Viral referral programs depend in large part on how well your brand is able to seamlessly link one platform to the other. Oftentimes, referral programs fall flat because the transition from one app into the next is broken.

At Branch, we exist to make links that just work.

Clients leverage Branch links in their referral program on WhatsApp to enable their users to seamlessly share Branch referral links with their friends and family via social media channels. As soon as the referred user clicks on the referral link, they get redirected to the app to take advantage of the special referral promos. Clients also use Branch deep link data to auto-apply coupon codes and personalize the user experience for better conversions & engagement.

Not only is this process fluid, it takes fewer clicks with Branch’s proprietary deep linking technology. This not only benefits your app users, but drives new app installs and boosts sales volumes with minimal effort.

Watch this video of Licious, India’s leading fresh meat and seafood delivery platform, to see it in action:

Looking to create a referral program on WhatsApp that outmaneuvers your competitors?

It’s time you looked into Branch’s content sharing solutions now.

The post Referral Program on Whatsapp appeared first on Branch.

Size of Market Opportunity

Way back in 2015, Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, two successful young professionals, saw this opportunity to disrupt the highly underserved animal protein category that was yet to see any branded or organized players. The market opportunity was estimated to be worth around $65 billion by 2022. 

With India’s growing middle class pushing the growth of the premium food and beverage sector, research indicates that there will be 80% growth in meat demand by 2022, driven largely by convenience. This will only increase the adoption of processed meat, poultry and seafood products in an industry that has always been troubled by poor quality and hygiene standards and highly unorganized meat sourcing and distribution. 

The Licious Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Licious operates on a farm-to-fork business model. All meat is fresh, never frozen, with a 2-day shelf life. By adhering to the highest food safety standards and introducing globally accepted meat processing techniques, Licious delivers substantial value to its customers. Licious prides itself on conducting over 150+ quality and safety checks before the meat arrives at the customer’s doorstep. Moreover, the Licious tagline #FortheLoveofMeat harks back to delighting its customers by solving the prevailing customer pain points of convenience, hygiene, quality and freshness in a highly sustainable manner – backed by powerful technologies at every stage of the product life cycle.

Licious Funding & Growth

Licious recently closed a Series F funding round for $192 million as it sets its eyes on expanding its footprint far beyond the South Asian market, where it currently operates out of 14 Indian cities including Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai, to name a few.

With a repeat purchase rate of 90% and having served 2 million+ unique customers to date, it should come as no surprise then that it has won multiple awards from Entrepreneur Magazine’s Food & Beverage Startup of the Year Award in 2020 to INC42’s Most Innovative Startups Award in 2018. Add to that the Economic Times Most Promising Business Leaders of Asia Award in 2019 and you can see why Licious is spoken about fondly amidst all its stakeholders. 

If that is not enough, Licious witnessed an astounding 500% growth in the past 12 months alone. It owes this staggering growth to delivering a seamless and formidable user experience every time any customer interacts with the brand – both on web and app.

Licious’s Investment in Cutting-Edge Technologies

​​Backed by several proprietary algorithms that are working to solve the challenge of stocking fresh, chilled meat around the clock, Licious is in a league of its own. It has even gone to the extent of building technological systems to help predict consumer behavior ahead of time to strike the perfect balance between ensuring availability and managing wastage.

Licious is always differentiating itself with the most cutting-edge technologies. This is what ultimately led it to leverage Branch’s mobile martech solutions to change the game of meat and seafood delivery in India. Let’s take a closer look at how this is possible.

Branch’s Arsenal of Tools

Licious leverages Branch’s core products, such as Deep Linking, Journeys, and Universal Ads to boost its user acquisition & engagement across all channels. 

