How to Navigate Uncertainty Using Real-Time Insights

You’ve heard the spiel before: this is an unprecedented time in history. The global health crisis affects every industry and every business. This is our new normal.
What this means for marketers of all stripes, particularly mobile marketers, is that you must now scramble to make sense of the chaos by working with one element that is truly under your control: your customer data.
By analyzing and acting on that data, you can make the right marketing decisions to keep your mobile business afloat during this period of uncertainty.
But this begs the question: what kind of insights help you make the right choices?

The Depth of Your Customer Data

What you may not realize is that you have a veritable mountain of customer data available to you already.
Your customer data platform or CRM system is ingesting data from both online and offline sources: APIs, SDKs, third-party applications. Your support team is logging their direct interactions with customers. Your digital marketing team is seeing what users are clicking on, and which features they’re most utilizing on your mobile app.


You have demographic data and maybe even psychographic data> on your users that shows you what values they stand for and what lifestyles they lead. You will be able to tell if most of your users are now homeschooling parents or newly employed professionals or teenagers who won’t be able to march onstage for their graduation.

Monitor the ROI of Your Marketing

The first thing you need to make sense of your marketing efforts in this volatile period is to find out if you’re getting a good ROI on your campaigns.
You have to be able to see how your campaigns are performing, what users are doing in your app, and how close some users are to converting. This information will allow you to quickly shift gears when customers aren’t responding to communications.
In CleverTap, the Real Impact dashboard shows you a consolidated view of your marketing KPIs and how close you are to your targets. And all in real time. It does this by comparing the performance of your campaign on a target group versus a control group.


You can look at anything from Daily Active Users to average revenue per user to CLTV, reach, and conversion numbers— actually, any KPI that matters to your organization.
At a glance, you can see whether you’re getting a good ROI on your marketing spend. And if you aren’t, the real-time data makes it clear when to pull the plug on a campaign or pivot to new tactics.

Track Analytics Important to Your Org

Apart from a holistic view of your marketing efforts, you should be able to track the movement of the critical KPIs to your team.
In CleverTap, there are several more analytics reports that you can use to do this:

1. Funnel analysis shows how many users are completing each step in a conversion process to see where they’re dropping off. Basically, you group users who accomplish a specific event in your app and compare how many of those users go on to accomplish a second event in your app within a specific period of time.
   
   
2. Flows is a visualization report that displays every possible path a user can take in your app. This allows you to identify the paths that lead a user to a conversion, so you can consciously guide them down that path.
3. Cohort Analysis allows you to group users who perform any event within your app (e.g., all users who signed up for a trial account in the last 3 days) and monitor their activity over time. This lets you spot general trends within each cohort, allowing you to adapt or pivot your marketing to fit those trends.
4. Pivots helps you summarize your data and slice it with the help of tables and other data visualizations. Say you want to find out which items sell at which time of day, you can look at the data in a spreadsheet view and pivot on specific properties.

All this data however was never meant to be taken alone without an action plan. That’s where engagement tools come in.

Engagement: Now, Act on All That Data!

Analytics alone will not be enough to help you navigate this period of uncertainty. Data without action is just an abundance of information. But when you use the right platform for your mobile marketing, you get both user data and the tools to turn that insight into action.
What you need is a way to capitalize on the micro-moment — that instance when people instinctively turn to their mobile device to act on a need to learn or do something. If you have your campaigns set up properly, you’re better able to connect with a customer when they’re ready. And even better, you can keep that engagement going in order to retain your customers instead of losing them to churn.
Some preparation is in order:

• Have a clear omnichannel strategy in place so that you are reaching users on the channels and devices they already use. And be sure to stay consistent on every device. Nothing is as annoying as landing page copy not matching the text on an email… or a website design not matching an app design.
• Set up your scheduled and triggered campaigns so your marketing runs when your customers are ready. In CleverTap, scheduled campaigns go out at a designated time based on your users’ past behavior. Triggered campaigns go out as soon as a user performs a certain action (or fails to perform an action).
• Engage users at the perfect time for them. Adapt to how and when your customers want to interact with you and offer opportunities to convert across each touchpoint.

There are so many ways you can delight users with your marketing. The main principle to keep in mind is to provide value at every step, whether you’re sending a delivery receipt, a birthday greeting, or the latest discount coupon for your loyal users.
There’s a ton of mobile engagement ideas here on the blog already. Check them out:

• 4 Creative Ways to Use FOMO to Drive App Engagement
• Growth Hacking for Ecommerce Apps: 6 Strategies to Improve User Engagement
• 29 Customizable In-App Messaging Templates for Instant User Engagement
• In-App Messages for Onboarding and Engagement

Turn Insight Into Action

There is a huge opportunity right now waiting for the marketers willing to put in the work. With the vast majority of the globe suddenly facing digitalization head on, this may be the perfect time to find new ways to market your mobile brand.
The secret is to have real-time insight that can inform your decision making.

See how today’s top brands use CleverTap to drive long-term growth and retention

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