By Radhika Mohan Singh Roy, Agile CRM
The use of mobile devices has continued to explode in recent years and it is taking up a significant amount of people's time, more than desktops and other types of media combined.
People are simply spending more time with their mobile devices; relying on their smartphones and tablets to get the latest news and to even carry out business research. We virtually move around with our smartphones at all times. The use of mobile devices has turned out to be a dream come true for marketers to connect with their customers at the right time with the right offers. With mobile devices turning out to be a potential marketing weapon, there is a need for businesses to understand the use of mobile analytics and leverage on it to determine the consumer's purchase path.
Undoubtedly, mobile marketing is growing rapidly and the competition for it is growing even faster. With more competition, consumers can easily switch from one brand to another. They can easily discover businesses offering better deals and user experience. Hence there is a need for businesses to stay on top of their mobile marketing, consistently. The best way to stay informed about everyday marketing efforts and new challenges that come with mobile marketing is by understanding and making use of mobile Web analytics services which offer insights vital for optimizing your business by monitoring the activities of your customers.
In order for brands to personalize their promotions and give customers exactly what they need, they must be able to analyze various customers' data, which consists of online click stream data, point-of-sale transaction data, unstructured data from call logs, social media sentiment and more importantly the emerging mobile-based location data. It may seem like a big challenge for businesses but to remain competitive, one needs to find a way to keep up with this emerging trend.
What is Mobile Analytics?
Mobile analytics is similar to Web analytics. It monitors the activities of users who are accessing a particular service from mobile devices. Data that is gathered by mobile analytics consists of information about the behavior pattern of the user such as the user's location, number of visits, preferences, usages, purchases, returns, technical details, error reporting and other insights that can help marketers make informed business decisions, automate marketing efforts and ultimately, develop better customer relationships.
Why Do Businesses Need Mobile Analytics To Be Able To Compete?
1. Assembly Rich Customer Information
Information is power. Every business needs as much information as they can get about their customers (as well as their competitors). This provides a business with enormous amounts of information required to provide a better service experience. With mobile usage at an all-time high in recent years, the information that can be acquired by analyzing the stream of data coming through it is priceless for businesses. Any business that is relegating mobile analytics to the background is likely to compromise on its power to compete.
2. Provide Personalize Service
Mobile devices are the best platform to provide personalized services to customers. The information gathered by analyzing the data stream from mobile devices can be utilized by businesses to provide much more effective and personalized services to its customers. Various researches have indicated that personalized services offered through mobile marketing are more effective for businesses to get more sales.
3. Find Customer Opportunity
Data gathered from mobile analytics can help businesses discover more opportunities to reach out to more potential customers and double their sales and profits. Marketers with the right mobile analytics are able to recalibrate their models and adjust them accordingly, as new information becomes available through analyzing of mobile data and then use self-learning models to take advantage of the emerging consumer trends and needs.
4. Implement Real-Time Marketing
Businesses need to be able to implement real-time changes and to convert insights into business opportunities and thus deliver real-time offers to their customers on their smartphones and other mobile devices.
5. Provide Seamless Service
Mobile analytics can help businesses enhance their customer relationships. The customer needs take fewer steps and has lesser distractions during their intent to the execution in the process of making a purchase. Data from mobile analytics can help businesses provide seamless service for their customers. Businesses can gain knowledge of what the customers' needs are, what issues they may be facing and address them to deliver better user experience.
For the Win: Better Relationships, UX & ROI
In the present business environment, mobile analytics is almost indispensable, it offers a wealth of information and can help organizations transform the way they reach out to their customers and increase engagement. Businesses can utilize data from mobile devices to maximize positive users experience and gain a definite edge over their competitors.
Radhika Mohan Singh Roy is a senior product evangelist with Agile CRM. He has earlier been the manager for communities & social media at Simplilearn. He is a Masters' degree holder in English and a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. He has previously also worked with Google, Apple Computers and Bank of America.
