regular regimes can build enduring loyalty based on mutual respect and value.” 

Friends, Fitness and Sleep — In That Order
The top three ways people plan to use apps to improve their health are: connecting with friends and family more (27%), working out (26%), and improving sleep (17%). 

Apps Have an Age and Income Gap, But Not In The Way You Might Think
Boomers and low-income households make up the biggest segments of people who say they won’t use apps to improve their health and well-being in 2023, at 35% and 23% respectively. 

However, across the 11 health/wellness app-enabled activities, adoption rates for these two groups are remarkably similar to other age and income segments. This suggests apps and wearables have democratized access to a broad range of beneficial services. At the same time, there are significant numbers of boomers and low-income households that remain hold-outs.

Apps for Health Becoming the Norm? 
Apps are being adopted across all aspects of health & well-being, from doctor visits to yoga routines, led by the youngest generations in most cases.

• Americans are more apt to turn to apps for virtual doctor visits this year (15%), versus the U.K. (7%), and France (10%). With a strained healthcare system and the threat of a triple pandemic in the U.S., virtual care helps alleviate some of the pressure. 
• More Americans use apps for nutrition/diet purposes than improving sleep, whereas the opposite is true for the U.K. and France. 
• Ten percent of Americans plan to use apps and wearable devices for biometrics and heart monitoring. Boomers were least likely to use them at 7%, while millennials reported nearly double the rate (13%). February is American Heart Month, and these findings show opportunity for more education and adoption, especially among older adults that statistically face a higher risk of heart disease.

How Health/Wellness Apps Can Better Retain Customers
Brands’ biggest growth opportunities are to retain more of the app customers they attract and, of course, to convert new ones. How can they do that?

More education on the value, cost-savings and convenience of mobile app experiences, particularly in environments where older and low-income customers are accessing health and wellness services, can go a long way to reducing the number of detractors and creating greater mutual value for both brands and customers. 

Methodology
The survey was conducted by Sapio Research in January 2023 among 4,000 consumers, age 18 and older in the U.S., U.K., and France.

The post Life Gets Better with Mobile Apps, Literally appeared first on Airship.

To broaden that understanding, Airship spoke with 20 business leaders in January 2023 – about the role of low-code and no-code, mobile advertising, data privacy, personalization, experimentation and other trends critical in the year ahead. A few highlights are below. For the full story, download the eBook today.

Artificial Intelligence
Whether you love it or hate it, the application of artificial intelligence has been introduced to most industries. Undeniably this trend will continue and the savviest brands will embrace AI for personalization and productivity efforts. As Airship’s Daniel Ackerman, VP of Product Management, explains, “technology advances in AI will seem to threaten the broadest swath of occupations in human history. Winners will view generative AI for coding and content as tools to advance value and efficiency, freeing up resources for strategic priorities. Combined with no-code app experiences, marketers can finally scale from personalized campaigns to individualized experiences. Marketers and developers alike will escape backlogged campaign and app enhancement requests and gain more space for difference-making innovation.” 

Blending Physical and Digital Worlds 
While the metaverse and immersive experiences are yet to become mainstream, technology has seamlessly integrated consumers’ lifestyles. This spans areas such as fitness, mental health, dating, education, finance and beyond. You can anticipate brands blending both physical and digital worlds to deliver frictionless experiences to their customers. “While most apps are used on your phone, many will become keys to interact with the devices and environment around you. For example, Dunkin’ rewards members might zip through the drive-thru without ever physically paying. Netflix subscribers might instantly log in to their profiles on any smart TV within shouting distance,” imagines Jonathan Kay, CEO of Apptopia. 

Data Protection
Consumers’ use of technology has increased along with their awareness of data privacy rights. New regulations challenge brands that rely on customers’ personal data to reconsider their business models and practices. Frank van der Laar, Product Owner for National Public Safety, Emergency and Crisis Apps in the Netherlands Politie underscores this point. “For us there is a growing importance to design and build mobile and digital services for the public with privacy and accessibility for all citizens being top of mind. We must prove to the public that we handle their personal data with caution and respect. Private and commercial technology service providers will encounter more and more pressure to improve their privacy transparency and their impact on the public opinion.”
Read more insights, key trends and data to inspire your 2023 strategies for creating additional value for customers in our full eBook.

