meeting customers where they are - layer · pdf filemeeting customers where they are ......

featuring research from forrester

How To Choose A Mobile Messaging Vendor

meeting customers Where they areusing mobile messaging to adopt a conversational commerce approach

2

Smartphone adoption is skyrocketing the world over, and presenting a massive opportunity for businesses across all industries. Since nearly everyone has a smartphone on their person at all times, always alive and connected via notifications, businesses can now connect with their customers through mobile messaging in a way never before possible with email or phone calls alone.

Messaging offers a wealth of advantages over email alone: among them are a 1:1 conversation approach with higher degree of personalization, rich functionality enabled by content cards and greater convenience for the consumer.

Your customers want to be messaged, not just called or emailed.

Percentage of American adults who own a smartphone

Open rate of mobile messages, vs. 22% for email

Consumers prefer to use messaging to communicate with brands

90%1 98%2 9/103

1. Pew Internet Research (adults ages 18-49) 2. Dynmark3. Global Mobile Messaging Consumer Report.

Meeting custoMers

where theY are:Using mobile messaging to adopt a conversational commerce approach

98%

22%

90%

The enclosed Forrester report reviews the mobile messaging landscape and investigates the category leading vendors, advising companies to choose a vendor based on a shortlist of criteria. This report walks digital business professionals through the key decision-making steps to select the vendor partner that is right for their customers and business.

Forrester: how to choose a Mobile Messaging Vendor

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/

http://info.dynmark.com/hs-fs/hub/307137/file-650880813-pdf/whitepapers/Intelligence_Review_Edition2.pdf

https://www.bulldogreporter.com/9-of-10-consumers-want-to-text-message-with-brands-but-most-businesses-cant-support-that-experience/

3

As Amazon and other mobile-focused companies gain market share, companies not prioritizing their customers’ mobile experience are struggling to keep up. The impact has a compounding effect: as people are exposed to delightful mobile customer experiences -- be it from their grocery store, airline, doctor, clothing retailer or cable TV provider -- the bar for all customer experiences is raised.

Mobile messaging-based commerce offers brands the ability to deliver a differentiated experience to their customers, and thus a viable strategy for differentiating against Amazon.

Mobile messaging is the change agent at the core of these delightful experiences. To pair customers with an individual sales or service person -- in a familiar conversational U.I. that resembles the messaging apps they use intuitively to communicate with friends, loved ones and work colleagues, alike -- is to meet customers where they are in an unintrusive way.

the time to integrate conversational commerce is now.

Mobile experiences are the key to happy customers.

awareness consideration conVersion LoYaLtY

4. American Express

70%4

Of customers are willing to spend more with businesses they believe provide a better consumer experience

http://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2011/csbar.aspx

4

A conversational commerce approach enables companies to thoughtfully incorporate data like buying history and preferences to create a custom-tailored, more personalized dialogue. Getting smarter about what your customer wants means faster time to conversion and more long-term loyalty.

With mobile messaging at the core, the modern customer journey can include other channels that are appropriate for the time and place. For example, email is still a great way to share passive information, such as company updates. Smart home hubs like Google Home are great ways to deliver a quick update on shipping when the customer is present in the home. And voice call is still the best communication channel when an efficient synchronous, live call gets the job done. Layer lets brands imagine, design and engage in the perfect conversation for their customers, across all channels.

deliver a personalized experience to every single customer at scale.

an even greater opportunity: seamlessly integrate mobile messaging into the existing customer journey.

5. Infosys

86%5

Of consumers say personalization plays a role in their purchasing decisions

https://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Documents/genome-research-report.pdf

5

Layer is the customer conversation platform. We let you talk to your customers how and where they want to be spoken to, and as a result, do more business. With mobile messaging at the core, Layer enables you to aggregate other communication channels like email and your website, chatbots, applications and analytics to bring together a complete view of each customer and create a unified, branded customer experience—one that helps you close sales faster, support customers more effectively and delight people at all stages of the customer journey.

