When we look at data-driven marketing for mobile deployment, one thing is clear: mobile apps built on data are now key points in the customer journey. Mobile devices have become the bridge between our physical and digital worlds. We use mobile devices to augment our realities, and apps are a means to bridge that gap — fulfilling our utilitarian needs or entertainment desires.

So, mobile marketers must rely on mobile analytics to drive app development and deployment, app usage, and app monetization. Enterprises can use analytics to inform data-driven mobile marketing in three ways: 1) to support the decision to build out an app, 2) to drive revenue from the app, and 3) to discover how to best retain app users.

Reason 1: Why Build an App?

In certain situations, the purpose of an app may seem pretty apparent. For instance, retailers might need an app so customers can purchase products remotely or outside normal business hours — or simply for the convenience of not having to leave home. Media and entertainment companies, on the other hand — such as online gaming — want an app to be an immersive entertainment experience. Whatever the ultimate end goal of the app, analytics can be used as a way to discover and eliminate the friction in the app experience for the user. The mobile experience is inherently a real-time, in-context experience, and barriers or irritants will not be tolerated by users.

Additionally, when the purpose is less defined, mobile analytics can provide the lens through which brand leaders decide what the purpose will be. Some brands can roll out a minimal, viable app to a small mobile-user group and then evaluate its performance from analytics-driven insights to determine whether a larger rollout should take place. In another case, analytics revealing that engagement levels on a specific mobile webpage have reached a minimum threshold can trigger a decision to develop an app that can be used for the same purpose.

So, before sinking $100,000 — or a million dollars — into app development, leaders can base a decision on quantifiable metrics.

Reason 2: How Do We Monetize Our Apps?

The next way analytics can be used in data-driven marketing is for app monetization. Research shows that mobile users typically spend 2.5x more time in a smartphone app vs. the mobile website — and 4x the time on tablets. Monetizing this engagement is a business imperative, especially when the costs for a quality app are reaching six and seven figures. Obviously, this is easier said than done.

For instance, retail banks have become really good at putting tellers in your pocket via their apps — how often do you actually go into a branch nowadays? However, this has resulted in moving significant traffic volumes directed to their websites — with large screens of real estate to promote additional products — to apps with much smaller screens and fewer opportunities for traditional online monetization through cross and upsell. How do they extract value from the app investment? When consumers move from your website to your mobile app, analytics can reveal monetization opportunities with data-driven marketing practices in place.

Consumer-behavior patterns revealed through mobile analytics enable executives to lead monetization initiatives. Average revenue per app user, lifetime value, and conversion rate can reveal bottom-line impact. For apps that don’t have retail components, correlated metrics can be developed and assigned monetary values based on user actions and behaviors. So, the data is there to help determine how long — if at all — a million-dollar commitment will continue paying you back.

Reason 3: How Do We Drive Retention?

Mobile analytics can also tell you whether your app is built for engagement and return trips. How often do cohorts of users launch your app? What is the average session length? What is the length of time between events? Ultimately, retention will be many different things to many different organizations. It will depend on the app’s purpose and user-engagement pace.

For example, a utility company will expect a once-a-month cadence, as users may pay bills and check usage through the app. Any more than that might actually signal a problem. On the other hand, apps that are more social in nature will aim for daily, or at least weekly, engagement.

Whatever your end goal, when you are empowered with data, you can look for ways to drive app retention through your marketing.

One of the great value drivers for Adobe Marketing Cloud (AMC) is that you can take action on your data within an integrated, collaborative environment. Mobile marketing is a cross-cloud practice — an integrated workflow. AMC supports the agile mobile-marketing workflow by providing mobile analytics and then enabling action to be taken on the insights surfaced from within a single, unified interface.

This post taken from http://blogs.adobe.com

Kalyan Banga

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