From Personalization to Individualization

From Personalization to Individualization

There was a time marketers were really upbeat about personalization. Although, personalization is a very broad team and makes us believe in a whole gamut of wonderful things that marketers would be doing for their customers to make the experience up-close and personal, the intimacy in reality, is a hoax. Apart from a select few companies, marketers have been doing joke of a job when it comes to one-to-one marketing or personalization. The only personalization in a mass mailing list was the name, rest all being the same. Discounting and believing, that these marketers were willing but unable, one can consider that there wasn’t much customer information available also. Mostly customer information was based on mass surveys and generalized assumptions for a particular target group.
But things are different now. Now marketers can actually know their customers and know them beyond just their name. Customers are leaving data trails all over interaction points. There is enough data and there are apt tools to correlate that data. What companies need now is the strategy for data-driven marketing. Companies, keen on providing meaningful marketing experiences to their customers, need to define the following:

• The process of gathering customer information from different customer touch-points and storing it in a central repository.


• The tools that will help turn customer data and customer information into customer knowledge.


• The strategy that will optimize this customer knowledge into a meaningful, truly engaging and enriching interaction. 

In the digital era, customer information is spread all across – in-store, online, app, customer helpline and every window that the company has. Thanks to mobile commerce, companies can also have access to detailed profiles of customers including information of their buying behavior, social group etc. Then there are technologies like geofencing that help companies understand the geography dynamics of the customer. Finding information is not a big deal, the real challenge is weaving a strategy around that information. The key to success in this hi-tech era will be adding human touch to this hi tech information and creating optimized interactions which are individualized and not just personalized.
You might also be interested in reading http://www.xymob.com/blog-detail.html?postid=4164849917444943696. 

Don’t Give Up

Tips for increasing app retention

Mobile app is just the start of a relationship the fate of which will then be decided based on how interested and engaged the user is with the app. Creating and getting downloads is not the challenge, the real challenge is engaging and retaining users. According to a research by Silicon Valley analyst, Andrew Chen, 77 percent of users never use an app again 72 hours after installing it.

Here are a few tips to help you increase user engagement and retention.

• User Profiling
As soon as the user downloads the app, right technology can help you create user profile and eventually build upon it. There are trends that suggest if the user is likely to the app for instance if the user has quit the on-boarding process or has not created a profile, or not uploaded profile picture, which means that if the user has not shown serious involvement from the beginning, chances are that the user will either uninstall or abandon the app. If these trends can be tracked in the very beginning, the user can be enticed into using the app which can improve chances of retention.


• Up Close and Personal
For every interaction you have with the user, try and make it as personal as you can. Make personal references by including their name, location or maybe some usage history, but do not make it sound creepily intrusive. Work out an intelligent strategy that has a fine mix of personalization, timing and of course the message.


• Gauge your market
One size does not fit all, definitely not on the Internet. There can be no winning formula or standard practices that will make different apps do well. In fact, apps designed in the same segment may also have to follow different marketing, promotion and interaction rules to suit their specific audience. For instance, Facebook and LinkedIn are both social media platforms, both may have same users but the placement and promotion of both the platforms is totally different. Similarly, Candy Crush may just be a candy game, supposedly good to keep kids happy for a while, but it has more adult user base than any other game in the segment. So the marketing strategy for each app has to be tailored to suit that particular audience.


• Check what went wrong
Although this is a classic, but works every time. Track your uninstalls. Analyze why users are uninstalling the app. There could be various reasons including poor onboarding, unappealing UX, complicated navigation, bugs, arid messaging or shoddy engagement strategy. If you are lucky, your users will leave a comment and let you know what’s wrong. But in most cases, users just leave. That is where technology and analysis will have to play an important role and help find out what’s wrong, so that it can be rectified whatever it is.

Need more insights into app retention and engagement? Read our blogs at www.xymob.com/blogs. 

Implementing Mobile Marketing

Implementing Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing has arrived. Marketers across industries can give you facts, figures, statistics, research data and so much information to reiterate the fact that mobile marketing is perhaps the biggest business opportunity waiting to be tapped.

The question is not whether mobile marketing needs to be included in the marketing strategy or not. The fact that mobile marketing is not a mere subset or fraction of the marketing mix, but is, in-fact a part of the central strategy, has been well established. The question now is, how does a marketer, especially in the SME or entrepreneurial setup, implement mobile marketing so as to add value to the bottom-line?

