3 Ways Contextual Personalization Can Enhance Mobile Marketing

Consumer brands are kicking off their peak season strategies early this year, with Mariah Carey officially on the radio. With brands already competing for consumer attention, savvy marketers will lean on their mobile marketing to differentiate their campaigns now more than ever.

How? Three words: contextual mobile personalization.

Why Contextual Marketing is Necessary for Mobile Marketing

The role of mobile devices is tightening its grip on digital eCommerce. According to Forbes and Andrew Lipsman of eMarketer, by 2022, mobile marketing is expected to grow 68% as more people use their phones for easy shopping, signaling that mobile commerce will drive almost 50% of e-commerce sales in 2022. With this astronomical growth, there’s no questioning mobile’s presence as a primary channel within the customer journey. Mobile shopping now provides customers with an easy way to get the information, services, and products they need while opening a new door for marketers to reach them quickly and effectively. 

So what’s the challenge? For brand marketers, the issue is two-fold. The first is that the mobile channel is quickly becoming overcrowded, where consumers are inundated with notifications and apps. Secondly, after a perfect storm of Apple’s privacy changes and the imminent death of third-party cookies, personalization strategies are being impacted. For brands looking to adjust to new privacy restrictions in channels such as email will need to quickly provide highly personalized cross-channel experiences that meet consumers on their preferred devices. 

Luckily, contextual personalization is alive and well in the mobile channel. Mobile personalization creates many avenues for brand marketers to quickly implement contextual marketing strategies that display 1:1 notifications and mobile messages that resonate individually. Now, marketers can encourage consumers to commit high-value actions such as purchase finalization. Here are three ways brands can utilize contextual personalization to enhance their mobile marketing.

In-App Time Targeting

In-app messaging can be used to keep customers inside the app, drive brand value, and increase customer engagement. Leveraging contextual data, such as time-sensitive content, ensure that customers stay put and drive further action and sales. Below is an example of how brands can utilize time-sensitive content in their in-app mobile messages. Once a consumer opens the app, brands can build urgency and drive click-through rates by including a countdown timer or time-sensitive imagery leading up to an event or offer expiration. Marketers can customize the look and feel of the in-app timer and images to ensure brand consistency and a streamlined digital experience. 

What campaigns are best for in-app time targeting? Promotions, Flash Sales, and Offer Based Acquisition 

It’s All About Location

Based on data published in Airship’s Good Push Index report, influenced opens are 293% higher in highly targeted location-aware campaigns vs. broadcast messages. In the Inkredible Outdoors examples below, consumers can receive localized mobile messages based on their IP address detected by the closest cell tower. In this scenario, the mobile messages come in the form of a rich push notification and in-app message that populates with a banner displaying the closest hiking trail in their area, current temperature, and relevant items that match their local environment. 

What campaigns are best for location targeting?  Localized offers, driving in-store traffic, buy-online-pick-up-in-store/curbside pickup order promotions

Weather Personalization Works Rain or Shine!

When it comes to notifications and in-app messages, utilizing compelling, personalized images can give consumers the nudge they need to get back in the app and engage. In many cases, Mother Nature can support that nudge. Weather conditions inform our product purchases, help us decide whether or not we’ll spring for pick-up or delivery, and inspire trips to warmer destinations during colder months. In this final instance, marketers can take their localized content further by creating mobile trigger campaigns based on local weather forecasts. Below, Inkredible Eatery is sending a weather-targeted rich push notification to the consumer’s lock screen. The rich push can tap into a weather API and pair relevant offers based on their current context and needs at that moment.  

What campaigns are best for weather targeting? Reactivation, new and lapsed customer engagement, seasonal-based product recommendations

The key to creating a winning mobile marketing strategy will rely on whether or not creative marketers can strike a chord utilizing an image-forward approach. Contextual mobile personalization now gives brand marketers new flexibility to reach consumers with content that addresses where they are and what they need. Mobile contextual marketing still holds strong as a means to ensure consumers always have the most up-to-date information and are met with the dynamic personalization they expect.