Deep Linking & Attribution Solutions

By using Branch deep links, Licious ensures that the user experience from the trigger point to the conversion is seamless whether or not users have the app installed. By incorporating Branch links into its marketing campaigns, Licious ensures its users are able to effortlessly transition from the content that first triggered their interest to the same in-app content, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Branch-powered deep links help drive critical cross-platform app growth across social platforms, mobile apps, and web. Licious can measure both the success and the failure of its marketing campaigns using Branch’s built-in attribution solution for both paid and organic channels. By attributing conversion activities to the relevant CTAs on every marketing channel, Branch links help Licious keep track of its most lucrative campaigns and help optimize ad spend.

Universal Ads

Licious uses Universal Ads to correctly attribute its ad conversions across every marketing channel and device to truly understand its campaigns’ return on ad spend (ROAS).

Identifying the right source of every conversion is every mobile marketer’s challenge. So Branch links help Licious attribute the conversion to the right platform, like Facebook, in the above example. By clicking on the deferred deep link on Facebook, users are taken straight to the Google Play Store to download the app, after which they are dropped off on the same page in-app that they were looking to go to prior to the install. 

Moreover, Branch’s Universal Ads helps Licious scale its marketing campaigns to accommodate over 50+ partners including Facebook, Apple Search Ads, and the Google Marketing Platform, as well as accurately attribute user behavior and events to each partner individually. Beyond improving user experiences, Universal Ads makes it possible for Licious to identify and measure paid ad install performance with the greatest precision.

Journeys

Licious leverages Journeys banners to drive more installs and purchases without increasing spend on paid advertising, which is especially important in light of recent iOS 14 changes. Journeys turns your mobile web users into app users using the power of personalized web-to-app banners. 

In the example above, the personalized Licious Journeys banner entices Licious mobile web visitors to install the app. Deferred deep linking then enables the same user to go to the Play Store, install the app, and then be seamlessly taken to the in-app promotion that converted the user in the first place. Thus, it is easy to see why Licious incorporated Journeys into its mobile marketing efforts – so that it never misses an opportunity to convert cost-effective mobile web traffic into highly engaged app users again.

Deep Linked Emails

Licious leverages deep linking in emails to create a seamless experience from its promotional emails to the right products and in-app content at the right time. This results in increased engagement and greater down-funnel conversions.

For example, when the user opens the Licious email and clicks on the link, they are redirected into the Licious app to take advantage of the promotion they were first tempted by in the email. The entire process is seamless and literally takes one click to get there as the context of the click is preserved the whole time.

Deep Linked WhatsApp Engagement

Licious uses Branch’s unique engagement solution to deep link users from WhatsApp directly to their unfinished purchases inside the Licious app.

Using Branch links, Licious is better able to engage with their customers and get them back into the app to drive more conversions – for free. 

Deep Linked SMS Campaigns

Licious leverages Branch’s cross-platform engagement solution to deep link users from SMS directly to specific promos or content inside the Licious app. By using Branch links in SMS campaigns, Licious drives greater levels of engagement and installs without increasing spend on paid advertising.

Deep Linked Referral Programs

Licious uses Branch’s deep linking technology to grow its organic referrals by enabling loyal Licious app users to share a unique Licious referral code with their friends and family via Whatsapp. This not only benefits Licious’s app users, but also drives new app installs and results in unprecedented sales with minimal effort.

To see it in action, watch this brief video:

Licious’s partnership with Branch has helped it further disrupt the Indian meat delivery industry by banking on cutting-edge technology to drive greater user engagement, boost conversions and seal formidable levels of app growth that would otherwise have been unlikely. As the world starts demanding greater transparency and higher quality standards in every aspect of their fresh meat experience from farm to fork – Licious stands at the helm, poised to take charge and deliver an unforgettable experience every time.

“Branch is our trusted partner for app analytics and attribution and has been a major driver of Licious’s impressive business success. Its deep linking solutions provided a better, more relevant user experience and helped ensure these users took the desired conversion actions within the app, while giving the team better insights and measurement across today’s complicated cross-platform customer journey.”

Prathamesh Dembla, Head of Growth at Licious

To get a taste of the fresh and formidable user experience that Licious offers, experience the Licious App for yourself to discover just how it is transforming the user journey one meaty encounter at a time.Fascinated by the martech innovations responsible for such a unique user experience? Learn more about Branch or contact our sales team to get started with a demo today.

