It may feel like it all went down just yesterday, but the holiday season will be here before you know it! Marketers need to be present at the point of influence and purchases through multiple channels. 

Following the steps and tips below will help you cover all your technical, creative and targeting bases – and make your next holiday shopping season the most successful one yet!

Q1: Assess and Retain

While you may already have your annual marketing plan in place, Q1 is an excellent time to reflect on improvements to this year’s messaging plans. What did you learn from last year’s mobile messaging campaigns?

Q1 has a number of natural touchpoints, such as end-of-year clearance and Valentine’s Day, to re-engage and retain holiday shoppers.

TO DO:

• Conduct a mobile messaging post-mortem of what was effective, what could be improved upon, and what competitors did during the holiday season.

• Meet with vendors and partners to understand their release schedules and updates, so that you can plan your internal technical requests early.

• Retain holiday downloads by recognizing that holiday app download cohort might be very different from your other users. (Here are three tips for improving retention from this cohort.)

Q2: Integrate, Personalize and Optimize

Three areas retail marketers can drive significant additional value are cross channel integration, personalization and optimization. Q2 is a great time to focus on one or more of these initiatives.

Cross Channel Integration

Retailers’ websites have to be fully optimized for mobile –
 good enough to win shoppers’ trust, so that they’ll be inclined to not just to buy from you this one time, but to download your app and opt-in to push notifications.

So what’s your mobile web to mobile app conversion plan? How are you engaging customers across all of your channels? Now is the time to audit your cross channel experience and plan for technical integrations with your shipping, CRM, email and other systems.

Personalization

To minimize the risk of opt-outs and maximize response rate, make your notifications as personalized as your email communications.

There are a number of ways to accomplish mobile personalization through Airship — uploading targeted lists, integrating with backend systems, using personalization templates and more.

Get familiar with the toolset that is right for your goals, and work with your tech team now to test. (We can help – get in touch any time.)

Optimization

Always be testing. Check out our blog post “3 Ways You Can A/B Test Your Push Notification Marketing Messages Today” for some ideas about what to test and how you can learn from your results.

TO DO:

• Audit your cross channel experience and your app ecommerce flow.

• Test web push notifications.

• Work with your technical resources to integrate back end systems, set up tags, or improve your app experience.

• Plan your deep linking and measurement strategy.

• Leverage A/B testing to ensure that you’re using the best copy combinations
.

• Set up a test plan to keep track of what you’ve learned.

Q3: Target and Acquire

What are you doing now to build your app audience? Do you have a loyalty program? What is your plan to engage and retain loyalists, and win new customers over the holidays?

To acquire new app users, and target current users consider:

• Audience Segmentation: Identify specific audiences that you would like more of, such as high LTV customers, category purchasers, and recent purchasers.

• Targeting: Export a list of your best customers with their IDFA (or advertising ID) to find Lookalike Audiences to target on Facebook. (Remember to exclude your original customer list to only reach net new customers.)

• Leveraging Your Loyalty Program: Target loyalty program users with special offers

Running behind on your Q3 holiday planning? It’s not too late to launch a digital wallet coupon or holiday offer. Mobile wallet passes can be distributed through email, social, and even print mailings via a URL. It acts like a lightweight app, allowing for notifications and updates once installed on a user’s device.

>> Related content: 4 Mobile Wallet Marketing Campaign Ideas You Can Execute in 2 Weeks or Less

TO DO:

By the end of this quarter, you’ll have your holiday plans in place including:

• Defined holiday measurement goals and tracking

• Audience targeting

• Written and designed creative, including creatives for rich push notificationsand your in-app message center.

You should also:

• Assess cross channel customer touch-points for places where you can highlight your mobile value proposition.

• Consider your app store rating, and ask your best customers to review your app (here’s how to trigger the ask for your best customers).

• Plan your audience segmentation and targeting strategy. Know who your buyers are and tailor their online experience accordingly.

• Assess the attributes of your best mobile customers and target offers to look-alikes to ensure that you’re acquiring customers who will have the greatest long-term value to your business.

• Set up deep linking and cross-device tracking so you can understand customer behavior across mobile and desktop.

• Incorporate loyalty program messaging and targeting now to retain loyal fans and grow base.

• Roll out a mobile wallet marketing campaign.

Q4: Engage and Maximize Sales

The holiday season has arrived!

For the mobile holiday shopper, push notifications are the best way to announce flash sales, remind them of their abandoned shopping carts, and to offer mobile only and VIP discounts.  

