The Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing Automation.

Definitive Guide:
Mobile Marketing Automation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. What is Mobile Marketing Automation?
2. The Rise of Mobile Marketing Automation
3. Mobile Marketing Automation vs. Other Marketing Technologies
4. Core Features of Mobile Marketing Automation
5. Making the Case for Mobile Marketing Automation
6. Buying Mobile Marketing Automation
7. Mobile Marketing Automation’s Future
8. About Kahuna
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Definitive Guide | Mobile Marketing Automation

info@kahuna.com
Kahuna is a mobile marketing automation company
dedicated to fostering customer delight and driving user
engagement and revenue.
©2015 Kahuna, Inc. All rights reserved.
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INTRODUCTION
We hope this guide will be your key to a more
sophisticated and seamless mobile marketing
experience.
Why this guide is right for you:
This Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing Automation is intended as a compass for
teams hoping to grow their businesses using intuitive, automatic, and optimized
messaging. This manual defines mobile marketing automation both as an industry and
as a tool to achieve concrete business goals. Learn how to evaluate the market as well
as select the right vendor or system for your company’s success. Some core questions
that will be answered:
• Why is mobile marketing automation so important for my industry?
• How does mobile marketing automation differ from other technologies, like
mobile analytics?
• What are common vs. advanced features among mobile marketing
automation systems?
• How can I create organizational consensus on the importance of mobile
marketing automation?
• What is the future of mobile marketing automation and how can my company
gain a competitive advantage?
We’ve also included case studies to help you understand how mobile marketing
automation can be leveraged to increase your revenue and improve your mobile
user experience.

PART 1:
WHAT IS MOBILE
MARKETING
AUTOMATION?

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PART 1: WHAT IS MOBILE
MARKETING AUTOMATION?
Context: As a marketer, it can be difficult to
understand how best to engage and retain
mobile users—let alone optimize or report
findings back to your team. Leverage new
technology, known as mobile marketing
automation, to understand and engage your
mobile audience with confidence.
What is mobile marketing automation?
Definition: Mobile marketing automation is the technology that allows
mobile-focused companies to automate, personalize, and measure mobile
marketing activities so they can efficiently increase revenue and user
engagement while simultaneously enhancing the user experience.
Mobile marketing automation allows companies to meet concrete business goals
through intelligent messaging, enabling businesses to reach consumers across all
platforms, channels, and levels of engagement. The technology is characterized by an
intuitive understanding of each individual mobile user and the ability to engage in an
automated, personalized, and optimized way.
Sample business goals that mobile marketing automation
can help you achieve:
• Activation: onboard new users and reduce user churn
• Reactivation: re-engage dormant users and increase user lifetime value
• Monetization: cultivate top users and increase purchases

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Results
When marketing automation for mobile is done right, you will see vastly increased
revenue, engagement, and customer delight.
REVENUE ENGAGEMENT DELIGHT

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Who uses mobile marketing automation?
Any business, brand, or service with a commitment to a mobile presence.
Company types:
Companies with various levels of commitment to mobile can all benefit from mobile
marketing automation. Strategies depend on business objectives and the sophistication
of the current mobile offering. A useful framework for evaluating if your business can
leverage mobile marketing automation includes identifying your business type and goal.
If your business is…
Web or In-store
Improve user perception of your mobile offering and increase customer loyalty by
creating “mobile moments.”
Mobile-first
Enrich the prioritized mobile user experience and expand your mobile revenue
opportunities alongside your non-mobile experiences.
Mobile-only
Meet the high user expectation for your stand-alone mobile app and ensure your
investment in mobile messaging matches your singular investment in mobile product.

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Company Industries:
Mobile marketing automation is leveraged across all industries to engage and retain
mobile users. To experience strong ROI from a mobile marketing automation system,
businesses must place value on tracking, messaging, and optimizing for user retention,
engagement, and lifetime value.
Industries that can benefit from mobile marketing automation include:
• E-commerce & retail
• Travel & hospitality
• Sports & events
• Ticketing & booking
• Media & entertainment
Case studies throughout this guide will demonstrate unique use cases across a variety
of industries.
• Social & gaming
• Health & wellness
• Food & delivery
• Utility & online services
• Education & productivity

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Core Features of Mobile
Marketing Automation:
There are four core concepts behind the design of successful mobile marketing
automation technology. When equally prioritized, these concepts create a system that
can effectively communicate with mobile users in a way that drives results.
• Understand: components that ensure the system is able to understand your mobile
users across devices and platforms.
• Engage: components that allow the system to intelligently engage users wherever they
are—mobile apps, mobile web, social networks, and wearables. Communication channels
include push notifications, in-app messages, web messages, email, and more.
• Automate: components that enable the system to send personalized and automated
messages based on a set of campaign rules and real-time user behavior.
• Optimize: components that allow the system to track and optimize campaign results to
achieve specific goals.

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Mobile Marketing Automation platforms are not considered complete
without meeting a minimum of the following three key requirements
1. Person-centic approach
Consumers today are multi-device and multi-platform. Mobile marketing automation
platform need to understand user behavior across every device and platform. Messaging
based on a user’s behavior on a single platform is a recipe for mis-personalization and
user dissatisfaction.
Mobile
marketing
automation
system

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2. Intelligent Personalization
A merge tag with “First Name” is no longer enough to engage and delight users. Your
mobile marketing automation platform should personalize each message for each
user at scale.
Sarah, come in Tuesday
after work for half off ALL
fruits & vegetables!
Zach, come in Friday
after school for half off
ALL bacon burgers!
Dave, come in Monday
after your meeting for
half off ALL pizzas!