The post How Licious’s Strategic Partnership With Branch Enabled Them To Further Disrupt The Indian Animal Protein Industry appeared first on Branch.

Benefits of Gamification

In business, gamification is often used to increase user engagement and drive motivation by triggering real, powerful human emotions. Using game mechanics and designing experiences that have an emotional payoff can motivate people to inadvertently achieve your goals, whether they realize it or not. By triggering positive emotions like happiness, excitement, intrigue, and suspense at the right time, brands can design robust and even addictive user experiences. These emotionally charged experiences tend to lead to better user engagement, greater in-app sales and ultimately result in greater loyalty to your brand long-term.

A Real-World Example

BWS (Beer, Wine & Spirits), Australia’s largest liquor retailer owned by Endeavour Group, has always been innovative in its approach to growing its brand awareness and national presence. With over 1,355 liquor stores spread across the nation, it uses its physical and digital presence across desktop and mobile to deliver unique experiences to its customers. In August 2019, BWS also launched its first app, BWS on tAPP.

BWS on tAPP provides non-stop convenience for customers to browse a range of products and easily purchase on the go, with features such as ordering from the app for delivery or pick up, faster checkout, and real-time delivery tracking. As a result, the app has been well-adopted by their existing customers as another platform to browse and purchase liquor.

Gamification in UX: How Incorporating the ‘BWS Cooler’ Made Heads Turn

Since launching the app, BWS has incorporated new gamification elements to their annual ‘100 Days of Summer’ campaign. The ‘100 days of summer’ campaign is a marketing campaign that gives BWS customers the opportunity to win free premium BWS products, receive great discounts, and free BWS merchandise like branded speakers and BBQ tool kits.

Last year, The ‘100 Days of Summer’ campaign ran from 4th November, 2020 to 12th February, 2021. The BWS team incorporated the BWS Cooler in-app feature experience to get their user base and prospective customers excited about using the app and drive engagement with their brand. 

The BWS Cooler is a gamified, in-app scratch-and-win feature that allows customers to scratch the ice away on their virtual in-app cooler to reveal if they had won a prize from the $7 million prize pool. Prizes include special discounts, free BWS products, and one-of-a-kind experiences for a few lucky customers. Users were only allowed to scratch once per day, and were encouraged to revisit the app daily to try their luck at winning prizes every day for the entire 100 days of the campaign.

With unpredictable rewards like a 1-in-3 chance of winning a prize, special 24-hour Coolers, streaks for swiping 10 days straight, prize packs worth $5,000 for one lucky winner, and brand bucks (special discounts for premium BWS products in the app) – it is no surprise why user engagement was at an all-time high. 

The BWS Cooler was used as the primary incentive to drive awareness and trial of the app. The excitement that was triggered by scratching the virtual ice away to reveal whether they got lucky that day was sufficient to keep prospective users coming back for more. This strategy was also effective in helping BWS build habit-forming behavior in its prospective users by encouraging them to participate for 100 days, rather than just 1. By scratching the ice away daily for 100 days to get their discount, free merchandise or prize, BWS created a loop where the user formed a habit of going into the app on a regular basis. These users were then very likely to continue going into the BWS on tAPP app for exciting discounts or promotions long after the 100 Days of Summer campaign ended. By leveraging the 100 Days of Summer media campaign in-market, BWS not only delivered a best-in-class user experience, but also drove significant brand awareness and app virality thanks to gamification.

Key Results: ‘100 Days of Summer’ Campaign

Throughout the campaign, the BWS team saw the following results:

• Over 300,000 new downloads of the BWS app
• 49% growth in online sales YoY
• BWS became Australia’s #2 Food and Drink app, according to the Apple App Store
• 58% of new downloads opting into push notifications
• 98% of active BWS app users engaged with the BWS Cooler throughout the campaign – demonstrating how exhilarating the BWS Cooler experience turned out to be.