By early October, your mobile app is probably on lockdown, and ready for the winter storm of mobile messaging.

TO DO:

• Test your mobile app ecommerce functionality, abandoned cart and promo codes

• Make sure you have your app welcome series in place to engage new users

• Personalize your messaging

• Capture abandoned carts

• Optimize the gift-giving spirit of the season by targeting men’s products to women and vice versa

• Emphasize the convenience of ordering online. For example: “No need to run to the mall!” or, “Don’t wait in line on Black Friday!”

• Call out free shipping and any other exclusive discount codes or coupons

Here’s to the Holidays!

By planning ahead, preparing engaging messaging, tracking results and optimizing along the way, retail marketers can ensure that they deliver impactful business results for the holiday season and beyond.

We hope this list will help you stay ahead of the holiday season and improve your mobile messaging throughout the year.

For more tips, tricks, and strategies, make sign up to get our monthly newsletter. We’ll make sure you’re the first to know about upcoming webinars, benchmark reports, Inspiration Guides and more throughout the year.

Are you maximizing your reach and engagement with cross channel campaigns? Let us know how we can help.

The post Boost Holiday Retail Sales: A Year-Round Planning Checklist for Mobile Marketers appeared first on Airship.

The key in meeting — and even going beyond — those expectations is to create win/win messaging strategies for your brand and your customers.

In our latest webinar, “10 Ways to Win at Customer Engagement,” we shared ideas to help. Here are three of our recommendations — to see them all, watch the full webinar anytime!

Get Cross-Functional Alignment on What Success Looks Like

The idea may seem simple enough, but getting cross-functional alignment on what success looks like is important for creating amazing customer experiences, connecting data silos, and getting a broader understanding of your customers.

To get everyone on the same page, we suggest having a meeting with as many people who impact digital customer engagement as possible — including roles like customer experience, CRM, data science, and loyalty program managers.

In addition to each role looking at their unique interface with customers, each role will have different data needs. To balance those different needs and come together on how to measure success, we suggest you ask these three questions that are a great way to understand how data can fuel your business:

1. What unique ID connects customer data across channels?

2. What data helps us judge success and/ or create great experiences?

3. What is the source of truth for each piece of data?

We've seen a positive shift in customer experience for brands that take this “experience team” approach. 

The post 3 Essentials for Better Customer Engagement in 2019 appeared first on Airship.

With Christmas holiday spending in the UK set to jump by nearly 25 percent from last year, the importance of the festive period for retailers is clear to see.  

The sheer volume of peak period spending is further emphasised by research from the Centre for Retail Research and IMRG, which shows British consumers spent £50 billion between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve in 2017.

But the festive season is more than just a sales opportunity; a number of high-street stores have struggled this year in the face of mounting online competition. This means the festive period serves as an opportunity for retailers to redress the balance between online and offline channels. Encouraging footfall to high-street premises while still offering all of the convenience and innovation of digital experiences.

Have you been naughty or nice? Building on last year’s performance

A 2018 retail report from Urban Airship, picked up on trend shifts in frequency and timing of cyber deal promotion, plus a smartphone-centric approach both online and in-store. It showed British brands sent 172 percent more notifications year-on-year (2017 vs 2016) to their customers.

Retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence also ramped up their messaging much earlier in November than in previous years. Additionally, new app installs for brick-and-mortar retailers peaked on Black Friday at nearly double the rate observed during the previous month. This increase was largely driven by retailers promoting their apps in-store and online with access to exclusive deals and vouchers.

However, there is still room for improvement. Targeted notifications had an 89 percent higher engagement rate than notifications broadcast to all users; but, only five percent of notifications UK retailers sent during this period were targeted – a missed opportunity.

A best-practice approach for any retailer is to prepare for the festive peak with a full post-mortem of the previous year’s strategy, assessing what was effective, what could have been better, and how competitors’ approaches differed.

The online experience is just as important as the in-store

Often, retailers treat online and offline channels as separate entities. In reality, they should be viewed as two congruent components of an overall retail strategy, in order to get it right. The amount spent by customers who go online to research products and vendors but then shop in physical stores is huge and growing year over year.  

As such, it’s important to have the two channels working in tandem, as customers are using both. This was demonstrated in a study showing almost three quarters (73 percent) of consumers use multiple channels during their shopping journey.

