CompleteGuideToMobileSuccess

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO

MOBILE SUCCESS

Everything your business needs to know

INTRODUCTION

If we followed convention, we’d start this document with some observations around the growth of mobile and the scale of the mobile opportunity. But here’s the thing: mobile isn’t ‘on the horizon’ or enjoying ‘explosive growth’ - it’s here and now.

Consider the bare facts.

So let’s make it clear from the off - being ‘on mobile’ or having a mobile app is no longer enough. Mobile needs to be at the center of your business, and probably deserves the lion’s share of your investment both in terms of time and money.

But of course that’s easy to say and harder to do. We sometimes forget that the smartphone is less than 10 years old. For too many marketers, it is hard enough to keep up, never mind take a leading role in the move to mobile.

We’re here to help. At Swrve we’ve worked with some of the world’s leading app companies to deliver outstanding engagement, retention and revenue on mobile. We’ve run thousands of A/B tests and delivered thousands of campaigns. So we know what works.

In this eBook we share that knowledge. It’s a practical guide to what you have to do to make mobile a success for your business.

We hope you’ll find it useful.

Over 7 Billion

152 Times A Day

More Internet Traffic

smart devices in the world.

A typical user who checks that device

carried by mobile apps than mobile

internet and desktop combined

A global mobile commerce market of over $75 Billion

1@swrve_inc [email protected]

WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL APP?There are all sorts of mobile apps, meeting a variety of purposes - from those that are the business, and the sole source of revenue, to others built to advance the brand in more indirect ways.

So perhaps it is wise to get our disclaimer in first: we can’t tell you how to build a great app. So how can we promise to help ‘make’ a successful app?

It’s like this: creating a great app is necessary. But it isn’t enough. There’s no substitute for that creative spark or business idea, but it won’t get you all the way. In fact we’ve seen countless examples of great apps or games that simply failed to take off.

Or worse again, despite being installed and used by hundreds of thousands - or even millions - of users, they failed to deliver on their business objectives. And to our way of thinking, there’s no greater crime than that.

This guide aims to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.


Acquisition:how to cost-effectively bring new users into the app

Analytics: the data you’ll need to drive performance

User data:what you need to know about your mobile users

Retention: how to keep users sticking around during the first key sessions

Conversion: how to drive purchases, revenue - or whatever matters to your business

Collectively, by focusing on these topics any mobile business is in a significantly improved position when it comes to delivering a real return on their investment in app development. And in each case we will take care to include practical examples of campaigns or projects that can make a difference.

Let’s start with acquisition!

Assuming your app is in development, or perhaps is already published, we’ll share key secrets relating to:


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ACQUISITIONHow to cost effectively bring new users into the app

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ACQUISITION

It’s fashionable to play down the significance of acquisition in mobile apps these days. As a reaction to an overwhelming obsession with the subject, that might be fair enough. But in the real world the situation is unchanged. If nobody installs your app, you don’t have a business.

So there’s no getting around it, you need an acquisition strategy.

In the most simple terms, there are three main ways to deliver installs on mobile:

You can pay them

You can deliver them organically

You can migrate them from other channels

Let’s look at those three categories in turn and discuss some key ideas that will help you get the most bang for your buck.

@swrve_inc [email protected]

Success Tip

Remember that what works today may not work tomorrow! Keep an eye on acquisition spend and constantly adjust your campaign strategy

~ Cathal Cooney, Swrve Success, San Francisco

“

It’s a simple fact of life - in one way or another most app installs are paid for. So even if it’s not part of the plan, you’re likely to find yourself paying for people to install your app at some stage.

When you do, bear the following in mind:

Don’t assume you HAVE to pay.

The economics of the blockbuster app don’t necessarily apply to you. Think carefully about whether your strategy really requires paid installs, remembering that they are usually less loyal (and profitable) than their organic cousins.

