Are You a Mature Mobile Marketer?

When a banking customer opens an account in a banking center, she can use her smartphone to deposit checks, pay bills or find local branches to open an account for her child. She might use her desktop to investigate mortgages or loans. These new multichannel journeys require mobile marketing to thread together various channels for a holistic customer experience.

“Mobile is the connective tissue between online and offline experiences, providing the basis for concierge-like experiences as customers traverse a decision journey and over the course of their lifetime relationship with a brand,” said Mike McGuire, research vice president for Gartner for Marketing Leaders.

Marketers can develop three key capabilities to develop mature mobile marketing strategies that contribute to improved customer experiences:

Orchestrate multichannel experiences

The new path to purchase is no longer a linear journey. Rather, it’s circuitous as consumers rely on various channels in each stage for different reasons – search, email, mobile, social and in-store for research, reviews, purchase, service, etc. With mobile devices being the constant companion across these touch points, one way to improve delivery of connected experiences is to take control of the mobile opt-in. Marketers should manage the mobile opt-in database separately to ensure compliance and honor the intimacy of the relationship. Next, they can apply mobile analytics to glean insights and opportunities for relevant engagement with customers.

Coordinate across mobile-fueled channels

Using insights gleaned from mobile segmentation and analysis, identify combinations of interactions and offers that resonate with target audiences. Customer experiences are only as good as the last or next interaction which is why relevancy is so important. Forty-three percent of consumers surveyed in a recent Gartner study noted that offer relevancy influences their purchase decision so it’s important to coordinate relevant messaging and offers across channels.

Marketers should manage the mobile opt-in database separately to ensure compliance and honor the intimacy of the relationship.

Personalize mobile experiences through better data practices

Focus on situational (e.g. real-time location) and behavioral (e.g. past purchases) data for mobile customers to build a more granular profile that informs relevance of offers and outreach. It won’t be easy to pull these together but it will start to link the silos of information that exist across different departments, teams and databases.

Organization, relevance and analytics are key components of successful mobile marketing strategies that link channels and deliver great customer experiences not just in banking, but in any industry.

Gartner for Marketing Leaders clients can read more in Mapping the Mobile Customer Decision Journey.