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Brands can turn the tide during coronavirus by building new consumer journeys

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By Shawn Lim

Brands need to focus on hyper-localisation by connecting with consumers where they are, as Covid-19 has dramatically changed consumer behaviour and altered the path-to-purchase, according to Facebook and Boston Consulting Group.

According to a new report called ‘Turn the Tide’, released by Facebook India and Boston Consulting Group, the use of micro-targeting can help brands get the first-mover advantage. This is because countries are being divided into different zones, with distinct restrictions due to the pandemic, so they need to build social connections despite social distancing, by engaging with consumers in their context

To cope with pandemic lockdown, which has caused significant disruption for communities and businesses, people are spending more time on social media platforms. This means brands have an opportunity to build stronger dialogues and deeper connections with users.

The aim of the guide, according to Facebook India and Boston Consulting Group, is to guide brands to adapt to the pandemic and ensure business continuity.

Nimisha Jain, the managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group, says: “We are experiencing unprecedented shifts in consumer attitudes and behaviours as 80%+ consumers will continue to practice social distancing and are bringing the outside inside, over 40% of consumers are dialling up on health and wellness spends, e-commerce adoption has already advanced by two-three years, to name a few.”

“These aren’t just temporary surges, and many will last longer and become more defining traits. Our analysis reveals that only one in six companies emerged stronger in past crises. Players who show the agility to reinvent their value propositions, go-to-market plans and business models to address these demand shifts, will be the ones that set themselves apart from the pack.”

In addition, the report also shares actionable guidance for brands to build for the new consumer journeys in times of Covid-19 and beyond.

For example, brands can bring alive experiences through virtual launches and product demos as people turn to virtual experiences for every facet of their life. Facebook said it is already seeing more brands explore Facebook and Instagram ‘Live’ to connect with their followers and customers, with brands now thinking about using social media platforms for new product launches too.

Heeru Dingra, the chief executive officer at WATConsult tells The Drum the agency has modified its planning and strategy around the new consumer journeys, urging its clients to follow a simple mantra of ‘solve, serve and sell’.

She explains brands should focus on solving the problems their consumers face, serve their purpose and the result thereof could be the sale of services or products. She notes a lot of brands have understood this concept and have already started altering their approach to fit this mantra.

“We leveraged the power of gaming and re-created one of the most iconic games of all time, Ludo, for our client Tata Motors. Titled #SafetyFirst Ludo, this version aims to spread awareness about the importance of personal hygiene and social distancing amid the Covid-19 outbreak,” she says.

She also calls out work by Bajaj Allianz General Insurance called #CareWillOvercome, which salutes frontline workers, while a #ReconnectWithStarbucks campaign turned the act of baristas calling out people’s names into a digital phenomenon.

She adds: “These examples summarize how we integrated the need of the hour that is to maintain social distancing, continue to concentrate on personal hygiene and at the same time have our heartfelt appreciation for the ones who have been fighting for us day and night, into our brand approach in some way. This helps to amplify the brand message while being sensitive to the current situation, serving the purpose of extending the required communication and increasing as well as sustaining brand recall.”

The report also advised brands to look at their media mix models to drive growth by aligning to new media landscapes. According to the report, when brands, especially those with traditional product categories, start spending more online, they need to understand incremental outcomes, as well as cross-platform efficiency.

This would increase the need for digital measurement standards, such as custom mix modelling (CMM) by Nielsen, which Facebook said it had piloted last year.

Gautam Mehra, the chief data officer for South Asia and chief executive officer of programmatic at Dentsu Aegis Network observes the importance of moving away from traditional marketing metrics to real business metrics that can be measured and improved on an ongoing basis.

“With the impetus of commerce, CRM and digital transformation, I think, every company will now have a direct-to-consumer line of business and will want to bring themselves closer to the consumer, and rely less on the intermediaries,” he explains.

While most brands are dealing with huge change across many aspects of business, focusing on the changing customer journey is a good place for marketing to focus attention.

Feature Image Credit: the report also shares actionable guidance for brands to build for the new consumer journeys in times of Covid-19 and beyond.

By Shawn Lim

Sourced from The Drum

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The future of social media marketing

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By Alex Packham

Social media started out with Myspace and Bebo (oh the nostalgia) before graduating to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Here we are now in 2019, ‘hashtagging’ and ‘storying’ like it’s nobody’s business.

What’s next for the social media industry?

1. A shift in focus: less on feeds, more on private messages

The feed is such an integral part of social media networks that it could never just vanish overnight. Regardless, people are using social media more and more as a way to get in touch with people and have instant message conversations.

