Online platforms are already a mainstay in our everyday living, despite it still being a relatively new yet growing industry. What makes online platforms so unique as a platform is that they rely so much more on the undivided attention of their target market far more than most other industries, such as the retail and FMCG industries that provide concrete goods to be used and often disposed of as soon as they are bought.
It’s true that online platforms thrive on user retention and engagement, but this can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes consumer interests can be fickle, and what is often trending in the online space can become old news in just a few swipes of the screen. It’s already tricky to capture the awareness of specific customers, but it’s another thing to be able to retain and capture that attention.
So with all that in mind, how does one maintain user retention throughout the year?
- Personalize your targeting - Customers have the tendency to tune out ads, unless they find the content relevant. And for an ad to be relevant, you need to get to know your customers beyond their demographic so you can serve them ads that they actually care about.
Here’s an example: In preparation for a double-digit sale, you decided to add GCash Ad Solutions into your campaign. Powered by GCash’s verified first-party data points, you were able to hone in on your target audience, feeding your ads to people who resonate with it the most. This personalization based on multi-level parameters not only boosted your campaign’s effectiveness, but also unlocked key audience insights. By the end of your campaign, you will gain access to your customers' shopping behavior and demographics through our audience profiler, which you can use to improve your marketing strategies on the next double-digit sale. - Hit an emotional need - Brand loyalty happens when you’re able to tap into your customer’s emotional investment in your brand. This goes beyond just simply touting your platform’s functionality, otherwise, your user could just migrate to any old platform and invest their time there. You need to resonate with your audience on a much deeper level and appeal to their humanity, which actually goes hand-in-hand with the previous point of getting a deeper and more multilayered understanding of your target market.
Let’s talk about our previous example again: you are running a new double-digit campaign, where you are competing with hundreds of other brands who advertise that they offer the best-value vouchers out there. But given your learnings from your previous campaign with GCash, you have a multilayered understanding of your target audience—aside from best-value deals, they also care more about brands who make sustainability a priority And by tweaking your messaging to target the emotional reassurance your audience wants, you were able to get them more invested and engaged on a personal level.
- Stay current and relevant - Lastly, once we’ve nailed customer understanding and emotional resonance, we have to make sure that your marketing materials are relevant in the present time to maximize engagement and retention.
In the fast-moving world of the online platform industry, the timeliness of your marketing communications is incredibly important as it not only allows your brand to be on the cutting edge of the cultural context, but also shows how your platform has its finger on the pulse when it comes to the current needs of your demographic. For starters, you can leverage thematic holidays that resonate well with your audience. In this case, let’s use Mother’s Day as an example. When serving ads during this season, you can serve Mother’s Day content that resonates with your target audience personally and emotionally, which you can now do thanks to your multilayered understanding of your market.
The formula for engagement
In summary, there are three major steps you need to take in order to help improve user engagement for your online platform. Firstly, you have to personalize your targeting based on multilayered parameters. This allows you to build a solid foundation for all your marketing content. Secondly, appeal to both the emotional and functional needs of your demographic. In short, make them care about your brand by showing that your brand cares for their needs first. Lastly, make sure that the whole communication is packaged in a message that is relevant to the present time. This allows your users to feel as though your platform is growing with them and is accompanying them through every major cultural milestone and event.
All these steps can be easily followed with the right solutions in your toolbelt. With GCash Ad Solutions, your online platform can leverage nuanced, data-rich insights that paint a more accurate and realistic depiction of the very real people who use your platform as part of their daily lives. Ad Solutions also allows for hyperspecific parameters that empowers you to intelligently target users based on even the most minute interests to address specific needs, both functional and emotional. Most importantly, you can communicate all these at the right time and location thanks to real-time geotargeting that ensures your personalized content stays engaging whenever and wherever your target market may be.
Because online platforms are a cutting-edge industry, it stands to reason that a groundbreaking industry utilizes groundbreaking solutions like GCash Ad Solutions to cement its claim in a fast and growing market, while keeping that human and personalized touch to maintain the loyalty and engagement of their ever-growing user base.
Learn and explore more of what Ad Solutions can do for your online platform today. Reach us here or email us at partnersolutions@gcash.com.
