Predictive analytics, chatbots and automation will be the biggest mobile trends in 2017, according to mobile marketing platform Leanplum.
The company, which counts Tinder amongst its biggest clients, recently collected its predictions for the main trends next year that will “drive the future of marketing” in an increasingly mobile-first world.
The predictions were informed by Leanplum’s biggest findings from three major reports it published this year on push notifications, personalisation & app engagement and app retention.
The most interesting insights collected in these 2016 reports include that 63% of marketers send push notifications at the wrong times.
According to Leanplum, in North America engagement starts to rise on weekdays in the late afternoon, reaching its peak at 7pm.
The mobile marketing platform therefore argues that 8pm is the best time to send notifications, as apps have the least competition at this time, therefore the “highest chance of grabbing user attention.”
Another report, on personalisation & app engagement, revealed that push notification open rates are twice as high on Android compared to iOS.
As Leanplum notes: “We believe that the platform design influences the way users engage with push notifications. On Android, messages “stick” around longer in the lock screen.
“Even after users view notifications, Android still lets them know they have unread notifications by adding a sticky icon to the top left corner of the home screen.
“A user is required to acknowledge the notification in some form, whether opening or dismissing, for it to disappear.
“Conversely on iOS, once a user unlocks their screen to take any action, the message moves straight to the notification tray. It is then only accessible if a user drags the tray down from the top bar.”
Other insights from Leanplum include that personalised push content sees 4x more engagement – with 1.5% of people opening a notification with generic content and 5.9% opening one with personalised content.
Further research found that push notifications can increase user retention by 20%, and that if you personalise push notification send times, developers can increase retention by 7x.
In terms of 2017 predictions, Leanplum forecasts that 2017 will be “the year of the smart app”, with predictive analytics, conversational interfaces and intelligent automation the top trends.
Speaking about predictive analytics, Jeffrey Morris, the Director of Product Management and Revenue at Tinder said: “2017 will highlight the power of predictive analytics. Smart apps will proactively anticipate user desires to satisfy in the moment. Predictive analytics won’t just be an add-on for brands; it will become a must-have to understand and retain users.
“At Tinder, capturing rich data and predicting future behavior is essential to a good user experience. Leanplum empowers us to innately understand user preferences and serve up successful matches. In the near future, predictive analytics will further improve our understanding of trends and patterns, to help us bring more value to every person on Tinder.”
Tinder uses Leanplum’s integrated mobile marketing solutions to generate more personalised and relevant connections with their users at scale.
Earlier this year, the mobile marketing platform raised $29m in Series C funding.
Other predictions for 2017 include that we will see more chatbot technology and conversational interfaces integrated into smart apps.
As Forrester said in a report on The State of Chatbots published this October: “As smartphone communication shifts from voice to text and images, consumers are adopting messaging at an unprecedented pace … Successful chatbots depend on core technology such as natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning – aided by thousands of iterations to drive learning.”
Check out more of Leanplum’s predictions here.