Within six months of a shopping experience, these omnichannel consumers logged 23 percent more repeat trips to a retailer’s shop and were more likely to recommend the brand to family and friends than those shoppers who used a single channel.

Offering an effective omnichannel experience is especially important in the run-up to Christmas, a stressful period for consumers looking to find the perfect gifts for their loved ones while managing their busy schedules. Brands should be looking for innovative ways of using technology to ease consumers’ worries, such as offering festive delivery estimated time of arrivals and live-tracking services to reassure customers their gifts will be received on time.

Alternatively, retailers can implement omnichannel options like curbside pickup, in-store pickup or same-day delivery, to help customers tailor the shopping experience to fit their needs during the rush of the holidays.

Engaging customers at Christmas

In the festive period, customer-centric communications help retailers to understand their customer’s interests and add value to their experiences. For instance, notifications sent through apps, emails, SMS and websites can be used to remind customers about forgotten items in their online shopping bag or to offer discounts and vouchers to help build customer loyalty. John Lewis are an example of that; deploying notifications using beacons, so that when a customer is within 70 metres of their store, they are sent an alert to ask if they’re picking up an order, which the staffer can then prepare for them.

Competition is at its peak during the festive period so it’s important to stand out. Traditional Christmas and Boxing Day sales are important, and Black Friday is a huge opportunity to generate sales, but retailers should be looking to supplement their efforts by targeting lesser-known events.

For instance, Chinese national-holiday-turned-shopping-event, China Singles’ Day, is reportedly worth $30 billion making it a high potential opportunity for retailers. Even in the UK, online shoppers showed a greater level of engagement with retailers’ notifications on this day in 2017, though send volumes remained flat, demonstrating greater consumer interest than retailer adoption.

Building a successful festive engagement strategy is a time-consuming, but entirely worthwhile process; especially considering the festive season can represent up to 40 percent of a retailer’s annual turnover. If you’re starting from scratch a little late in the game, or you’re low on developer resources, then the channel technique is a quick-win to help prepare. Brands can still get up and running with a digital wallet coupon offer or holiday offer campaign distributed via email, social media, websites, apps, in-store signage and more.

The festive period is the busiest shopping season of the year, retailers need to make sure they implement an effective engagement strategy that will deck the halls and make it jolly.

Are you a retailer looking for last-minute holiday marketing help? We got you. 

The post Making the Most of the Christmas Countdown appeared first on Airship.

“This app is all yours to manage!”

Whether those words spark excitement or dread depends on whether the app you just inherited can meet the goals that have been set for it.

But what if it really is (almost) the worst app ever? Then what?

Here’s a 7-step plan (including some options for quick wins you might not have thought of yet) to tame the beast (whether it’s bad app design, difficult UX, or other challenges) meet your goals, and get your app back on the right track — without losing your mind in the process.

Step 1: Document The App’s Unique Value Proposition

It seems like a simple enough question: why should users download your app — and why would they keep it? But it can be surprisingly hard to answer because things can get complicated.

The whole point of an app should be to deliver a brilliant experience for your customers. It should either offer something totally new or offer a faster, simpler or better way to do something they already do in another channel.

Think about your customers’ needs: how can you meet one or more of them with your app? That is your app’s unique value proposition. And the experience you create should be personalized, frictionless and contextual. (Don’t worry if this isn’t possible for you right away — you can get there without lots of development.)

The most important thing to remember is that the app’s value proposition has nothing to do with why you want users to download your app. Your value proposition absolutely must be about whether your customers will or won’t want to download it.

In other words, it’s not about you. And the answer to the question “Why would my customers care about this app?” is critical, because it’s going to drive your entire strategy going forward. If your app’s not equipped to deliver on a grand value prop today, you may have to identify a new one, and start smaller, with a value prop you can deliver on with the tools at your disposal and build from there.

Got your value proposition? You’re ready for step two.

Step 2: Document the Goals for the App

If this has already been done, great. If it’s been done, but you’ve read the goals several times and you’re still not quite sure exactly what they are (or you had to re-define the value prop) then start over — and keep it simple.   

For example, the goal of a retail app that monetizes with sales might be to (no surprise here) drive more in-app sales. Put a number and a time frame on it — perhaps “increase in-app sales by XX% in Q3” — and you’ve got your goal.

For a news app that monetizes on subscriptions, the goal might be to attract and convert more subscribers. “Drive XX new app downloads and convert XX% of them to subscribers.”  