The post How to Grow Customer Value: 24 Insights & Predictions for 2023 appeared first on Airship.

Consumer data is critical for a brand to improve customer experience. Simultaneously, brands need to take care of data privacy. But how can companies take a practical approach to data privacy and improve customer experience in a mobile-first world? Thomas Butta, chief strategy and marketing officer, Airship, explains it here.

Customer data privacy has a trajectory similar to environmental, social and governance (ESG). They are both becoming table stakes. 

When companies are transparent about ESG initiatives, they are sending a strong message to their employees as well as current and future customers. The same level of prioritization must be done for data privacy. If privacy is mishandled, the hit to brand reputation could be costlier than regulatory fines. It is time for data privacy, as part of a customer-centric strategy, to become a standard operating procedure for every business.

Customer data is the backbone of any marketing strategy and the linchpin of ecommerce. But today, we are seeing the clock run out on mining consumer information versus minding customer needs. As third-party data dwindles, first- and zero-party data are taking center stage.

Brands now have an imperative to focus on creating direct digital relationships to understand their customers better and provide the personalized experiences they expect. And thanks to changing behaviors of mobile consumers, the best way to sustain this reciprocal value exchange is through mobile apps. 

According to a Mobile Shopping Report, 68% of surveyed U.S. consumers say they are shopping more often now with their mobile phones than two years ago, with eight in 10 mobile shopping within the last 12 months. This is particularly true among Gen Z (79%) and millennial (77%) respondents.

No matter where you are on your mobile app journey, a practical approach to personal data privacy is essential for building the kind of profitable long-term relationships that brands and customers want.

Why Apps, Why Now?
Mobile apps have become the consumer’s preferred destination for contextual interactions, fast transactions, and streamlined experiences that blend their online and offline lives. Industry research finds that app-toting customers generate more than three times greater revenue and transaction frequency than other shoppers. Earnings reports from public companies underscore the tremendous economic value of mobile app experiences:

• For The Home Depot, “Sales leveraging our digital platforms increased 12% versus the second quarter last year. We also saw record downloads, traffic in sales via our mobile app. We continue to see improved conversion rates, as ongoing enhancements within our digital properties are resonating with our customers.” 
• For Chipotle, “Incredibly, our full year digital sales of $3.4 billion is nearly 3.5x what we did pre-COVID in 2019. Digital has proven to be sticky as it is a frictionless and convenient experience.”

Successes like these are not simply a matter of having an app and persevering. Brands know they compete primarily on customer experience. Many are making apps their most valuable brand assets by tightly linking loyalty programs, always-on utilities, digital exclusives and concierge services. At the core of all these relationships? Data. Data. And more data.

Chipotle has invested in digital kitchens and “Chipotlanes” (digital-only pickup lanes) and now cites an average of 10 minutes from a customer’s digital order until it is ready for pickup. Its digital sales are 3.5X pre-COVID. Early in the pandemic, American Eagle Outfitters solved unique curbside pickup challenges because many of its locations were inside malls. They added trip-tracking and order-ahead features that streamlined experiences for both customers and store associates. 

These impressive economic returns should not be surprising. “Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index) data shows that companies that deliver superior CX grow revenues five times faster on average than their competitors with inferior CX. Companies with superior CX have customers who are willing to pay a higher price for products and services,” (Forrester Research, Inc., Transform Customer Processes And Systems To Improve Experiences, February 22nd, 2021).

Simply put, apps are where the value exchange between customers and brands is most respected and rewarded. Ahead of more traditional information like postal address or demographics, customers are more likely to share “interests relevant to a brand,” “their communication preferences,” and “what they have browsed on a brand’s app or website,” to receive personalized offers and special incentives. On the flip side, consumers are least likely to share “information from their social profiles” and “their behaviors across unrelated websites and apps.” As I said earlier: mind, do not mine customers. 