3x more shoppers purchasing trunks

54% Increase in conversions

200% increase in shopper connection rates

103x Increase funnel velocity from 2 weeks to 15 minutes

5x improvement in rep productivity

about Layer

CAsE stuDy: nordstrom’s trunk club by the numbers

E-commerce, retail, fashion

1500 Employees, 7 locations

Chicago IL

trunkclub.com

Industry:

Size:

Location:

Website:

Visit us at Layer.com

How To Choose A Mobile Messaging Vendorby Julie A. Ask, Michael Facemire, and Laura NaparstekApril 10, 2017 | Updated: May 11, 2017

For EBUsiNEss & ChANNEL strAtEgy ProFEssioNALs

forresTer.CoM

Key takeawayssell The strategic Importance of Messaging InternallyMessaging is not merely a channel or a tactic to spam your customers. the engines that generate messages are the first step toward one-to-one user engagement. start with and sell that mindset before you begin.

step 1: Define Your Business NeedsFirst, define the needs of your business, users, and technology. only then should you identify a shortlist of messaging solution partners.

Choose A Partner Based on Both Current And future NeedsFor each messaging vendor on your shortlist, assess channel expertise, vertical focus, and geographies. then further narrow your vendor selection based on your existing technology stack and the messaging scale you’d like to achieve.

Why read this reportMessaging is the tip of the spear, or the first step, for most companies in developing true one-to-one user engagement. it’s a critical capability for modern businesses — but choosing the right vendor is challenging because the landscape is so crowded with providers converging on what Forrester refers to as “mobile engagement automation” (MEA). this report walks digital business professionals through the key decision-making steps to select the vendor partner that is right for their customers and business.

6

© 2017 Forrester research, inc. opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, technographics®, Forrester Wave, roleView, techradar, and total Economic impact are trademarks of Forrester research, inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

Forrester research, inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 UsA+1 617-613-6000 | Fax: +1 617-613-5000 | forrester.com

table of Contents

Understand Your Requirements Before You Consider Any Vendors

step 1: Define your Business Needs

Know Which Employees Will Use the Platform And how Much help they’ll Need

refine your Category Decision By Knowing your technology Needs

recommendations

Make Smart Decisions That Fit Your Current And Future Needs

Supplemental Material

related research Documents

Create Mobile Moments With Messaging

Vendor Landscape: Mobile Engagement Automation solutions

Vendor Landscape: Mobile Messaging Platforms

For EBUsiNEss & ChANNEL strAtEgy ProFEssioNALs

How To Choose A Mobile Messaging Vendor

by Julie A. Ask, Michael Facemire, and Laura Naparstekwith Fiona swerdlow, ian Jacobs, Jennifer Wise, Jaclyn galan, and Peter harrison

April 10, 2017 | Updated: May 11, 2017

7

http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES118423




http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=BIO2298






For EBusinEss & ChannEl stratEgy ProFEssionals

How To Choose A Mobile Messaging Vendorapril 10, 2017 | updated: May 11, 2017

© 2017 Forrester research, inc. unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

8

Understand your requirements Before you Consider Any Vendors

Digital business professionals struggle to understand the mobile messaging vendor landscape even more than that of mobile apps. What’s the issue? the landscape of vendors is large and highly fragmented, with each player catering to a different set of needs. As such, digital business pros often don’t understand how much self-reflection and preparation work they have to do before starting to evaluate potential partners. First and foremost, enterprises must define current and future needs for their business, users, and technology, and only then should they begin a conversation around what category or vendor best suits those needs.

step 1: Define Your Business Needs

the countless options available for mobile messaging may seem simultaneously refreshing and overwhelming. your first step is to decide what you want to do with messaging. start by defining your:

› Use cases for today and two to three years out. it’s crucial that you know how you will use messaging today and how you aspire to use messaging in the future. think beyond your own department or team to include the broader needs of your enterprise. your marketing department may want to send coupons, your eCommerce team wants to alert customers to shipping notifications, and your product group wants to communicate tips to improve how your customers use your product. think these questions through ahead of time: Will you trigger messages from apps, websites, or even on third-party platforms? And map out how much cross-channel and cross-purpose coordination you will need.