What Enabled BWS To Deliver A Frictionless UX?

The tremendous success of the BWS app campaign was made possible by  Branch deep links powering seamless user experiences from mobile, desktop, in-store, and ‘above the line’ (ATL) outdoor media to drive their users straight into the app. 

Luke Calavassy, Head of eCommerce and digital media at BWS, shared:

“Branch has been integral in the success of growing the BWS app adoption and ongoing engagement. The seamless journeys Branch enables, the analytics provided, and the way Branch facilitates a superior customer experience has made a significant contribution towards the growth we have seen.“

Let’s look at some of the innovative ways BWS leveraged Branch to create a seamless journey for users to download the app and engage in the BWS Cooler experience.

Branch’s Arsenal of Tools

QR Codes

BWS leveraged Branch deep-linked QR codes to drive app adoption and user engagement. QR codes were set up to elevate brand awareness and get people excited about the 100 Days of Summer campaign at bus stops, other high-traffic areas, and across their stores nationally.

QR codes for ATL media

For people who were unaware of BWS, QR codes presented an opportunity to pique their curiosity by prompting  them to scan the QR code to launch the BWS Cooler experience in-app and win some prizes.

QR codes on desktop

QR codes were used on desktop to encourage users to participate in the BWS Cooler app experience.

QR codes for in-store campaigns

QR codes were featured on counter cards across BWS stores nationally. BWS used its in-store teams across Australia to encourage customers in-store to download the app.

Web-to-App Journeys

BWS also leveraged another core Branch product, Journeys, across multiple pages on their mobile website to drive customers from the mobile web into the app. 

BWS showed Journeys banners on the mobile website when users landed on the BWS homepage to promote the BWS Cooler in-app and entice them with 24-hour promotions, which went live weekly during the course of the campaign.

The team also displayed full-page interstitial banners on the mobile web to showcase the best promotions of the 100 Days of Summer campaign to drive app engagement.

In addition to using banners to promote the BWS cooler, BWS continued to display its customized Journeys banners across various category pages. This allowed them to maximize the feature and drive users to the app while they were engaged on the mobile website. 

Journeys banner copy and images were customized to match the content of each page across beer, wine, and spirits categories.

In the above example, a floating banner targets existing customers to remind them to continue their experience in the app.

Mobile Growth Awards Finalists

BWS was also a finalist for the “Best Overall Growth Campaign” at this year’s Mobile Growth Awards, hosted by Branch for the 100 Days of Summer campaign. 

Endeavour Group’s purpose statement – “creating a more sociable future together” – truly shined through  BWS’s 100 Days of Summer campaign and its gamification efforts to drive user engagement. As an industry leader in the liquor retail space, BWS needed to deliver on its promise to build a more united future together and chose gamification as the vehicle to do so. By instilling its users with a desire to have fun and engage with one another through the spirit of competition, the team successfully drove higher app engagement and inimitable levels of growth. 

Looking to drive seamless app engagement from your various marketing channels? Contact our sales team or sign up for the Branch dashboard today to get started.

The post UX Insights: How BWS Drove Rapid User Engagement By Leveraging Gamification appeared first on Branch.

When Rebel Foods noticed that customers in India were looking for food delivery services that made their health and safety a top priority with the onset of COVID-19, they tapped into this insight to take advantage of the opportunity it presented.

What is EatSure’s unique selling proposition?

The innovative app allows customers to indulge in cuisines from around the world from many diverse, trusted restaurants in one single order. This is something that is not currently possible across any other platform – online or offline. EatSure is based on the most important values of assurance – across People, Processes, Packaging, and Produce for all the restaurants that are EatSure compliant. It also ensures that every single dish from an indulgent pizza to a decadent chocolate lava cake is free of any artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors when ordering from reputable brands like Faasos, Mandarin Oak, and Sweet Truth.

Valued at close to $820 million in 2020, this app is no small player in the global food and beverage industry. EatSure ensures that its users have the most seamless user experience every time they interact with the brand by leveraging Branch’s sophisticated deep linking technologies throughout the user journey, even when using the app for the very first time.

