June 11, 2013
Mobile users on Windows are more responsive than Apple or Android users, according to a new analysis of more than one billion mobile messaging transactions for retail and gaming brands.
The report from Dynmark found that the responsiveness of Windows mobile users beats out iOS by 14 percent and Android by 11 percent in retail. The results show that despite the general perception of iOS being the most engaging operating system for consumers, it actually falls behind its rivals across the most industry sectors.
“For the marketer, going mobile is becoming less of the challenge, regardless of the type of experience – doing it well in a contextual , coordinated way is what is separating those who succeed from those fail,” said Lou Casal, senior director of product marketing at SDL, New York. “Mobile is very personal experience – especially our phones.
“Also, mobile means different things depending what device we are incorporating,” he said. “So organizations need to really add value to the message and experience. They do this with insight, with content delivery, controls and seamless orchestration.
“It is no longer about one channel – it is about the simultaneous role all the channels play along the customer journey. Bottom line, their messaging strategy needs to tie into all other experiences.”
SDL, Usablenet and Acxiom partnered with Dynmark on the report.
Quick response
The report takes a look at the mobile messaging programs of more than 7,000 marketers.
In the finance and banking sector, RIM dominates when it comes to responsiveness.
Other key findings include that benchmark response rates for mobile are twice as high as email and that the entertainment industry enjoys the highest mobile response rates at 24 percent.
The report also found that 50 percent of mobile responses occur within the first 15 minutes, pointing to mobile’s strength for reaching users with time-sensitive messages.
Data accuracy a problem
Another important takeaway from the report is that mobile data accuracy remains a problem for marketers despite industry investment, with 31 percent of mobile numbers that marketers have for their customers, on average, being dead numbers.
These findings should be a wake-up call to marketers that their messages may not be reaching users.
Delivering relevant experiences
Overall, the findings underline the need for marketers to have quality analytics in place to support their efforts if they are to develop next-generation mobile strategies that meet consumer expectations for personalized, social and context-rich experiences.
These means going beyond the crucial first step – getting customers to opt-in – to taking the steps necessary to insure marketers are delivering relevant experiences to users.
“If I opt-in, all types of good things can happen,” Mr. Casal said. “Assuming the platform is in place, it allows the marketer an opportunity to incorporate multiple data points — including location and customer attributes — to deliver the most relevant content/experience.
“But note, it is very dependent on knowing behavior, profiles, etc., as well as clean data,” he said. “If folks have 30 percent dead rates — that could correspond to their overall quality control practices for direct marketing efforts.
“So while there are more than likely several factors attributing to poor phone lists, for our discussion here, the one that always haunts us marketers is 'flying-blind' — essentially driving efforts without the correct insight.”
Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York
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