Most apps also work towards the goal of maintaining and growing their monthly active user base (MAU). But it’s also important to measure the impact of the app or a push message on sales if they end up completing in-store or online.

Step 3: Join up the Goal and the Value Prop and See Where You’re At

Let’s say the retail app’s goal is to increase in-app sales by 15% in Q3. And the unique value prop is that your customers will get exclusive discounts, perks and freebies if they download the app.

Where does that leave you?

• Can your app deliver exclusive discounts, perk and freebies? If so, how will app users know about them? (Especially if they’re not opted in to receive push notifications?)
• What are your current in-app sales? Is 15% a realistic number based on quarter-over-quarter app data, or a stretch goal?
• How have sales promotions worked in the past? Do they really drive sales — or just app opens? (Are your metrics set up to measure this?)
• Can you measure the impact of the app or a push message on sales if they end up completing in store or online?

Determine what you’ll need to be able to deliver on the goal. Then start considering some creative ways to get there….

Step 4: Find Some Quick Wins

Armed with your goals, your value prop, some data and a sense of how these might all work together, it’s time to get creative.

First, identify some ways you can hit your goal (or blow it out of the water) and work backward from there.

For example, what’s the top-selling item in your app? (Or for a subscription-model app, what do you know about the cohort of users most likely to subscribe?)

Let’s say your top-selling in-app item is a case that makes your phone virtually indestructible. Calculate how many of those you’d have to sell to make your number.

Now, what path can you blaze for your app users — without doing a complete app makeover — to make buying that item as easy and irresistible as possible? Crappy though it may be, you can make a path that reduces friction and delivers value.

Here are a few options for grabbing some quick wins:

Reach users on day one — and steer them in the direction(s) you want them to go.

With first open and inactivity triggers (available out of the box with our Mobile app engagement solutions), you’re on your way to using push notifications to engage your app users at scale, and send them where you want them to go within your app. You can also use automation and custom events to trigger personalized messaging to customers who abandon carts, or to encourage use of app features. For more possibilities, see our blog post that gives you 50+ ideas for using automated push notifications to create deeper connections with your users.

Divert user attention from areas of the app that are less satisfying with in-app messages.

Get your app users’ attention with in-app messages — especially important for reaching users who never opted in to receive push notifications (or who have opted out).

In-app messages can be as fancy as you want them to be — you can even include videos, sound, gifs and other media. (We also have templates you can start with.)

In the example of a phone case retailer: offer a discount on your best-selling phone case, and deep link the ad directly to the product page in the app (or on your mobile website if you can demonstrate the lead came from the app in your analytics) and you’ve got a path that cuts right through your app.  

Bonus points: Segment the in-app messages using user-level data if you’ve got it. For example, build an in-app message featuring your case preventing disaster at a hot nightclub for the younger set; a message featuring your case preventing child-related phone mayhem for the parents on your list, etc.

Create a “safe space” inside the app with an in-app message center.

An in-app message center is an inbox in your app helps you create a space inside the app that you can control, and where users can have a positive experience. It’s a brilliant destination to drive push messages to if your app has a poor UX or challenging CMS.

You can send discounts and offers to your entire app user base — and add an iOS badge to your icon to let them know there’s something waiting for them inside.  

Bonus points: Set an expiry date on your message so it will disappear when the offer ends.

Bypass the app but stay active on mobile: send a coupon/voucher/offer through a mobile wallet pass.

Sending a mobile wallet pass turns the pass into your front door on mobile instead of your app.

Getting a mobile wallet pass onto your customer’s phone also means you’re increasing your brand’s surface area there — and giving yourself a mobile presence in case a user deletes your app.

If you’re not already tight, go make friends with the person who runs your brand’s email or social campaigns and see if they’ll include a link to your mobile wallet coupon in their next customer communication. From there, for your customer, it’s as easy as clicking a URL to download the pass to their phone.

Bonus points: Send a push notification directly from the wallet pass when an offer is getting ready to expire.  

Step 5: Deploy, Measure & Use Your Data to Drive Your Next Move

Before you deploy your easy win tactics, know how you’ll measure results so you can see what worked and what flopped. We’ve set up a content planning spreadsheet that incorporates message type, measurement and targeting to get you started.

Want more help with the measurement strategy step? Check out our blog post 3 Keys to Making Sure Your Mobile Analytics Move the Needle — or dive in a little deeper with our on-demand webinar, Rethinking Mobile Measurement: A New Approach to Achieving Success.

