Localytics Senior Solutions Consultant, Richard Sgro, discusses the tactics and benefits available to mobile marketers who employ the right strategy, based on app analytics data.

 

 

Transcript

Hello, everyone. My name is Richard Sgro. I’m a Senior Solutions Consultant, here at Localytics. Welcome to Whiteboard Wednesday. Today, we’re going to be talking about how the marketer can own app analytics, and we’re going to present three strategies to help you really drive value from them.

Let Your Business Questions Guide The Analysis

The first is in the question definition. An analyst, or an engineer, left to their own devices, may tag all different sorts of information, with no real rhyme or reason, or thinking through what questions may need to be answered. As a marketer, you can come in and shepherd that process along, making sure that the analyst and the engineer are tagging information that’s meaningful, to help you answer your important business questions. How are people checking out? How many people have exercised a promotion? How many people are taking advantage of a GPS feature that you’ve added? By defining those questions, it helps you to ensure that you’re getting the right data, which brings me to my second point.

Once that data starts coming in, and because you’ve spent the time defining these questions, be sure that you use it. As I said before, there’s a tendency to tag all sorts of information, to collect the most granular minutia, to collect data for data’s sake, or to find lots of answers, in search of questions. Because you’ve shepherded this process along by defining the key questions, you’ve got that data in hand. Now, use it. That could mean a number of different things.

Take A Holistic View Of Your Brand

Once you’ve defined the questions, and you’ve worked to get really good data that you’re using, it’s important to also take a step back, and look beyond that data, look beyond what your users are doing when they’re engaging with your brand in a mobile app, and look to some of the other representations of your brand. You may find, for example, that users that are your most valuable on the mobile app, they never engage with your brand in a brick-and-mortar store. Or, perhaps, they spend a bunch of their time on the web, and they engage with your brand in that way. This thinking beyond allows you to take your brand to the next level, because you’re understanding how folks are engaging, at all different points.

Discover Opportunities Within The Data

In our check-out example, perhaps folks are getting items added to their shopping cart, and never checking out. That’s an opportunity for you, as the marketer, to nudge them along, to drive them further down that conversion funnel. This information will also be valuable to your product management colleagues, and engineering. Together, the two of you can think about what’s potentially next for your application.

Conclusion

Just a quick recap. You want to work with your analysts and your engineering team to define the key questions. Once you get the data in, you want to actually take advantage of that, and start to make decisions based on that information. Then, once you’ve got that data, you also want to look beyond.

We here at Localytics, we have a great set of solutions. We like to think that our product is built with marketers. We’ve got a great analytics platform, that’s very easy to use, and we’ve got a very powerful marketing platform built on top of that, but whatever analytics provider that you use, be sure to think through how you can own some of this on each step of the way. I hope you found this informative, and I hope that this helps you, as the marketer, better own your app analytics. As I said before, my name is Richard Sgro. Thank you for attending this Localytics Whiteboard Wednesday.

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The increase in smart phone usage is important for brands to keep in mind when considering how to market to their customers. Not only are the numbers of smart phone users increasing, but behavior is changing and users are becoming more and more attached to their smartphones. According to Qualcomm, 29% of Americans say their phone is the first and last thing they look at every day. With users constantly using and interacting with their smartphones, it’s important for your brand to be reaching out to your users through the mobile platform by using a mobile messaging technique. However, there are multiple different methods for mobile messaging and it can be hard to determine which is best for what. We’ve broken it down for you to describe the key differences in thre options: SMS, push notifications, and in-app messages.

Mobile Messaging Platforms

1. SMS

Users get SMS messages they have opted to receive from brands the way they would receive any other text message on their mobile phone. While mobile email is a similar technique in that users opt to receive the messages, many more SMS messages are opened and read than email. According to SlickText, 95% of text messages are opened, which means SMS messages are a good way to reach a broad audience. However, the broad audience is not always a good thing. SMS marketing makes it more difficult to get information on individual users, which means it is harder to segment the user groups. They are also not generally associated with app usage and most times will direct your user to your mobile site, which makes it harder to understand these users through analytics. SMS can be effective for specific types of messages when used the right way. For example, using it to get responses from users or notifying users about a limited time promotion. Starbucks has a great method for using SMS marketing (as seen in the screen shot below). However, there are more effective messaging techniques.