To remove the feed entirely could be problematic though. The feed is the main source of incoming for many social media networks as most people will spend their dwelling time here. It’s also used as a key space for advertising. With visual formats such as Stories and Facebook Watch gaining speed, it’s likely that advertising will inhabit these forms in the absence of a feed. After all, IGTV is in the midst of discussions on adding advertisements to the content as we speak.

We have no doubt that the feed will start to play a smaller role in the growth of social media networks, but it’s here to stay for a long while yet.

2. Despite numerous industry worries, influencers aren’t going away

2018 / 2019 has been a tricky time for influencers with a lot of bad press and finger-pointing documentaries. However, not all influencers are deserving of the bad rep.

Influencers who are troublesome in the industry will become extinct over the next few years. Their followers will lose trust and begin to diminish, while brands will ‘wise-up’ to influencer red flags and learn how to find influencers who will work more effectively with their brand.

Although social media networks are still likely to be saturated with #ad and influencers galore, it’s not really the end of the world. If trustworthy and authentic influencers are all that reminds then the odd paid promotion will be much less problematic than it is today.

One trend we expect to see more of very soon is brand marketers educating themselves more about the influencer marketing supply chain. This will enable them to only work with influencers who promote their brand effectively and actually sell their product. Watch this space for further developments.

3. Brands will be making more of an effort to plan their content and be more consistent across channels

As social media continues to be an incredibly saturated space, the quality of content must also rise.

Brands that are smart will invite a social media specialist to take a look at what they’re currently doing, as well as give advice on where social media (and the internet in general) is headed. This will enable them to get a leg-up on future trends and plan ahead for the next five years.

Brands not able to identify what works for their business will lose customers to their competitors.

Plan, execute, analyse and repeat what works.

4. Small communities will trump big networks for most businesses (even more than they already do)

We all know that Facebook Groups and messaging apps have become so very popular over the last couple of years as a way to unite people with similar interests in thousands of niche topics. Whatever your tipple, there’s a group for it, filled with like-minded individuals posed for a heated discussion.

The general public is bored of seeing the same story over and over again. But having the context of a group changes things. A post about a new coffee shop only becomes interesting and relevant to you when it’s posted within a Facebook Group specific to your location.

Furthermore, the average person is usually more comfortable participating in conversations and sharing opinions within a smaller community, without fear of judgement from the entire world wide web. This ‘safe space’ atmosphere will continue to help groups become a hub of activity and engagement.

One thing that won’t change is that social media is the cheapest, fastest and the most scalable marketing channel available to most companies. That isn’t going away, period.

Welcome to the next five years of social media marketing.

By Alex Packham

Sourced from The Drum

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The Death Of Mobile?

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Mobile is absolutely the centerpiece for a consumer media experience, but its future is in question if it continues to be the primary means of junk, spam and general frustration in our lives. We may be witnessing the death of mobile before our very eyes.

OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Your mobile phone is supposed to be a tool that gives you access to people and information, and has become the primary screen for accessing video. All that’s great, but there’s a parallel set of negative issues as well.

My phone rings as much as 10 times a day, but 75% of the calls are robocalls and spam. I get text messages that are unsolicited. I access email on my phone and the majority of that email is spam. I get alerts and notifications all day and most of them are abused by the publisher or platform that I opted into.

Case in point: If I get more than five notifications a day from the same news app telling me there’s “breaking news,” how is any of it considered important?

My phone is a way to access the world, but it has also become a way for the world to access me. I’m relatively in control of the technology on my device, but my number is a direct line int to me and an invasion of my attention span. It’s desensitizing me and making me question the usefulness of the phone that I carry around everywhere I go.

I don’t really pay attention to notifications in the moment. I rarely answer the phone unless I know exactly who it is. I get annoyed when too many text messages are sitting there awaiting my response.

The carriers need to become more involved in protecting their customers from unwanted intrusions. I read recently that they are starting to wade into the waters and test some new tools, but they really need to dive in and help us. Call Protect is a great step in the right direction and I use it every day, but there needs to be more to block unsolicited robocalls and help clean up the piping for texts and emails.

Spam by itself is probably tolerable and companies like Google have taken steps to help here, so now it’s time for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile to take a leadership position on this issue.

The cellphone manufacturers could probably help here, too. Apple and Google, along with Samsung and any other companies, should work together to remind consumers about settings for notifications and ensure that app developers don’t overdo the notifications systems. When your phone is buzzing 40 or 50 times a day with new notifications, but you only access a small percentage of the apps on your phone, they could determine if there is a correlation there and help consumers turn off notifications from apps they don’t use.

It’s not about censoring or stopping the apps from being there. It’s about ensuring that the notifications are truly valuable to the user. If they had some tools in place that alerted users regularly and suggested updates to their setting, then users could be more in control of the experience.