Investigate multiple channels and techniques

Smart mobile businesses consistently explore every angle available to them, and never more so than when it comes to acquisition. Acquisition options include advertising within other apps, social channels such as Facebook, app promotion services and indeed above-the-line advertising such as TV. Each can only be measured in context - so put them all in play and turn them up or down based on their comparative performance.

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PAYING


“

“Track the value of your new users.

The golden rule - make sure paid acquisition delivers ROI. And don’t make that calculation based on an average user value - make sure to treat users from each source individually and establish that any given investment pays for itself. To do that, you’ll need to have a clear idea around how much revenue is being delivered by users, and you will want that data delivered in real-time. There’s no point manipulating the acquisition mix based on data from six months or even six weeks ago.

Track revenue and ROI from all your acquisition sources in real-time - ready to adjust spend in response

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ORGANICIf you don’t want to pay, there’s always the organic

approach. But let’s get the bad news out of the way

first: ‘discovery’ - the process through which users find apps they may be interested in - is not particularly effective. Most of us know that ourselves as consumers. So for app developers, relying on organic acquisition alone is a risky strategy.

So how about the positive? Well, organic acquisition is certainly worth more to you in terms of average customer value, or at least it usually will be. And there are ways to encourage it. Most obviously, you can indirectly pay for organic installs via activity such as PR. Take the time to establish whether some positive coverage isn’t a more cost effective way to deliver new users than paying for them directly.

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A smart way to ensure better ratings, put into practice by travel app Hipmunk. The first message asks users to deliver feedback on the quality of the app. Only those who confirm that they ‘love it’ are then sent to the standard invitation to rate the app publicly

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Most importantly of all, don’t forget word of mouth. Ultimately, it’s one of the most powerful weapons in your armoury. And you can work on improving how hard it works for you:

Make sure to encourage ratings (which are, after all, a sort of digitized word of mouth). To do that, test when the right time to ask for ratings is, and establish who to ask for ratings. A simple way to do that is simply by asking whether users are enjoying the app before p rompting those who are to go on and provide a rating

Take a similar approach with social shares. Social can be a very powerful tool in your word-of-mouth crusade - but make sure you give users the opportunity to share their achievements or opinions rather than simply the fact that they ‘like’ your app or game. That’s likely to be more effective - but don’t take our word for it, test!

Lastly - remember the basic truth that nobody recommends something they don’t like! If you want word-of-mouth to work for you, make sure your initial user experience is outstanding, that your app performs as it should, and you are generating delighted users.

Clear, effective social sharing options in evidence on Evernote

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Success Tip

You need to deliver the best possible experience on mobile - and that typically means the native app rather than mobile internet. The latter may be easier to implement - but you are leaving yourself open to superior experiences being offered by competitors

“

~ Jason Turbin, Swrve Success, San Francisco

“

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Success Tip

Use A/B testing to establish how best to prompt social shares. In tests with entertainment app Beamly were were able to increase shares by over 500%!“ “

~ Aoife Crowley, Swrve Success, London

MIGRATING EXISTING CLIENTSFor some lucky organizations or businesses, adding new users to mobile is largely a case of encouraging existing customers (usually online, but potentially bricks and mortar also) to install and use a mobile app as an alternative way to access their service.

In this situation, the single most important piece of advice is “take nothing for granted”. When users switch technology, they are also more likely to switch brands, and the migration to mobile represents a key bridge that your customers must be guided across.

If you sit back, deliver a poor quality app some time next year, and hope to succeed: forget it. Your customers will go elsewhere, or find another way to meet their needs on mobile that doesn’t involve you.

By way of analogy, consider the move to digital music. The established industry sat back and did little or nothing. Eventually Apple stepped in and provided a solution to digital music distribution that solved the consumer problem and simultaneously made large chunks of the existing music industry redundant.

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So take action. The following suggestions might help:

Create something worth moving to. Your app should deliver the highest quality initial experience possible. You can’t afford your existing customers to look elsewhere when making the transition to mobile. Give them no excuse, and ensure that as soon as they install your app, they’ve no reason to look elsewhere.