› Budget. typically, annual deal sizes range from a few thousand dollars to well into seven figures, depending on complexity and volume.1 self-serve solutions for simple sMs may be free plus pay-per-message, or they could cost hundreds of dollars per month. Complex solutions that automate execution of one-to-one user engagement with both in-app and campaign analytics will start closer to $100,000 and go up from there.2 you may need to tailor your ambitions to your budget. We’ve found anecdotally that, more often than not, enterprises buy more than they actually use.

› Geographies. geography plays several important roles. First, if you are sending sMs or MMs messages, you will need an aggregator that can connect to carriers in the right region. second, the rules for sending sMs and MMs messages vary by country. you’ll need local expertise to guide your decisions about how, when, where, and why to send messages. Finally, most messaging solution providers are small, with their business concentrated in a single region. Choose a vendor with accessible customer support, even if you need to choose two or more providers (see Figure 1).

› Need for vertical and external expertise. Vendors have the scale to learn faster than you do, unless you already make heavy use of messaging. Most companies that Forrester has interviewed send hundreds of millions (if not billions) of messages each month. Vendors with expertise in your vertical (e.g., financial services, healthcare, retail, travel, etc.) are adding templates to their web-based tools to accelerate learning for their clients (see Figure 2).3 you may also need professional




9

services to set up, execute, and optimize customer engagement through messaging. in fact, among user companies we surveyed, 38% choose vendors (not just for messaging) based on the availability of professional services.4

› risk threshold. No company can guarantee its financial stability or longevity as an autonomous player, but large, publicly traded companies do offer more transparency into their balance sheets and cash flow. you may already have a messaging player in-house that has integrated with your existing CrM, analytics, email, content management system (CMs), and data management platform (DMP) solutions — and preexisting partnerships can mitigate the risk of lost time and money associated with those integrations. on the flip side, small, private companies often have more agile, cutting-edge offerings while making no compromise for legacy solutions or channels (which is a good thing).




10

fIGUre 1 geographies of Mobile Messaging Vendors

North America

Europe, MiddleEast, and Africa

(including Russia) Asia Pacific Latin America

3Cinteractive

CodeBroker

HelloWorld

Impact Mobile

Mobile Commons

Rover

Sumotext

TrueDialog

Vibes

Waterfall

Emarsys

Epsilon

Experian

Selligent

SparkPost

[24]7

Conversocial

Freshdesk

Sparkcentral

Customer service

Email service providers (ESPs)

General messaging solutions




11

fIGUre 1 geographies of Mobile Messaging Vendors (Cont.)

North America Asia Paci�c Latin America

Axway Appcelerator

Kony

moBack

Cisco

Layer

Nexmo

QWASI

TeleMessage

Twilio

Communication-platforms-as-a-service (CPaaS)

Mobile development platforms


(including Russia)

CLX

Infobip

OpenMarket

SAP

Syniverse

Messaging aggregators




12



AT&T

Verizon

Mobile engagement automation

Wireless carriers


(including Russia)

360dialog

Accengage

Appboy

CleverTap

MobileRQ

OtherLevels

SessionM

Swrve

Urban Airship

MoEngage

Leanplum




13



FollowAnalytics

Localytics

Mixpanel

Taplytics

Adobe

IBM

Oracle

Salesforce

Digital marketing cloud platforms

In-app analytics


(including Russia)

Note: Messaging categories are organized based on vendors’ heritage. A vendor company serves a givengeography if it has active customers there.




14

fIGUre 2 top three Verticals of Mobile Messaging Vendors


Finan

cial s

ervic

es

Med

ia an

d ente

rtain

men

t

Retail

and e

Comm

erce

CPG/bra

nded m

anufa

cture

rs

Trav

el an

d hosp

italit

y

Telec

om/u

tiliti

es

Social

Gamin

g

Health

care

Govern

men

t or t

ransp

ortatio

n

Nonpro�t

Man

ufact

uring

Tech

3Cinteractive

CodeBroker

HelloWorld

Impact Mobile

Mobile Commons

Rover

Sumotext

TrueDialog

Vibes

Waterfall


Emarsys

Epsilon

Experian

Selligent

SparkPost




15

fIGUre 2 top three Verticals of Mobile Messaging Vendors (Cont.)