Mobile is certainly not going away any time soon, but it does have issues if it continues to decline into a frustrating user experience.

I hope the carriers, the manufacturers and the operating system companies can figure this out. Otherwise, I might be digging out the Treo and the Razr for reintegration into my life!

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Sourced from MediaPost

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Put on an alternative spread this Easter

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By Caroline Parry

Indulgence and, of course, chocolate will always be crucial to Easter, but increasingly this holiday is seen as a celebration of springtime, and people are seeking gifts and experiences that reflect this shift.

This is no doubt that Easter is important to us, with 57% of consumers considering it to be a “proper” holiday, according to a 2018 YouGov survey. This is compared to say, Mother’s Day, which Britons do not see as such a big occasion.

Its importance in our lives is reflected in our social behaviour with Facebook seeing year-on-year growth of 1.6x in our conversations about Easter in 2017. The top five topics discussed around that time are significant others, food, beverages, parties and events, and travel, while the top trending Easter hashtags are #love, #chocolate and #family.

Let’s take a look at some emerging UK Easter trends for 2019 and supporting marketing activation tips advertisers could consider on Facebook platforms in line with these….

Alternative indulgence

Confectionary sales in the UK grew from £375m in 2017 to £395m in 2018. However, while chocolate will always have a place on the shelves at Easter, increasingly consumers are looking for Easter treats to marry with their growing concerns about sustainability and health. Many more of us will be searching for guilt-free ways to spoil ourselves this Easter!

With reducing plastic waste now high up on the agenda of most consumers, forward-thinking brands are thinking outside the traditional egg box to meet these concerns. Innovative chocolate brands, such as Montezuma, vegan brand Goupie and dairy-free brand Booja Booja, are using recyclable packaging, some of which is reusable.

Treating ourselves isn’t limited to gorging on chocolate, and for many people self-care is becoming the alternative way of indulging. Health and beauty e-tailer Lookfantastic struck a chord last Easter with its £65 Beauty Egg, which offered a limited edition collection of seven ‘must-have’ products packaged in a metal egg. No surprise then that this year’s Easter Beauty Egg Bungle had an early waiting list.

Marketing activation tip: Think outside the Easter egg box, by showing more options than just chocolate in your marketing campaigns. How about a carousel ad format where you can showcase a wider brand story and message through different images? For e.g. chocolate, eco packaging, as well as an idea for guilt-free or healthier indulgence / pampering.

The great Easter escape

With family a top trending hashtag over the Easter break, it is a holiday that is increasingly about sharing special moments together. With 72% of consumers feeling no pressure to buy Easter gifts, according to a 2018 Mintel Seasonal Shopping report, we are increasingly swapping presents for social experiences.

Spending on activities far outpaces gifts, according to the same Mintel report, with an average of £113 spent on sharing experiences together compared to £67 on presents. British adults love to hark back to their childhoods when out with friends, with many getting their Easter fun fix by going bowling or trampolining.

Families also love to get out and about, and the many events staged by brands around Easter are ideal opportunities for spending time together. Crafting days and Easter egg hunts, such as the Cadbury partnership with the National Trust, are always big draws, but alternative events such as the Science Museum’s Power Up, which combines gaming with an exhibition, appeal to both parents and kids.

As people prioritise spending time together and creating that sense of belonging, it is little wonder that 10 times more photos are posted and shared during the Easter breaks than before or after.

Marketing activation tip: You can broadcast direct from events so that a wider audience can join the fun and conversation by using the Instagram live feature! Bridge the real world and digital divide seamlessly. By leveraging Facebook marketing partners you can create ads and messaging which are triggered contingent upon weather. We all know British weather can be unreliable, so it’s handy to have bespoke messaging ready to roll out in rainy or sunny circumstances over the Easter weekend.

Creating a meaningful Easter

With Facebook seeing a spike in conversation around food, beverages and parties on Easter Day itself, we know the Easter feast is a vital part of the holiday. British consumers are investing more time and money in making food more meaningful by buying seasonal produce, often sourcing key ingredients locally at stores or markets.

Supporting British producers and local retailers adds real meaning and a sense of story to our Easter food. It’s the reason that over half of shoppers surveyed by digital marketing agency Silverbean, said it is the time of year when buying home-grown products and using local suppliers is essential.

Spring is a time of abundance when it comes to vegetables, and with interest in organic foods and local, independent shopping spiking around this time of year, many turn to social to celebrate their love for fresh local produce. And they really do love it, #rhubarb and #artichoke boast almost a million tagged boasts between them.