Promote mobile to your existing user base. You have a ready-made communications channel through which you can promote the existence (and the benefits of) your mobile app. Make sure you do it - before a competitor takes the initiative. Remember this is not just offline - visitors to your mobile site can also be prompted to switch to the app.

Incentivise first time transactions on mobile. All research suggests that multi-channel customers are more loyal, and more valuable, to a business. With that in mind, make every effort to ensure your customers start using mobile rather than just downloading an app. Incentivize the first purchase, transaction - or whatever activity matters to you.

Ensure your mobile experience is as seamless as possible. Most existing users will be aware of the conventions you use online. As far as possible, maintain consistency in the mobile environment - make the app feel like ‘home’. And in addition, ensure that any account is centralized and can be used from any channel. Sounds obvious - but isn’t necessarily always put into practice!

Take every opportunity to promote your app, such as this messageTripAdvisor shows to visitors to their mobile internet site


We’re all aware that mobile is changing retail in multiple ways. Most obviously, in multi-channel retail mobile is fast becoming the most popular and profitable channel. All those billions of smart devices, that we look at 150 times a day, have to add up to something in the end!

But mobile is also set to change the bricks-and-mortar retail landscape completely. It is important to understand that consumers now see mobile as providing instant access to the information about products and services that helps them reach a purchasing decision.

In the retail context that’s why you’ll see people take out their mobile in-store to check user reviews of a particular item, or compare prices. So it might be an idea to ask yourself this question:

“do I want users turning to MY app, or a competitor’s app, when they look for that information?”

MOBILE AND THE REALWORLD

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Smart multi-channel experience at Whole Foods


When you’ve chosen the former option(!), here’s a few ways you might consider to make that happen:

Connect the in-store and mobile experience. iBeacons enable you to trigger in-mobile campaigns as

customers enter different areas of the store - from large spaces to quite specific small areas relating to individual products and brands. That opens up a world

of possibilities, from notifying users about current promotions via push campaigns, to in-app messages and content that provides more information on nearby items. Consider them all!

Bring digital data to the in-store party. Digital channels have one huge advantage: they offer the ability to collect data relating to almost every aspect of the consumer. You can turn that to your

advantage in store. Whilst you may be running

multiple promotions on any one day, it is possible to ensure that each individual sees only those relevant to

him or her - based on their prior behavior in the

mobile app or online. That means more effective marketing - and it also cuts down on irritation!

Build in-store companion apps. Don’t make the mistake of believing that just because

you are a retailer, any app you build has to sell directly.

A store companion app can provide valuable loca-

tion-sensitive content and campaigns, and can be integrated with the in-store experience by, for

example, supporting a ‘call a sales assistant’ function.

Remember that behavior in store can also be shared with other channels. Beacon technology now enables retailers to have a

complete ‘map’ of user behavior within the store, and can even report ‘dwell time’ in front of specific products or product categories. If a specific user has spent 15 minutes browsing Versace dresses, that

information can be used to personalize mobile and online experiences (and campaigns) in the future.

Think of it as offline to online retargeting!

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Digital channels have

one huge advantage: they offer the ability to collect data relating to almost every aspect of

the consumer. You can

turn that to your

advantage in store.


ANALYTICSthe data you’ll need to drive performance

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ANALYTICS - OR KNOWING WHAT TO MEASURE

To succeed on mobile, it is essential to measure what matters. Only by doing this can you really identify where improvement needs to be made, and how successful or otherwise your mobile marketing efforts are. In other words - it is vital.

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It’s essential to track user performance in real-time

Start from your business objectives, which could be focused on user base, revenue, or indeed any number of factors. From here, it should be relatively straightforward to identify the key metrics that function as building blocks for those objectives - and watch them like a hawk.

Conversely, if you find yourself watching numbers that are only tangentially related to the ultimate goal, step back and ask yourself why.


Meaningful analytics allow you to model the user journey

Here’s a brief overview of the key numbers you’ll

almost certainly need to watch:

Revenue Speaks for itself - make sure you can track revenue from all sources.