This is actually great news all around. People (like us) want a much more customer-centric approach. They are willing to share valuable information in exchange for mobile-enabled conveniences and personalized services, which in turn, allows brands to serve them better and build valuable relationships over time. 

Then What’s the Hold-Up? 
Survey results show that mobile app experience (MAX), both as a concept and set of best practices, is still very much a frontier. Many companies struggle to marshal resources and apply agile methods to generate greater value from mobile apps.

To optimize customer experience, brands need to understand whom they are talking to and create moments across touchpoints, including platforms, devices and channels that customers engage with throughout their various journeys.

Fintech company Chipper Cash focuses on unlocking financial barriers in Africa through its app-only approach instead of brick-and-mortar branches. Personalization at scale helped the company serve 5M app customers in five markets and reach $1.5B in total processes per quarter.

Experience trumps promotion, which means brands should be providing valuable experiences in moments people are engaged with the app. Marketers must be empowered to go beyond messaging and near-total reliance on developers. They need both no-code capabilities and organizational agility to continually optimize onboarding, feature adoption, and opt-in flows and progressively learn about the interests and preferences of each customer. 

A no-code app experience platform empowers the entire team. Developers get to focus on the next set of innovative, market-differentiating app features. And the app’s marketing and product teams gain more ownership over the customer’s mobile app experiences. It is all about making life after download^TM more rewarding and productive.

Think of communications around your app as a series of personal invitations. Make sure customers know what is in it for them. Make sure they know exactly how you will and will not use their data. Meet them where they are. That is how you build trust.

The post Why Data Privacy and Customer Experience Are Not at Opposite Ends appeared first on Airship.

Consumers know the best deals of the year are up for grabs throughout November. Merchants were flush with inventory this year, and inflationary fears put consumers’ bargain-seeking behaviors on full display. Whether for loyalty points, streamlined experiences or app-only exclusives, consumers know the best deals are in the app. And for brands, app customers are especially lucrative, contributing 3.5X the revenue with a 3X higher likelihood to make a repeat purchase than other customers. 

Whether for loyalty points, streamlined experiences or app-only exclusives, consumers know the best deals are in the app.

Airship’s platform data saw massive gains in the number of new mobile app users over the holidays. From October 31st to Cyber Monday, the number of people adding a new retail app to their phone increased 26% year-over-year.

Black Friday continues to be the top day of the year for people to add a retail app to their phones — at nearly double the daily average holiday season. New from last year, people added retail apps to their phones at a greater and sustained rate starting in early November. Three of the top five app install days in 2022 were November 18 through 20.

This earlier app-uptake during the holidays mobile’s role in growing direct online sales as well as the discovery and planning process for in-person excursions. It also reflects retailers pushing key promotions earlier in the season — Target’s Black Friday deals began 11/20, as did Walmart’s third round of holiday deals.

With all of this positivity and merriment, why do we think future value will be wasted? 
On average, only 8% of these new app customers will return on the 30th day after download. It’s a pattern we’ve seen repeated year after year across most every industry vertical. For retailers, it’s even costlier, considering the holiday economics of lower margin, door-busting deals and a cost per app install estimated to be $5.28 in North America.

For an app to be successful, a customer must find it, download it, and value it enough to keep using it. Maximizing ROI depends on customers progressing through the app lifecycle beyond activation and engagement to ultimately become loyal app customers. 

Stay tuned to our blog posts over the next several weeks as we share some of the top tips and best practices to actualize and improve life after download.

The post Retail App Downloads Set Holiday Records, But Retention Will See Future Value Evaporate appeared first on Airship.

We also know that the vast majority of new app users won’t open the app within the first week after download. What’s more, in most industries, the 30-day churn rate is upwards of 90 percent.

To stem the tide of app abandonment, brands need to implement a set of best practices starting with an Onboarding Series. These are sequenced, cross-channel communications designed to gently cultivate regular usage by helping new users understand the app’s value and customize it to their personal needs and interests.

It’s not too late to ramp up your Black Friday readiness with a basic Onboarding Series. Instead of simply hoping new downloads stick, plan to begin a steady pulse of experience communications that follow these general principles:

1. Welcome. We’re glad you’re here.
2. We’re ready to help you get exactly what you want.
3. Customize your experience and communications in our Preference Center.
4. The biggest rewards, special access and app-only exclusives await.

