Retail Marketing Attribution Using Mobile Devices

What is mobile marketing attribution and what does it look like for retail?

Attribution is a term that is thrown around quite a lot at the moment in retail marketing. If your business is investing in mobile, then it’s time to understand what it means, and how it can help you.

But what does it actually mean? What can it do for your mobile strategy?

Attribution is the ability to measure marketing efforts. It’s about uncovering the inner workings of your marketing strategy and using this information to optimise, adapt and provide a great ROI.

What does this have to do with proximity marketing?

Proximity marketing uses attribution. This means that it’s possible to measure marketing efforts and directly attribute marketing decisions to events in the offline world. These can be store visits, for example.

This is extremely accurate and based on location. Not only can proximity provide attribution in the offline world, it does this with incredible accuracy. Using Bluetooth beacons and Wi-Fi hotspots it’s possible to pinpoint a consumer’s location with an accuracy of 1 meter. That’s incredibly useful for measuring attribution around individual products.

These insights are actionable for retail mobile marketers. More on this coming up, but armed with this information, retail brands can understand their ROI better, optimise budgets and create more engaging campaigns in the future.

Why is it useful in mobile marketing?

Attribution provides a clearer view of the customer journey. By measuring customers visits to specific areas of stores it’s possible to create a better image of how consumers interact with your store or product. By visualising your customer’s journey, you can gain insights into customer pain points and develop your marketing efforts to adapt to these. For example, you might realise that your OOH audience is visiting a competitor after seeing your advert. This is offline attribution and is only measurable through proximity technology.

This attribution also provides a better understanding of marketing spend. Get more specific information on your return on investment. You’ll be able to see exactly where your budget is most effective by assigning a value to individual mobile adverts or physical advertising. Your digital marketing is now measurable.

Understand the customer better in many previously unknowable locations. You can now see the customer journey from advert (physical, digital or mobile) to end goal. Know the exact number of store visits that your proximity marketing campaign caused, for example.

Create an intelligent mobile marketing strategy. Attribution allows for marketers to adapt mobile campaigns in real-time based on data that extends beyond clicks or site visits. If more people visit your store after seeing specific notification copy, then you can act on this information.

Find out how mobile marketing attribution can positively affect your brand’s retail marketing.

James Ewen

James is the head of marketing at Tamoco