Dispelling Common Mobile Marketing Myths

There is no question how important mobile marketing is to consumers. As brands explore new channel options and inventive ways to build customer relationships, mobile marketing stands out as a prime opportunity in 2022. Yet many marketers are still reluctant to deploy a full-scale marketing strategy that meets consumers on the one device they cannot live without: their phone. 

Dispelling these myths is critical to marketing departments searching for new paths to communicate with customers as the world enters yet another year of uncertainty. The truth is, data personalization supercharges mobile marketing. Brands can deliver new revenue streams by transforming a customer’s data into mobile messages and notifications that convert new customers while encouraging repeat purchases by loyal consumers. 

Without further ado, here are a few of the myths that still hinder brands from creating customer-first, personalized mobile marketing.

Myth #1: Push notifications do not help with customer acquisition

Because a mobile app is required to receive notifications, many brands assume that notifications do not help with new customer acquisition. Downloading an app is a high intent action, so it’s easy to believe that the marketing team has done its job and that a download equals a purchase. 

It’s true that high intent actions often lead to purchases, but that’s not always the case. Downloading an app is similar to abandoning a cart in that the consumer has signaled interest but is not considered a guarantee to purchase goods or services. That’s why abandoned cart campaigns are one of the retail industry’s best tools to encourage new customer acquisition. Similarly, marketers can deploy notifications to encourage a new app user to complete their first mobile purchase. Marketers can incentivize the action through a promotional offer or loyalty program deal that puts the brand’s best foot forward, starting the new customer relationship off on the right foot. 

Whatever mobile marketing campaigns your team creates, the focus should always be on 1:1 notifications and mobile messages at scale. Movable Ink research found that 68% of consumers are likely to be loyal customers if a brand is engaging and builds personal relationships with them. A mini-myth behind personalization is that many marketers believe that email is the only place 1:1 marketing can happen. But 47% of consumers say that a streamlined omnichannel brand experience is important to them, but only 37% say that they receive it. 

The initial touchpoints after a consumer downloads your app are the first steps at building that personal relationship people are looking for. It’s also a way to prove that your brand cares about a streamlined, omnichannel buying process that makes it easy to become a customer from any device. Far from the myth that mobile notifications do not encourage new customer acquisition, it’s clear that personalized marketing touchpoints can push interested consumers into loyal customers. They also affect the opposite of customer acquisition: churn. Push notifications with data-driven personalization build loyalty and can ultimately keep consumers from exploring alternative brand options.

Myth #2: Push notifications are intrusive and negate customer experience

There is too much research that dispels this myth for it to persist. Some notifications, such as shopping cart abandonment, which are based on user behavior, increase open rates nine-fold, and rich images in push notifications boost direct open and response rates by 56%. 

So why do so many brands believe that marketing notifications are intrusive? Because batch and blast push methods based on business objectives and not customer needs are bothersome to most people. More than half of consumers are overwhelmed by the number of communications they receive from brands, but that may be because of the amount of brands that still lack a customer-first mentality. 

A study of 250 retail brands found that 54% of companies had a mobile app, but nearly all of them failed a best-practices mobile personalization checklist. You know who passed the checklist? All of the top ten retail brands in the United States. The biggest brands in the world understand the value of personalized notifications and they know that 1:1 mobile messages are far from intrusive. Instead, they offer value and build relationships with each individual customer.

Myth #3: In-app messages block a customer’s path to conversion

Some brands still hold onto the idea that mobile messages take customers away from what could have been purchase actions. This is a matter of strategic thinking more than anything else. Most in-app messages appear at the beginning of a customer's app session, before actions are taken to start or complete a purchase. And because brands offer messages customers can easily cast aside with the touch of an X, people that logged into an app to make a purchase aren’t easily dissuaded by an in-app message.

The truth is that in-app messages are a valuable addition to your brand’s mobile marketing strategy. According to Airship, when a push notification is complemented by an in-app message, customer engagement increases by nearly 30%. Being thoughtful about how you personalize then deploy an in-app message can actually speed up a purchase. Reminding customers about time-sensitive information such as rewards points expiring or the end of a sale could motivate people to convert.

Mobile Personalization is Only Getting Better

Estimates suggest that people check their phone between 52 and 80 times a day on average. Mobile marketing is a powerful way to build relationships with consumers by creating a customer-first in-app message and notification strategy that combines zero- and first-party data with customer behavior to create compelling communications. As personalization and data integrations continue to evolve, people will expect even more from brands that take up valuable real estate on their phone’s home screen. The companies that take that responsibility could create loyal customers and increase their average mobile order value.