Mobile marketing post-IDFA era, time to fix the leaky bucket

With so many articles and posts wondering what user acquisition will look like post-IDFA, I thought it was time to look at things from a different perspective that focuses less on how to spend millions of $ on paid ads with limited attribution. And instead, help brands understand that now is the right time to build effective engagement programs to increase user retention.

It's never been more important to focus on the customer experience and build powerful retention strategies to grow in a scalable and profitable way. Otherwise, pumping $$ into paid installs without having proper new user activation programs is like adding water to a leaky bucket.

📣 Known fact: it’s much cheaper to retain customers than acquire new ones. (Source)

So, where do we start? We need to implement a solid activation & retention strategy that educates new users, explains how the product or service can deliver value to them, drives them towards performing high-value actions early on, and nurtures users throughout their entire journey to keep them engaged with the brand.

1. A “first 30 days” multi-channel Onboarding & Activation program that activates and drives engagement among new users, meant to help them navigate the platform for the first time through multiple touch points to ensure they complete high-value actions early on:

• In-app onboarding cards are displayed within the first session post-install, guiding new users through their journey and collecting data about user preferences to help personalize their experience. Additionally, this can be an excellent time to ask users to enable push notifications, given that many new users will churn after their first session, so push notifications are a valuable tool to bring them back.

(💡 TIP: Keep the creatives simple and clean to reduce cognitive load)

Here’s a great example from Afterpay:

• A multi-step, multi-channel welcome program, gradually educating new users, presenting the value provided by the product or service, and driving product usage with clear call-to-action (3-4 messages sent within the first 15 days, with the first message ideally sent out within 24 hours from account registration). This program aims to earn users' trust and reinforce their decision to engage with the brand.

• Educational campaigns which address the steps or features that new users have the most challenging time with, delivered via mobile tooltips (small in-app messages explaining in more detail how to use a feature).

💡 TIP: Ideally, users should be allowed to interact with the app and understand its value before being asked to provide personal information or to create an account. (Although this approach is not a one-size-fits-all, it depends on the industry).

2. A full lifecycle customer-focused program that increases revenue, loyalty, and satisfaction for existing users:

• First time buyer activation

• Product / Service usage stats (i.e. In the last x days you performed xyz actions, saved $x, etc.)

• Up-sell & cross sell - content recommendations based on preferences and past purchases

• Multi-step Cart Abandonment program (2-3 reminders).

• Loyalty and VIP (potentially using elements of gamification rewarding users for achieving milestones - a certain number of app sessions, or specific actions). See how we approached gamification at ZINIO here

• Anniversary messages

• New content alerts (Just arrived: xyz!, New on ZINIO!)

• Referral programs encouraging users to share your app with their friends and connections

• In-app rating requests encouraging users to rate your app.

• Surveys, etc. 

3. Transactional messages:

• Account settings updates (when users update their account information, email, name, address, etc.)

• Password change and password reminders

• Order confirmation

• Auto-renewal reminders (i.e. Your subscription will auto-renew on August 1st, 2020) - providing clear information on how to cancel.

• Auto-renewal charge confirmation (i.e. Your subscription was renewed, and the next bill is on August 1st, 2020)

• Auto-renewal cancellation confirmation - which can be an opportunity to retain subscribers by offering the option to downgrade the membership to a lower-priced tier, or offering a special rate for the next 3-5 months

• Auto-renewal failed notification

• Expired bank details notification, etc.

4. A multi-channel multi-step win-back program meant to re-engage lapsed customers reminding them why they were interested in the product or service in the first place, and rekindling their interest to subscribe again.

This can be delivered via email and push notifications, and ideally should consist of 3 messages, with the first message sent out roughly 2-3 months after the customer’s last interaction with your brand, and leaving 3-4 weeks in between each message.

Here’s what the structure of the program should be:

• The first message is a simple reminder (We miss you / It’s been a while) or perhaps highlight what’s new since the last time they used your app in case you added new features (You asked, we listened! Check out the latest features!)

• The second reminder in case users didn’t interact with the first message, perhaps this time providing an incentive (Here’s 40% off your next purchase)

• Third message asking for feedback perhaps via a survey to understand if there is a way to still get them back, also assuring users that this is the last attempt to contact them.

Once this structure is in place, it's time to build a solid experimentation plan and keep testing frequency, cadence, channels, new content, and special offers to drive revenue growth and long-term retention.