Customer service

Finan

cial s

ervic

es

Med

ia an

d ente

rtain

men

t

Retail

and e

Comm

erce

CPG/bra

nded m

anufa

cture

rs

Trav

el an

d hosp

italit

y

Telec

om/u

tiliti

es

Social

Gamin

g

Health

care

Govern

men

t or t

ransp

ortatio

n

Nonpro�t

Man

ufact

uring

Tech

[24]7

Conversocial

Freshdesk

Sparkcentral


Axway Appcelerator

Kony

moBack




16



Finan

cial s

ervic

es

Med

ia an

d ente

rtain

men

t

Retail

and e

Comm

erce

CPG/bra

nded m

anufa

cture

rs

Trav

el an

d hosp

italit

y

Telec

om/u

tiliti

es

Social

Gamin

g

Health

care

Govern

men

t or t

ransp

ortatio

n

Nonpro�t

Man

ufact

uring

Tech

Cisco

Layer

Nexmo

QWASI

TeleMessage

Twilio


CLX

Infobip

OpenMarket

SAP

Syniverse




17


Wireless carriers

Finan

cial s

ervic

es

Med

ia an

d ente

rtain

men

t

Retail

and e

Comm

erce

CPG/bra

nded m

anufa

cture

rs

Trav

el an

d hosp

italit

y

Telec

om/u

tiliti

es

Social

Gamin

g

Health

care

Govern

men

t or t

ransp

ortatio

n

Nonpro�t

Man

ufact

uring

Tech

AT&T

Verizon

360dialog

Accengage

Appboy

CleverTap

Leanplum

MobileRQ

MoEngage

OtherLevels

SessionM

Swrve

Urban Airship





18


Finan

cial s

ervic

es

Med

ia an

d ente

rtain

men

t

Retail

and e

Comm

erce

CPG/bra

nded m

anufa

cture

rs

Trav

el an

d hosp

italit

y

Telec

om/u

tiliti

es

Social

Gamin

g

Health

care

Govern

men

t or t

ransp

ortatio

n

Nonpro�t

Man

ufact

uring

Tech

In-app analytics

FollowAnalytics

Localytics

Mixpanel

Taplytics

Webtrekk

Adobe

IBM

Oracle

Salesforce


Note: Messaging categories are organized based on vendors’ heritage. Forrester asked each vendorcompany to list the top three verticals in which it has active customers.

Know Which employees Will Use The Platform And How Much Help They’ll Need

to narrow your category choices, you need to know who within your company will use the messaging solution and how much help he or she will need. in-house talent — and the amount of help it needs to design and execute with messaging — also dictates choices. Business needs will partly drive your talent and the roles you create and fill, but solutions can bridge staffing gaps. you must understand your in-house capabilities in detail, including:

› Who will use the tool. the big divide is among developers, product managers, and marketers and how each group will (or won’t) use the tool you select. Application interfaces for messaging are built for business professionals, while APi interfaces work better for developers who want a lot of




19

flexibility to build their own apps or rules to trigger messages. Companies that want to be selective in whom they target for well-understood use cases (e.g., coupons) lean toward MEA or the other marketing-focused platforms.5 those that want to be selective in whom they target for well-understood use cases (e.g., coupons) lean toward MEA or the other marketing-focused platforms.

› How complicated your customer journeys and micro moments are.6 As an example, these tools allow business professionals to drag and drop boxes to construct the logic of delivering a message to a customer in a specific mobile moment. solution providers build web-based tools that help business professionals design and manage logic without needing programming skills. the good news is that today, category-leading vendors focus heavily on simplifying web-based tools precisely to make them easier for business pros to use. Enterprises that strive for one-to-one engagement lean toward application- or web-based tools because they need to account for hundreds, or thousands, of scenarios.