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3. Automatic Optimization
User messaging should be optimized for user behavior; timed based on individual usage
patterns; and optimized based on an understanding of user value, conversion, and
engagement.
Location Timing Behavior Preferences Device

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What does mobile marketing
automation do?
Increases user lifetime value
Time-sensitive offers, feature adoption, loyalty programs, and cart fulfillment are all
sample messaging strategies that can increase the value of each acquired user. Mobile
marketing automation inspires users to complete key actions, bringing users from app
install or first brand interaction to long-term engagement.
Increases mobile ROI
As mobile users become more engaged, make more purchases, invite more friends, and
stay active for longer periods of time, mobile becomes a more profitable business unit.
Your investments in product, engineering, and user acquisition become more worthwhile
and the cost per user decreases.
Enhances user experience
Marketing should never be viewed as a “necessary evil.” Mobile marketing automation
is designed to protect the user experience while driving key business outcomes. Your
mobile marketing automation system should do the rigorous work of understanding your
mobile users, including their preference, affinities, and usage patterns. This valuable
information is used to create compelling, real-time user experiences that feel like
inspiring mobile moments for each consumer.

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What Mobile Marketing Automation
is NOT
NOT a product analytics tool
Mobile marketing automation technology enhances user experience through
personalized messaging. While mobile teams may leverage the resulting user reporting
as a supplement to user analytics for product decisions, a mobile marketing automation
tool should not be a first resource for UI/UX decision-making. Conversely, product
analytics systems with ad hoc messaging capabilities are not architected to support the
wide range of campaign needs for a marketing team. Across the board, business teams
have separate sets of needs. Attempting to make one system equally support the goals
and needs of a product and marketing team is often a recipe for failure.
NOT a spam engine
Mobile marketing automation is built to end over-messaging, not perpetuate it. Mobile
marketing automation represents messaging intelligence – its value comes from
understanding how to send the right message to the right person at the right time
through the right channel. Nuance is key, and a good mobile marketing automation
system ensures all messaging is optimized to fit the unique, real-time interests of every
individual. The advantage of using automation technology is defined by improvement
to the mobile user experience – where each brand message you send is relevant and
valuable to the user receiving it.

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Are you ready for mobile marketing
automation?
Answer these questions to determine if your company would benefit today from mobile
marketing automation.
1. Do we have a mobile app or mobile website?
2. Are we spending money to acquire new users?
3. Do we want to reach our users at the right time, on the optimal device, and
with a personalized message?
4. Are we spending time to create a personalized app experience for our
users?
5. Do we expect mobile to be a significant part of our business over
the next 5 years?
If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, you’re ready to start exploring
mobile marketing automation. Regardless of your answers, though, you’ll soon have
clarity around how to prioritize mobile marketing automation in your overall marketing
strategy. Read on to learn more about this exciting technology!

PART 2:
THE RISE OF
MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION

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PART 2: THE RISE OF MOBILE
MARKETING AUTOMATION
Context: Mobile is big and getting bigger. Here
are some of the top trends that are contributing
to the evolution of mobile marketing automation.
Mobile marketing automation is a hot commodity for mobile apps, business, and brands.
Just a few years ago, the industry didn’t even exist. The tremendous opportunity of the
mobile space has created a demand for new sophisticated marketing tools.
Here are some of the trends that are contributing to the evolution of the mobile
marketing automation industry:
Rise of Mobile
Mobile isn’t the future – it’s the present. Mobile usage now accounts for over 38% of
global web usage, up 40% YOY¹. Established brands are scrambling to stay relevant in
this mobile-first world, and mobile apps are popping up with never-before-seen speed
and popularity. Marketing requires meeting consumers where they are – and mobile is a
key place to do so.
The Multi-Device Consumer Has Arrived
The majority of high value users have more than one connected device. Globally, there
are nearly 1.7 connected devices in use for every person on the planet². Smartphones,
tablets, laptops—each has its own place and function for the user. Multi-device
ownership has caused a fundamental disruption for companies and marketers who seek
to fully understand their customer base. No longer does one device necessarily mean
one user. Now, suddenly, users are accessing a brand from multiple devices or sharing
devices. Despite this fragmentation, consumers expect consistent marketing across their
many touch-points.
1. StatCounter 12/2014
2. Strategy Analytics 10/2014
Industry Trends

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Consumers Are Found Across Platforms
As site and app traffic indicates, multi-platform usage is growing. Mobile sites and
native mobile apps are both experiencing significant increases in consumer activity. For
many brands, mobile sites largely mirror the desktop with optimizations made for user
discovery and search. Mobile apps may follow this supplemental route or more often
deliver a singular and superior experience to the web. For users who engage on multiple
platforms, mobile marketing automation will greatly enhance their experience. Imagine
the busy executive who searches for the location of her favorite coffee chain on mobile
web, and then hopes to pre-order that coffee via the brand’s app on the way to her
first meeting. Delighting her requires an intelligent understanding of her goals on each
platform, and consistent communication across both.
User Experience Optimization is Possible
User experience is paramount in the competitive mobile landscape. Creating for
the consumer an intuitive and seamless journey with your brand is an ambitious but
important goal to set. Shortening the path from passion to purchase (or donation or
other action) is now possible with a wide range of optimization tools that help identify
the best content, calls to action, delivery mechanisms, and channels to reach users.
Engagement is all the more powerful given the potential to create excellent mobile
experiences.
Traditional Messaging Tools Are Outdated
Legacy marketing systems focused on email, the first form of electronic communication.
As the mobile consumer engages electronically in a more complicated and personal
way, and the areas for messaging and optimization increase, older marketing systems
are unable to adjust to understand and engage users.

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Case study
When it comes to push notifications, Yummly has it down to a science. Yummly is a
leading web and mobile recipe service with over 15 million monthly active users.
Yummly works with Kahuna to onboard their mobile users, using push notifications to
ensure users take the key onboarding actions that catalyze a sticky product experience
and strong future engagement.
In order to become a long-term, valuable customer, there are three things that every
Yummly user must do once they download the mobile app. These actions are: “Add
dietary preferences,” “favorite five recipes,” and “add a recipe to the shopping list.” The
Yummly onboarding flow is represented in the images above.