Courtesy of Mobile Marketer

2. Push Notifications

Push notifications are messages sent to users on their home screen when they are not in the app. You can use push notifications to drive users back into your app if they are not actively engaged with it. Social network apps do a really nice job of personalizing the messages to users by sending them only when someone has interacted with them through the network. A great way to avoid annoying users with push messaging is to make sure messages are as customized and personal as possible. The important thing to remember when using push is that content, frequency, and timing have to be done right, or it could annoy users and turn them off from your app. Rue La La does a great job with their push notifications in using creative and entertaining content. Though push messages can work, you can’t rely solely on push for mobile messaging. Localytics data finds that even among engaged users who have opened an app at least 10 times over 3 months, almost 50% opened the app from a push notification only once or twice. This means that those users are either ignoring the messages or turning the messages off.

3. In-App Messages

In-app messages are sent to users while they are in an app. It can be used for many different cases such as getting customers to rate your app, notifying them of an update to the app, offering rewards and promotions, or giving them a tour of new features. You can use it to nurture and encourage engagement from within your app. You can use a user segmentation tool to personalize messages based on cohorts to create a unique experience for each segment. In-app messaging is the best way to create a stronger, richer app experience by getting in touch with specific user groups and making the experience more valuable to them inside your app.

Building Your Mobile Messaging Strategy

The ultimate goal of using mobile messaging is to stay connected with users and create a large base of engaged and loyal users. The best way to work towards that is to use a combination of all three in your strategy. The key is to know what to use each for. Push messaging is best used for less engaged users to draw them back in, in-app messaging is best for encouraging more engagement while creating a better in-app experience, and SMS messaging is best for connecting with broad audiences. You have to be strategic in your content creation for each. The most important thing to remember is that segmenting your users is essential when sending out push and in-app messages. You have to make sure you are reaching the right user group with the right type of message and the right content.

Are you thinking about implementing a mobile strategy for your brand? If you haven’t already, consider this: in 2013 mobile phones will surpass desktops as the most commonly used device to access the web. If you know anything about us, you’ll know our stance on mobile strategy: you gotta have it. With that being said, it’s not enough to just simply create a mobile app. 57% of consumers will not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. Tailor to these people. It’s important to know who your mobile users are and what they’re doing with your app.

There is a huge difference in consumer behavior on mobile vs. desktop. It’s critical to keep in mind simple facts like that the wait time people spend on websites differs from 3 seconds on desktops to 5 seconds on mobile. Knowing the differences between mobile and desktop consumers can help you design your app differently than your website, driving better results, which is why we’ve highlighted the 4 key characteristics of mobile consumers that brands need to consider.

Key Characteristics:

1. Shopping Habits

Mobile commerce is on the rise and shopping on mobile phones is increasing. In 2012, the total sales of physical retail goods and services made on smartphones were $8 billion in the US, and this number is going to grow 4 times the size in half a decade.

Simple ways you can take action on this information is to create a streamlined mobile checkout process to avoid common pitfalls like shopping cart abandonment. Using a mobile analytics tool like Localytics, you can use funnel analysis to see areas of your app where consumers drop off from converting. This kind of knowledge can help you improve the mobile shopping experience for your customers.

For example, apps like Rue La La save your credit card information to make it more convenient for their customers moving forward, especially when time matters on a flash sales app.

As you can see in the screenshot, Rue La La has trimmed down the checkout process to literally 1 screen for existing customers. This not only simplifies the process for the customer, but gives more incentive for them to make multiple purchases because they know it will be an easy transaction. Additionally, the customer won’t dwell on the fact that they might be going over their shopping budget and abandoning their cart the way they would if the checkout process took a long time. Mobile devices are eliminating the monopoly desktops have on making purchases digitally.

2. News Consumption Habits

Mobile hasn’t only changed the way people shop, but the way they consume news as well. Everyone knows that physical newspapers are on the decline, but on the other hand, what is on the rise is news being consumed by people digitally. People haven’t stopped reading the news, they are just consuming it in different ways. According to the Financial Times, during the week desktop and mobile subscriber usage is pretty much the same. However, during the weekend, mobile drastically passes desktop usage. This proves consumers are more apt to read the news on the weekends on their mobile devices than their desktops, probably because they aren’t at work and it is easier when they are busy with weekend plans.

Being able to access the news on their mobile phones, consumers are able to stay connected to what’s around them and not tied down to a desktop at home. Now consumers can bring the news with them, and if they want to switch between different news sources they can do that as well, without bringing physical newspapers with them.

