Mobile Marketing: New Channel Preference

When a customer or user chooses the new channel as a first interaction with a business, existing channels can struggle to capture the fancy of the customer.

Here's our table. Let's look at the app-only audience.

			April
March	Visit	Use	Website	No
	Website	App	+ App	Activity	Totals
Visit Website	10,000	50	100	20,000	30,150
Use App	100	300	200	1,000	1,600
Website + App	50	250	300	1,000	1,600
No Activity	20,000	400	400	0	20,800
Totals	30,150	1,000	1,000	22,000	54,150

Here's the "Re-Visit Rate" for those who only use the app:

• Re-Visit Rate = (100 + 300 + 200) / (100 + 300 + 200 + 1,000) = 37.5%.

Now, let's calculate the re-visit index for each channel combination:

• Re-Visit Index, Website = 100 / 600 = 16.7%.
• Re-Visit Index, App = 300 / 600 = 50.0%.
• Re-Visit Index, Website + App = 200 / 600 = 33.3%.

The clear preference of the customer is to use only the app. Some customers/users will use both the website and the app.

When you see trends like this, you know that the app is going to win, long-term. And if the app is going to be the preferred channel, long-term, you have a responsibility to educate the rest of your management team about the implications of this shift in customer behavior. The new channel is clearly going to command the interest of the customer, and needs to be developed accordingly. Conversely, the existing channel is going to experience a slow customer drain over time --- if the existing channel is responsible for generating advertising revenue, then a lot of thought needs to go into how your brand will maintain a steady diet of advertising revenue when channel shift really takes hold.