Q&A with Aurélie

Aurélie Genet was formerly a Sr. Mobile Marketing Manager for Trainline, the go-to train travel app. She’s been involved in the mobile app marketing industry for nearly a decade. She claims to have haphazardly fallen into the industry by chance and has loved it ever since. Aurélie is hooked because she feels like she works at the forefront of a tech revolution. Trying to build smart targeting, message sequencing and attribution modeling is an exciting project she enjoys working on.

In your own words, tell us about the app(s) that you manage?

The Trainline app is the go-to app when traveling by train across Europe. Our mission is to make traveling by train easy whether you are in your home country or abroad. We help our customers find the best train ticket options and travel stress-free with real time updates throughout the journey.

What drove you to get started in mobile marketing?

I sort of fell into it by accident. I always wanted to work in advertising and after university, in 2008, I came across a mobile advertising agency called Phonevalley (part of Publicis Group). At the time, they were mainly doing SMS campaigns and text links on WAP portals but the launch of the iPhone a few months before was making the entire office buzz. After a few months I was already addicted to apps!

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What do you like most about mobile marketing?

I like how it never stands still. There are always new technologies, ad products and platforms coming to market which keeps it all exciting! Figuring out how to make the most of these is the best challenge.

What does it take to succeed in mobile marketing?

  1. Be numerate – tracking and reporting performance will help you define the best partner mix for your app.
  2. Be agile – work closely with partners and share your challenges with them. That will help set expectations and build a fruitful partnership.
  3. Be flexible – nothing is set in stone. There are new technologies and ad formats coming out every month, so you need to stay on top of it. Be ready to test, learn, fail and succeed.

What does a quality mobile user look like to you?

A quality mobile user for me is someone who tells their friends and family about the app. They’ve hit the magic moment when the app becomes indispensable to their daily life.

What strategies work best to convert installs into engaged users?

The best strategy is to have an app that people want and need — an easy tool to help them save or kill time.

But assuming you already have that, I would say that the best way to design that strategy is to look at how your power users are already using the app. What are the features that interest them most? How frequently do they interact with the app and these features?

Once you have designed that path, it is usually a best practice to favor your CRM channels such as push notifications, emails or in-app messages to convert installs into engaged users in the first 7 days post-install. After 7 days, based on the conversion you achieved, you can start pushing paid retargeting campaigns to hit your goals.

How do you stay ahead of changes in technology?

I get most of my learnings from conferences and meet-ups where I network with marketing specialists. Talking to peers is the best way to avoid sales pitches and get real info.

What do you see is the next big thing in mobile marketing?

Multi-touch attribution across devices is the most awaited tool by marketers I think.

Do you plan to run re-engagement campaigns in the next 12 months?

We already run re-engagement campaigns and will continue to explore and design best techniques in the next 12 months. There are 2 types of campaigns:

  1. At the bottom of the funnel, we can use dynamic product ads, which remind users of a product they browsed but did not purchase yet. This drives revenue.
  2. Further up the funnel, we can run campaigns to educate users on our features they have not yet interacted with. This drives app usage.

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