Mobile Marketing Tips for Tackling the Post-Holiday Slump

It’s the start of a new year. For many of us, this means new resolutions, packed gyms, and lifestyle changes. For mobile marketers, the new year presents a different set of challenges. 
After a successful holiday season of aggressive holiday campaigns, higher AOVs, and boosts in conversion rates, many mobile ecommerce apps struggle to keep the fire going into January. 
Lower return rates aren’t the only thing plaguing ecommerce apps in the new year. Returns can be a logistical nightmare — draining customer service resources and costing online retailers upwards of $32 billion each year.¹

The more ecommerce apps understand seasonality, the more they can accurately forecast revenue and identify opportunities to integrate seasonal themes into their marketing strategy. 

What Is Seasonality and Why Is It Important?

Seasonality is a temporary fluctuation in the market that typically occurs in a predictable pattern based on a season, quarter, or month.
This can mean different things for different apps. If you’re a seasonal business, you can predict how a particular time of year can impact your sales.
For other businesses, mobile marketers have to determine how to weave seasonality into their campaigns to stay relevant while also tying every message back to their app’s core value. 
A change in season means users think and behave differently. Just like how it’s important to predict behaviors and trends during the holidays, it’s just as critical to track momentum into the new year. 
Here are four ways to navigate seasonality so you can recover from slumps quickly and forecast seasonal opportunities.

1. Follow Up With Your Converted Users

How did it go? Did they love their gift?! 
The conclusion of the holidays presents an excellent opportunity to engage with your converted users. 
With the gift reactions fresh in their minds, request a review for your product. This is a great way to encourage engagement while learning what you can improve and refine for next year.

Here are some best practices for in-app feedback requests:

• Time it right: Find the right time to request feedback (i.e. don’t interrupt a user who’s at the checkout stage with an annoying pop-up).
• Keep it short: Make the language straight to the point and easy to understand. 
• Make it easily discoverable: Instead of pop-ups, consider adding a feedback icon to the footer of your UI or in the signature of every email. 
• Build segments based on responses: Make these insights actionable by creating segments of users based on survey responses so you can follow up and better engage them.
• Let them know you’re listening: Be public with your appreciation for their feedback (the good and bad) and share how you plan to take action. 

Check out this article on mobile app surveys to learn more about requesting in-app feedback.

2. Bring on the sale!

Sure, the holidays are going to drive a ton of sales. But you know what else drives conversions year-round? Discounts. 
Everyone loves a good sale, so why not host one after the holiday madness? You don’t need to rely on Black Friday or Cyber Monday to deploy eye-catching deals. 
Here are a few discount best practices you can implement any time of year: 

• Make it limited: What happens when you find out there’s a limited supply or you only have a few minutes to purchase something you really want? You buy it immediately. 
• Keep the giving season going: Incentivize conversions by offering a free gift with purchase. 
• Offer free shipping: We can’t say this enough: make shipping free! 24% of shoppers are willing to spend more to qualify for free shipping.³ So what are you waiting for!?
• Reward loyalty: Once a user converts, invite them into your loyalty program. This is especially crucial for first-time buyers. Encourage repeat purchases by providing a perk for becoming a member or signing up.

3. Amp Up Retargeting

During the holiday season, you probably had a good amount of users in and out of your app or website. 
Running retargeting ads on various channels is effective in not only increasing brand awareness, but it assists in bringing those users back into your app.
Resurfacing and reinforcing your brand’s value on various channels boosts brand equity and increases the chance for conversions.

4. Encourage New Customers to Come Back

You hopefully saw a big bump in-app activity during the biggest shopping season of the year. Don’t lose them now! 
In order to bring users back to your app, you first have to learn a bit more about why they used (and stopped using) your app in the first place. 
Did they just need a gift? Was your UI difficult to understand? Are you lacking credibility? 
Advanced segmentation tools use RFM analysis (Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value) to group users based on similar behavior patterns (how recently and frequently they visit your app). With this tool, you can dial into the behaviors of new customers (high recency, low frequency) and learn how to best engage them.

New Year, New Users

Don’t let the winter gloom get the best of your app. With total visibility into user data and actionable insights you can effectively plan out your marketing campaigns, there’s still time to make this quarter the best one yet. 
Learn how CleverTap helps mobile marketers obtain advanced customer insights to build personalized campaigns that accelerate user retention and growth.

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