Without question, consumers’ extensive use of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices is creating rich opportunities for marketers and other corporate decision makers to identify customers’ locations, interests, and behaviors to better target them with offers and messaging.
Historically, it’s been difficult for marketers to quantify offline customer conversions (e.g., attracting someone to purchase a product following a magazine or billboard advertisement).
However, technological advances have led to innovation in tracking consumers in mobile and other digital channels.
For instance, a company called Drawbridge has developed a methodology for tracking people without cookies as they move from device to device.
This type of information can be invaluable to marketers and other decision makers so they can better understand and act on consumer behaviors, such as the prevalence of women ages 20 to 34 to conduct research about beauty products using a desktop device before switching to a smartphone to make purchases.
Most people are familiar with the use of geolocation techniques whereby a Starbucks customer might receive a coupon for a preferred beverage as he walks past an outlet. But now, geofencing is moving beyond traditional location-based applications and check-ins to utilize a full range of smartphone capabilities, according to ClickZ.
For instance, if a customer researches a plasma TV by scrolling through a social media forum as he walks into a store, he may receive a push notification from a retailer whose store he has previously visited.
Although there’s a creep factor with these types of offers that give certain consumers the willies, some customers are more than willing to share their personal information with companies if they feel they receive enough value in return.
Big data analytics can also help marketers better understand the types of content that consumers are looking for and the best ways to deliver it to them based on the types of devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) that they’re most likely to use.
Knowing your target audience – including their mobile behaviors, the types of devices they use, and the types of messaging they tend to respond to – gives marketers critical insights into taking the next best action, optimizing content for the right device.
For instance, email marketers at Marriott Vacations Worldwide discovered that 90% of mobile visitors to its Ritz-Carlton Destination Club brand were iPhone users – despite the fact that Android users command the greatest market share in the US. By optimizing the landing page for iPhone users, the company improved its conversion rates.