Let’s take a closer look at how exactly this is made possible.

Branch’s arsenal of tools

EatSure leverages Branch’s core products, such as deep linking, Universal Ads, and Journeys, to drive app growth and boost user engagement. They also leverage Branch-powered links to drive cross-platform growth – covering mobile app, web, and offline channels. 

Robust foundation

Through the use of proprietary deep linking technology, Branch ensures that the user experience from the trigger point to the conversion is not broken or disrupted in any way, whether or not they have the app installed.

Deep linking

By incorporating Branch links into EatSure’s advertising campaigns, it ensures its users are able to smoothly transition right from the content that triggered their interest to the in-app content that might get them to make a purchase or convert in some way. The resulting seamless user experience helps marketers boost app engagement and retention. Moreover, using Branch deep links across channels helps EatSure track important user data online and make insightful decisions to drive growth.

     Facebook deep links

Instagram deep links

Universal Ads 

Deep linking through Universal Ads allows EatSure to respond to user behavior contextually. EatSure uses Universal Ads to drive user acquisition and track down-funnel events. For example, if a user already has the app installed, their click seamlessly takes them into the app. If not, they are sent to the App Store to download the app, after which they are directed to the content they were viewing before the install. Branch’s platform helps EatSure scale their marketing campaigns to accommodate more than 50+ partners, and accurately attribute events and user behavior to each partner individually. Beyond improving user experiences, Universal Ads makes it possible to measure and identify paid ad install performance with the greatest precision.

Journeys smart banners

Journeys helps EatSure drive more installs and purchases without increasing spend on paid advertising for brands like Behrouz Biryani, Faasos, and Oven Story. Journeys turns mobile websites into a source of app installs using the power of personalized web-to-app banners.

With Journeys, the team can test multiple, unique templates to quickly create campaigns tailored to design and branding guidelines in minutes, reducing the need for developer resources to run A/B tests. Native mobile apps outperform mobile websites across almost every engagement metric and singularly drive 3x more sales. Thus, it is easy to see why EatSure incorporated Journeys into their mobile marketing efforts – so that they never miss an opportunity to convert cost-effective website traffic into high-value app users again.

Social & SMS

EatSure leverages Branch’s cross-platform engagement solution to deep link users from social media posts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) and SMS directly to specific content inside the app. Using Branch links across multiple social media channels, EatSure drives more installs and engagement without increasing spend on paid advertising.

QR codes

Beyond the scope of digital campaigns, EatSure leverages Branch-powered QR codes to drive users straight into the app from offline environments as well. All it takes is a quick scan to launch a prospective offline user to content inside the app to become a fully engaged user primed for conversion. EatSure uses this solution to drive greater app adoption among its offline users. 

Measurement and attribution

EatSure can measure the success and, more importantly, the failure of its marketing efforts using Branch’s attribution solution. By attributing the right conversion activity to every effective CTA on every active marketing channel, Branch helps EatSure effortlessly keep track of the most effective marketing campaigns and optimize spend. 

Using Branch-powered deep linking solutions, EatSure has turned an insight into a lucrative opportunity by investing in cutting-edge technology to become a ground-breaking pioneer in the global food and beverage space. As more people start demanding greater transparency in every aspect of food sourcing and preparation, right from farm to fork, EatSure will be there – poised and ready to deliver on every front. 

To get a taste of the innovative user experience that EatSure offers, experience the EatSure App for yourself to find out how they are transforming the user journey from cloud kitchen to plate.

Looking to implement similar MarTech innovations responsible for such a unique user experience? Learn more about Branch or contact our sales team to get started with a demo today.

The post How EatSure Leveraged Branch To Become a True Pioneer in the Indian Restaurant Sector appeared first on Branch.

Ramadan is a time of great spiritual growth, discipline and introspection in South Asia, where 600 million Muslims – representing a $2.2 trillion dollar market – shift their consumer behavior in ways that mobile marketers and brands would be wise to study.