New Users Yes, acquisition matters!

Day 1 Retention Specifically - what % of new users on any given day are active in the 24 hours following. A vital number.

DAU

Revenue Per User

Daily active users. Alongside revenue per user, the key building block when it comes to revenue.

A key indicator - if revenue matters to your business

First-Time Paying Users

Average Session Length

The % of users who are actually delivering revenue (rather than trialling the app or using for free) is, of course, a significant indicator.

It’s important that your app is engaging- so in most cases a large number is better. However, in task-driven apps you may want to see this number decrease rather than increase - showingthat efficiency is improving

Number of Sessions Per Day

Push Notification Opt-In

An easy way to get a feel for how ‘compelling’ your app or service is

A key stat that has a great influence on the success of your marketing activity.Everyone wants to push this number as high as possible


There are more - many more - numbers that may matter to you. The important thing is that they are measured consistently, reliably, and in as close to real-time as you can manage. Data is the foundation stone of a mobile strategy.

THINKING ABOUT THE USER JOURNEYThese are the basic numbers that matter. But on their own they won’t tell the full story and they won’t necessarily help diagnose where your app is performing - and where it needs help.

To do that, you need to consider the user journey. Think of bucketing your users in the following ways, of course using definitions that work for you:

New UsersFor example those users in their first three sessions, or perhaps their first 20 minutes of app time


Engaged UsersThose users who have madeit through those first three sessions (or 20 minutes) and are now more active and committed

Converted UsersEither those who have started spending money in the app, or have subscribed or upgraded when relevant. The definition of conversion really depends entirely on you: it could even be simply users who meet a further engagementtarget, such as 20 sessions.

Lapsed User Those users who have ceased using the app - within a particular time frame. Of course it is never possible to know who has definitively left never to return, but it is usually possible to reach an approximation.

Success Tip

““

Why do these buckets matter? For the simple reason that your business depends on moving users along this journey - turning new users into engaged users, and then on to converted users. Then keeping those converted users engaged and bringing back as many lapsed users as possible.

With that in mind, it is important to have a clear understanding of the percentage of your new users converting to engaged, and so on for each category. It is in those numbers that true success lies: to give one obvious example, if you can move the percentage of engaged users developing into converted or paying users from 5% to 8%, that’s a huge and significant shift.


Make sure you are set up to measure what really matters to you on mobile. Create a clear, unambiguous conversion event so you can consistently track the migration from ‘engaged’ to ‘converted’ users

~ Gordon Glauser, Swrve Success, San Francisco

“ “

USER DATAwhat you need to know about your mobile users

USER DATA WHAT YOU NEED TO COLLECT

The ultimate goal of mobile marketing could ultimately be considered an ‘interaction engine’ - a way to speak to our customers or potential customers, something that has of course always been the aim of the marketer.

But great conversations and interactions start with listening. If you don’t know your customers, you’re likely to talk to them in an ineffective and (for the customer) plain irritating manner. The goal is to ensure mobile conversations don’t become simply an updated version of email spam.

So get your listening gear on: ensure you are recording every event that matters, in relation to each user, is collected, stored and acted upon. For the avoidance of doubt, that means billions of events for most apps, and includes:


~ Claire O’Regan, Swrve Success, LondonSuccess Tip

It's vital to gather, process and distribute user data in one action. Make sure to close the loop between analytics and action so you're able to change user experience in real-time

“

~ Claire O’Regan, Swrve Success, London

“

Demographic Data The basic stuff - age, gender, location,language preference and so on

Engagement Data For how long, and at what times, the user has been using the app. Cumulative time in app is of particular significance

Event Data The heart of the interaction engine. Event data relates to page opens, clicks, purchases, opens - every possible user activity

Device and OS Data Of particular importance when it comes to delivering campaigns optimized for specific devices

Test Events If a user has been exposed to a particular test variant, it is important to record that event in order to, for example, deliver appropriate further campaigns

Message Events Similarly, it is important to record when user receives, opens or clicks on a message (whether a push notification or in-app conversation)

There are others - including data relating to the acquisition source associated with the user, but these headings cover the key data that will be required to deliver truly effective mobile marketing.