Even the major retailers understand shoppers are looking for ways to show their support for local and British suppliers. Morrisons uses a “blue passport” to mark up its lamb products as British and highlight their home-grown credentials. Meanwhile, Hyke Gin is tackling both local and food waste by taking unwanted grapes from the British supply chain and turning it into gin.

Marketing activation tip: If you have great content like Easter ingredients, recipes and pictures to share, consider trying the Instant Experiences templates to quickly create valuable interactions with your customers. Did you know Instant Experiences are loading faster than ever? – now 15 times faster than standard mobile websites – so you can use them to seamlessly connect to an audience. Also, if you have a great local story to tell about your product, you can geo target ads to a certain audience where that messaging would resonate strongly.

Easter, a season of sun

With Easter bringing the first Bank Holidays of the year, it is an excellent opportunity for a holiday or breaks. Almost half of the £1.1bn spent over the Easter weekend in 2018 was spent on Easter getaways, according to travel website Kayak, and 89% of Easter conversation on Facebook in the UK was on mobile.

After the long winter, many are chasing the sunshine and warmth. Back in 2016, the “cool” and adventurous Scandi destinations were booming, last year saw consumers look to sunnier climes. Dubai was the most booked destination for Easter in 2018, with the perennially popular Spanish cities of Malaga and Alicante close behind.

Once again, environmental issues rate high on the agenda for British consumers. Green mini-breaks are becoming the preferred choice for many consumers. The Hilton London Bankside has responded with the creation of the world’s first vegan hotel room, which features suede-like furnishings made from mushroom matter.

Marketing activation tip: Travel insurance brands may want to up-weight their activity on Facebook and Instagram as we know most people leave it last minute to get their insurance sorted! Geo targeting such ads around airports and stations can prove effective. Hotels and retreats can showcase their unique or new look sustainable offerings in a more immersive way by using the power of 360° videos and boosting that content as ads to maximise reach and amplification.

Summary

Easter is still very much about chocolate eggs and bunnies, but consumers increasingly see it as an opportunity for treating themselves, and for spending time with family and friends by sharing great experiences. It is increasingly important however that enjoying these holiday moments is not at the expense of their wider concerns around health and sustainability.

By Caroline Parry

Sourced from The Drum

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A guide to Apple’s disabling of Facebook’s consumer research app

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By .

The social network paid people to monitor their phone activity and Apple was not happy

Facebook and Apple are in another fight over privacy and data after reports surfaced on Wednesday that Facebook built a consumer research app that opened a backdoor to iPhones. The phonemaker, which disabled the app, has accused the social network of violating its app rules.

Apple and Facebook have had a contentious relationship since Apple CEO Tim Cook took a hardline stance against data-collection practices of internet ad giants, calling for more regulations in the industry. Facebook then hired a public relations firm to push back against the criticism of its business model.

The latest episode in the saga is a bit hard to follow. To help, here’s our guide to what happened.

The Facebook Research App
Facebook recruited phone users to install a consumer research app that tracked their web traffic, messaging, app usage and more. About 5 percent of the participants were younger than 18, according to Facebook. (Minors were prompted to get permission from parents during the download process, for what that’s worth.) The app program was managed by third party companies uTest, BetaBound and Applause, which helped distribute the app.

Quick cash for consumers
People who participated in the consumer research typically received $5 to $10 to download the app and up to $20 a month to keep it active. It was almost like a multilevel data marketing deal because people could also make money for each person they referred, and then extra money each month that those people kept the app active. According to online commenters who say they participated in the program, people could potentially even make hundreds of dollars a month. (Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.)

Why does Apple care?
In August, amid a privacy backlash against Facebook, Apple shut down a similar app from Facebook called Onavu, which also collected details about people’s phone usage. Apple said it violated its App Store policies, and no apps should collect data about other apps people have on their phones.

Facebook’s workaround
The new research app avoided Apple’s App Store by using a program that Apple created for enterprise customers. Companies like Facebook use the enterprise program to build internal company apps, apps for communication, transportation and other logistics useful to employees. However, the apps in the enterprise program are only for employees.

Who the fallout is affecting
Perhaps the people most affected at this point are Facebook employees. Apple not only disabled the research app, it shut down all of Facebook’s other utility apps for employees, reportedly leading to some chaos at the office. Facebook has said it’s talking to Apple about getting its internal apps back online.

Without the internal app program, Facebook will have trouble beta testing changes to its main apps, as well, like when it tries out a new design on Instagram or a new feature on WhatsApp, but only among employees.

Also on the case: lawmakers
Lawkmakers have added this issue to the host of others that led Congress to call CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg to testify before them last year. On Wednesday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, issued a statement that said, “I have concerns that users were not appropriately informed about the extent of Facebook’s data-gathering and the commercial purposes of this data collection.”

