Branch Whitepaper

The Foundations
of a Cross-Platform
Marketing Strategy

What you’ll learn

Unlocking the Mobile Economy: The 9 Forces That Shape Consumer Behavior

The Core Elements of an Integrated Strategy

WH | vol. 001
branch.io
Cross-platform marketing is defined as the practice of ensuring that marketing campaigns work across all devices and channels,

including mobile devices, tablets, desktops, apps, mobile web, and OS’s. It’s a crucial aspect of marketing to avoid silos across

departments, where one team focuses on one aspect at the expense of another department. The user experience depends on a

cohesive marketing team to guide any customer to the point of conversion.

“For today’s business leaders, this means embracing new marketing methods that reach customers on the devices they use the

most,” wrote the UAB school of business.

Specifically on mobile, where revenue is expected to hover around $245 billion in 2017, brands must find a way to connect to

their users, no matter what device or operating system they are currently using. For most brands, this means getting their users

into their mobile app where conversion rates are 3x higher than the mobile web.

Measuring the impact of each channel is also vitally important for any organization looking to optimize the user experience.

Would you re-invest in a channel that no users engage with? No, but most marketers wouldn’t know unless they properly mea-

sured for the correct metrics and produced the right content.

“The marketer you’re looking for is a three-way split between being data-oriented with a content background and then a growth

mindset,” wrote Simple HQ.

and Mobile Commerce that led him to write a book, Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy, about the data trail that consumers

leave on their mobile phones. Professor Ghose’s 10 years of research, and his book, features use-cases from companies like

Alibaba, Coca-Cola, and Facebook to prove the value brands can see from focusing on mobile experiences.

“A mobile device is an excellent medium for marketing that should maximize the benefits to consumers and minimize the

intrusiveness. Consumers have made clear that if advertisers engage them appropriately on mobile devices, it can have a huge

impact. Business can transform our smartphones to act as our personal concierges--our butlers-- and not as stalkers,” Professor

Ghose wrote in his book.

He also stressed the importance of measuring results and attribution on mobile devices. This attribution can guide brands as

they find the right user behaviors on the various channels, both present channels and in the future.

“Think of some of the apps that already enable your smartphone to serve as a concierge. You start your car, and it proactively

tells you the traffic conditions and how long it will take you to get home, because odds are that is where you are headed. If you

are tired after a run outside, an app can direct you to a place to buy water or a protein bar,” wrote Professor Ghose. “Maybe they

remind you when you get near a store that you have gift cards you haven’t redeemed. Perhaps they not only remind you of your

flight but also to check the guide to in-flight entertainment so you can plan what you could watch; you pass a subway station and

it proactively updates you on delays and tells you when the next train will arrive. These examples are the tip of a large iceberg to

what is already a reality.”

Professor Ghose also mentions The 9 Forces That Shape Consumer Behavior for how marketers can effectively engage their

users on mobile devices:

• Context

• Location

• Time

• Saliency

• Crowdedness

• Weather

• Trajectory

• Social Dynamics

• Tech Mix

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Specifically, Professor Ghose mentions the importance of focusing on “crowdedness” for brands that want to increase their

purchase rates. Brands are far more likely to get a response from their customers that are surrounded by other users in the real

world.

As an example, he mentions when customers are commuting and surrounded by a lot of other individuals, they are much more

likely to engage. It can vary, but his research found that purchase rates can increase up to 49.5% depending on how crowded the

area is around a user on their mobile device.

“When [users] are surrounded by strangers, commuting on a subway, a bus, or a train, [users] don’t want to get caught staring at

other people, so they take their phone out, put their [headphones] in and just start tapping. Those 20 or 30 minutes of a com-

mute you have [the users] undivided attention. And that time, if you can send a relevant and personalized offer, you’re far more

likely to get a response than otherwise,” said Professor Ghose.

While his research states and supports the fact that users are continually engaging on mobile, he also says that brands aren’t

investing enough money to keep up with the budding market, even though the data is there to support investment.

Brands need to look at the “trajectory” of their consumers and harness the power of mobile devices engage, retain, and convert

their users.

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The Core Elements of an
Integrated Strategy
The User Journey

The user journey is the most important part of an integrated strategy because it touches every single step to conversion. Mar-

keting departments can’t just strategize for acquisition, and forget the other three steps of the user journey. It’s a process that

requires cross-functional cooperation between marketing and product.

The 4 steps of the user journey that mobile brands should focus on are:

• Acquisition

• Onboarding

• Retention

• Monetization

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The Mobile Lifecycle

While some brands have already reached the optimal point of the mobile lifecycle, others struggle to test and attribute their

mobile channels. In order, brands fall one of six places on having an optimized mobile lifecycle:

It’s worthwhile to ask yourself every few months where you fall on the mobile lifecycle. Have you recently tested a button in your

mobile app? Optimized a channel for acquisition? All of these steps can lead to powerful marketing campaigns that reach your

users on the channels and devices they frequent.

How to Structure Your Team

• What is dictating your strategy and organizational structure?

• Do you have separate web teams and mobile teams?

At Branch, we have observed companies that have teams solely focused a specific channel, when in reality, the department

should be focused on the customer. It’s a matter of being channel centric vs. customer centric. Specifically on mobile, this chasm

can take place between the web and app teams that each have separate goals and metrics. It’s all the same puzzle that

marketers are trying to solve.

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“If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market,

against any competition, at any time,” Patrick Lencioni quotes a friend as saying in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

These teams can also build their cohesiveness by measuring the proper metrics that all cross-functional teams find important:

• DAUs/WAUs/MAUs

• User Growth %

• Number of Sessions

• Session Time

• Number of pages/screens visited

• Number of Downloads

• Installs/Users ratio

• Conversion rates (Free-to-Premium, Checkout, etc)

• Social Shares (“Virality Index”)

• Retention Rate

• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)

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The Optimal Technology Stack

Technology tech stacks may vary based on the organization, but it’s important to remember that technology can help bridge the

gaps between departments and ensure that marketing campaigns work across every device and platform. Here is what a typical

tech stack looks like for a cross-platform focused marketing team:

Key Takeaways

• Users expect a consistent experience across their journey, regardless of what device they use.

• People are willing to exchange their information for relevant value: the smartphone should play the role of a personal con-

cierge, not a stalker.

• There are 9 forces that shape the mobile economy, but brands should specifically worry about the crowdedness around

their users and their trajectory.

• Start from your team: remove silos and organize your people in cross-functional groups.

• You can optimize what you can’t measure. Unify your analytics across platforms and focus on the user, not the device.