Why Southeast Asia? 

Indonesia and Malaysia alone account for about 252 million Muslims who will be observing Ramadan and Eid-al-Fitr this year. To help track their daily Ramadan practices, more and more Muslims in Southeast Asia are turning to apps, such as Muslim Pro. This app in particular has attracted over 2 million daily active users and seen over 45 million downloads, which should act as inspiration for other brands to capitalize on this opportunity.

Brands fail to connect with their target audience because the changes in consumer behavior and attitudes during Ramadan have not been well documented or studied, until now. Organic install activity in shopping apps starts rising a month before Ramadan and peaks at a growth rate of 40% in the 2 weeks leading up to Ramadan. Moreover, during the first week of Ramadan, organic app installs were seen to grow by 30%. In-app spend also steadily rises with this app install growth. 

When creating campaigns to drive users to your app during Ramadan, getting your brand name out there can be a challenge. Below, we break down consumer behavior during Ramadan to help drive your app growth goals.

3 Tips to Demystify Ramadan Consumer Behavior in 2021

Branch and its partner, MAAS (by Affle), recently hosted a Ramadan-themed webinar with panelists from ADA and BliBli to break down the app trends and Ramadan consumer insights that are worth noting in 2021 to design lucrative mobile marketing campaigns for the ages.

Here are 3 critical learnings and takeaways from the webinar:

1. Different Audience ‘Personas’ Have Emerged in 2021 Due to The Pandemic

A number of different target audience ‘personas’ have emerged during the pandemic that should help shape mobile marketing strategies for 2021. Among these are the ‘adaptive shopper’ and the ‘market observer’, to name a few.

The ‘adaptive shopper’ never would have resorted to e-commerce channels prior to the pandemic, but this persona has now started using online channels and platforms to make purchases. This has resulted in a 35% increase in new users on shoppings apps compared to prior years, whether that be for groceries, lifestyle products, or big ticket items. This means that you can design marketing campaigns keeping the psychological needs and consumer behavior of this ‘persona’ in mind to really maximize your returns.

2. Campaigns with Emotional Triggers Are Very Effective for Brand Building

Creating emotional attachment through your marketing campaigns can be the differentiating factor for your brand. Knowing when to promote your products vs. creating marketing campaigns to solely start conversations around your brand and what it stands for is key for mobile marketers.

IndoMie had the right idea when it decided to remove all food from its packaging during Ramadan to help Muslims who were fasting during this period to stay on track and not indulge in cravings. By respecting the holy month of Ramadan as a sacred time, it won over more hearts and only solidified its fanbase. 

Brands can learn from this strategic move by understanding that not all mobile marketing campaigns have to be centred around promoting your product. In fact, if you spend more of your marketing budget on promoting some core values of Islam like prayer, charity and self-discipline – your spend will go a lot further in changing your brand’s perception in the market – which will only result in more organic app installs and transactional conversions long-term.

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3. A Creative Refresh Is Needed After The First 2 Weeks of Ramadan

Remember that your brand’s marketing campaign has to run for all 5 weeks. You will need a creative refresh after the first 2 weeks, otherwise you will experience “creative fatigue” and your campaigns will fail to bring in the returns you were hoping for.

Since most consumer purchases occur 2 weeks before Ramadan, during Ramadan, and throughout the post-Ramadan period – it would be prudent to target ads and mobile marketing campaigns for those periods exclusively. 

Ensure that you keep the mood of these 3 different periods in mind when creating your campaigns so that you don’t come across as tone-deaf and turn off your potential users because you did not refresh your creatives appropriately. In-app spend will peak during these periods as well – particularly when employees get their bonuses at the end of the fasting month – meaning that gift-buying and the intent to purchase is always at an all-time high then.

For more in-depth insights into Ramadan consumer behavior and a breakdown of more emerging target audience ‘personas’ in 2021, watch the entire session now!

The post Unraveling Ramadan 2021 Consumer Behavior & Mobile Marketing Trends appeared first on Branch.