Now you’re ready to execute and start measuring.

Did your strategy work? Did it help you meet your goal and provide value users couldn’t get enough of?

If not, determine whether fine-tuning or a complete re-think of the approach is needed. Regardless of whether your “quick win” was as winning as you hoped it would be, you’ll have learned something about your customers, and you can adjust.

If it went gangbusters, then you’ve got the raw material to create a plan to build on your success — and a business case that can help you get more resources for more fixes.   

Step 6: Parallel Track Your Strategy: More Quick Wins + Long Term Plan for App Improvement

Experiment and iterate to find the wins that keep driving goals while you create a longer-term plan for fixing those areas of your app that aren’t up to par.

Refuse to get overwhelmed. Stick with your strategy, and make sure everyone who can help you understands what you’re up to.

Step 7: Report Out on Your Plan & Your Progress

Regularly communicating your goals, the app’s value prop, and learnings from your quick win experiments will help you continue to bolster your case for dev resources and raise the profile of mobile in your business.

Add and adjust goals as your app and your strategy evolves. Before you know it, your incremental improvements will result in an app that’s more effective — for you and your customers.

And yes, we know it’s never as cut and dried as we’re making it sound. If you’re stuck or need a fresh set of eyes to help you figure out your quick wins, we’re here to help. Schedule a free 30-minute session with our strategy team anytime.

The post “I’ve Got the Worst App Ever and Limited Development Resources. What Do I Do?” appeared first on Airship.

Effective mobile messaging, such as push notifications or in-app messages can help you build powerful relationships, but it can be tricky to strike a balance between meaningful engagement and notifications that users might find annoying.

For example, for the fourth consecutive year, retailers’ mobile notifications send volume increased during the busy holiday shopping Cyber weekend. With all that noise and competition for user attention, it’s the targeted messages that stand out and gain even more user attention.

However, this year only 5% of UK brands sent highly targeted messages to their customers – a missed opportunity.

1) Provide Value

Take note that interruptive advertising is accepted even less on mobile than on other mediums, such as TV and desktop browsing — and who doesn’t love Netflix’s “Skip Intro” button enabling you to blow past show creators’ opening credit? On mobile, even the most brand loyal customers will uninstall an app if it does not focus on their needs and provide value.

The value-add can manifest itself in many different formats. It may be a sports app alerting you that the football team you support is about to kick-off, or your favourite coffee outlet offering half-price hot drinks to customers nearby on a particularly chilly day, or even your bank letting you know about a low account balance or suspicious transactions.

2) Keep It Contextual

The rich data that mobile can offer enables brands to be truly relevant in the right context. Location-based marketing, for example, bridges the physical and digital context to provide in-the-moment messaging based on a user’s location.

In location-aware mobile apps, a notification can be triggered when a user enters or exits a predefined geo-fenced location. For example, a music streaming app could recognise when a user’s most played artist is coming to play a concert in their city and invite them to buy a ticket through the app.

This can also be a way to improve customer experience without having an obvious “sell” message, a tactic that fits with consumer’s attitude towards their mobile devices. For example, a music festival might use geo-location as a means to help people navigate a venue, alerting them to how long it will take to walk from one stage to another and perhaps remind them about the food purchasing options along the way.

From merging physical and digital worlds, to building a complete and contextually relevant understanding on the customer’s journey, mobile marketing can build relationships with your customers and have a positive impact on both the brand, and the bottom line.

3) Choose the Right Channels

Today’s digital world offers a variety of channels for brands to connect with their customers. Choosing the right channel for the right moment is crucial:

• SMS or text offers are often read instantly if a phone is switched on, giving a brand an opportunity for immediate engagement. However, it can come at a high price given the cost to send SMS messages for both the brand and potentially the consumer as part of their mobile phone bill.
   

• Mobile messaging tactics such as sending push notifications can be extremely effective, as users often read them instantly. And these messages can be highly targeted and relevant to the user, consuming very little data.
   

• In-app notifications are sent to a user whilst they are browsing inside the app rather than to a lock screen. Since the user is already engaged in-app messages can be highly effective.
   

• Mobile wallet passes are the digital equivalent of all the things typically included in a physical wallet. They can be used in place of physical loyalty cards, vouchers, business cards, tickets, etc. A recent survey showed 84% of consumers in the UK saying they find mobile wallets more convenient than cash. This represents a huge channel for marketing, customer retention and loyalty teams. With 85% of 18-34-year-olds globally expecting to use a mobile wallet more over the next two years, it’s a channel worth tapping into.
   