3. Couponing Habits

Consumers love coupons. According to Emarketer, the number of US mobile coupon users will rise from 12.3 million in 2010 to 53.2 million in 2014. If you reward your customers with coupons, they’ll have more incentive to stay engaged with your app. People want to feel rewarded when they use your app. If you see them really engaging with your app, whether they’re using it every day, checking in, or tweeting, then reward them with a coupon, letting them know you appreciate their commitment to your app.

GFK states that 44% of advanced device owners are looking for coupon opportunities on their devices and 17% have already purchased a product via mobile platforms. People are constantly looking for discounts, and if these discounts or rewards are in the palm of their hand, why wouldn’t they use them? .

4. Sharing Habits

One great thing about mobile to remember is the accessibility. Unlike a desktop, most consumers carry their phone everywhere. Mobility allows consumers to connect with their peers wherever, and whenever. Prompting them to share their locations or even their thoughts, whether it’s promoting an app publicly or inviting a friend to use it is a great way to promote your brand. Mobile behavior overall consists of consumers interacting with others through engaging with your app.

We all know those people who are constantly checking in everywhere so you know where they are every second of every day, or that person who is constantly posting what hot new music they’re listening to. The bottom line is sharing is what makes apps popular. Sharing is what gets your brand out there. Mobile is breaking down the walls of communication barriers, allowing everyone to let people inside their lives.

Apps that take advantage of the social aspect of mobile strategy create good, easy ways to share. Consumers might not even notice they’re promoting your own brand while they’re using your app to share with their friends what they’re doing.

Wrapping Up

We realize that there are a lot of characteristics to look out for when implementing your mobile strategy. Key takeaways are that mobile is on the rise, engagement is key, and being strategic about how you increase engagement is crucial. Mobile strategies are hard to define, and will need some tweaking if you realize something isn’t going as planned. But once you figure out what works for your brand, you can create a truly valuable and successful app.

With over a billion global smartphone users, the mobile application market continues to expand, which means app users are developing shorter attention spans for the most interesting or best quality apps to download. With the clutter of new apps flooding Android (450,000), Apple (600,000), and other app markets, it takes the right optimization steps to climb higher in ratings, page listings, and categories. An optimized app means more downloads, which ultimately lead to more subscriptions, purchases, shares, customer engagements, and whichever other KPI’s equate success for your business.

App Store Optimization (ASO) requires many of the same factors that go into great SEO tactics. Things like metadata, keywords, head titles, description, and geography play a role in the app store listings, so leveraging the right tool to understand these variables for your specific app can mean the difference between a top-tier ranking and an also-ran position. Here are 5 quick tips for optimizing your app store listing:

5 Steps to Optimizing Your App Store Listing

 

Step 1: Know Your Audience

Understanding your users, including how and when they interact with your app and your competitors’ apps is integral to rising in app store rankings.

To build your user base, it helps to start with what you know about current users.The right mobile-first analytics tool can highlight user data to build out a great app description, keywords and more. Tracking things like new v. returning users, users by device, demographic data, user actions and daypart analysis can reveal important trends.

For example, a media publishing app could build out a custom user segment and discover that the majority of its users are reading and sharing sports stories. This could feed right into the visuals and descriptions that go into the app store. Incorporating a picture of sports content, along with a blurb about how great the app’s sports content looks in-app could lead to higher search rankings in the app store.

 

Step 2: Track Events & Actions

By tracking the flow and type of actions users are taking in your app, you can craft better descriptions  and keywords for use in the app store.

Using an analytics tool that shows the blueprint of your app, including the user flow and which attributes are most prevalent with certain actions can lead to more clearly defined keywords for your app store listing.

For example, a retail app might want to investigate the what type of items iOS users add to their viewed most frequently. If it turned out that thousands of iOS users were viewing expensive Tiffany necklaces, the retail app could use this information to tweak its keywords, incorporate in-app jewelry images into the app store description, and even tailor its advertising accordingly. Suddenly, that generic retail app has a focus on high-end luxury accessories, which will attract a new crop of users. Then, if user tastes change over time, the app could adapt these elements; all it takes is tracking.

 

Step 3: Build That Coveted 5-Star Rating

If there’s one commonality about the highest-ranked apps in store listings, its a 5-star rating.

In the same way that user-review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor have become the barometer for great businesses or destinations, a 5-star app means a great user experience. However, 5-star ratings aren’t easy to build organically, and getting enough 5-star reviews to become reputable takes a few targeted measures. In-app messaging can be a great way to find your biggest advocates and nudge them towards high praise.

