Using Customer Feedback to Actually Improve Your Mobile Marketing

I spent the first year of running a mobile campaign optimizing the things I could measure: open rates, click rates, conversion rates. What I wasn't measuring was why those numbers were what they were. The first time I asked my subscribers directly, the answers were both more specific and more useful than any dashboard had been.

Asking Is the Fastest Way to Find Out

Most mobile campaigns don't ask subscribers anything. They send, track clicks, and draw inferences from behavior. But behavioral data tells you what people did, not why they did it. A subscriber who opens every text but never clicks might love the copy and hate the landing page. A subscriber who unsubscribed might have left because of message frequency, not message content. You don't know unless you ask.

A short annual survey — three to five questions — sent to your most engaged subscribers gives you qualitative information you can't reverse-engineer from analytics. A customer survey tool makes it easy to collect and tabulate responses. The questions worth asking: What do you like most about getting these messages? What would you change? What would make you more likely to act on them? What do we send that you ignore?

Negative Feedback Is the More Valuable Kind

Positive feedback confirms that things are working. Negative feedback tells you what to fix. The instinct to minimize or dismiss complaints is understandable but counterproductive — the subscriber who complains is at least still there, still willing to engage. The ones who left silently gave you nothing to work with.

A help desk software that consolidates customer communications across channels makes it easier to spot patterns. One complaint about frequency is a data point; five complaints about frequency in a month is a signal you should change your send schedule. The pattern only becomes visible if you're tracking complaints and feedback in one place rather than handling them ad hoc.

What to Do When the Campaign Fails

When a campaign underperforms, the temptation is to blame the channel. "Mobile just doesn't work for our audience." But channel blame is usually wrong. The more likely causes are suitability (does this message format fit this type of offer?), timing (was the send badly scheduled?), targeting (did the right subscribers receive this?), and expectations (was the response rate target realistic for this medium?).

Look at what didn't fail. Even in a campaign with disappointing overall results, some elements will have performed. A particular product mention that got clicks. A specific CTA format that outperformed others. A segment that responded better than the rest. Building the next campaign on what worked rather than scrapping everything is more efficient than starting from scratch.

What I'd Skip

I'd skip sending feedback requests to your entire list. The most useful feedback comes from your engaged subscribers — people who've been on the list long enough to have an informed opinion and who open your messages regularly. A feedback survey sent to your whole list including inactive subscribers will produce noise from people who don't really engage with your content.

I'd also skip dismissing feedback because it's inconvenient. "Subscribers want fewer messages" is frustrating to hear if you've built a weekly send rhythm, but if that's what multiple people are saying, acting on it will probably improve your metrics even though it feels counterintuitive. The feedback that's hardest to hear is often the most actionable.