It’s one thing to be an enterprise company; it’s another to be an enterprise company leading the pack in mobile. The Fortune 1000 have major budgets, massive reach, and larger-than-life fanbases… but they also have a lot to maneuver when it comes to being as nimble and adept at mobile marketing as a mobile-first company.

At Postback 17, we talked with marketers from Fortune 1000 companies Dollar Shave Club, eBay, and WeatherBug who are doing mobile right. Read below for what they have to say on personalizing user experiences, walking the line between using data but not overusing it, and what they’re focused on next. To jump straight to the the 25-minute video, see it here on YouTube.

Signals of success from Fortune 1000 winners:

• Brian Kim, Vice President of Media and Acquisition at Dollar Shave Club
• Olivier Vincent, President at WeatherBug
• Marie Langhout-Franklin, Global Head of Marketing, Partner Network at eBay
• Moderator: John Koetsier, Mobile Economist at TUNE

On personalizing the user experience

“We use mobile web as our entry point in terms of how we acquire [users], just because it is a much more frictionless experience when going through the mobile web experience than it is going to the app and going through additional steps. We use the mobile app as a way to maximize LTV, so once we have members who are part of the club, that’s the app’s time to shine.”

– Brian Kim, Vice President of Media and Acquisition at Dollar Shave Club

“The personalized experience is certainly valuable. It’s great if we have the ability to know our customer and have a logged in, catered, personalized experience for them. But the reality is, a lot of our traffic is not known to us. And so what we’re working toward right now is an initiative that gives us the ability to organize that data in such a way that we can, based on trends — what’s trending based on listings, what’s trending based on what’s being purchased — literally down to the minute, create an experience that feels custom.

– Marie Langhout-Franklin, Global Head of Marketing, Partner Network at eBay

On being useful… but not overdoing it

“There is a basic layer of weather that everybody looks at. Is it going to be cold, is it going to rain, are there going to be thunderstorms today. I don’t really need to know who you are; I know you’ll want to know that. But then the layer above that is where it comes interesting. If you’re a soccer mom or a soccer dad and it’s Wednesday night, you want to know whether everybody can go out or not. If you like running on Saturday mornings in the park, now we’re going to start to serve you an alert for rain. We would never serve an alert for rain unless it’s tailored to your hobbies and your lifestyle. The more we know about what people are doing, the more patterns we grow, and we can serve a lot more information. At that time, retention goes up, engagement goes up… It’s almost five times bigger engagement when we really know who the user is.

– Olivier Vincent, President at WeatherBug

“I heard it said well once that you’re supposed to be a concierge not a stalker, and I think that’s a powerful statement. Visually that’s powerful. I think it means you have a responsibility to add value and be useful.

– Marie Langhout-Franklin, Global Head of Marketing, Partner Network at eBay

“We’re about to test with the motion interface in the phone to try to see if potential biking or running, so we need to test to see if people are going to accept and share that experience with us. But if they do and when they do — without asking them, without bothering them — we may be able to hint, “Hey I see you’re jogging a lot on the weekends. Would you be interested in a weather alert for your area?” That ability to hint without invading — I wouldn’t pretend to do it yet, but that’s a fun part right now, on how to increase the intimacy of your daily life and what the app can serve you. The tighter the product and needs fit is, the more the retention and engagement goes up.

– Olivier Vincent, President at WeatherBug

On what’s next in marketing

“How we want to differentiate ourselves is being a concierge. Is knowing our members and what they want and when they need it. So we see it playing a larger role. Obviously not right now, but it’s definitely in the works with Google Assistant — or whether it’s through Facebook Messenger — all of that is definitely a strategic priority.

– Brian Kim, Vice President of Media and Acquisition at Dollar Shave Club

“I was an early adopter of all these tools — I had the automatic logs, and the drop cams, and the nest a couple years ago. They were anecdotally good but separate. In the last six months, they have been talking to each other in a way that, to me, is creating a whole new world… The fact that they talk to each other I think creates an entirely new ecosystem that’s going to be very exciting to play with.”

– Olivier Vincent, President at WeatherBug

Now it’s your turn

There’s plenty more discussion packed into the 25-minute panel. To hear the entire conversation, check it out on YouTube, or press play below.

Author

Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she handled content strategy and marketing communications at several tech startups in the Bay Area. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned home to Charleston, SC, where you can find her strolling through Hampton Park with her pup and enjoying the simple things between adventures with friends and family.