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Case study (continued)
On the left you can see how Yummly focuses the content of their push notifications
to inspire these key onboarding actions. Yummly’s campaign is not only well-crafted
strategically, but each message is also thoughtfully composed, following the “4Cs” of
effective push messaging:
• Clear: There is no room for ambiguity in a message as brief as a push
notification. Make sure users understand what is being said, what they
should do, and why they should do it.
• Compelling: Mobile enables the user to “act now,” and the message copy
should be compelling enough to inspire this mentality in the user receiving
the push notification.
• Concise: Push notifications display only 40-65 characters on the device
home screen, meaning it is important to make every character count. Brief,
pithy messages perform much better than drawn-out prose.
• Clever: It is difficult to overstate the importance of this final aspect, as
clever copy is the best way to make your push notifications stand out from
the crowd. Win over your audience and preserve your brand voice using
creative rhetoric.

PART 3:
MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION VS.
OTHER MARKETING
TECHNOLOGIES

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PART 3: MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION VS. OTHER
MARKETING TECHNOLOGIES
Context: As a marketer, it’s easy to feel inundated
with tools claiming to help you grow your
business. Figure out what you really need to
get the job done and how mobile marketing
automation fits in.
It is important to understand how mobile marketing automation technology differs
from other efforts your team may have already made. In some cases, the tools may be
complementary – but generally they exist separately for an overlapping but different use
case. Read on to determine how mobile marketing automation can upgrade the tools
you may already have in place.
Systems mobile marketing automation should replace:
• Push Notification Services
• SMS and In-App Message Delivery Services
If you’re looking for a system that enables you to build relationships and communicate
with your users, you will want to unify your messaging mechanism with real-time
personalization, cross-channel messaging, and intelligently optimized campaigns. That’s
where mobile marketing automation comes in. If the majority of messages you send are
“blast” style – meaning they offer minimal personalization or segmentation—read on.

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8 signs your company should move
beyond blast push notifications
1. You’re using the spray and pray approach—you send the same message to all
your users.
2. You don’t differentiate or message your users based on level of engagement.
3. Your notifications are not based off of real-time user behavior.
4. Your campaigns are not automated, so you are sending push notifications ad hoc.
5. Your messages are not dynamically personalized.
6. Your notifications are not person-centric, taking into account user behavior
across devices and channels.
7. You don’t know the ROI of your push notification campaigns.
8. You don’t know how your campaigns are impacting app uninstalls or opt-outs.

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Email marketing tools
Most email service providers, or ESPs, were built in the pre-mobile world. The experience
of the mobile user today is far more complex than the desktop user. Users today browse
and engage across platforms and devices at all times of the day and in various locales,
translating to a less linear process for messaging. Given this fundamental shift, it is
critical that mobile marketing automation not be confused or considered an “add-on”
to traditional email marketing services.
If your brand is committed to mobile-first, traditional email should be re-evaluated
as the best way to engage users on the go. The temptation to translate email’s best
practices to mobile may abound, but user sensitivity to messaging via email versus
a mobile channel like push is vastly different. Mobile marketing automation understands
how user preference differs across email and push, and it has the ability to send
messages accordingly.
Systems that mobile marketing
automation can replace or compliment

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6 Ways Email Differs for the
Mobile-First Company
1. Email must be responsive and mobile-ready.
2. Email must be sent based on real-time user behavior across
mobile apps and web.
3. Email must be integrated with mobile messaging campaigns.
4. Email must arrive at the right time of day for each user.
5. Email must be A/B tested.
6. Email must be measured based on downstream goals
(including revenue & conversions).

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Systems that mobile marketing
automation should complement
Mobile product analytics
Product analytics and marketing teams both seek to enhance the user experience. Often,
their approaches differ. Product teams need event analytics, product change correlation,
and cohort tracking to understand how users are engaging with the product and how
changes in features and functionality affect overall usage, happiness, and revenue.
Marketers rely on messaging to accomplish that same final outcome. A marketer must
have the ability to see the effect of messages sent, as well as easily understand which
user groups require nurture and activation. Intelligent mobile marketing automation
systems will do the latter, providing insights along the way that may help product
analytics – but will not replace it.
UI/UX optimization tools
Product teams need a way to easily test new product features and functionality – enter
mobile optimization. Mobile app testing services are built for product and engineering
teams who want to know how manipulations of the environment affect user behavior.
Mobile marketing automation should offer optimization tools as well, particularly
focused on creating well-timed, personalized communication. The focus of mobile
marketing automation is generally placed on delivery time, message content, and
channel selection – not testing app features or user interface functionality
within the app.

PART 4:
CORE FEATURES OF
MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION

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There are four key components of a
mobile marketing automation system
Data layer
Mobile marketing automation systems must have the ability to capture and
store information about your users. This layer of data about your users ensures
that your MMA system understands the people you are messaging, so every
individual receives the right message at the right time. Make sure the data you
are capturing is:
Person-centric – Understanding customer behavior across platform and device enables you
to stitch together a complete picture of each customer. Only then can you ensure that every user
will receive an appropriately personalized message.
Collected in real-time – Having a real-time understanding of every customer ensures that no
person will ever receive an outdated or irrelevant message.
PART 4: CORE FEATURES OF MOBILE
Context: Now that you know the basics of mobile
marketing automation (MMA), let’s discuss what’s
really important. While feature sets may differ across
vendors, there are several core capabilities that must
exist for a mobile marketing automation system to
be effective. In this section, we will discuss the major
components of a MMA system and identify the most
important functionality.
As you consider how MMA could improve your
business, make sure to center your thoughts around
these most important capabilities.

