26 Jun 2012: In the latest major step in its drive to evolve mobile marketing beyond siloed, generic SMS messaging, conversational marketing technology provider Neolane has today announced a breakthrough solution to drive higher levels of cross-channel engagement. Using the first-of-its-kind Neolane Mobile App Channel, organisations can now facilitate one-to-one personalised messages and offers in mobile push notifications and in-app content.

As an additional channel within Neolane’s Database Marketing Award-winning marketing platform, Neolane Mobile App Channel eases adoption of sophisticated mobile strategies that take advantage of customer knowledge and cross-channel capabilities. By integrating brands’ mobile app with their marketing database and automating the execution of campaigns using push notifications and in-app content that are personalised, contextualised and geo-personalised, Neolane further extends customer engagement across inbound and outbound communications channels. In addition to maximising revenue potential, Neolane Mobile App Channel moves organisations beyond expensive, one-sided SMS messaging to free, fully personalised and actionable push communications.

The Neolane Mobile App Channel supports a range of customer engagement strategies such as event triggered and cross-channel marketing. It can also integrate with transactional messaging initiatives as well as promotional and geolocation activities. The main features of the new solution allow marketers to:

• Automate the execution of push notification campaigns via mobile apps that have been developed on iOS and Android platforms
• Dynamically create, target and personalise one-to-one push notifications and in-app marketing messages
• Integrate with geolocation capabilities built into an app to send contextual and geo-personalised offers
• Leverage profile data from the marketing database to deliver consistent messages via an app and other channels
• Analyse customers’ journey from the push notification through the app to enrich the marketing database
• Measure response rates of app users and improve app performance

The company illustrates the new capabilities with the example of a customer browsing through a consumer electronics retailer’s website and spotting a video game she likes. The customer has also downloaded the retailer’s app, accepted push notifications, and opted-in for geolocation. When in the vicinity of one of the retailer’s stores, the customer will receive a one-to-one push notification offering a personalised discount on the video game he has researched online. Once the customer opens up the app, she can consult a map to locate the nearby store, view the best route, and access a unique bar code to be used for the in-store discount.

“To date, marketers utilising mobile have been stuck in a limited monologue with customers and prospects," said Stephane Dehoche, President and CEO of Neolane. "The Neolane Mobile App Channel signals a dramatic shift that enables marketers to sustain real-time, interactive, personalised dialogues in tightly coordinated, cross-channel fashion.

“With our digital marketing roots, Neolane was an early mobile innovator. Our very first client leveraged Neolane’s conversational marketing platform to engage customers through SMS messages, and nearly half of our customers do so today. This new solution is the next step in improving the effectiveness of the channel and demonstrating what’s possible when organisations start closing the gap between the mobile audience and marketing investments.”

To learn more, visit Neolane Mobile App Channel, or view the detailed data sheet.