› Whether you already have — or will need — 360-degree views of your customers. to successfully engage in a mobile moment, digital business pros know that they have to engage with customers as individuals, not as parts of a segment. therefore, you must now create and curate profiles of your customers. these profiles could consist of past behaviors across channels (e.g., stores, online, in apps), preferences, demographic information (e.g., from a DMP), and past purchases. you may also want to layer in predictive analytics based on similar customers and behavior. solution providers refer to this as a “360-degree view of the customer.” some companies will have existing customer profiles in place to tap into, while others may need to start from scratch. Even if you bring core profiles, you may not have the cross-channel behavior data offered by in-app or in-message analytics.

› How much help you need to optimize engagement in micro moments. All of these tools offer campaign analytics (e.g., who opened what message and took what action). Aggregators extend these analytics to include packet information on sMs or MMs campaigns. only a handful of vendors integrate systems of insight (e.g., in-app analytics) with systems of engagement (e.g., messages) to provide context or trigger points for in-app or push notifications. Moreover, only a few providers offer A/B testing of messages, with the more sophisticated companies automating A/B testing to optimize campaigns and recommend particular ones to deploy to platform users.

› How much flexibility you want or anticipate needing in rule creation. All of these solutions demand that you identify your customers’ micro moments along with the associated context. Do this in addition to designing the mobile moments: Decide whom to target with what content, in what channel, and at what time or contextual trigger. if you have a limited number of static rules (e.g., “send a 10% off coupon to women who have shopped our shoe collection on the first Monday each month,” or “remind [passenger] to check in 24 hours before a flight”), you don’t need a complicated web-based design tool. if you also want to alert a consumer that a prescription is ready to pick up when he or she just parked in the parking lot on their way home from work, you do need a web-based design tool that is able to process and send a message in real time.




20

refine Your Category Decision By Knowing Your Technology Needs

As a digital business professional, you must work with your mobile product teams and developers to determine:

› What types of messaging (i.e., channels) you need. the big break points in channel choice are iP- and telecom-based messaging. iP-based channel choices include email and push notifications, while sMs and MMs are telecom technologies and depend on carrier networks (see Figure 3). Channel choices typically align with use cases and break along the lines of marketing (e.g., acquisition, consideration) and operations (e.g., product support, customer support). you have to know your customer well to get their email address, for example, and they have to know you well to download your app and give you permission to engage them there (see Figure 4).

› How much scale you need. Estimate your monthly volume in each channel so you can choose a vendor that is capable of performing at that scale. Both absolute volume and throughput define scale. First, forecast your volume. some companies will need to send 10,000 messages per month, and others will send that same volume per second. Any vendor is capable of helping you send 10,000 messages per month, but not every vendor will do so unless it’s commercially viable. the smallest vendors send hundreds of millions of messages per month, medium-size companies send billions, and the largest players send tens of billions (see Figure 5).

› What context you want to incorporate. today, context is primarily location and traditional personal data. Even the most well-executed, context-triggered messages are based at most on location, time relative to an event, and in-app behavior. Consumers provide location by adding a zip or postal code to a search request, or they agree to be tracked either while an app is in use or all the time. Enterprises often depend on third-party geofencing capabilities to track consumers anonymously. in the next two to three years, the internet of things (iot), inferred context (e.g., emotions), and insights will also play a role.

› Types and means of integration with existing solutions. integrating with core, off-the-shelf marketing solutions such as CrM, CMs, and analytics platforms is a given. however, digital business professionals use messaging in a broad set of consumer journeys that depend heavily on real-time context or triggers from (sometimes proprietary) back-end systems. imagine even the simplest of messages that consumers expect, such as timing of package delivery, appointment reminders, flight notifications, and spending limits: Each of these notifications requires integration with a unique in-house solution.




21

fIGUre 3 A simplified View of the Message generation And Delivery Ecosystem

Rules engine

Static (APIs)Hard-coded,simple rules

DynamicReal-time contextchooses consumer,content, channel,and timing

ApplicationsLogic to generatemessages forcommon scenarios(coupons,sweepstakes)

TelecomSMS, MMS

IP-based• OTT

(FacebookMessenger,WeChat)

• Pushnoti�cations

• In-appnoti�cations

• Email

Messagingaggregator

*Only carrier networks deliverSMS and MMS messages.Carrier networks also supportdata/internet connections.