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Campaign creation
This is the component of the MMA system that allows you to create and send
messages. Marketers must have the ability to create and send these campaigns
without requiring the involvement of other business units, and MMA systems
should be built from the ground up to enable this. Make sure the
campaign creator enables:
Multiple message channels – Mobile marketing automation is not just about a single
communication channel. Push notifications, in-app messages, web notifications, and email are
some of the most important ways to communicate with your users.
Lifecycle message campaigns – Lifecycle campaigns allow you to set up behavior-based
rules to target your users at crucial points during their engagement lifecycle. Example: Identify
[dormant] users who have not used the app in [four] days who have [viewed more than 5 articles]
and send them a message.
Conversion message campaigns – Conversion campaigns are time-based trigger
campaigns. They allow your company to capitalize on the time-sensitivity of critical user actions.
When a user shows intent to convert, but does not convert, it is imperative to act quickly. Example:
If someone [adds to cart] but does not [purchase] within [60 minutes], automatically send them a
message.
Transactional message campaigns – Transactions campaigns are trigger campaigns that
are sent to a user as a result of an external action. Example: Sending a user a message when the
item they purchased has just shipped.

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Automation
This essential component is the difference between sending ad hoc messages and
running “set it and forget it” lifecycle marketing campaigns. An obvious example
would be if you haven’t seen a user for two weeks, send him/her a message.
These lifecycle campaigns are the building blocks of every sophisticated mobile
marketing strategy. Make sure automation also supports:
Dynamic user segmentation – Marketers need the ability to continually target hyper-specific
segments of users, so that every customer receives information that is uniquely relevant. Create
these highly specific segments without requiring the involvement of your engineering team and
ensure that users who fall into this segment will automatically receive the message intended
for them.
In-message personalization – Speak to each user individually, by creating one campaign
and personalizing every message sent. Conversion and user experience will improve significantly
as a result.
Message rate limiting – Your system should throttle and prioritize the messages your users
receive, so you are protected from accidentally over-messaging your users and harming their
experience with your brand.

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Optimization and reporting
The goal of mobile marketing automation is not simply to send messages. Rather,
the goal is to increase user engagement and revenue. As such, your MMA system
must provide robust reporting demonstrating the effectiveness of every message
you send and have the ability to adjust the content and timing of your campaigns
to optimize these results. Make sure your MMA system supports:
Intelligent Message testing and timing – Ensure your messages are generating maximum
value by testing multiple variations per campaign and delivering every message at the best time
for the individual user receiving it.
Full picture reporting – Track and report on any business goal, so you know the impact
of your campaigns in real-time. Equally important, track app uninstalls and push opt-outs per
campaign, so you know what messages drive user delight versus annoyance and can optimize
messaging before negative consequences occur.
Machine learning to improve campaign results – Your MMA system should be smart
enough to adjust message content and delivery timing based on campaign performance. MMA
systems that eliminate the guesswork and heavy lifting ensure you will experience maximum
results.
Message channel selection – Every user is different, and your MMA system should facilitate
message delivery via the message channel that is most effective for each user. Users who respond
to push more than email should receive the message via push; users who respond to email more
than push should receive the message via email.

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info@kahuna.com
Feature What this is Why it matters
1 Person-centric understanding Track user behavior and characteristics across all devices and
platforms
Understand your users across mobile, web, and multiple
devices; have confidence in data quality
2 Real-time behavior tracking Track user actions and characteristics Never send a user an outdated message or irrelevant message
3 Complete campaign automation Create “set it and forget it” lifecycle message campaigns based
on user action or lack of action
Automate user engagement and retention by ensuring users get
the right message based on their behavior
4 Message channel optimization Analyze user responses to messages across email and mobile
and send messages to a user’s preferred channel
Tailor your messages to each user’s responsiveness by channel
5 Dynamic user segmentation Create user segments based on event and attribute filters Send messages to hyper-targeted groups of users and ensure
users receive relevant content
6 In-message personalization Personalize each message with user attributes to speak to
each user individually based on his/her specific preferences or
behaviors
Improve user experience by sending each user a message
specifically tailored to interest and behavior
7 Message testing optimization Test multiple variations per campaign and automatically send
the message variant that is outperforming the others
Understand what type of messaging resonates best with your
users to maximize purchases and conversions
8 Message rate limiting Throttle the number of messages your users receive in a
specific period of time
Protect the user experience and avoid over-messaging
9 Send time optimization Understand the time of day at which each user prefers to
engage with your brand and send them a message at that time
Ensure every user receives the message at just the right time of
day to inspire engagement and delight
10 Full picture reporting Track and report on any business goal, so you know the impact
of your campaigns in real-time
Know what messages drive user delight versus annoyance and
optimize messaging before negative consequences occur
Top 10 capabilities and why they matter

PART 5:
MAKING THE CASE FOR
MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION

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How do you measure ROI for mobile marketing automation and what are the results you
can expect? ROI is the difference between the cost of the system and the value you are
getting from the system. The value of the system can be measured by aggregating its
effect on three key areas: user retention, user engagement, and revenue generated
per user.
Increased user retention:
User retention is a critical metric that should be tracked and improved using the
right mobile marketing automation system. Understanding the impact of your
messaging campaigns on new user retention in particular will help you manage your
paid acquisition budget and identify areas of opportunity to maximize the long term
relationship with each visit.
* Anonymized Kahuna customer data.
PART 5: MAKING THE CASE FOR
MOBILE MARKETING AUTOMATION
Context: How do you know mobile marketing
automation is a worthwhile investment, and how
do you get your teammates on the same page?
Learn how to evaluate ROI and sell internally.
ROI research

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Increased user engagement:
Mobile marketing automation helps you turn one-time app installs into monthly, weekly,
or daily users. Measuring user engagement is an important way to quantify the value of
your mobile automation system for several reasons. First, user engagement can be used
as a strong proxy for user lifetime value. Engaged users are the individuals who take the
virtuous actions that drive real business outcomes. Further, each paid app install that
becomes an engaged user translates directly into acquisition dollars saved.
Hint: If your digital property does not have a direct monetization strategy yet, but you
know that certain actions are more valuable than others, a point system where your
team assigns a 1-5 value to each tracked engagement action will allow you to identify
your most valuable users in real-time and understand the success of marketing messages
in a more quantified way.
* Engagement is defined as launching an application within 48 hours of receiving a push notification. Based on
anonymized Kahuna customer data.
60 DAYS AFTER COMPANIES
START USING MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION, USERS ARE 2-3X
MORE ENGAGED WITH THEIR APPS*

