Above the road to marketing strategies, like TV campaigns or billboards, majorly, dominates marketing budgets in EAST AFRICA. But with app usage increasing in the aforementioned region, it indicates that things along the way has got to change.

How Safaricom earned user trust after their depreciating app with 6M installs

It was not only the correct time to modify to a digital-first campaign, it absolutely was also the right opportunity to handle the prevailing, ageing app for a replacement generation of digital natives.

They have everything at hand but where are they going to start specifically?

At Safaricom, the app could be a crucial a part of the offering since it allows customers to shop for airtime and data, access financial tools, and make payments using the M-PESA money transfer service.

The scale of the known challenge was immense. the prevailing app had almost 6 million installs but myriad updates wasn't a up to now the simplest option. That version was buggy, built on ageing architecture, and didn’t inspire user trust. With time, that they had to switch it with a replacement app and launch a migration campaign.

The new app’s release came at a time when the majority were both living at and dealing from home. That meant that the expected marketing strategies couldn’t depend on marketing practices that after worked well in East Africa, shall we say like billboards and kiosks to drive awareness and downloads.

As such, They decided to travel with a performance-driven campaign focused almost entirely on digital channels.

1. first-party data to supply a customized user experience

They are setting themselves a target to grow their digital spend to approximately 40% of their marketing budget by the top of this year. to place this into context: in 2018 they spent about 7% on digital marketing and in 2021 the figure immensely reached 34%.

Although a number of their budget shifted to digital marketing, there have been still limitations. so that they worked with the team at Google to optimise the app’s search campaign to induce the most effective conversions.

They used first-party data, like top transactions and behaviours of their existing customers, to tell their Google Search campaign strategy.

For example, they updated campaign messaging to align it with popular customer behaviours, like downloading statements, reading online newspapers (newspapers are highly regarded within the region), and adding on services, like home broadband.

This improved customisation allowed them to deliver the correct message to the correct user.

They were able to further refine the messaging by using audience lists from Firebase (a tool which helps marketers build and run apps) to come up with specific actions. That meant that users who had already installed the app weren't served ads that prompted them to put in it. Instead, they’d see ads that encouraged them to interact with the app more.

Here’s an example of a billboard showing existing users the features most relevant to them:

TwG Safaricom Inline

Refining the user experience even further

As a results of this performance-driven approach, the new MySafaricom app took only 1 year to hit 5.5 million installs and saw 20,000 downloads on a daily basis at its peak. By comparison, the old app took four years to succeed in 6 million installs.

But they know that hitting an oversized number of downloads is merely the start. they need to take a position in building user trust to form a transparent distinction between the old and new app. Sometimes they seduce you to put in the app by promising you a large bundles of information browsing.

By measuring engagement and therefore the overall app experience, they're able to make regular tweaks to both their marketing and therefore the user experience.

For example, user experience efforts showed that folks were being selective about when to use the app because of limited data bundles. to resolve for this they implemented an information share feature, allowing people to share data with friends and family.

What they need been ready to achieve with digital-first campaigns this year has gone beyond their expectations. The incredible install numbers and high user engagement have convinced everyone within the corporate to continue on this digital marketing journey.

As they appear towards the longer term, they need a goal of becoming a completely digital marketing team. as an example, they still depend on USSD for a few transactions and that they have plans to maneuver aloof from this legacy technology to a totally integrated app journey.

They are also going to have all their products and services integrated into the app. this enables them to own an end-to-end digital experience for purchasers that's simple, intuitive,honest and transparent.