Like any other strategy, before preparing the blue print on paper, a few basic questions/concerns will need to be addressed.

First and foremost, companies will have to understand and define the value preposition, how will this app benefit my customers? Does the app help solve a need, want or desire? Since app is the new fad, most retailers are getting their own apps. But is the app a fancy thing that will keep customers busy for a day or two or is it either helping the customers or easing off the chores? The value preposition for the customers has to be designed.

Once the value has been defined, the next step is think of practical and creative marketing methods to draw and engage customers. App and ads may be the most popular forms of mobile marketing, but there’s so much more. Other forms of mobile marketing that can work are:

• Third party promotions
• Retargeting 
• Webrooming
• Social connect

And so much more. Marketers will need to research their customer base and understand what works for their set of customers. This might take some time, but marketers need to be thorough with their homework. They should know who their customers are, what is their social circle like, what motivates them in general and so on. And then, marketers will be able to figure out the kind of marketing mix perfect that will work.

In the next step, social media presence and digital video presence need to be essential. Apart from the fact that the customer base that has access to social and video networking and broadcasting platforms is huge, what also matters is that customers relate to brands that have social media and video sites. The connect on these platforms is definitely higher.
Brands also need to explore options of native advertising. Native adverting has better ROI than most forms of advertising.

Last but not the least, brands need to consolidate data from all customer touch points and create a central repository for all that information. There is technology available. But implementing that technology to help create a smart database system is the winning move.

Practical Mobile Marketing

Practical Mobile Marketing

Creating an App? Here are a few things that will help you make an app that actually engages users and doesn’t just sit in their phones never being used or worse, uninstalled.
If you already have an app, this article will help you get it right and become a total hit with the users.

• Great On-Boarding Experience – On boarding is not just initiating your app, but also reiterates to the user why she should use the app. To get the onboarding right, the key is ‘keeping it simple’. Create neat graphics with very simple introduction to your app.  Show app value to the user here.
DONTS -

• Very bright colors
• Busy design
• Big words, ornamental language



• Permissions – With television, radio, even your laptop being bombarded with advertising and marketing noise, phones become one gadget that still leave some control with users. People do not want to be swamped with messages or notifications. So the right time to ask for permissions (especially for notifications) is after a great onboarding experience, show value to the user and then seek permission. For instance, a shopping app can say, “We bring you offers and discounts from across brands and stores. When we find a great offer do you wish to be updated?”, or maybe for a geofencing feature, the app can ask, “We’ll let you know about great deals in your vicinity based on your current location. Do you wish to be notified?” These are examples. There can be numerous innovative ways of seeking permissions from users. Get creative.



• App Engagement – There can be various occasions to engage users. Well timed and meticulously personalized notifications with specific CTA can actually go beyond just engaging users, they can actually add to the bottom line.


• In-app alerts –  Shopping app – Entice to get extra discounts or introduce a personalized discount offer (this can be based on purchase history) Gaming app – Asking users to purchase more lives, more power etc.
• Push notifications –  Shopping app – Alerting discounts or fresh stock added Reminders for birthdays, events marked in the calendar or important occasions  Reminders for important information such as flight boarding date & time, hotel reservation dates, check-in and check-out times Order update, delivery date and time update Sorry, you’ve missed on some great deals – messages Breaking news – this should be relevant to the users’ preferences, digital footprint or data profiling. 

Top Retail Trends for Fall 2016 And Beyond

Top Retail Trends for Fall 2016 And Beyond

Some trends that retailers need to keep abreast with to maximize their earnings this shopping season.

• Electronic Payments

Different forms of electronic payment options will dominate the retail scene this shopping season. Along with card payments, retailers must provide the flexibility of mobile payments, e wallets etc. Some key payments options that retailers need to consider seriously are: PayPal , Mercury, Poynt. These are smart payment terminals that integrate several payment options into one.


• Mobile Shopping

Mobile shopping will definitely be on a high. But the important point to note here is that bigger stress is going to be on the fact that mobiles will play an integral role in ancillary sales. Mobile will be a huge platform for webrooming, where in customer will look for the products online and then walk in-store and buy it. Most people on the go are busy surfing on their smart phones, and webrooming has become very common. Hence, mobile presence for brands and stores will provide adequate exposure to prospective customers.