This holiday shopping season will likely break records for app downloads. Mobile commerce is forecast to come in at 49.6% of ecommerce sales — no doubt the last year mobile’s less than the majority. Companies that want to maximize their app effectiveness should zero in on onboarding alongside achieving holiday sales targets. You’re investing a lot to drive downloads. Tis the season to make sure those downloads stick, giving your brand and your customers a valuable and ongoing exchange of respect and reward. 

The post Black Friday:  A Critical Moment for Mobile App Experience appeared first on Airship.

While mobile apps are not new, broad recognition of the exponential value they generate has finally entered full view. CEO Brett Caine validated that by restating some compelling fundamentals: app customers drive 3.5X more revenue than non-app customers, and they are 3X more likely to make a repeat purchase. This value creation playbook is music to any company’s ears given the economic backdrop. 

Of course, the big challenge to capturing that value is optimizing life after download. On average, 80 – 90% of customers regularly depart 7, 14, and 30 days after downloading an app, a massive problem that has held steady the past few years despite continued increases in global app downloads. It’s blatantly clear that simply messaging app customers across promotional channels only goes so far. To be truly effective for the long game of creating, sustaining and growing mutual value between a brand and its best customers — those with the app — businesses need greater agility to provide valuable app experiences that enhance user understanding and serve individuals in the moments they choose to engage.

Indeed, Elevate22: London showcased mobile-first brands that have invested in MAX, grown their audiences and earned the kind of revenues that CEOs tout in earnings calls. Presenters this year — following an external keynote from Forrester Research — were Kingfisher, DAZN, France TV, Kindred Group, BBC, OLIO, Bauer Media Group and Studio UK. Topics ranged from the moments and nudge factors to how an app can be useful,  integrate within customers’ lives and play by the (regulatory) rules.

The Customer Experience is Made Up of Lots of Moments 
In his keynote address, Rusty Warner, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, outlined many of the themes that companies are wrestling with today. Most fundamental of them is how customers are calling the shots. 

Warner encouraged attendees to think about the whole customer lifecycle and how to anticipate customer needs. He illustrated how journeys belong to customers not brands, and recommended that companies need to experiment, to try different things, see what works and what doesn’t, and constantly iterate. “As you’re thinking about those moments and anticipating what a customer might want or need during that moment, you have to put context at the center.”

The Nudge Factor
In real life, when we want something from someone, we may demand, argue, ask nicely or exert leverage. On apps, brands are more likely to ask nicely (messages) or nudge (experiences). The nudge factor was front and center at Elevate22: London, as a proven strategy for creating value for everyone involved. 

Sienne Veit, group product and platform director for Kingfisher, a home improvement holding company said, “We know the app is one of the most valuable ways that our customers can shop with us. When someone downloads the app, they shop more frequently, and they tend to be more loyal. Once you see that data coming through and you recognize behaviors, you can start to nudge people into more relatable actions that create greater utility and delight.” 

“As designers of the onboarding journey, we are choice architects, so we’re responsible for arranging the context in which people make decisions.”

DAZN’s Tom Burrell described the nudge approach used by their OTT sports subscription service. “As designers of the onboarding journey, we are choice architects, so we’re responsible for arranging the context in which people make decisions.” Citing authors Thayler and Sunstein he said, “Very small details can have a massive impact on customer behavior.” According to Burrell, nudges can alter behavior in a predictable way, but those nudges need to be optional, such as the opportunity to participate in DAZN’s watch parties for viewing events with other subscribers.

Be Useful
Kingfisher’s Sienne Veit explained, “Not just because we are in the world of DIY, but if you think about just how personal and connected you are to customers —  you’re on their device — the best thing you can do is be useful.” Given that philosophy, it’s no surprise that on Kingfisher’s app, “the language, the imagery, everything reinforces that message of usefulness and we are here for you.” 