• Email can be a highly personalised channel fuelled by rich data that consumers and brands alike are very familiar with. But, reach can be a slow burner as it depends on when the user checks their emails so take that into account when planning your strategy.
   

• A channel that’s growing fast, web notifications can reach users on their desktop and on their mobile phone (on Android only) — a fantastic option if your brand doesn’t have an app, or for your customers who haven’t downloaded your app, or have opted out of receiving push notifications.

These are just a few of the many channels available to marketers these days. As more channels become mainstream, such as voice with smart speakers, marketers will need to continually evolve their strategies to meet their customers with exceptional experiences for every stage of the customer journey and in every unique channel that consumers want to use.

No matter the channel or overall theme of your message, keeping user value and relevance at the core of your strategy is the key to winning the hearts of your customers.

Ready to see how we can help you deliver magical moments on mobile and beyond? Get in touch anytime for a personalized demo of our Digital Growth Platform.

This article originally appeared in Telemedia Online, and is reprinted here with permission.

The post Three Steps to Mobile Marketing Success appeared first on Airship.

Who wouldn’t want a personalized concierge/butler/BFF right by our side during a long and stressful day of travel?

We work with many leading airlines that are creating this kind of hyper-personalized customer experience on mobile. Combining the user-level customer intelligence (like flight times, layover location/duration and loyalty/frequent flyer information) airlines have in their systems with other data sources (like airport information systems, weather APIs, etc.) opens up the opportunity to use mobile to be there for customers at exactly the time and place they need you the most.

Creating better connections with customers on mobile also pays dividends in improved brand affinity, customer loyalty, and NPS score/referrals, while helping reduce costly customer service calls, and contributing to increased ancillary revenue through upsells and add-ons.

Read on to see how airline industry trends around mobile engagement are evolving — and how you can keep up with ever-growing customer expectations around mobile messaging before, during and after their day of travel.

Urban Airship powers mobile engagement for top travel and leisure brands around the world — from Virgin America to Starwood Hotels and Results to the Sydney Airport. See more of our Travel & Leisure customers.

Be There For Customers Before, During and After Their Travel

As marketers and customer experience managers at airlines know, it’s important not to overwhelm customers with too many mobile messages on a day of travel. However, it's also important not to miss opportunities to upsell or deliver “nice-to-know” messages that can really improve customer experience. Mixing up your mobile messaging channels — and matching messages to the right mobile messaging tools — is key.  

Here are some examples of the compelling ways airlines can leverage multiple data sources and mobile messaging channels to make every customer feel like a VIP.

BEFORE THE FLIGHT

Check-In: Check-in reminders can come via notifications across any or all digital channels 24-hours before check-in time:

• “Good [morning/afternoon/evening] – it’s time to check in for your flight!”

Time Savers: Whether it's directing customers to the shortest security lines or alerting them to gate changes, airline apps that send push notifications to help customers save time are always appreciated.

Push notifications are the ideal channel to use for “need-to-know” messages — like reminders to check-in, gate changes, alerts about delays, etc.  Airline apps should use them wisely to avoid notification fatigue for passengers.

Mobile Boarding Pass Delivery: Once a passenger is checking in online or on mobile, they’re also ready to get their boarding pass. Mobile wallet is the perfect channel for mobile boarding passes. Why?

• Better customer experience: Don't make customers dig through mobile email to find their pass: mobile wallet boarding passes can stay visible on a lockscreen until the customer gets on the flight so it's always at the ready.

• Wallet passes update dynamically: A mobile boarding pass that lives in a mobile wallet isn’t static — it can be automatically updated (no user action required) with changes to flight times or gates.

• Send notifications directly from wallet passes: Proactively alert passengers to changes to updates by sending a push notification directly from the mobile wallet boarding pass. 

Alaska Airlines uses our mobile wallet solution, Reach to power their mobile wallet boarding passes.

Those reasons and more are why Alaska Airlines (ranked number one for the 10th consecutive year in the J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey) uses our mobile wallet solution, Reach for mobile wallet boarding passes.

(New to mobile wallet and mobile wallet passes? Learn more about them in this FAQ for marketers.)

BETWEEN FLIGHTS: THE LAYOVER

As customers land and turn off airplane mode, airlines can be there to assist.  