What about those consumers?
Everyone who participated were aware they were participating in market research, according to Facebook. Also, Google and other companies have similar research programs. Nielsen employs thousands of everyday Americans to share their TV viewing habits for market research.

On the other hand, it’s hard to tell if Facebook adhered to the strictest standards of disclosure, and how well-informed participants were. And Facebook already has been under a microscope for privacy and data-sharing issues, most notably the Cambridge Analytica scandal. There have also been questions raised about how Facebook handled user privacy and data, especially in its early days.

Bottom line
No advertiser will pull their money from Facebook over this, but they will call their ad agency and ask what the hell is happening, again.

Feature Image Credit: Bloomberg

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Sourced from AdAge

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The web design trends brands need to prepare for in 2019

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By James Pruden

2019 is set to see ecommerce sales increase by 19.5% globally, offering an opportunity to savvy brands who are up to speed on the latest web design trends and developments to drive significant additional market share.

But what do brands need to bear in mind in 2019 to ensure that they continue to deliver relevant standout online design, and therefore sales?

Mobile First

It’s vital to implement mobile first design in 2019. In 2015 mobile searches overtook those on desktop, making mobile search the highest search form worldwide. In accordance with this, Google has changed which sites they index first — they now prioritise mobile sites over those that aren’t mobile friendly.

However, it’s worth bearing in mind that this push toward mobile first design isn’t just based on ranking factors or SEO, the visual result must enhance the user’s experience on the device that they will most likely be searching from.

This focus on mobile first requires a fundamental shift in the way that websites are designed. It used to be that a site would only be created for a desktop or laptop computer and a mobile-friendly or mobile responsive design might be added as well. Today, it’s critical to design the site for the mobile user first, before creating a version that will also standout for those on desktops.

Micro-animations/movement

Using moving micro-animations along with feedback loops – that deliver movement when hovering over an icon – help make websites more usable and engaging. The details of the micro-interactions: the button clicks and the page transitions can greatly improve a user’s experience on your site, meaning they are far more likely to return. It’s this meaningful motion, connecting an action with a reaction, that satisfies a user’s desire for interactivity. And with touch interfaces, especially on small screens, it has never been more important to deliver motion in micro-animations and feedback loops to make the interaction smooth and guide users on their journey to checkout.

Custom and classic fonts

Expect a move back to custom and classic font design – clean but formal – with bigger and bolder typefaces, and a move away from humanist fonts as brands aim to standout against the proliferation of humanist typefaces.

Colour

Bright colours should be used more liberally in 2019 to deliver greater standout. The last two years has seen an explosion of big, bold colour across the internet with an increasing number of brands choosing to use their core packaging brand colours as backing for their graphics, with clashing tones moving away from the edgy start-ups into the mainstream. Those who have embraced arresting colours include The Premier League, Sky and eBay. Though bear in mind a classic font design and bright colours won’t be suitable for all. The choice of font and colours has to be right for the values of the brand and resonate with the audience they are targeting.

Optimise for search

As is always the case, making sure the design of your website is optimised for search algorithms is vital. Developments in web design will be driven by what Google’s constantly evolving search algorithm looks for. To this end, make sure that the content being communicated is relevant to your target audience and written as naturally as possible. Google looks for honest, human generated content. Of course, this must be quality content to encourage others to have weblinks back to your site to aid your SEO efforts. If users want to share your copy this highlights to Google that you are a valuable resource and the reward for your efforts will be an improved organic search ranking.

Speed

With research revealing over half of consumers leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load, websites must be designed with speed in mind. Also, the faster your site loads the better it will rank in search results, particularly in Google search. This is not to say that websites should be sparse affairs with limited content and imagery for the purposes of speed. With better broadband it’s much easier to have image and content heavy sites that can load quickly. However if you have an app it’s seriously worth considering hosting it on a Progressive Web App (PWA) for speed purposes. A PWA can be launched from a home screen and can be ready in less than a second, often beating native apps in load times.

All brands need to constantly evolve their web design to continue to standout and deliver an engaging experience to their users that generates sales. By recognising and having these six web design points front of mind, brands will be well placed for a profitable 2019 online.

By James Pruden

James Pruden is studio director at Xigen

Sourced from The Drum

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Importance of Email Marketing in Mobile App Development

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By Harnil Oza.

Email marketing creates awareness for your app leading to downloads

You’re reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

There is no doubt you have created a mobile app with fascinating features! But what is the essence of such app if it fails in the market? Truth is; you saw a need and created an app to provide solutions to such need. There is no way you can meet this need without app downloads by its supposed users. Hence, the need for result-oriented strategies targeted at driving app downloads and use. To do this, you must include these strategies right into the app development process. This is a key strategy for most top app development companies in the world.