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Increased revenue:
For most brands, a mobile marketing automation system’s ability to generate significant
revenue is the #1 priority. Whether your mobile business runs on purchases, advertising
views, or another monetizable metric, you need to optimize for dollars in the door.
If your goal is to increase cart fulfillment, purchases, and advertising impressions, having
a comprehensive mobile engagement strategy attached to a quantifiable goal will be
immensely helpful. We’ll get into the details later in the guide, but the most important
principle to keep in mind is that mobile marketing automation is designed to deliver you
more revenue through intelligent messaging to your mobile users.
Hint: Mobile marketing automation systems should clearly track the revenue and uplift
in revenue that they deliver. How else can you make an informed decision about how to
manage your marketing spend?
* Based on anonymized Kahuna customer data.
CAMPAIGNS SENT THROUGH MOBILE
MARKETING AUTOMATION REGULARLY
SEE 1.2-1.5X INCREASES IN REVENUE*

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Core business benefits of mobile
marketing automation:
In addition to the contributing factors that can be measured by the platform and used
to calculate ROI, there are other benefits of mobile marketing automation that are less
quantifiable but are valuable nonetheless.
Save Time
Mobile marketing automation systems should drive results while saving your team
a significant number of hours per week. A truly automated marketing solution is like
a full-time assistant for your marketing team. The system should intuitively understand
your business and goals and help each marketing team member optimize for success.
How do you ensure the mobile marketing automation system you choose will be able
to accomplish this?
Make sure your system fits the following:
Programmatic – Mobile marketing automation is built to provide automation and
recurring message capabilities. Manual, one-off set-up should be extremely limited.

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Hands-free – Mobile marketing automation systems are built to be owned and operated
by business team members, with no on-going dependence on engineering team effort.
Marketing should be able to create all sophisticated marketing campaigns with no
additional code written. Developer time should be minimized if not eliminated. Once the
system is installed, the heavy lifting will be done by the system’s automation engine in
place. Valuable technical resources will be saved and developers can return to building
and improving core product features.
Self-learning – Real mobile marketing automation systems are intelligent, if not
inquisitive. The system you choose should take the guesswork out of message content,
channel, and delivery time and style. Automation technology should involve integrated
machine learning so messages are swiftly optimized for business goals.
Measure and Optimize Your
Marketing Methods:
Mobile is vastly different from the traditional web experience and can seem opaque
when it comes to establishing best practices and measuring success. Mobile marketing
automation is designed to apply the rigor around data-driven Internet marketing to
mobile. Know the exact ROI of every mobile marketing campaign that you send using
mobile marketing automation, and make sure that you are optimizing for success every
step of the way. Mobile marketing automation systems should be intelligent enough to
automatically optimize message copy, delivery time, and trigger delay to maximize the
amount of revenue generated.

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Protect User Experience:
It’s important to understand how your marketing impacts all facets of your business,
especially as it affects the user’s experience with your brand. Mobile is the most intimate
of product experiences, and users are especially sensitive to generic or improperly
personalized marketing. Users will likely show low tolerance for either missteps.
Here are some ways mobile marketing automation protects user experiences and guards
against app uninstalls and push notification opt-outs:
Ensures content is relevant and valuable: mobile marketing automation ensures
users only receive messages that are relevant and valuable to them. Each message is
uniquely personalized.
Protects against over-messaging: there is elegance in knowing when not to send a
message. Mobile marketing automation has a number of built-in protections to ensure
that a user will never receive too many messages.
Prevents collateral damage: mobile marketing automation systems don’t just track
the positive results. They should also keep track of any negative ramifications, like
app uninstalls and push opt-outs, so you can make sure your marketing campaigns are
achieving the results you need without unnecessary collateral damage. Since everything
is run in real time, it’s easy to stop or adjust before it’s too late.

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What is the cost of mobile marketing
automation?
When it comes to paying for mobile marketing automation, your business goals should
align with the system you are using. Mobile marketing automation isn’t just about
sending messages. The goal of mobile marketing automation is to drive revenue and
engagement from your mobile users. Strategic, well-timed messages help you do that,
but there’s a lot behind the scenes that can make or break your strategy.
The cost of mobile marketing automation depends on:
Client MAU (monthly active user) count: this is the number of people who have
visited your mobile app in the last thirty days. You should not be charged multiple times
for users with multiple devices or for users accessing your brand through your website
or app. This is because mobile marketing automation systems unify cross-device, cross-
platform behavior to create unique profiles for each of your users.
Functionality available in each edition: many vendors offer different editions of their
platforms; for example, a basic edition with entry-level functionality and others with
more powerful, robust functionality. Make sure you’re getting the features you need for
your level of business complexity and you have the flexibility of varying price points.
Also, ensure that you select a vendor that has enough runway for your growing business,
with features and functionality that will suit your marketing needs today as well as
tomorrow.

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Mobile Marketing automation as
a percentage of budget
According to IDC’s 2013 Marketing Planner, large technology companies report
that marketing automation accounts for 3.1% of their programs budget, and 1.6% of
staff costs. MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Marketing Benchmark indicates that marketing
automation accounts for an average of 7% of small company budgets.
The cost of mobile marketing automation should NOT depend on:
Number of messages sent: It is important that vendor pricing be aligned with your
mobile marketing automation goals—engagement, retention, and revenue. Message-
based pricing introduces misaligned objectives, making it difficult for clients to trust the
incentives of their mobile marketing automation partner.