IP network

Integrations(examples) CRM

Content management system

In-appanalytics

Ethernetor Wi-Fi

Wirelesscarrier

network*

Message deliverychannels




22

fIGUre 4 Channels supported By Mobile Messaging Vendors

Source: Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction, citation, or distribution prohibited.136974

SMS

MM

SPush

notifi

catio

ns

Email

App/web

conte

nt (in

cludin

g in-a

pp disp

lay)

Mobile

web

mes

sagin

g

In-a

pp mes

sagin

g

Social

Chat/m

essa

ging a

pps

Mobile

wall

et

3Cinteractive

CodeBroker

HelloWorld

Impact Mobile

Mobile Commons

Rover

Sumotext

TrueDialog

Vibes

Waterfall

Emarsys

Epsilon

Experian

Selligent

SparkPost






23

fIGUre 4 Channels supported By Mobile Messaging Vendors (Cont.)

SMS

MM

SPush

noti�

catio

ns

Email

App/web

conte

nt (in

cludin

g in-a

pp disp

lay)

Mobile

web

mes

sagin

g

In-a

pp mes

sagin

g

Social

Chat/m

essa

ging a

pps

Mobile

wall

et

[24]7

Conversocial

Freshdesk

Sparkcentral

Axway Appcelerator

Kony

moBack

Customer service





24


SMS

MM

SPush

noti�

catio

ns

Email

App/web

conte

nt (in

cludin

g in-a

pp disp

lay)

Mobile

web

mes

sagin

g

In-a

pp mes

sagin

g

Social

Chat/m

essa

ging a

pps

Mobile

wall

et


Cisco

Layer

Nexmo

QWASI

TeleMessage

Twilio


CLX

Infobip

OpenMarket

SAP

Syniverse




25


SMS

MM

SPush

noti�

catio

ns

Email

App/web

conte

nt (in

cludin

g in-a

pp disp

lay)

Mobile

web

mes

sagin

g

In-a

pp mes

sagin

g

Social

Chat/m

essa

ging a

pps

Mobile

wall

et

Wireless carriers

AT&T

Verizon


360dialog

Accengage

Appboy

CleverTap

Leanplum

MobileRQ

MoEngage

OtherLevels

SessionM

Swrve

Urban Airship




26


SMS

MM

SPush

noti�

catio

ns

Email

App/web

conte

nt (in

cludin

g in-a

pp disp

lay)

Mobile

web

mes

sagin

g

In-a

pp mes

sagin

g

Social

Chat/m

essa

ging a

pps

Mobile

wall

et

In-app analytics

FollowAnalytics

Localytics

Mixpanel

Taplytics

Webtrekk

Adobe

IBM

Oracle

Salesforce


Note: Messaging categories are organized based on vendors’ heritage. Vendor companies enable a channelif they have active customers using the platforms to reach that channel for a campaign.




27

fIGUre 5 Applications And Use Cases supported By Mobile Messaging Vendors

Votin

g

Coupons

Sweepst

akes

A/B te

stin

g

Video

s

QR codes

Tran

slatio

n serv

ices

Short co

de ac

quisitio

n

Sender

-pay

s mes

sagin

g


3Cinteractive

CodeBroker

HelloWorld

Impact Mobile

Mobile Commons

Rover

Sumotext

TrueDialog

Vibes

Waterfall

Emarsys

Epsilon

Experian

Selligent

SparkPost





28

fIGUre 5 Applications And Use Cases supported By Mobile Messaging Vendors (Cont.)

