Closing the Loop With Mobile

Online to offline (O2O) shopping is ten times greater than e-commerce. Did you catch that? 10X greater than e-commerce. Surveys done by Opus Research, Forrester, Yahoo and others indicate between 60% to more than 90% of internet-enabled consumers conduct online research before buying offline. As many as 80% of consumers use smartphones in-store to do research prior to buying the product they are looking at.

Mobile devices open a powerful new marketing channel that offers a way to measure the effectiveness of other media. They can be used to measure the in-store impact of advertising as well as identifying audience segments by tracking offline movements. According to Google, 32% of consumers say location-based search ads led them to visit a store or make a purchase. A Google AdWords Blog, Measure More: improving Estimated Total Conversions with store visit insights, shares two cases, PetSmart and Office Depot, that successfully employed customization to increase their in-store purchases. In January, Google rolled out an enhancement to their Estimated Total Conversions metric that allows for a store visit measurement. This new path to purchase should have you rethinking your metrics and customer experience.

There are two keys to a good experience: customization and consistency. According to a Google-purchased study by Ipsos MediaCT, Understanding Consumer’s Local Search Behavior, 70% of mobile customers want location information for the nearest store in their ads. 74% want to know the inventory for a product at a nearby store. The other key is consistency. Marketers need to ensure a cohesive brand identity from receipt of the mobile message to action and purchase. Consumers do not like to feel confused through the process. They want to see the same product images and attributes throughout their entire experience. So how do we, as marketers, leverage the mobile marketing channel? One option is to implement a promotion code tracking system, or add the mobile channel to your already existing system. Another effective way is for marketers to send a mobile message with a unique, trackable URL. You can then track the unique URL through the purchase stream. Finally, don’t forget your CRM data. Like any other channel, marketers should be able to segment their mobile channel to better customize their messaging. Once you’ve got the tracking in place, you start dealing with the data coming back to you. Metrics are magic, but remember in this scenario there will be a lot of data so just remember to take it one piece at a time and not be overwhelmed. Analyze what is clicked, opened, or otherwise acted upon and how long it took for the recipient to act on the message. Refine your messaging. Undertake A/B testing. Retarget those that didn’t open/click with the new, more effective message or those contacts that came in from a different channel, such as a promotion with an online registration, or an e-mail opt-in.

Thanks to Rimma Kats of Mobile Marketer for the source article, “Closing the impression-to-redemption loop”.