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Selling mobile marketing
automation internally
Sometimes, your executive team won’t immediately understand the importance of
making an investment in mobile marketing automation. To persuade them, you’ll need
to understand their concerns and the challenges that stand in your way. Then, you can
position mobile marketing automation to fit their unique needs and overcome any
objections.
Tips for success:
• Understand the overarching goals of your company’s mobile strategy.
• Understand your executive’s perspective and driving business goals.
• Build a case that aligns with company and executive objectives.
• Be prepared to address questions/doubts and, if necessary, perfrom
more fact-finding.
• Bring supporting data and case studies from comparable companies
in your space.

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The Chief Marketing Officer
(should be your champion)
The CMO is often the champion of mobile marketing automation. As the Chief Marketer,
it’s his/her job to make sure that marketing is driving real results and the organization is
functioning properly. When speaking to the CMO, emphasize the return-on-investment
that marketing automation will provide. From a revenue perspective, the choice is
clear. Explain to him/her why the ROI of mobile marketing automation is so high. Make
sure he/she understands that the messages you will be sending are messages that your
users will want to receive. You’ll be the brand they will actually want to hear from!
CMOs understand people and the importance of personalization, so this will likely
resonate. Also, explain to him/her your current marketing hurdles. In the event he/she
is not fully aware of the difficulties with other more manual systems or the dependence
on engineers, highlight the cost savings that come with a system that can be easily
managed and operated without requiring engineering resources.
What’s important?
• Revenue & ROI
• Strong brand
• Manage buyer behavior
• Organize efforts
• Efficient marketing department

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Chief Executive Officer
CEOs typically care about three things when it comes to marketing—revenue, innovation,
and beating out the competition. Mobile marketing automation accomplishes all three.
When you’re selling mobile marketing automation to your CEO, focus on the outcomes
and stay away from getting into the details. A CEO has a million things on his/her plate,
and it’s your job to show him/her that mobile marketing automation should be a priority.
To do this, emphasize how mobile marketing automation will increase company revenue
(by increasing purchases, ad impressions and user lifetime value). Make sure he/she
knows that the system will not be a drag on the organization but will have significant
impact on the organization’s bottom line. It’s also worth pointing out to him/her that
your competitors are using mobile marketing automation and seeing results. Check out
these case studies and choose the one that is most similar to your business. With more
and more companies adopting mobile marketing automation, your CEO will realize it’s a
necessity, not an option.
What’s important?
• Revenue
• Be better than competition
• Innovation

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Chief Financial Officer
The CFO holds the purse strings, and it’s his/her responsibility to preserve cash and
manage risk. As such, he/she will likely be skeptical of a new expense. Emphasize
that the ROI has been clearly proven. Mobile marketing automation will cost your
company a small fraction of what it will generate in revenue. The vendor you select
should elicit the CFO’s confidence, so choose one with positive references, a sizable
number of established clients, and a trajectory of success. Your CFO may be looking
to restrict expenses and may want to explore whether the company’s existing product
analytics system can be modified instead. Take a hard stance on this. Make sure your
CFO understands that paying for the best-in-class solution will drive considerably more
revenue and top line growth than a limited or add-on solution—which will bring with it
considerable hidden costs in both time and money.
What’s important?
• Cost savings
• ROI
• Future planning
• Manage risks

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Vice President of Product
The VP of product is aiming to create a best in class user experience and a great product.
He/she must marry the needs of the marketing and engineering teams, in many cases,
serving as the go-between and representing the needs of the end users. It is critical to
emphasize the importance of protecting the user experience and how mobile marketing
automation enables this where other marketing tools fall short. The VP of Product is
often cautious of “annoying” users—afraid that any form of marketing message will
mar the product experience. Explain how the mobile marketing automation system
you’ve selected will enhance, not harm, the user experience. Point to the message
limiting features and the real-time personalization component that ensures users will
only receive relevant, valuable information. Also, be sure to explain the timeline and
engineering resources required for integration. Product teams are responsible for
managing engineering resources, so it’s important that you make the case that a mobile
marketing automation system is important enough to dedicate resources for integration.
The key is to be sure the system you are choosing can be integrated swiftly and without
confusion. We’ll tell you more about how to select a vendor that allows for this later in
the guide.
What’s important?
• User experience
• Great product
• Preserve engineering resources

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Vice President of Engineering
Your engineering leader will love the mobile marketing automation system, if you
explain why. Start with the benefits to his/her team: with a mobile marketing automation
system that can be owned and operated by the business team, engineers will never be
on the hook to do custom work to help marketers send marketing messages. Rather,
the team can stay focused on building core product features. If you encounter a senior
technical person who believes it would be more advantageous to build a mobile
marketing system internally, share the guide on the next page, which outlines building
a mobile marketing automation engine. This technical document points out the details
and demands of building and maintaining such a system—something that no senior
engineering leader would want to bother to do once they fully understand the onerous
commitment.
What’s important?
• Protect engineering resources
• Ensure product stability and
functionality

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Thinking about building your own mobile
marketing automation system?
Get all you need to know about infrastructure, integration, analytics,
and automation. Contact us for the guide.
NOTE: Often, when teams start to see the value
that push notifications and mobile marketing
automation can add to their mobile business,
they severely underestimate the effort that is
needed to successfully build a sophisticated
system in-house. Marketing and engineering
teams have to collaborate extensively in order to
ensure that the push notification system covers
the business needs while being technically sound.
Kahuna has put together extensive technical
documentation of our own push notification
system in order to shed light on the process of
building a system in-house.

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What is the cost of delay?
Getting your team on board with mobile marketing automation is one thing. Getting your
team to prioritize it is often quite another. Here are some of the common objections and
how to overcome them.
“We already have push notifications”
Yes, but the goal of mobile marketing automation is not just to send push notifications.
The goal is to send user-centric push notifications—those that drive user engagement
and revenue, while protecting and respecting the user experience. Mobile marketing
automation offers critical functionality in sending notifications—intelligence and
automation that allows marketers to send messages that are personalized, timely, and
uniquely relevant to the individuals receiving them. Don’t be fooled into believing that
the “spray and pray” approach accomplishes the same thing. Often, the value lies in
knowing when not to send a message.
Furthermore, mobile marketing automation provides value far beyond push notifications.
Push notifications are just one part of a holistic mobile engagement strategy.