Many factors are responsible for the failure of an app in the highly competitive app market. With these result-oriented strategies, you can surmount the challenges posed by these factors. The right audience and ad campaigns are some factors that promote app downloads and use. The truth is; even with the right audience and robust marketing campaign, you can end up with a failed app.

An amazing result-oriented strategy that can drive app success is email marketing. With the internet, email marketing has become an important tool in mobile app development. For most top app development companies, it is a key tool used during app development to drive app success.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a unique type of direct marketing. Here, you communicate with potential app users via electronic mail. The truth is; any email you send to your existing or potential app users is email marketing. It is sending emails to potential app users to convince them to download and use your app. More so, it entails sending emails with the aim to building relationships between your app and its users. Thus, it encourages continuous app use which leads to app user’s loyalty. Today, most top app development companies use email marketing in driving app downloads. This has helped such developers churn successful apps into the market.

Today, beliefs are that email is on the verge of collapse due to social media. This is far from the truth as it is one of the most used marketing tools in the world. Here are a few advantages email marketing offers your app over conventional marketing:

-Trackability of the exact ROI of your email campaigns

-Ability to reach massive potential app users from all over the world

-Opportunity to segment your mail list and emails

-Reach out to current and potential app users via personalized and self-motivated content

With email marketing, you can be creative in churning relevant content at the right time.

Why Email Marketing in Mobile App Development?

Email marketing should be a key component of your app development process. Today, with the rapid increase in using mobile phones, you can reach a wide audience via emails. Here are few reasons to integrate email marketing into your app development process.

1. Low-cost With Huge ROI

It does not cost you much to use email marketing in app development to raise awareness. The truth is; email marketing is cheap. There are printing costs, advertising or postage fees. Whether you do it or you hire an agency to do it, it cost nearly nothing. Hence, the need to use email marketing during your app’s pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. With this, you can reach thousands of potential app users at low-cost with outstanding results. Studies show that for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you get about $40 equivalence of ROI.

2. Has Immediacy

Email marketing has immediacy. It produces meaningful results within minutes once sent to potential app users. An app pre-launch mail is a unique marketing strategy you can use for the awareness of your app. More so, a launch mail is an excellent marketing tactic you can use to drive app downloads and use. A post-launch mail is relevant to keep app users updated about changes in your app. Such emails will create a massive sense of urgency for both current and potential app users. Thus, convinces them on the need to take immediate actions to download and use your app. This is why most top app development companies cannot do away with email marketing.

3. Easily Targeted

Email marketing creates awareness for your app leading to downloads. The truth is; this unique marketing strategy solves all the intrinsic troubles of non-target campaigns. With email marketing, you can send emails to your chosen audience. In fact, by segmenting your email contact, you have control over who sees your mail. You can easily target potential app users using relevant demographics. With this, your messages get across to the right potential app users with ease. The truth is; you can send personalized messages to a target audience for app downloads and use. Thus, results in a higher conversion rate in form of app downloads and use by your target audience.

4. Highly Easy to Share

Emails are highly easy to share. Using email marketing gives you the privilege to send messages that can be shared with ease. With emails, app users can share your emails to convince loved ones to download and use your app. All this can happen at the click of a button by app users. Today, most top app development companies use email marketing because it’s easily shared.

5. Global Access

Email marketing gives your app campaigns access to a global audience. With emails, you can reach thousands of potential app users across the globe in seconds. Although social media can help you reach a global audience, it does not show who reads your content. Most top app development companies fancy email marketing because it gives access to a global audience.

6. Ease to Measure Results

You cannot ignore the role of analytics in measuring the success of your marketing campaigns. Unlike email marketing, conventional marketing tools give uncertain and estimated results. With email marketing, you get accurate and helpful metrics. It gives metrics such as open rates, retention rates, and click-rates. This gives you insights into the interests and behaviors of app users. Email marketing helps you to monitor and fine-tune information derived from app users. This is why it is an integral part of app development for most top app development companies.

How to Maximize Email Marketing for Mobile App Downloads and Use

It is possible to maximize the performance of email marketing for your app. To achieve this, you should do the following;

1. Fine-tune your email so it gets delivered to and opened by potential app users.

2. Fine-tune your email so potential app users can read and act upon it.

Feature Image credit: Shutterstock 

By Harnil Oza

CEO, Hyperlink Infosystem

Sourced from Entrepreneur India

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An Industry Effort to Block ‘Annoying’ Ads Was Quietly Fueled by Google Data

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Google has confirmed to Ad Age that an industry trade body tasked with deciding which “annoying” ad formats web browsers should block largely used its data and research methodology to do so. The trade body, known as the Coalition for Better Ads, last year publicly presented the material in full with Google and 18 company employees’ names removed, describing it as “the Coalition’s research.”