• Consolidated Customer Information

Retailers will have to find ways to integrate various channels and customer touch points to have a unified central database of customers that is enriched at every experience with the customer irrespective of the channel. This is a huge task and brands will have to integrate this in their central strategy.


• Facilitating Smooth and Seamless Shopping

Online shopping has become as common as in-store shopping. What retailers need to work on is making this experience friction-free and smooth. Easy navigation, one click shopping, easy electronic payments, return policy etc., all these things will play major role in deciding the men out of boys in retail.


• Convenience Will Be the Key

Shoppers will choose convenience and value over promotions and offers. Promotions and offers will have their charm, but not at the cost of convenience for the customer. To stay competitive, brands will have to give due importance to personalized offerings, convenient shopping experiences and of course great value to the consumer. The buying power of today’s consumer is more, hence value is more important than a mere discount. And this trend will be on the rise.

Tips on Making Your Business Social Media Friendly

Tips on Making Your Business Social Media Friendly

Social media has not just changed the way we interact but also redefined the way we do business. Companies are now more customer friendly than ever because the negative impact made by a dissatisfied customer is way stronger than the positive impact created by a satisfied customer. With social networking being so strong, word of mouth spreads fast and negative word of mouth spreads faster.

Social media is no more a choice but has become a business basic that needs to be included in the core strategy. It is indeed a great platform to interact with customers. Here are a few tips to help you get started with your social media plan.

• Create an account of your brand on major social media sites. Given the nature of your offering and your target segment, you might pick which sites would be the best places to interact with your customers. For instance, it makes complete sense for HR companies to be a part of Linkedin.


• Keep a tab on what your customers are saying about you. You can subscribe to Google Alerts and customize the settings with your brand name. this way if any customers write anything about you, you get notified by Google. 


• Keep a Google Alerts tab on your competition also. It’s a great way to keep a check on your competitors and keep information about the market.


• Interact with customers on all occasions. Find innovative ways to get in touch with your customers, be it season’s greetings or showing gratitude on a good review or good rating. But the best time to interact with customers is by responding to a bad review or a complaint. It not only gives you the chance to win back a customer but also proves your credibility as a brand that can listen, own up a mistake and promise correction. And that is the kind of attitude that customers also like.


• Take feedback very seriously. Like it’s mentioned above, admitting your mistake in public takes a lot of courage and people really admire that sort of courage.


• Constantly monitor your social media accounts for any recent activity. The better your response time on social media, the better chances of outshining competition.


• Keep your social media accounts very interactive. Create contests, surveys, freebies and all of that. 

Apple Store Update:

Important Points for App Marketers

Apple’s App store has changed, and for good. The changes may not be visibly noticeable, but technically this much needed modification comes in as a sigh for a lot of app developers and marketers out there.

Here is a brief synopsis of the important points that affect app developers and mobile marketers.

Better discoverability

While the ‘Featured’ tab has always been there in the App Store, it has become more intuitive and fair. There will be no paid placement on that page and the apps will not be chosen on the basis of ranking (only). Choosing apps on the basis of user ranking makes it extremely unfair to the newer apps who are still looking at getting to their critical mass. Instead, apps will be featured on the basis of local content, or current fashion, culture or seasonal trends.

This is a great user friendly update. This will also keep app creators and marketers on their toes to keep the app relevant for the users. It can actually be a great marketing feature too. You just have to take the current trends and authentically tie them to your app. For instance, Rio Olympics or end-of-summer fashion or upcoming Autumn trends.

Paid Search Ads

This is still in the beta version until Fall, but Apple’s new search algorithm will be a thing to watch out for. Marketers might want to note that every time a search algorithm changes, be it Apple or Google, it just gets more user relevance/convenience friendly. It would make sense to revamp your apps to suit users’ needs better. Search ads will make your apps visible to the user right when she asks for it. As a marketer, you might want to make comparisons as to spending money on mobile marketing/in-app advertising vs paid search ads, and weight your ROI on different ad spends.

Auto-renewable Subscriptions

Apple’s fight against dead-apps sort of end with the auto-renewable subscription feature. Brands can choose to collect subscription from their users. But an important thing to note here would be that such apps that charge a user, need to be geared up to give that kind of value to the user. There has to a high degree of personalization along with engagement. Moreover, the app has to provide some kind of value in user’s routine or daily life, or users won’t pay up for renewing. This feature aims at putting the life back in the app, although it does mean app developers and marketers need to be on their toes, always.