Because the festive season and new 12 months approaches, journey is bound to be on everybody’s thoughts. Lengthy weekends, faculties closing for breaks, and demand for household journey are among the many high catalysts for elevated journey demand. In Department’s newest festive season information for app entrepreneurs, we discovered that final 12 months, journey apps in India noticed an enormous spike within the variety of installs from August by December. Journey corporations eager to capitalize on the seasonal surge ought to begin making ready now by rethinking their messaging and concentrating on methods.
Up to now three years (2020 – 2022), journey — each the methods through which shoppers interact with manufacturers and the experiences they count on from manufacturers — has grow to be extra handy, versatile, and private. Whereas journey apps have been profitable in driving installs, consumer engagement and retention continues to be a problem for a lot of entrepreneurs.
As you put together for the vacation season, you’ll have to optimize your technique and up your recreation plan: out of your web site, emails, QR codes to in-app experiences and promotional affords. However, what precisely must you do in another way and what channels must you give attention to to maximise consumer engagement?
Find out how to use your advertising channels to have interaction with prospects this vacation season
From app onboarding, to emails, to push notifications, there are a number of how to extend engagement together with your prospects this vacation season.
Journey app consumer onboarding is essential
The typical journey app loses 64% of customers after simply 30 days. This quantity spikes to 76% after 60 days, and 82% by 90 days. One of many key drivers that ensures customers stick round in your journey app is a good consumer expertise — one which’s tailor-made to their wants.
The problem is that you simply solely get one probability to win over your new customers. This small window of alternative exists from when the consumer clicked “set up app” or searched in your app, and stretches till they truly obtain and open your app.
To make sure a seamless, personalised customized onboarding, use deep linking all through your channels to route customers to the correct vacation spot (e.g., in-app content material or an app retailer relying on whether or not they have your app put in or not).
As soon as a brand new consumer has efficiently downloaded your app, interact them instantly. You are able to do this by highlighting the very best options of your app, sharing reductions, or selling your loyalty program.
Right here’s what it would appear to be: drive new customers straight to your loyalty program to show their loyalty standing, spotlight precisely what they’ll obtain after they hit totally different milestones, and the way they’ll acquire extra miles to redeem beneficial issues inside your app like drink vouchers or seat upgrades.
An instance is InterMiles, a journey rewards and loyalty firm, that used deep hyperlinks on its social platforms to precisely direct new customers to the app retailer. As soon as the app is downloaded, it highlighted a particular Diwali program guiding customers on methods to get further miles.
One other essential aspect in personalised onboarding is the sign-in course of. Your customers interact together with your manufacturers throughout a number of platforms and gadgets. Make it simpler and sooner for them to rapidly log into your journey app with out leaving them pissed off by a prolonged verification course of.
Journey corporations can leverage deferred deep linking with the flexibility to ensure a match to allow auto-login customers in apps, in addition to throughout gadgets, safely and reliably. This fashion, you may guarantee a profitable onboarding expertise and enhance conversion charges in the long term.
Give attention to first buy engagement campaigns
After you’ve onboarded your new customers, you’ll want to nurture them down the conversion funnel.
As our analysis exhibits, worth for cash is the highest issue influencing journey choices amongst Australians in 2022. That is additionally seen in India the place shoppers’ expectations of worth for cash and significant experiences are continuously rising based mostly on our festive season information for app entrepreneurs. Given this rising development, journey corporations have to double down on their first buy engagement methods by placing “worth for cash” on the highlight.
Analysis exhibits that vacationers have a tendency to buy varied ancillary merchandise considerably between the reserving and check-in interval. One method to promote that is by providing ancillary purchases to your customers, corresponding to upgrading your seat, shopping for WiFi, including a bag, or reserving a cab. You’ll be able to characteristic these prominently in your app instantly or by deep linking from emails or push notifications.
87% of shoppers usually tend to store with journey manufacturers that succeed at personalizing their apps and web sites. Subsequently, journey corporations can leverage in-app prompts and push notifications to additional re-engage customers again into their app the place they obtain the very best expertise with their model.
In the event you’re a journey aggregator, an effective way of doing that is recommending issues to do. This will embrace: reserving leases, suggesting attention-grabbing actions based mostly on customers’ areas, or providing rewards and reductions based mostly on their pursuits, behaviors, and previous model interactions.