Votin

g

Coupons

Sweepst

akes

A/B te

stin

g

Video

s

QR codes

Tran

slatio

n serv

ices

Short co

de ac

quisitio

n

Sender

-pay

s mes

sagin

g

[24]7

Conversocial

Freshdesk

Sparkcentral

Axway Appcelerator

Kony

moBack


Customer service




29


Votin

g

Coupons

Sweepst

akes

A/B te

stin

g

Video

s

QR codes

Tran

slatio

n serv

ices

Short co

de ac

quisitio

n

Sender

-pay

s mes

sagin

g

Cisco

Layer

Nexmo

QWASI

TeleMessage

Twilio

CLX

Infobip

OpenMarket

SAP

Syniverse






30


Votin

g

Coupons

Sweepst

akes

A/B te

stin

g

Video

s

QR codes

Tran

slatio

n serv

ices

Short co

de ac

quisitio

n

Sender

-pay

s mes

sagin

g

Wireless carriers

AT&T

Verizon

360dialog

Accengage

Appboy

CleverTap

Leanplum

MobileRQ

MoEngage

OtherLevels

SessionM

Swrve

Urban Airship





31


Votin

g

Coupons

Sweepst

akes

A/B te

stin

g

Video

s

QR codes

Tran

slatio

n serv

ices

Short co

de ac

quisitio

n

Sender

-pay

s mes

sagin

g

FollowAnalytics

Localytics

Mixpanel

Taplytics

Webtrekk

Adobe

IBM

Oracle

Salesforce

In-app analytics


recommendations

Make smart Decisions that Fit your Current And Future Needs

For even the most sophisticated companies, messaging is more complicated than it seems because it sits at the intersection of systems of engagement and systems of insight. sending mobile messages is relatively easy — but knowing when to send them, to whom, through what channel, and at what time is extraordinarily difficult. this situation is even more complex when the timing or choice of the recipient depends on dynamic context or data that is buried deep inside a legacy system. Disciplines like the iDEA cycle help you determine the who, what, when, and where of messaging.7 Messaging is the first channel with which enterprises serve their customers in their mobile moments based on context. to make the right choice for your mobile messaging vendor, digital business professionals should:




32

› Identify micro moments by seeking out the simplest interactions. the first step in the iDEA cycle is to identify mobile moments and their associated context — moments in which immediacy, simplicity, and context-driven relevancy can create valuable interactions. in micro moments, companies will measure immediacy in seconds, not minutes. simplicity is an absolute requirement, defined by the delivery of a short message or similar signal; any consumer reaction must be enabled with a quick tap, swipe, or voice command. this situation means that you must use context to present the right simplified interaction at the right moment.

› Design micro-moment engagement with simple triggers and action. A mobile app is effective and simple if it does a few things well; a micro moment is effective if it does one single thing well. Micro moments require a level of design simplicity that is unimaginable to most digital business professionals. For example, you must evaluate which of your customers’ mobile moments require only a notification and which depend on a simple “yes” or “no” answer.

› Narrow the list of vendor categories based on your prioritized requirements. Prioritize your requirements between must-haves and nice-to-haves. Choose one to three categories of vendors based on your business, user, and technology requirements. these vendors will help you execute on the “E” (“engineer your platforms, processes, and people for mobile”) and the “A” (“analyze results to optimize outcomes and improve customer experience”) of the iDEA cycle. the channels and capabilities you need should come first, followed by categories that fit your user profiles (e.g., business professional or developer). you can assess which vendor would be the best technology fit in the second phase, once you are evaluating individual vendors.

› Determine if there is a match between the vendor’s sweet spot and your needs. sweet spots depend on messaging volume, annual price, vertical and channel expertise, and heritage (see Figure 6). Mixpanel, for example, brings depth for in-app analytics, while Urban Airship sends more push notifications per month than about 10 of the smaller vendors combined. Vibes is its own messaging aggregator. some vendors target Fortune 500 businesses with a suite of products as part of a broader marketing cloud solution. others offer a point solution and target the product manager, whereby the app itself is the product or service.

› Get the real deal on the vendor’s current and planned capabilities. Use the business and technology needs that we have laid out in this report to ask smart questions when evaluating vendors in the final stages of selection. talk to their customer references to corroborate their claims. Know what capabilities they offer on their own platform versus a partner’s (e.g., email, sMs). Platforms are always a work in progress by definition, just like software and enterprises operating with Agile principles. if the functionality you need is not available today, ask when it will be available. Marketing pitches often include aspirations, but vendor priorities can change.