For example, an ecommerce app could initiate an in-app messaging campaign for an ultra-quick scaled review. By prompting its users to grade their app experience on a scale of 1-10, the ecommerce app could easily find their promoters and detractors. Then, when the segment of promoters has been defined, the app could send a follow-up message asking them to take a few seconds to rate the app in the actual app store. This tactic accomplishes a few objectives:

1) The first 1-10 rating is completely harmless to the app’s store rating
2) Only those who rated the app highly the first time would be prompted to give a 1-5 star rating in the store, almost guaranteeing 5-star ratings, and lots of them
3) The data gathered from the first 1-10 scale can be used to target promoters or detractors in the future

 

Step 4: Get The Word Out

Once you’ve built more accurate keywords, educated descriptions, intriguing visuals, and tons of 5-star ratings, it’s time to get the word out. Using successful mobile ad channels like Facebook, combined with testing copy, can lead to more searches and downloads in the app store. Utilizing a mobile marketing solution that offers advanced analytics will help direct when and  where   to offer in-app messages. A/B testing will refine messaging and ad copy design to  help you explore which campaigns attract users with the most lifetime value. When you’ve nailed down the right mobile marketing elements, app promotion will be more effective than ever.

For example, a gaming app could craft an in-app message that prompts users who have reached a new level to share their achievements. Then, after testing a few different versions of this message, the app could develop ad copy to run in Facebook’s mobile site that incorporates a similar theme. Facebook users who follow the ad would be directed to the app store’s description, which has been fine tuned and complemented with a plethora of 5-star ratings.

 

 

Step 5: Keep Improving

This final tip seems obvious, but continuous improvements are as important as your initial setup. To use an appropriate example, it’s like personalized mobile phone; there are always new apps, wallpapers, and layouts to explore; a standard setup is just boring.

Leverage analytics to build a powerful knowledge repository that can adapt to changes in user tastes and app updates. Add mobile marketing campaigns fueled by those metrics to highlight the latest and greatest features of your app that will prompt more app store downloads and subsequently higher ratings. Keeping the pulse of your app means you can quickly and easily respond to more macrocosmic changes in the market and adjust the elements that lead to great ASO.

 

Conclusion

In the same way that SEO isn’t an exact science, ASO will work differently depending on your industry or enterprise, but these 5 tips can help you lay the groundwork for a hot-commodity app. As you look for the right tool to implement each of these tactics, check out what Localytics has to offer.

Understanding why users convert or do not convert through your funnel process helps you make improvements to your apps – leading to the ultimate goal of converting.   At Localytics, we understand this. That is why we have released an updated version of our funnel tool that gives our Enterprise customers the ability to drill down for further information on funnel conversion rates.  You can now expand funnel steps for better insight into what is happening to your users throughout the conversion process.

The conversion trend chart displays the same day conversion rate for all steps in the funnel.  If this is going up over time, you can see that more users are moving through the funnel within one day than have in the past.  This can also give you insights into how changes in your app are impacting your conversion rates over time.

The event tables give great insight into what people did instead of converting to a certain step as well as what steps converted users took prior to converting. This information shows you why people drop off and why they convert.

The drill down table splits your data by converted vs. non-converted users.  This reveals trends in users. If users on one device are converting at a much lower rate than users on other devices, perhaps the user experience on the low converting device is sub optimal.  In the example below, you can see that users that came from a Facebook campaign convert at a lower rate than organic users.  Perhaps the campaign is not targeting the right segments on Facebook.

Let’s look at an example of how the new funnel updates can be used to drive positive change.

Peter is a product manager for an mCommerce app and needs to increase revenue generated through the app this month to meet his company’s goals.  To this end, he is really interested in what drives people to actually purchase from his mobile app.  He has a funnel with four steps:

1. Viewed Product Page
2. Added the product to cart
3. Added billing information
4. Checked out

Peter wants to eliminate drop off from steps 3 to 4.  In the Localytics funnel analysis, he selects the “Checked out” step to analyze what is happening.  He can quickly see in the events table that users who dropped off after entering billing information receive “check out errors.” Peter wants to get this to his developers to investigate how to eliminate these errors that are costing him revenue.  He can also see that users who completed this step clicked the “add coupon” link.  This sparks a great idea for an in-app marketing campaign – offering coupons to users while they are filling out their billing information.  After running this campaign, he will be able to see if the campaign had the desired results in increased revenue and funnel conversion.  These new funnels along with Localytics in-app messaging could give the revenue boost needed to achieve his goals.

Check out our new funnel functionality and let us know if you have any further suggestions or feature ideas by emailing feedback@localytics.com!

 

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