- Explore one new technology and test with it.
It seems like every week a new disruptive technology emerges. Holidays are excellent times to explore these technologies and see if they can be useful for engaging with your customers. Rather than finding ways to combat these disrupters, embrace them. Dedicate a small budget to researching market demand and testing across whatever areas makes sense for your business — iBeacons, location-based content, weather-triggered offers, wearables data, mobile cognitive analysis and much more.
- Create a true value exchange for consumers.
If mobile channels are important to your business (and they should be), make real investments showcasing value. For example, when onboarding new mobile users, offer something valuable in return for their app download or SMS subscription. Since the users are new and you don’t know much about them yet, pick offers with a wide appeal such as free shipping codes for all mobile holiday purchases.
- Use channels with greater reach to drive mobile engagement.
It’s always a good idea to use channels that have a larger audience to promote smaller ones. For example, you might send an SMS with an app store direct download link or a mobile email encouraging users to sign up for SMS alerts.
When promoting new channels, always define their unique values to the user – why should customers also subscribe to this channel? How is it different from the channels they already subscribe to? Later, as customers progress through their buying journey, make sure you’re doing more with these mobile channels than just regurgitating content and offers available elsewhere.
- Use email to drive increased usage based on a user’s app activity.
Mobile apps can be a huge tool for driving holiday engagement and revenue – but only if customers interact with them. To help ensure this, use email to drive increased usage based on a user’s app activity. Create follow-up programs, similar to an email reactivation or win-back program, for email subscribers who:
Click a link to download your app but don’t download it
Download, but don’t activate or show any activity within a certain number of days
Infrequently use the app or don’t use key features that increase value and stickiness
Have used the app regularly, but then show a pattern of declining to no engagement
- Think outside the app with mobile email.
Mobile isn’t all about its unique execution channels. Some customers won’t have your mobile app or subscribe to your SMS list. What’s likely, however, is that they’ll open your holiday emails on a mobile device. Make sure all your email campaigns are optimized for mobile or, at the very least, responsive to smaller screen sizes. Don’t forget to optimize the webpage to which customer clicks through. Few things will make your mobile customers abandon faster than a mobile email linking to a non-mobile-optimized web page.