33

fIGUre 6 Choose A Vendor that’s Well-Aligned With your scale

Small Medium Large Very large

Monthly messaging volume (North America)

Hundreds of billions

Tens of billions

Billions

Hundreds of millions

Tens of millions

Millions

Hundreds of thousands

Tens of thousands

Vendor size based on volume

SMS and MMS

Email

Push noti�cations

In-app messages

Source: Forrester interviews with 54 mobile messaging vendors in Q3 2016




34

Engage With An Analyst

gain greater confidence in your decisions by working with Forrester thought leaders to apply our research to your specific business and technology initiatives.

forrester’s research apps for iPhone® and iPad®

stay ahead of your competition no matter where you are.

Analyst Inquiry

to help you put research into practice, connect with an analyst to discuss your questions in a 30-minute phone session — or opt for a response via email.

Learn more.

Analyst Advisory

translate research into action by working with an analyst on a specific engagement in the form of custom strategy sessions, workshops, or speeches.

Learn more.

Webinar

Join our online sessions on the latest research affecting your business. Each call includes analyst Q&A and slides and is available on-demand.

Learn more.

supplemental Material

Companies Interviewed for This report

We would like to thank the individuals from the following companies who generously gave their time during the research for this report.

[24]7

360dialog

3Cinteractive

Accengage

Adobe

Appboy

At&t

Axway Appcelerator

Celltrust

Cisco

Clevertap

CLX

https://go.forrester.com/apps/

http://forr.com/1einFan

http://www.forrester.com/Analyst-Advisory/-/E-MPL172

https://www.forrester.com/events?N=10006+5025




35

CodeBroker

Conversocial

Emarsys

Epsilon

Experian

FollowAnalytics

Freshdesk

helloWorld

iBM

impact Mobile

infobip

Kony

Layer

Leanplum

Localytics

Mixpanel

moBack

Mobile Commons

MobilerQ

MoEngage

Nexmo

openMarket

oracle

otherLevels

Pyze

QWAsi

rover

salesforce

sAP

selligent

sessionM

sparkcentral

sparkPost

sumotext

swrve

syniverse

taplytics

teleMessage

trueDialog (formerly 3seventy)

twilio

Urban Airship

Verizon

Vibes

Waterfall

Webtrekk

Endnotes1 source: Forrester interviews with messaging vendors, Q3 and Q4 2016.

2 source: Forrester interviews with messaging vendors, Q3 and Q4 2016.

3 Examples of templates include purchase-path progression or use of coupons for retailers — or simply app usage for apps that depend on ad revenue or engagement.




36

4 source: Forrester’s h2 2016 global Mobile Executive online survey.

5 source: Forrester interviews in Q3 2016 with communication-platform-as-a-service (CPaas) and mobile development vendors about how their customers use their platforms.

6 A micro moment is a mobile moment that requires only a glance to identify and delivers quick information that you can either consume or act on immediately. For more information about developing a micro moments strategy, see the Forrester report “Micro Moments Are the Next Frontier For Mobile.”

7 For a detailed explanation of the iDEA cycle, see the Forrester report “Mobile Moments transform Customer Experience.”




We work with business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth.

Products and services

› core research and tools › data and analytics › Peer collaboration › analyst engagement › consulting › events

Forrester research (nasdaq: Forr) is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We work with business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth. through proprietary research, data, custom consulting, exclusive executive peer groups, and events, the Forrester experience is about a singular and powerful purpose: to challenge the thinking of our clients to help them lead change in their organizations. For more information, visit forrester.com.

client suPPort

For information on hard-copy or electronic reprints, please contact client support at +1 866-367-7378, +1 617-613-5730, or [email protected]. We offer quantity discounts and special pricing for academic and nonprofit institutions.

Forrester’s research and insights are tailored to your role and critical business initiatives.

roles We serve

Marketing & Strategy ProfessionalscMoB2B MarketingB2c Marketingcustomer experiencecustomer insights

› eBusiness & channel strategy

Technology Management Professionalscioapplication development & deliveryenterprise architectureinfrastructure & operationssecurity & risksourcing & vendor Management

Technology Industry Professionalsanalyst relations

136974