5 Key Takeaways From Caesar’s Entertainment, CNET and Expensify

Here’s a recap of the highlights from our San Francisco Digital Engagement Forum. Join us at the next one: see where we’re headed next and register today!

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Marketing leaders from Caesar’s Entertainment, Inc., CNET,  Expensify and Urban Airship joined the crowd at our San Francisco Digital Engagement Forum on Tuesday to have candid conversations about what’s working in digital engagement for their brands. Here are a few of the key takeaways from the event:

1) Engage With Customers Based on What They Do — Not What They Say

Lisa Ajdini, Director Mobile Strategy, Caesar’s Entertainment, shared that, when it comes to customizing deals and offers, her team bases their engagement strategies on what a user actually does, not just what they say they want to do. For example, if your preferences indicate that you love spa treatments, but you’ve never booked one, you’ll be more likely to receive offers or promotions that prompt you to do things your behavior indicates you’re likely to enjoy.

From Left to Right: Alex Weingart, Senior Product Manager with CNET, Alyssa Meritt, moderator and Head of Strategy for Urban Airship, Andrew Gable, Lead Mobile Developer with Expensify, and Lisa Ajdini, Director Mobile Strategy, Caesar’s Entertainment.

2) Test Then Automate to Scale What Works

Lisa also discussed the importance of testing messaging strategies before you automate and scale those strategies across multiple channels. The process might be more small-scale or manual in the beginning, but the exponential results you’ll achieve by implementing only the most successful strategies is worth it.  Lisa noted that they have seen big growth in meeting their goals since expanding what works best on mobile to other channels.

3) Be Obsessed With Creating Ideal User Experiences

Reducing time in app doesn’t sound like a goal most mobile marketers are looking to achieve, but when your app exists to help make a particular task more streamlined and efficient, less is definitely more. Andrew Gable, Lead Mobile Developer with Expensify talked through the ways he and his team make sure they’re putting customer experience in the center of everything they do — from ongoing collaborative roadmap discussions to having their employees use the app — and share their feedback— every single day.

4) Keep It Simple

Alex Weingart, Senior Product Manager with CNET had some advice for multichannel marketers: try the simplest thing first. For example, when CNET first launched web notifications, they added a lot of rules to control which customers would see the opt-in prompt on their website and when. When they made the decision to go broader and show the opt-in to everyone who landed on their site, opt-ins exponentially increased. Keeping things simple also allows brands to create a more cohesive experience across all of their channels  — from newsletters to social media posts and beyond, said Alex.

5) Identify Your Brand’s “Defining Moments” to Deepen Customer Loyalty & Engagement

Defining moments, said Mike Stone, Urban Airship’s SVP Marketing, are those fleeting opportunities throughout the customer experience where brands can provide especially thoughtful and impactful assistance. In those moments, customers can have an experience that makes them forever loyal — or not. Urban Airship’s Digital Growth Platform is built to help marketers be there in those moments, building smarter, deeper, more valuable relationships with customers on any channel or device. (We’re always happy to show you what our Digital Growth Platform can do for you — request a personalized demo anytime!)

Don’t miss out on our upcoming Digital Engagement Forums, coming to cities near you! See the cities and register to attend here!