Our software development organization designs and implements mobile features within a framework that ensures long-term success. For instance, no matter how people opt-in (whether it’s through a text service as illustrated in the screencast or via a website), we designed our product to handle the opt-in process, and underlying profile data, the same way. Assuming mobile opt-in guidelines are always adhered to, it is critical to incorporate mobile opt-in strategies that reach as many touch points as possible. It’s an important strategy that will quickly increase the size of your mobile opt-in universe and ensure campaign success.

We recognize that when starting off in mobile, it’s helpful to have an experienced and trusted guide. Technology is great; but, even I have to admit it can only do so much. That’s why a good professional services team is important, too. They can advise you of all the mobile do’s and don’ts and make sure your mobile programs take off.

If you have any questions about how to build mobile marketing programs that are designed for short and long term success, share a comment below. Or, you can always email us!

Rather than me explain it, I’ll actually defer to Stephanie Miller, Global Markets Catalyst at ReturnPath. She summed it up really well in a recent post on ReturnPath’s blog while recapping a panel discussion from the Shop.org Annual Summit. For the full post, click here.

An excerpt from Stephanie’s post:
“One of the key issues for retailers looking to move to a lifecycle-based approach to email marketing is gathering data from the disparate systems that allow us to send triggered messages based on subscriber behavior. Typically this means sending abandoned shopping cart messages or recommendations based on browsing or follow ups after purchase….

…Several retailers lamented the lack of ability to access website browsing data at all. And all the speakers acknowledge that even when you can access the data, you need to include multiple segments to make the numbers worthwhile. Consider that you start with a high number of site visits, then cut it based on visitor recognition (cookies) then cut it again based on a match to email address (and a third cut is against your suppression file). So you can have hundreds of thousands of browsers, but only tens of thousands of mailable subscribers.

One email service provider and Return Path partner Knotice that I met at Shop.org has a unique solution to address part of this data access and automation challenge. Knotice can authenticate a customer based on a trackable open (the technology is cool and complicated, but it’s similar to the way that a one pixel invisible image lets us track opens today). So your email system can identify if the email subscriber is a known visitor. That can help you understand the behavior of your email subscribers (are they more or less frequent site visitors, for example), and customize the next visit to the website based on email behavior. If the subscriber opened, you can feature the products highlighted in the email. If the subscriber did not open, you might show something else (on the assumption that the subject line on that product did not engage). You can also easily see how much of your site browse behavior is from email subscribers – and keeps that data in the email sending database – which lets you then trigger appropriate browse and post purchase messages without a complex data integration.”

Prune away the dead wood of inactive profiles, and – most importantly – make sure you respect each individual’s privacy preferences by allowing self-removal through simple opt-out mechanisms. Keeping your profile database clear of this overgrowth will bring to light the personalities contained within. You don’t have to discard the inactive profiles; try isolating them and attempting to bring them back to life with special marketing tactics such as incentive programs.

On the flip side, an untended profile database will go the way of nature – into chaos – and will eventually become unmanageable. Software that helps you continually maintain your marketing profile database will help it to bear the fruits of increased loyalty and return on investment.

This is the second of two posts from Bill Landers providing key best practice and work-flow insights from his more than a decade of experience developing software platforms. In case you missed it, check out the first post.

Software developers should remember that simpler is almost always better, and they should resist the temptation of exposing all of the intricate details of the systems and subsystems they have worked so hard to bring to life. I am not suggesting dumbing things down. Rather, balancing the inherent complexity with an uncluttered user interface and an experience that is a natural extension of the way marketing professionals work.

The days of the 500-page user manual and a week of training have come to an end. Users today expect software to have a natural resonance with their tasks and goals. The user should think, “This software fits perfectly, and I cannot imagine any other way of accomplishing this task.” There are many examples of superb software capable of achieving this expectation; software we use every day to perform both personal and work related tasks – without ever reading the manual. Effortless interaction where users learn the software simply by using it, or watching brief screen cast demonstrations, is becoming the expected level of usability.

This is the first of two posts from Bill Landers providing key best practice and work-flow insights from his more than a decade of experience developing software platforms. In case you missed it, check out the second post.