Continuously testing mobile marketing is crucial for brands

One of the reasons real time market research has become popular is because it gives a snapshot of what people are doing that is relevant for the researcher and the campaign at that particular moment in time. 

Mindi Chahal

However, marketers can’t stop there. In order to keep that ‘real time’ effect, brands must continue to test the market to ensure relevancy and this applies to all channels.

The Mobile Behaviour Report from salesforce.com, presented at Mobile World Congress last week, suggests that delivering customised messages at appropriate times is critical for brands looking to build customer loyalty via their smartphones.

That might seem like an obvious suggestion but it’s difficult to pull off. While the SalesForce stats show that 92 per cent of push notifications sent to smartphones are opened by users immediately, a report from mobile messaging company OtherLevels reveals that 69 per cent of consumers abandon message updates due to overload and 60 per cent due to irrelevance. 

OtherLevels argues that brands should be applying analytics to their push notifications to drive engagement. It would suggest this, being a provider of mobile analytics, but the company makes a vital point. 

The company details the benefits of A/B testing and retargeting to gain actionable insights about how consumers respond to mobile messaging and why ultimately that data can be used as the foundation for building customer profiles and driving user retention. 

That foundation is built through what it calls a virtuous cycle of testing, optimising, deploying and testing again. 

It’s better to continuously gain insights and improve mobile messaging targeting, than test once and use a strategy several times and potentially annoy consumers. 

Yet it isn’t just relevance that brands should be aware of. They also need to consider consumer trust in using data to deliver mobile messages – as seen in activity from brands using beacons, which deliver push notifications through Bluetooth technology. 

Once marketers figure out when people like to receive mobile messages, in what context and with what content, they then need to continue to test and analyse to gain up-to-date insights.

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