By not crediting the search giant for its research, the Coalition had until now effectively insulated Google from potential new unwanted attention to its influence over the web, which could raise questions of transparency at a critical time for the search giant: The company was hit with a $21 million fine last Thursday after the Competition Commission of India said it abused its dominant position in the online ad search market.

And in August, after Google said its Chrome browser would block ads according to Coalition criteria, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said her organization “will follow this new feature and its effects closely.”

After first sourcing its foundational research methodology to unnamed “members,” the Coalition has also confirmed that the work originated at Google. It emphasized that a broad group of members oversees the research and standards it adopts, and that further research has been done by others.

“The Coalition obtained the rights to publish the underlying research methodology from Google and to use it for ongoing research of consumer ad experience preferences in global regions,” the Coalition said in a statement. “This research effort is overseen by the Coalition’s Standards and Research Committee which includes a cross-section of Coalition members.”

Google said in a statement that it conducted research in April 2016 into poor consumer experiences on the web. “In October 2016, the newly formed Coalition for Better Ads asked member companies to share any research that had been conducted,” it said. “Google along with Facebook, Teads, the IAB Tech Lab and Washington Post, submitted their existing research as requested. In late 2017, the Coalition conducted additional research to define which ad experiences online were acceptable and unacceptable. In March 2017, the Coalition announced the initial Better Ads Standards based on this body of research. In addition, the Coalition has a dedicated Standards and Research Committee, which includes both companies and industry trade groups. Google is a member of this committee.”

When asked last week why its name wasn’t on the research on the CBA’s website, a Google spokeswoman said, “The Coalition for Better Ads made the decision as to what to publish and not to publish on their website.”

Chrome will gradually begin enforcing the Coalition standards starting Thursday.

Once enforcement is fully enacted, the browser will block all ads on websites—including those that aren’t “annoying”—should the publication be found in violation of Coalition standards and thresholds. The Coalition will grant publishers that volunteer to participate a period of time to defend themselves or address potential violations before ads are blocked.

Although the Coalition is devising standards for any participating browser to follow, Microsoft is the only other Coalition member that also has a browser. It told Ad Age last week that it has no plans to follow in Chrome’s footsteps. Firefox and Apple are regarded as longshots to join the Coalition, according to several high-level executives familiar with those conversations.

Blocking the blockers

Marketers, ad buyers, publishers and tech companies including Procter & Gamble, GroupM, Facebook, the Washington Post and Google announced the Coalition in September 2016 as a collective effort to undermine consumer demand for ad blockers.

The plan was to eliminate the worst ad experiences for users—like videos that play automatically with the sound on—in order to reduce the siren call of blocking software that lies outside the industry’s control.

“The Coalition’s research identifies the ad experiences in both North America and Europe that ranked lowest across a range of user experience factors, and that are most highly correlated with an increased propensity for consumers to adopt ad blockers,” it said in its initial press release, which did not bring up Google outside a roll call of members in the boilerplate. “These results define initial Better Ads Standards that identify the ad experiences that fall beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability.”

Public eye

Google knows many people are wary of its sway over digital media, says Nick Lee, a professor of marketing at Warwick Business School.

“They are very worried about perception when it comes to that kind of stuff—the perception of not just actual power, but that they are starting to control the data around these issues,” Lee says. “And maybe that is something they don’t want to be necessarily known for.”

Industry members say they embrace the fight against intrusive ads and consider Google’s research approach sound. Before sharing its research with the Coalition, Google sought feedback from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, publishers and ad-tech vendors after making them sign non-disclosure agreements, according to people familiar with the process.

When the Coalition asked members to submit any research they had, not just Google but Facebook, The Washington Post, Teads and the IAB Tech Lab complied. Coalition members ultimately chose to start with Google’s work.

“It’s as if they are caught between a rock and a hard place,” Lee says. “No matter how much of a good job they think they are doing, they don’t want the world to think they are controlling everything.”

Rivals in the digital ad ecosystem could cite Google’s influence as a reason to question the Coalition’s standards.

It remains unclear whether regulators would take an interest in the Coalition, says James Speta, a law professor at Northwestern University who specializes in internet policy and telecommunications.

“If it can be shown that Google manipulated the standard setting process, that would be a concern to the Federal Trade Commission,” Speta says. “The underlying issue in cases like these is how transparent is the trade body, and how fair is it? Was everyone able to see what was going on?”