Viet provided several examples of usefulness. One was its Scan and Go option for in-store purchase, which respects the time constraints of customers. Customers scan items, put them into their basket and pay with a single barcode at checkout. It’s extremely convenient, but also connects the app journey to the in-store journey and enables the brand to better understand customer behaviors and drive more value. 

Another example of usefulness is Kingfisher’s green lane for click-and-collect and a blue lane for Express Check-in, available only via the app. “So it’s a little bit like a super-fast airline express lane.”

Integrating with the customer’s life
Many speakers touched on the importance of integrating mobile app experiences with their customers’ lives. That’s different from knowing their preferences or getting opt-ins for notifications. It means understanding the rhythms and contours of the mobile consumer. See what 9,000 consumers told us.

Karen Delaine-Smith, Head of Rewards & Partnerships for Bauer Media’s subscriber business, said, “We all started walking during the pandemic, so we started a title called Country Walking, which has exponentially gone through the roof. As a result, we launched a sub-brand called 1,000 Miles. I’ve been able to give people more and more of what they love, which creates that stickiness and a kind of dependency.” 

Delaine-Smith also shared how Bauer integrates offline partners with publishing initiatives. “We have really strong editorial propositions, titles that have been around a very long time. My approach is that everything that we do is directly linked to the subject matter of that particular title. So, if you like walking, it will be walking boots and B&B stays. It won’t be duvet sheets or ice cream —  we know our customers are human, but we also know that they’re not tapping into those passion points in those moments.” 

Gareth Main, Director of Growth and BI at OLIO, a recycling and reuse app, said “If you’re getting rid of a tea set or baby’s clothing or food, that’s not something you do every day. That’s a revelation to us. We have to understand, what are the triggers? What are their natural habits? It’s a process of segmenting and tapping into that with the right content and the right message at the right time.”

“If it’s irritating and hard, people will just default to the thing that’s easier in their lives. The whole point of mobile apps is actually making people’s lives easier.”

As Main explained, OLIO’s rival is the rubbish bin. “Nothing will be more convenient than just picking something up and chucking it into a bin. That’s the easiest, quickest way of doing it. Our product experience has to be just as good. If it’s irritating and hard, people will just default to the thing that’s easier in their lives. The whole point of mobile apps is actually making people’s lives easier.”

Andy Hulse, CRM Operations Manager, BBC, talked about integrating testing into every aspect of mobile app experience, especially in the absence of development resources (“I used to work at Amazon, and if it’s a bottleneck there, it’s a bottleneck everywhere”). “Experimentation is everything to us. Being able, from the buy side, to identify segments and how they’re moving or churning in their experience with us, being able to identify those people and then experimenting and moving those metrics. I can’t imagine many digital businesses that aren’t just living and breathing experimentation.” 

He added, part of integrating is simplifying. “Simplify in the test whatever it is you’re trying to answer. If we get something positive about it and everybody internally goes, Hey, wow, that was amazing, you can do a more complicated version of it. You can iterate on it as you go along.”

You will be able to access all of the great presentations, panels, roundtables and workshops from Elevate22: London here starting Wednesday, November 16. Also check out one of our new eBooks and learn more about the importance of MAX here.

The post Highlights from Elevate22: London appeared first on Airship.

Brand leaders and mobile app experts shared their strategies for optimizing the entire mobile app customer lifecycle, from activation to loyalty, while mitigating risk. The speaker lineup included an external keynote from Jessica Liu of Forrester Research, a closing keynote from Accenture, and executives from CNET, KeyBank, NBC Sports, SiriusXM and Southwest Airlines, just to name a few! 

Airship CEO Brett Caine, kicked off the event by addressing the reality of the business world today — economic uncertainty. He stressed the importance of helping brands weather the unknown and emerge stronger on the other side through better mobile app experiences — a proven multiplier  for customer value and repeat business. He stated, “Brands investing in providing a top-notch mobile experience for these customers are getting more than 50% gains in customer growth and retention. And they are making life better for customers through better app experiences.” 

While apps are not new, an end-to-end focus on life after download is — and it cuts to the heart of what every business struggles with. App downloads continue to grow annually, but retention rates have barely budged. 

