While personalised marketing has become standard for retailer using email, it has so far not been properly leveraged on mobile text messaging, one of the most ubiquitous channels to customers there is. Now, a US-based tech company is looking to change that.
Bluecore, has launched Bluecore Mobile, which the company says will help brands activate their data to put the right messages and recommendations in front of every individual shopper through text.
Mobile devices are the bridge between digital and in-person interactions, but communicating with shoppers through mobile messaging is still a new frontier for most retail brands. While mobile traffic and engagement are increasing, conversions are lagging. This is due in part to the fact that shoppers have a low tolerance for irrelevant notifications from brands, especially when receiving them in this highly intimate–but potentially invasive–mobile context.
Yet, brands and retailers are still sending mass (one-to-many) messages–an approach that is at odds with shoppers’ expectations that the brands they engage recommend products and offers specifically for them.
Bluecore’s shopper-first approach to mobile marketing is an alternative to the growing number of point solutions that specialize in sending undifferentiated SMS/MMS messages to large customer lists. Also unlike existing solutions, Bluecore Mobilecan leverage text messages only when the platform predicts mobile to be the channel most likely to engage or convert shoppers.
The service is an extension of the company’s core retail AI model, which acts on live shopper signals – or activity – to deliver precision messages to shoppers, no matter where they are. With an unparalleled understanding of constantly shifting shopper behaviours and live product catalogue data, Bluecore enables retailers to deliver the same types of personalized and predictive messages on mobile that shoppers receive in emails, on-site communications and digital ads (think: abandoned cart, back-in-stock, price drops, category affinity).
Bluecore Mobile is also introducing a frictionless way to acquire people on mobile through its Tap-2-Join technology. Sign-up prompts appear on owned and third-party digital channels, including brands’ own websites, as well as ads and social media–for further list growth. Brands using Bluecore Mobile in early pilot saw a 50% lift in subscribers to their existing SMS audience lists.
“Shoppers have the same wants, needs and preferences, no matter where they engage with brands, but their experiences are often fragmented as they move from channel to channel,” said Fayez Mohamood, CEO of Bluecore. “We’ve set out to solve for this by focusing on shoppers instead of the channel they’re on. Our mobile solution is the newest addition to the larger ecosystem we’ve built to make personalized shopper-specific messaging ubiquitous across every channel where brands are connecting and building relationships with shoppers. This results in more personal experiences that have shoppers coming back for more.”