The purpose of listening is to talk with greater relevance and effectiveness. Collecting data enables the marketer to build highly sophisticated, targeted campaigns.

We’ll talk about the form those campaigns might take later in this document, but a few examples here might demonstrate how the collection of user data can help create truly powerful, memorable interactions:

SEGMENTATION IN ACTION

A subscription offer can be delivered to users who have been active for at least 20 minutes in the app, promoting improved access to a feature they have accessed at least 3 times during a trial, in their local language and optimized to their particular device.

A specific help page, showing users how to find a particular feature in the app, can be shown to users who have spent a specific length of time in the app, but have not already used/found the feature in question. In turn this allows initial app onboarding to be slimmed down - improving early life retention.

An interactive survey can be delivered to users that propensity analysis (see over) determines to be likely to become ‘app VIPs’. By identifying their likes and dislikes, app experience can be customized to ensure these users are retained as effectively as possible.

This is only a small selection of the types of targeting possible. The possibilities are, in fact, literally endless. But the lesson should be clear - to target and market effectively, you must first listen.


BREAKOUT PROPENSITY ANALYSIS IN MOBILE

Propensity is the next big thing in mobile.

If you’re asking what exactly ‘propensity’ is, you probably don’t work in a B2C digital business. Most people who do understand just how important it is to know - or at least be able to guess - what users will do in the future, rather than basing all marketing activity on what users have already done.

It’s easy to demonstrate why that matters. Just imagine being able to identify:

In all of those cases a propensity analysis can help identify these users. But of course, what happens next is the truly significant part of the equation.

Taking each case in turn, a mobile marketer approach can then:

Users more likely to stop using your mobile service in the

near future

Mobile users more likely to make a first purchase or subscribe - if currently using a service for free

New mobile users who are likely to become high-value

customers in the future

Deliver in-app messages highlighting features that a user about to churn has not yet discovered - which in turn

increases the value they receive from the app

Send relevant subscription offers to users ready to convert - ensuring they get over the line

Deliver the best possible user experience, perhaps

including random acts of kindness, to future VIPs - to

ensure they stay put


@swrve_inc

at Swrve we’ve seen

push notification engagement rates

increase by over

200% when they are

sent at the right time for the user

One of the benefits of a typical mobile marketing platform is the sheer insight it gives you into mobile users. In some cases billions of events are collected in a day, but that insight doesn’t just have to look backwards. By examining historical data a propensity engine can determine - for each individual app - what different types of users looked like before key moments in their journey.

By creating these profiles, we are then able to look at current mobile users and identify those who are more likely to make a first purchase, churn - and so on. In the best case scenario that will be done automatically, and so effectively the marketer is simply exposed to these groups ready to be used as campaign target groups.

Having this technology available to mobile marketers can increase marketing effectiveness in a significant way. Even at the most basic level, at Swrve we’ve seen push notification engagement rates increase by over 200% when they are sent at the right time for the user (in other words, when past history tells us that individual is most likely to use the app).

In the same way, predictive is set to move the metrics that matter right across the board. From engagement, to retention and (of course) revenue.

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RETENTIONhow to keep users sticking around during the first key sessions

RETENTION

We mentioned earlier the critical importance of retaining new users. But it is worth re-stating here: if there’s one lesson app developers need to learn, it is that installs do not equal revenue.

That seems obvious, so why the need to spell it out? Well, simply because in too many cases ‘acquisition’ is seen as a goal in itself. Too many app businesses pay more attention to initial user acquisition than they do to the retention and revenue they deliver from those users.

That’s a mistake. So let’s talk first about how to get the best possible value from our acquisition strategy - starting with retention.