Wayfinding: As they're waiting for their next flight, a push notification can help passengers get where they need to go next:

• “Here’s where to go for your next flight…” with a link that takes us to a map, including walking times between terminals.

Enhance Customer Experience During Layover: For a longer layover, sending a message to a customer's in-app message center creates an opportunity to provide a concierge-style experience (maybe even a chance to offer a partner promotion) that might say:

• “Need something to eat? Here’s a map of top spots nearby” and link to an in-app airport map with restaurant listings and ratings, or

• “Make the most of your layover!” and link to information about the airport in the terminal the passenger is in — or the one they need to go to for their second flight.

App Feature Discovery: As passengers are more likely to be active in your app during a trip, now might be a great time to promote app feature discovery with an in-app message.

With in-app messaging, airlines can deliver contextual in-app messages (like modal pop-ups inside your app) that encourage feature discovery and adoption, as well as app updates as needed.

AFTER THE FLIGHT

Your passenger has landed at their final destination and they're ready to roll! Help them get them smoothly on our way:

Luggage: A push notification can let customers know where to go to get their bags:

• “Got luggage? Head to [Carousel #] – it will be there within 15 minutes or we’ll refund your checked bag fee!”

Transportation: Ground transportation options can help too:

• “Need a ride? Here’s a list of options out of [Name of Airport]”

Explore & Get Deals: It’s also a great time to send an in-app message to share offers from partners:

• “Enjoy your time in [destination city]! Here’s a list of deals and things to do from our partners…”

An app inbox (message center) is a fantastic addition to any airline app.  Share information about in-flight perks and amenities, partner offers, FYIs on new destinations — similar to content you use in your email marketing. Use a badge (that little red dot next to an app icon) to alert users that there’s new content in the app for them to see.

Loyalty Updates: For loyalty members, an in-app or message center message can remind them of the miles they earned or rewards they could cash in — and their mobile wallet loyalty card can update as well.

• “You just earned [number] points on your mileage plan! Just [number] more to go for gold status.”

• “You’ve now got [number]  points to spend! Click here to browse options”

Share Feedback: Collect their thoughts: send a message center message or a rich, interactive push notification with a button pair:

• “How would you rate your flight experience? [Great/Not So Great].” From there, you can choose where to send the customer for the best next step — gathering more information, connecting them with a representative, or asking if they want to rate your app.

PLANNING THE NEXT ADVENTURE

As passengers plan their next trip, they’re open to airlines sharing inspiring ideas. In fact, more than 50% of travelers don’t have a set destination in mind when planning a trip — and 60% will search their next trip from a mobile device.

Inspire: Consider sending an in-app message or rich notification when flights to cities a passenger has visited before go on sale — including rich text images of the destination, or partner offers/packages.

• “Thinking of everything you missed on your last trip to [XX]? See our low fares…”

Provide Perks: Offer a frequent flyer mobile wallet pass so your customers' up-to-the-minute point status is always just a tap away. Send notifications from the loyalty pass about new offers or point-earning opportunities.

• “Earn double miles next month – learn how!” or “Use your status to fly standby for free.”

Make Magical Mobile Moments During Day of Travel & Beyond

Customer experience is everything. The more ways airlines can create in-the-moment mobile experiences  that meet travelers’ needs, build better and deeper customer relationships — and grow goodwill, loyalty and value for their business.

Our experts have helped some of the world’s leading airlines craft a customer experience on mobile that’s an extension of their brand, and that helps earn and keep customer loyalty. Let’s work together to identify the moments that matter most to your customers, and bring together the data and technology you need to deliver a stellar experience on mobile. Contact us and let’s get started.

The post How Airlines Can Grow Brand Loyalty & Revenue By Creating Hyperpersonalized Customer Experiences On Mobile appeared first on Airship.

How are your customers finding, connecting with, and making purchases from you? In an omnichannel world, understanding the answer to this question is both more complicated and more critical than it’s ever been.  

Here are five mobile marketing mistakes that can slow brands down — and sometimes even derail them entirely. (Need help tackling one or more of these? Set up a consultation with us anytime.)

Mistake #1: Ignoring Where Customers Get Stuck

When it comes to completing an in-app conversion, friction is not your friend. Brands need to be hyper-focused on each of the steps customers need to take towards a conversion — and where there are breakdowns.

Collecting and analysing the right in-app metrics can help pinpoint problem areas — whether it’s a page, a registration process or other issues that impede the road to conversion — and fix them.