Experience is the new brand. Experience is everything. 
In her keynote speech, Jessica Liu, Senior Analyst, Forrester talked about the cognitive overload consumers are facing and how customer expectations continue to rise. She stressed that companies win in customers’ moments by delivering what they want immediately and in context. In fact, brands must win in each critical moment and these span the entire customer lifecycle. 

To optimize customer experience, brands need to understand who they are talking to and create moments across touchpoints, including platforms, devices and channels that customers engage with throughout their various journeys. 

Mark Hursh, Senior Director of Digital Experiences for Southwest Airlines shared how they engage with all types of flyers — from first-timers to seasoned business travelers — with self-help features in their app. By providing help at the moments travelers most need it, Southwest has reduced calls to their call center and improved customers’ experiences.

Sports is all about storytelling. MAX brings those stories to life. 
Several sports media brands participated in this year’s event, sharing how they manage a staggering amount of sports content to give fans what they want, when they want it.

Mike Lowe, Vice President, Digital Strategy, NBC Sports shared how they are using Airship to create impactful mobile app experiences that increase audience growth and customer engagement. For instance, they seek to turn a three-hour football game into three days of content, giving sports fans exactly what they want, which is far more than just the game. A detailed preference center ensures delight vs. deluge. Their mobile app provides a key source of live streaming, VOD, information, insight and real-time updates for sports fans around the globe and enhances NBC Sports network and cable viewing experiences.

Matt Duarte, Vice President Strategy & Business Development, YES Network talked about how they are attracting younger fans by sending personalized notifications. They recently sent a notification giving Yankee fans the option to hear about each home run Aaron Judge hit toward his quest to beat the American League home run record. 

Maximizing MAX starts with earning trust
Loyalty begins with engagement, which depends on earning each customer’s trust. This year’s event included both stalwart leaders and market newcomers who shared how they are earning that trust.

Hasan Luongo, Vice President, Global Marketing, Chipper Cash, a fintech ranked in the Fintech 50 by Forbes, shared how the company unlocks financial barriers in Africa — for instance, dealing with 54 currencies and intense regulations — and builds brand and customer activation at scale. With 70% of Africans under the age of 30, the opportunity for providing a reliable way to move money through an app is absolutely staggering, he said. How are they tackling the trust challenge? Personalization at scale helped the company serve 5M app customers in 5 markets and reach $1.5B in total processes per quarter.

Personalization matters and mobile apps can deliver it
Personalization is paramount to MAX, regardless of industry. Ashely Jolicoeur, Platforms Manager for CNET, said today’s app users demand to be seen and heard and said personalization is what is driving meaningful engagement and conversion. She suggested that brands test mobile app personalization methods to gauge effectiveness and improve user notifications. CNET’s testing found that breaking news, evergreen content, emojis and educational content work well with their audience and result in higher engagement.

Personalization was also a hot topic in a cross-industry round table at Elevate22: NYC. James Dunn from SiriusXM said, “We think a lot about personalization, back-end architecture and front-end architecture. It’s about customer signals — zero-party data (what we ask our customers), first-party data (what we’re observing about customer behavior), and how we look at that in terms of both positive and negative engagement factors to understand what we’re testing all the time and how it’s being received. Then we start to think about governance and how to take some of those signals and understand frequency and frequency capping, and what’s going well and what you should stop.”

With a fintech perspective, Jessica Dunn-Britton, Director of Product Marketing, PayByPhone, a pay for parking app with 60 million users, educated the audience on how to create differentiated experiences. The company’s app includes highly curated content, grassroots marketing, localized content and campaigns that give back to the community. 

What’s next? Advances in ASO and AXP promise to accelerate customer success.
Dave Bell, co-founder and GM of Airship’s Gummicube business unit, an end-to-end solution for App Store Optimization (ASO), joined Airship leaders to talk about what’s next. He reiterated the continued importance of ASO and A/B tests and shared that 70% of all app installs start from a search inside the store. 