You possibly can additionally ship push notifications upon arrival for associate packages (cab corporations, trip shares, and so forth.) to additional enhance your customers’ journey expertise. Show varied messaging and worth propositions to not simply cater to your customers, but additionally to establish the very best performing push notifications that may drive customers again to your app.
Cleartrip makes use of Department’s push notifications to inform customers about modifications and occasions in real-time. Since Department’s push notifications are powered by deep hyperlinks, they be sure that the notifications direct customers to the correct in-app vacation spot to cut back friction. This, in flip, helps customers rapidly get what they want with out manually searching by your app.
Ramp up your QR code advertising technique
QR codes are a superb method to complement your journey model’s expertise, drive engagement, or just assist customers join together with your model higher. Based on a Department examine, from January 2019 to January 2021 there was a 496% surge in QR codes because the final attributed contact earlier than a conversion occasion.
Use QR codes to run totally different campaigns round holidays — provide discounted cab leases, free in-flight meals, free WiFi entry, flight info, and extra. Change messaging rapidly and dynamically add the brand new promotion behind your QR code to make sure your content material is updated.
For instance, GoIbibo makes use of QR codes on their web site to navigate customers to their cell app. This works extremely effectively as a result of their internet customers have already got some model affinity, curiosity, and intent to buy from them. As such, they’re extra prone to convert to app customers versus concentrating on shoppers who should not but of their funnel in any respect.
Department’s QR codes answer may also allow you to add branded QR codes in your web site to lower dropoff and enhance retention by encouraging customers to obtain your app. Since these codes are powered by deep hyperlinks, you may personalize customers’ expertise by directing them to the identical in-app content material inside your app that triggered their curiosity on the internet.
Flip e mail into a robust consumer engagement channel
Changing first-time customers is just half the battle. To drive engagement and retain your first-time customers, optimize your e mail advertising campaigns in a approach that motivates customers to take additional motion in your app.
Suggest journey locations, personalised itineraries, climate forecasts, common points of interest, concert events and occasions, high eating places, or just ship reserving reminders in your emails. You may as well use e mail as a method to drive app downloads and engagement by alerting prospects that your app can present additional advantages, like in-flight leisure entry, VIP entry, complementary meals, and purchasing reductions on the airport.
Get rid of gaps from the email-to-app journey to permit customers to take instant motion with out interruptions. Direct them straight to your in-app content material or your cell web site relying on whether or not they have your app downloaded or not. To attain this, think about partnering with a dependable linking and attribution platform that not solely precisely routes customers to the right vacation spot, however permits you to measure each set up and down channel conversion exactly.
MakeMyTrip — India’s main participant for flight bookings — nails the personalization recreation with regards to their e mail campaigns.
Leverage reward-based referral packages
Mix referral packages with the appropriate stage of personalization. Even one thing as small as including the referrer’s identify within the referred consumer’s onboarding journey may considerably affect the referred consumer’s expertise. You need to use deep hyperlinks in your app to routinely apply the referred consumer’s credit score, encourage customers to have interaction additional together with your app, and ship a seamless expertise.
As an illustration, MakeMyTrip permits customers to ship present playing cards to others through a number of channels like WhatsApp, Fb, Instagram, and extra. Right here, when a consumer receives a present card and clicks on the hyperlink, they’re directed straight to the MakeMyTrip app and the present card is routinely added to their account.
To take away biases and really perceive which channels drive probably the most affect by way of consumer acquisition, evaluate referral installs with different natural and paid campaigns. Department’s highly effective referral answer lets entrepreneurs monitor clicks, installs, and opens to research the efficiency of your cell referrals.
Wrapping up: The cell consumer acquisition itinerary for entrepreneurs
It’s essential to grasp that the vacation season isn’t for reinventing the wheel however reasonably optimizing what’s already in place and ensuring you place your consumer expertise on the coronary heart of all the pieces. As a journey firm, you’ll want to be ready to capitalize on client spending this vacation season otherwise you threat shedding substantial new installs and income for your enterprise.
Right here’s a strong plan to get began:
- Personalize your consumer onboarding expertise
- Implement deep linking all through your channels
- Add ancillary purchases to point out worth for cash
- Use push notifications for associate packages
- Add QR codes in your web site and in the actual world to drive new customers to the app
- Leverage e mail campaigns to spice up retention
- Use deep hyperlinks in referral packages for easy consumer expertise
Study extra about how Department may also help you drive consumer engagement and acquisition this vacation season.