Mistake #2: Siloing Online & Offline Experiences

Too few brands are connecting the “real” world with the “mobile” world. And it’s not just retailers. There are opportunities for lots of brands in this area. But today, only a handful of brands use location as a trigger to connect with users. That’s starting to change. And brands that are getting ahead of the curve are going to be the winners.

Mistake #3: Not Using Data to Create More Intuitive Customer Experiences

Given all of the data in your CRM (and you have connected your mobile data to it, right?) you should be able to learn a lot about your customers’ daily routines — which can help you be there in the moments that matter most.

Siri, Alexa, Google Home and other smart home assistants and IoT devices are already taking advantage of data to do this. They can tell you when to leave the house in the morning (based on your daily commute); which items in your fridge are going out of date; and so much more.

How can your brand step into the micro-moments of people’s days and make their lives a bit easier? If you don’t think about it, you can bet your competitors will.

Mistake #4: Not Taking Advantage of User-Level Data

In-the-moment, real-time marketing using user-level analytics is an amazing opportunity for marketers. It’s also a completely new paradigm — and one many marketers are still wrapping their heads around.

Often, mobile data is still isolated from a brand’s core CRM database. Once these data sets are combined, the possibilities for using this data to connect with customers in ways they’ll value — and that drive exponential revenue — can be staggering. (And sometimes overwhelming. We can help.)

Mistake #5: Having the Wrong People on Your Mobile Team

Too often, we still see “mobile marketing” responsibilities assigned to an entry-level social media or email marketing manager. If that’s where you’re starting that’s great. But don’t let that be your endpoint. The opportunity is too big to miss. (More advice on getting the right skills on board in our post Mobile Marketing “Teams” Still a Dream for Many Brands.)

Whether you hire a consultant to run a mobile strategy session, bring a mobile-first marketing whiz on board, or engage a fantastic digital agency (or all three!) you need to find and employ the people who know how to take advantage of the mobile-first digital growth opportunity for your brand.

Conclusion: Mobile-First is No Longer Optional

All marketing efforts need to be working in tandem; digital tools must be anticipating customer needs, and mobile strategies need to be built to help brands engage, compete and grow. Avoid the mistakes we’ve discussed in this post, and you’ll be well ahead of the game.

Download our eBook Building Your Mobile Strategy today to:
– Optimize mobile messaging for every stage of the app user lifecycle
– Boost your mobile conversions and campaign performance
– Define, meet and beat your mobile marketing KPIs

Get your copy >>

The post Five (Costly) Mistakes to Avoid In Your Mobile Marketing Strategy appeared first on Airship.

Don’t get me wrong, app downloads are a very important metric – the more customers that have your app, the more likely you are to build a deeper relationship, drive revenue and retain them … or are you?

Quality, Not Quantity When It Comes to Mobile Analytics

Ever heard of the 80/20 rule (or Pareto principle)? Joseph Juran explains that in any industry, 80% of outcomes can be attributed to 20% of the causes for a given event; i.e. 80% of your revenue is coming from 20% of your customers – your most loyal fans and advocates.

Applying this theory to your app, it’s easy to see how important it is to be able to identify those critical few; these are the customers making a difference to your business. By studying the actions and behaviours of your best users you can begin to create cohorts and start planning how to transition them from the 80% to the 20%.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

When you’ve spent all of that marketing budget on acquiring new users, naturally you’ll want to keep them. Do you measure inactivity, opt-in rates and uninstalls? And more importantly, do you have a plan of attack to address these challenges?

So many brands are focused on acquisition metrics; we’ve been hardwired to focus on growth and engagement but what about that small leak in the bucket that often goes unnoticed? If you don’t pay attention to that you will only ever be topping it up, not truly growing.

Fix, Optimize and Win!

Start by identifying your best users; do they register? Do they come back often and stay awhile? Do they buy from you? Use your findings to power insight for your business and leverage user level data to optimize campaigns for your biggest fans and your less amorous users.

Also, don’t forget to keep an eye on inactivity levels. Effective tagging will help you to understand where things might be going wrong for your users.

Want to Learn More?

Interested in continuing this discussion, or booking a strategy session for your company? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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We’re so pleased to welcome mobile strategist Emily Buckman to the Strategic Services team at Urban Airship. She’ll join our crackerjack team of mobile experts running strategy sessions for customers in the EMEA region and beyond!

The post Mobile Analytics: Why “Downloads” Is a Counterfeit Metric appeared first on Airship.