“Optimization leads to Apple and Google finding you relevant, and A/B tests ensure that you get it right,” he said. He added that the average app is running A/B tests 14 days per month, resulting in a 2-3% improvement that will put that app above another one the next day. Gummicube customer Sephora relied on A/B testing to improve keywords, resulting in 30 percent improved conversion with a single word change. Another customer, Carvana, grew organic app downloads more than 80% and improved conversion by 98% across all channels.

Airship’s Mike Herrick, Senior Vice President, Technology, talked about what’s new and what’s coming on Airship’s App Experience Platform. He reiterated the importance of customer requirements to move at the speed of mobile, which Airship uniquely enables with its no-code, low-code experience platform. 

You can access all of the great presentations, panels, roundtables and workshops from Elevate22: NYC here starting Wednesday, November 16. Also check out one of our new eBooks and learn more about MAX here.

The post Highlights from Elevate22: NYC  appeared first on Airship.

Elevate22 is a live, in-person event featuring some of the world’s most valuable brands. Hear firsthand as they discuss their mobile app strategies and operations — and how they’re creating exponential value for both customers and brands. From optimizing life after download^TM to navigating the changing data environment, you’ll learn exactly what mastering MAX^TM means for those who do it best.

Featured brands at Elevate22 include:

This year’s incredible lineup of speakers includes:

And if you needed any more reasons for why you won’t want to miss this year’s event, here are three more:

1. Gain insights from top brands – Hear firsthand how senior professionals at leading brands are mastering mobile app experiences (MAX) to capture the exponential value of their app customers – to the point where it’s a regular feature in their quarterly earnings reports
2. Improve customer retention – There’s a cycle of risk and opportunity we call life after download. After acquiring mobile app customers, your goal is not only to retain them, but to convert them into engaged, respected and rewarded loyal customers. It’s easier said than done.
3. Discuss challenges with peers – Discuss the challenges of mastering MAX with others who are dealing with the same gaps in expectations, priorities, strategies or operations. We’ll provide the food and drink.

If this seems relevant to you and your business, it’s easy to register for New York City and for London.

The post Announcing Elevate22: Mastering MAX appeared first on Airship.

In the study we surveyed both technical people (developers) and non-technical people (marketers and mobile product owners) who work with mobile apps. We wanted to get a feel for how closely they’re aligned on processes and priorities, as well as how they work together.  We also wanted to understand who’s doing what.

The good news is this:  Almost everyone involved in app development and marketing understands that apps significantly impact their business. 

When it comes to getting work done, however, things unravel a bit. Most developers say “major new features” are the primary driver of their app release cadence, followed by “bug fixes.”   “Marketing or product team requests” are a distant third priority.

For most companies, marketers are at the mercy of developers to deliver enhancements. More than 95% of marketers and mobile product owners said they rely on developer resources and app updates to improve user experiences. What’s more, marketers are often overconfident about how quickly their requests to enhance app onboarding, adoption, opt in and data collection are fulfilled.  

Companies that want to make Mobile App Experience (MAX) a top priority need to find a way to deliver improvements with minimal or no developer involvement. That’s why we developed AXP, our App Experience Platform. 

AXP offers no-code methods that empower the entire team – not just developers – to easily create, automate and adapt native app experiences on the fly in order to capture and sustain more value.  Faster and easier. 

In practice, AXP means marketers don’t need to rely on developer resources that may already be stretched to the limit. Instead of requesting a tweak to your preference center options, marketers can make the change themselves. They can do the same for app onboarding as well. And more.

The Airship AXP platform enables marketing teams to do in-depth experimentation and conduct customer surveys as frequently as they want – with minimal developer involvement.  That means developers can stay focused on the big changes and technical fixes. Everybody – including your customers – wins.   

The Mobile App Experience Gap Survey uncovered the practices and processes that lead to the experiences we each have with the apps we rely on. 

I encourage you to take a look at the survey results to see how your mobile app team performance compares to the companies that participated. As you do, think about your answers to these fundamental questions. 

• Are you able to operate at the speed of mobile? 
• Are you at risk of losing your customer’s interest because your mobile app doesn’t measure up?  
• Do you know what’s needed to make your app more personal, relevant, and intuitive?
• Are you in control of what you know you need to do?  

These are important issues. We can help get you there. 

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