Feature Image Credit: istock

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Mobile Scroll Ads More Effective Than Pop-Up And Static Banner Ads

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A new experiment suggests that pop-up ads can have an adverse effect on consumers’ perceptions of the content.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Scrolls ads, a newer style of advertisement designed for mobile screens, show signs of being more effective than older forms of digital advertising. This is according to a new experimental study conducted by The Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. This new research has significant implications for a news industry that is constantly searching for new revenue models to finance journalism.

(For the unitiated, a scroll ad is an interactive ad format which is adapted to the reading behavior of your visitors. The ad opens at the bottom right only when the visitor scrolls down. This ad format will close automatically or can closed directly from the visitor.)

An example is here:

“Banner and pop-up ads have been the standard way to advertise online for decades, though they have met consumer resistance, especially in mobile,” said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute. “Our research into online advertisements finds that formats designed more recently, and with mobile in mind, strike users as less intrusive and more pleasing. To our surprise, compared with ad formats designed for other web environments, scroll ads can also improve recall of the product being advertised and enhance trust in the article where the ad appears.”

These are some of the results of the online survey experiment conducted with 1,489 participants between November 9 and December 6, 2016, using AmeriSpeak, NORC’s nationally representative survey panel. The online panel interface allows respondents to see and respond to content presented to them digitally, something that is not possible with traditional phone surveys.

Key findings:

  • The experiment finds that people are more likely to recall the product accurately if it appears in a scroll ad than if it appears in either a pop-up or static ad. Indeed, 34 percent of users accurately recalled the product from the scroll ad versus 26 percent in static ads and 25 percent in pop-up ads. The differences were even more pronounced if you take just those people who say they noticed the ad at all. The majority of all respondents, 57 percent, fell into this group.
  • People are no more likely to notice pop-up ads than they are scroll ads (61 percent vs. 62 percent for scroll) and are less likely to recall the product in pop-up ads, just 41 percent versus 55 percent in scroll ads and 53 percent in static ads. Pop-up ads also have several negative effects. For instance, 61 percent of people say pop-up ads make the article more difficult to read (vs. 37 percent for scroll ads and 19 percent for static ads).
  • When readers are interested in the topic of the ad, they are more likely to express some positive evaluations of the article and engage with that article. Overall, people who are interested in the topic of the ad provide more positive evaluations of the article, including that it provides diverse points of view (28 percent vs. 19 percent) and that it is entertaining (32 percent vs. 25 percent). However, those interested in the subject of the ad are no more likely to say the article got the facts right, had a professional appearance, that it was easy to find important information, or that the information was trustworthy.

“Scroll ads should play an even bigger role in online advertising because they appear to be more effective on a range of metrics than pop-up ads and static banners,” said Trevor Tompson, director of The AP-NORC Center. “These ads optimised for mobile produce benefits to the advertiser and the news outlet compared to older styles of digital advertising.”

 

 

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The IAB wants to make it easier to advertise on podcasts

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By Lisa Lacy

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released its first IAB Podcast Playbook, a buyer’s guide to podcast advertising that provides insights into audience demographics, listener behaviors, creative treatments, ad formats, delivery, targeting and measurement.

The guide also features research that confirms the increasing popularity of podcasts as nearly 25% of US consumers over the age of 12 listen to podcasts on a monthly basis and, on average, each person subscribes to six podcasts per week.

Not surprisingly, the IAB found smartphones are the primary devices used for listening to podcasts and consumption is frequently on the move – particularly during commutes to and from work – but it noted consumers also frequently listen while doing chores at home, exercising and traveling.

In terms of audience demographics, the IAB found podcast listeners tend to be young – 44% are under 34 – and they are also are educated, wealthy and likely to be business influencers.

Advertisers have a variety of options on podcasts, including native and host-read ads, as well as dynamically inserted, standardized ad units. What’s more, the IAB said two-thirds of listeners cite high brand recall and nearly the same number say podcast ads inspired a purchase.

“Podcasts create an especially intimate space for listeners to engage with content because these listeners have made an active choice to download or stream,” said Harry Clark, co-chair of the IAB group that produced the guide and executive vice president at Market Enginuity, which says it connects marketers with the public media audience.

Recent IAB research forecasted podcast advertising revenue will top $220m in 2017, an 85% increase from $119m in 2016.

“This playbook will serve as a go-to reference guide to help brand marketers understand podcasts and effectively steer more ad dollars toward opportunities that will deliver in terms of audience reach,” said Anna Bager, senior vice president and general manager of mobile and video at the IAB, in a statement. “In an industry where explosive growth and dramatic change have been endemic, podcasts are having a standout moment. We want to educate marketers on the unique and valuable benefits of advertising on the medium.”

By Lisa Lacy

Sourced from THEDRUM

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