THE CURRENT LANDSCAPEUnfortunately, in all too many cases, new users for any given app disappear rapidly. Around a quarter of apps installed are used precisely once. And long term retention figures don’t make for much better reading either. In most cases apps are not used AT ALL after the first 30 days.

So when it comes to retention work clearly needs to be done, because without long-term, engaged users, app publishers really have very little opportunity to deliver on their business objectives. No retention: no business, or at least that’s certainly the case if your app is free to install.

We don’t have the space in this document to cover every angle when it comes to retaining users. But first and foremost, it is important to measure retention rates and focus on changing those rates for the better. Here’s a couple of examples of ways to make that happen that neatly demonstrate how to think about retention and change your numbers for the better.


When so many users leave apps after just one or two sessions, it should be obvious that onboarding matters - a lot. It’s how you educate your users and make sure their initial experiences are as positive as possible. It also helps ensure they discover all the great things that your app can deliver. Get it wrong and you’re in trouble.

FOCUS ON ONBOARDING

Simple, clear onboarding at Pinterest gives the user information onthe app capabilities as they sign up or log in

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Follow these simple tips to get it right:

Make sure you know what is happening, where users are having difficulty, and what effect any changes you make are having. That’s easy to do by building funnels which track how successfully users move through the onboarding flow. Where you see a drop off - you’ll know you need to take action.

Balance discovery, education - and frustration. Be clear about what you need to tell the user, and for the time being go no further. Each additional onboarding step adds to the burden of getting started quickly and entering ‘free use’ of the app. In many cases discovery can wait until later: there are alternative ways to highlight specific features to users who have not yet found them organically.


Use funnelanalytics toidentify stickingpoints in youronboarding flow

Success Tip

Remember to test your changes. There are any number of ways in which you can attempt to improve onboarding performance. Clearer language, more prominent visual prompts, alternative information flows. But one thing remains constant - you’ll need to A/B test, with real users, before you know for sure what is working.

Keep in mind that it’s not necessary to show the same onboarding steps to each user. In fact, in most cases this would be a mistake: some users need more help, others less. Providing a personalized experience is key. And similarly - do remember to test whether you need a tutorial at all! The results might surprise you.


Users are asking three questions when they open your app for the first time: “What does this app do, how do I use it, and what else is there in here?” Make sure you answerall three!

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~ Claire O’Regan, Swrve Success, London

“

DRIVE PUSH NOTIFICATION OPT-INOne tried and trusted method of building the engagement - and making sure that users return to your app (as opposed to a competitor) is the push notification. Smart, targeted push campaigns can be a great way to improve reten-tion.

But to send great push, you need to be able to send push in the first place. That can be tough. With opt-in rates now down below the 50% range for a number of app categories, too many app businesses are out there attempting to drive engagement and retention with one-hand tied behind their backs.

What causes such low opt-in rates? Well, the single biggest issue in this context is asking for push opt-in before the app has fully launched, without providing any information around how push will be used, and most importantly without making it clear what’s in it for the user.

To use a direct analogy, this is equivalent to visiting a website for the first time only to see a pop-up obscuring your view and asking for permission to send you email. Would you agree to that? Precisely!

Uber’s push opt-in message communicates the benefit of push to the user - rather than to Uber themselves


The good news is there’s two relatively straightforward ways to combat this issue and drive your opt-in rates

upwards:

Wait until users are familiar with your app before requesting a push opt-in.The reasons to do this are obvious: it’s when

you are a trusted entity and the user feels comfortable with your service that they are

more likely to say ‘yes’ to push. But of course exactly when to ask isn’t simply a matter of delaying as long as possible. App attrition being what it is, the longer you delay the fewer

people you are asking! Ideally you would test

alternatives: we’ve found the start of the third session to be a good starting point.

Deliver a ‘two-step’ opt-in process. Users are significantly more likely to opt-in to receive notifications if you first show an in-app messages that explains why you are asking

them and what’s in it for them. Look at the

example from Uber below. It both explains

why you should opt-in, but also appears at a

relevant point in the app - when the user is

being asked how they would like to receive

confirmations. The result is some of the highest opt-in rates in the business.