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“We are focused on other marketing priorities, like user acquisition”
User acquisition is an important part of any mobile marketing strategy, but these efforts
are futile without a mobile marketing automation system already in place. App installs
are expensive to acquire and easy to lose. In fact, 90% of app installs do not become
valuable users without an engagement strategy in place¹. It is critical that you have
a mobile marketing automation system in place to onboard and retain these newly
acquired users.
“We have other engineering priorities”
The goal of mobile marketing automation is to keep your engineering team focused on
building the core of your product. Make sure to select a mobile marketing automation
system that has a simple integration, and one that requires no ongoing engineering work
from your team. Consider that a one or two hour upfront integration can save your team
hundreds of hours over the coming year.
“Can’t we use our product analytics system to do this?”
While many product analytics systems offer messaging as a tack-on product, there are
none that offer the key functionality you need to be successful. This is because product
analytics systems are built for a fundamentally different purpose – to help you improve
your actual product. To achieve real marketing results, you need a system built from the
ground up to accomplish marketing goals.
1. Kahuna analysis 8/2014

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51
“We need to improve our product before we invest in
engagement marketing”
Organic user growth can come from product improvement, but organic user retention
requires building a relationship with your users. Engagement marketing helps build the
habit of use, and customers will stay longer as a result. Further, engagement marketing
is a cost-effective way to drive product improvement. With no engineering effort, you can
test various on-boarding and feature discovery campaigns to gauge user interest before
investing engineering resources in building new product capabilities.

PART 6:
BUYING MOBILE
MARKETING
AUTOMATION

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53
PART 6: BUYING MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION
Context: Protect your time and resources with a
fool-proof buying process for evaluating vendors
and finding the best system for your business.
Ready to buy a mobile marketing automation solution? Great! Here’s what you need to
know to select the right solution from the right vendor.
Purchase process
As with any significant decision, it’s helpful to know what’s involved and to have
a process in place to guide you. Purchasing a mobile marketing automation system can
be very complex or fairly simple, depending on your approach. To protect your time and
resources, consider following this eight-step purchase process.
1. Understand your goals
2. Create a timeline and work backward
3. Decide on your system requirements
4. Define your decision-making process
5. Evaluate vendors
6. Conduct reference calls
7. Make the decision
8. Get started

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54
AUTOMATION
STEP 1: Understand your goals
It is important to identify your specific company goals before evaluating vendors or
implementing a solution. You need a system that allows you to achieve your unique,
specific goals and track your progress. Not all mobile marketing automation systems
are equal.
Set quantitative goals:
• Lower cost per app install
• Lower new user churn
• Higher user engagement
• Higher mobile revenue
(ad impressions or purchases)
• Higher average user lifetime value
• Lower app uninstall rates
Other considerations:
• Transparency of goal tracking
and reporting
• Ease of use
• Less dependence on technical
teams

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55
AUTOMATION
Once you have pinpointed what you want to
accomplish, it’s important to set a timeline
for achieving it. Evaluating and implementing
systems for mobile marketing automation can be
an efficient and painless process when you stick
to a schedule and keep things moving. Without
a timeline, it’s easy for this process to get
de-prioritized by seemingly more urgent tasks.
Start by working backward from when you’d like
to get started.
STEP 2: Create a timeline and
work backward
Understand
goals
Decide
on
system
requirem
ents
Define
decision
m
aking
process
Evaluate
vendors
Conductreference
calls
M
ake
decision
Vendorkick-off
Integrate
system
Subm
itto
app
store
System
onboarding
Cam
paign
setup
Cam
paign
testing
and
adjustm
ents
Go
live
w
ith
cam
paigns
Continue
to
tw
eak
and
test
JULY
JULY
JULY
JULY
AUG
AUG
SEP
SEP
SEP
OCT
OCT
OCT
NOV
NOV

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AUTOMATION
STEP 3. Figure out your key
requirements
Before you begin evaluating vendors, it’s important to list your key requirements.
Companies that know their priorities and use this list to evaluate and select just a few
potential vendors are more successful than the companies that skip to vendor selection
and evaluate every player in the space.
Here is a sample framework within which to think about mobile marketing automation
requirements:
Technical:
• Security: can the solution protect your data adequately?
• Scalability: can the solution handle frequent spikes in app usage?
• Integration: can the solution be implemented quickly and without error?

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AUTOMATION
Functionality:
• Intelligent sending: does the solution have automatic optimization
capabilities when it comes to send time and message testing?
• Cross-platform: does the solution have the ability to send messages based
on user actions across web, mobile web, and native apps?
• Honest and actionable reporting: does the solution provide revenue
tracking and real-time reporting at a marketing campaign level?
• Robust data and personalization: does the solution support dynamic in-
message personalization?
• Person-based: does the solution understand which devices belong to
which users and message them accordingly?
Usability:
• Owned and operated by business team: can marketers set up and send
complex campaigns without the involvement of technical team members?
• Easy to learn: is the system interface intuitive and easy to learn?
• Strong onboarding/success team: is ongoing technical support and a
comprehensive onboarding process included as part of the solution?