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2

32#swrve_inc [email protected]@swrve_inc

You’ll notice this document often suggests ‘testing’ areas of the mobile app experience. While we’ve attempted to share some observations and recommendations that we’ve gathered over many years working with the world’s leading app companies, there remains no substitute for finding out what really works with your own users.

A/B testing, in essence, simply refers to the serving of competing variants (including a control) to randomly generated user groups, and identifying the effect of those variants on the behaviors of the groups. But within that simple enough definition is a world of detail! In a nutshell: all A/B testing is not the same.

In more detail, consider the following before embarking on your testing program:

Too often A/B testing is seen as a tool for making decisions around the more

superficial aspects of mobile apps. The colors of buttons, or the language used to describe a particular action. But almost anything can be tested, and your initial efforts should be focused on the areas that make the biggest difference to your performance - whatever they might be

It’s easy to test dropping the price of an

item and determining that not only did we

sell more, but that we made more revenue

from that item in total. Great. But what

happened to overall revenue? Did we

simply cannibalise revenue from other

sources? Always make sure to note how all

the KPIs you care about were influenced by the change in user experience that you

tested - and examine that effect over time as well.

BREAKOUTA/B TESTING


Focus On What Counts Check All Impacts


Measure Engagement Not Just ConversionSimple A/B testing defines success as a conversion from one state to another. To use one obvious example: the migration from the ‘not purchased’ state to the ‘purchased’ state. Fine as far as it goes - but testing should be able to tell you about the intensity of a relationship (or how many times something was bought, rather than simply whether it was bought at all), and it should be able to do so in a mathematically valid way. If it doesn’t, you’ll get interesting results, sure - but they won’t necessarily tell you much about what’s good for your business

You don’t have to show any given test to a

cross section of your entire user base. In fact, you really shouldn’t: in most cases it’s

correct to exclude existing users from any tests that show significant changes to UX, as their familiarity with what already exists

will bias them towards the control. But

along the same lines, if you’re introducing a

new feature specifically for an audience (high spenders for example), test it against

that group rather than the population as a whole!

It should go without saying - but

unfortunately that’s not an option. Unless you apply rigorous statistical analysis to your test results in order to establish that

one variant is truly outperforming others in

a significant way, your results are worthless. Worse - you may walk away believing you

have ‘solved’ a problem when in fact you’ve learned nothing.

�

Target Your Testing Do The Math!

CONVERSIONhow to drive purchases, revenue - or whatever matters to your business

CONVERSION

In most cases, mobile apps today are free to download. What that means is that revenue relies on turning those users into paying customers. The moment that happens is what we call ‘conversion’.

A quick aside - in some cases you don’t want to collect revenue at all. And that’s fine! But you probably still have certain actions you’d like to encourage. Everything you read below applies in exactly the same way to making those events happen.

It should be obvious that conversion is incredibly important. And the % of your users that you successfully

convert to a ‘paying’ status is perhaps the most important

number in any mobile business. It is vital. So let’s look at how to move that number.


Success TipCombine changes in user experience - like new prices - with campaigns promoting those changes for maximum effectiveness

“

~ Lucy O’Dwyer, Swrve Success, San Francisco

“

A target audience

A desired outcome

An offer or incentive (the ‘content’ of the campaign)

A chosen channel of communication


CAMPAIGNS

Nobody knows more about conversion than the games industry, where the wholesale move to free-to-play has required the development of a whole set of skills and techniques designed to get those playing the game for free to pay for a better experience.

What those techniques typically have in common is the use of in-game messages or ads, usually delivered as interstitials. After all, if you have an offer, or are making an incentive available, you need to tell people about it!

Of course you can do this by making changes to the UX - but when you really want to get the message home the interstitial is the most powerful weapon in your arsenal.

But rather than simply pepper the app with multiple ads at random intervals - an approach that isn’t going to make anyone happy, and won’t do much for conversion rates - it is vital to think in terms of campaigns. From a marketing perspective, a campaign has:

if you have an offer, or are making an incentive available, you need to tell people about it!


When you think in this way, you’ll be delivering regular, targeted, relevant marketing campaigns that continually look to take users along a journey - from new installs to engaged users, and from engaged user to payers: or whatever form of conversion you are interested in (and remember this also applies to subscription as well).

Here’s two examples of the types of campaigns we’re talking about:

PROMOTING PURCHASES TO ENGAGED NON-SPENDING USERSIf you want to drive mobile users to spend real-money in your app, the single dumbest way to go about it would be to send the same offers, at the same times, to you entire user base. That is not just ineffective marketing, it is also inefficient.

If you are offering a 25% discount on a specific purchase, for example, the worst possible approach is to offer that concession to users who were going to purchase anyway. Instead, such campaigns need to be delivered to those users that our data or propensity analysis tells us are unlikely tomake a purchase without an incentive.

When delivering these campaigns, it is possible to customize content and creative based on observed user preferences during the time they have been engaged in the app. You can, for example, feature items that have previously been looked at in the store or even added to a shopping cart that was then abandoned.

campaigns need to be delivered to those users that our data or propensity analysis tells us are unlikely tomake a purchase without an incentive.


We can also ensure we deliver such campaigns at precisely the right time - whether we are sending a push notification at a time when the user has historically shown a propensity to use the app, or an in-app message at the exact moment in time that makes sense to the user - for example promoting a specific item at the moment in a game it would help them.

It is campaigns of this type that move users to the ‘paying’ state that pays the bills!

A SMART SUBSCRIPTION CAMPAIGNSome media organizations offer their content free for life, or at least most of their content. They either fund this model through advertising or have some long-term plan for monetizing the many millions of eyeballs they might attract with a free service. But others earn revenue direct through subscription.

For these companies, everything boils down to a rather simple challenge: within a certain amount of time, or page views, the user has to be convinced to pay a certain amount of money to subscribe.

The campaigns that do this convincing need to include messages that are persuasive, relevant to the individual, and perhaps most important of all, well-timed. They certainly cannot be delivered on a ‘one size fits all’ basis.

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A smart subscription offer does many things, including:

Features content already enjoyed by the user

and promotes the improved experience after subscription. So if I’ve read sports stories - talk to the sports coverage.

Is well-timed - perhaps appearing at several stages during the trial period but always in a way appropriate to that moment in the user experience. One great technique, for example, is to offer a very compelling subscription offer very early in the process, when we have the largest possible addressable audience.

Communicates the value clearly. What is in it for the user is the question all marketers should ask themselves when creating campaigns to drive subscription. Talk to the specific benefits rather than assuming the user will understand why subscription is a good idea for them.

Provide options. Smart subscription campaigns support giving users a choice around the terms of their engagement.

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Great subscription offers from the New York Times

There is a huge amount more that could be said about the challenges of running a successful mobile business, and the campaigns we have shown are only a tiny subset of those that can and should be run using the various interaction channels now avail-able on mobile.

Hopefully, however, the principles involved are clear. Here’s a recap!

Acquisition is only the first step - success on mobile requires actively working to retain and engage users over the long-term

Campaigns should be targeted, relevant and personalized to the user

Collect as much data as you possibly can - it is the secret to effective mobile marketing campaigns

Test everything - and continue to optimize on the basis of your results

CONCLUSIONS


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The Swrve Mobile Engagement Platform is designed for digital marketers who are focused on transforming

the way brands connect and interact with customers in

an increasingly mobile-centric world.

Understanding how to engage users quickly and maximize revenue is a core competence of Swrve’s, and recognized

by our partners - including Sony, The Guardian, Condé Nast,

Warner Brothers and Microsoft. Swrve customers have delivered more than one billion mobile messages,

and every single day the Swrve platform processes over six billion events.

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