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AUTOMATION
STEP 4: Define your decision-making
process
When it comes to choosing a vendor, it’s important to have an internal process that
enables your company to be decisive. First, understand the stakeholders at your
company. Their feedback should be incorporated as you set your goals and consider
your system requirements. As for the final decision, the user of the system should be
empowered to select the system with the best fit and the highest comfort level. At many
companies, this is the mobile marketer or another individual on the marketing team. It
is this individual’s responsibility to synthesize all internal needs, evaluate vendors, and
eventually make the decision that is right for the team and company.
STEP 5: Evaluate vendors
The benefit of establishing clear goals and requirements is that this will spare you the
time-consuming effort of evaluating countless vendors. Rather than selecting a vendor
based on a feature bake-off, identify the use cases you will need to accomplish and
ensure you can easily achieve them with no custom work. The solution that is best for
you will be architected to easily accomplish these use cases. Too many features without
concrete, valuable use cases become more complicated than they are necessary, and
they will most likely never become useful. During your product demo, make sure you ask
the vendor to show you how you would accomplish these exact use cases. A key criteria
for evaluating mobile marketing automation is the intelligence of the system. Marketing
automation is more than just a delivery pipe; it’s all about “how best” to communicate
with your mobile users. Systems that predict and automatically adjust messaging based
on user preference and responsiveness will eliminate the need for constant attention
from you and your team once onboarding is complete.

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AUTOMATION
Additional factors to consider:
Ongoing technical resources:
It’s important to have a clear understanding from the vendor of the technical costs of
a particular mobile marketing automation system. The upfront resources required for
implementation and the ongoing resources required to wage mobile marketing vary
widely. Make sure you know exactly which campaigns can be accomplished without
ongoing technical upkeep or custom work by your engineers. A mobile marketing
automation system that requires significant engineering resources is likely
the wrong choice.
Support/service:
Mobile is new, and mobile marketing automation is even newer. As such, it is important
to have a dedicated user success team to support and guide you as you ramp up your
mobile marketing expertise. Look for a vendor with a track record of going above and
beyond for their users. Ask for references, and check into a vendor’s attentiveness,
particularly the account strategist’s responsiveness to customers.

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AUTOMATION
Trajectory of growth/innovation:
The trajectory of innovation is an important measurement of all vendors in the relatively
new field of mobile marketing automation. Large, web-based systems were not built
specifically for mobile, and they may have trouble iterating and innovating when it
comes to mobile-specific systems. Keep this in mind and evaluate these vendors based
on their speed of innovation, not their size.

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AUTOMATION
STEP 6. Conduct reference checks
After you’ve seen the product demos, ask each vendor to connect you with one of their
customers. It is important that you know the full story, told from a customer’s point of
view. Ask questions addressing your own particular use cases. Ask specifically about the
technical integration of the product and how long it takes to accomplish.
Below is a list of questions to help you thoroughly interview customers served by any
given vendor.
• How long did it take you to use the system to do basic functions like
sending a push notification campaign?
• If you were to quantify engineering time saved by the system, how many
hours / days would it be?
• How long did it take to integrate the system, and how many developers
were needed?
• Can you tell me about your experience with implementation and support?
• How would you rate the account strategy attention you’ve received on a
scale of 1 to 10?
• What was the biggest surprise (good or bad) when the system went live?

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• Are you able to run marketing campaigns without ongoing
engineering work?
• If you could change one thing about the system, what would it be?
• Was the sales process honest? Do you have the functionality you were
promised?
• What revenue and engagement impact do you attribute to the system?
• If you went to another company, would you absolutely buy the same
system again or would you look to see what else is available?
AUTOMATION

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STEP 7. Make the decision
and get started
AUTOMATION
Make decision
Vendor kick-off
Integrate system
Submit to app store
System onboarding
Campaign set up
Campaign testing and adjustments
Go live with campaigns
Continue to tweak and test
Below is an example of the process of intergrating a mobile marketing automation
system after a vendor decision is made.

PART 7:
MOBILE MARKETING
AUTOMATION’S FUTURE

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Context: Learn what the future holds for mobile
marketing automation and for your business,
as a result.
What are the trends affecting mobile
marketing automation?
Mobile marketing automation is a new industry that is rapidly innovating to provide
marketers with sophisticated tools. Product functionality is constantly improving and
new capabilities are regularly introduced. Here are three trends that will define the
industry moving forward.
Machine learning to enable intelligent marketing:
Marketing systems do more than simply message users. These systems optimize
communication and predict and respond to user reaction in an automated, personalized,
and sophisticated way. Marketing systems must be predictive, responsive, and self-
tuning. This underlying capability should exist within all marketing systems. And the
results are staggering: vastly increased ROI and a more delightful user experience.
Person-centric data:
Gone are the days of one device per user. Today’s mobile users are complex. They are
browsing and shopping across smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, and wearables.
The modern marketing system understands this shift in consumer behavior and
approaches messaging from a user-centric viewpoint. These systems are smart enough
to know which devices belong to which users and to target their messages to every
user’s preferred device. With the rise of person-centric messaging, users will never again
receive a duplicate, outdated, or poorly timed message.

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66
Integrated marketing across channels:
User-centric marketing is the future of mobile marketing automation, and this means
an end to siloed messaging campaigns. Web or mobile? Email or notification? If you’re
talking about your user or marketing strategy in a channel-specific binary—you’re living
in the past. Now that users are multi-device and multi-platform, your marketing must
be too. Knowing when and where to reach them can be a real challenge, and mobile
marketing systems will automatically optimize your messaging so that the right content
is delivered through the right channel to each user, based on individual preferences and
response patterns.

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67
Conclusion
Congratulations! You’ve made it through the Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing
Automation. You are now well-versed in industry trends, system functionality, and overall
benefits to you and your business. Mobile marketing automation is an exciting new
space, and this is just the beginning. If you have any questions or would like to learn
more, the Kahuna team is always happy to help. Get in touch with our customer team by
emailing info@kahuna.com or dialing 1-650-285-0210.

About Kahuna
Kahuna is a mobile marketing automation company dedicated
to fostering user delight and driving engagement and revenue
through mobile. We help companies understand and intelligently
communicate with customers wherever they are: email, mobile
web and apps, and social networks. We believe there is magic
in delivering the right message to the right customer
at just the right time.
Kahuna is trusted by Yahoo, Fox, HotelTonight, and hundreds
of others. The company was founded in 2012 and is
funded by Sequoia Capital.
Contact us:
info@kahuna.com
1-650-285-0210
Visit us:
www.kahuna.com

The Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing Automation.

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