A RECIPE FOR GROWTH

PAUL WRIGHT, MANAGING DIRECTOR UK, FR, ME & TURKEY AT APPSFLYER, WRITES ABOUT MOBILE BANKING USER ACQUISITION STRATEGIES TO ACCELERATE RECOVERY OF UAE BANKS IN 2021

As the UAE emerges from what looks to have been the peak of the pandemic, analysts have started to make predictions about the recovery of the country’s banking sector. While the UAE economy is projected to achieve 2.5% real GDP growth this year, in dollar terms, we’re only expected to see 2019 GDP levels by 2023. For this reason, rating agency Standard & Poor’s has stated that the recovery of the banking sector will be ‘gradual’. This sentiment is echoed by Redmond Ramsdale, Head of Middle East Bank Ratings at Fitch who expects the general business and operating environment for banks to remain as challenging in 2021 as in 2020.

Against this backdrop, it is imperative that UAE banks find ways to identify and capitalise on every opportunity. And they won’t have to look far for inspiration — according to a recent article which cited Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) analysts, 2020 was not a terrible year for Saudi banks and many saw strong loan growth driven largely by the consumer and credit card segment. Retail banks in the UAE could accelerate their recovery by growing their base of customers who are now more inclined than ever towards digital payments, contactless cards, and mobile banking.

It’s clear a number of UAE banks recognise the importance of going digital, and the transformation of the sector has been truly impressive. Today, most traditional banks in the UAE offer slick digital banking options and with the latest announcement about the upcoming launch of Zand — the UAE’s first digital bank — it is probably a matter of time before most, if not all, banks go ‘digital-first’. This however makes it a challenging segment to stand out in.

But in the rush to avoid FOMO, banks can run the risk of failing to create compelling digital offerings that really stand out — ultimately, it is not the volume and variety of digital services, but rather the quality of digital experiences that customers are most concerned with. The reason every bank would like to believe it is a ‘FinTech’

is because customers today have the same expectations of their financial institutions as they do of tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Google. In short, they want fast and intuitive user experiences.

And just as they have in so many other industries, mobile apps are arguably the cornerstone in this digital transformation of the banking customer experience. As demand from consumers, with more mobile accessibility and expectations for top notch services on-the-go have grown, financial institutions, both traditional and digital-first, are in a race to remain relevant. Mobile finance, including a suite of activities like banking, investing, trading, and transferring peerto-peer, has become a lot more personal, and at user’s fingertips 24/7. Beyond accessing banking services, these apps are also a key channel through which customers communicate with their service providers.

But for all the money that banks invest into creating feature-rich apps that are secure and easy to use, they’re only going to see a return on investment, if they can get their users to utilise these apps. So, with mobile user acquisition being critically important to UAE banks in the current economic climate, let’s set a roadmap for success by outlining best practices.

Personalise, personalise, personalise

Personalisation of your user’s experience should be a priority, MOBILE FINANCE, INCLUDING A SUITE OF ACTIVITIES LIKE BANKING, INVESTING, TRADING, AND TRANSFERRING PEER-TOPEER, HAS BECOME A LOT MORE PERSONAL, AND AT USER’S FINGERTIPS 24/7. BEYOND ACCESSING BANKING SERVICES, THESE APPS ARE ALSO A KEY CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH CUSTOMERS COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR SERVICE PROVIDERS.

both inside and outside of the app. Emphasise a contextually relevant onboarding process that encourages users to register for an account and set their own preferences. You can also use granular in-app event data to guide users to specific functions within the app, or suggest related products or services for greater upsell or even affiliate revenue opportunities.

Keep messaging simple

While personalisation keeps ongoing mobile financial management relevant, it is also important not to overcomplicate the messaging. Given the diverse range of functions available within a single finance app, or across a related family of apps, be intentional about using targeted and simple messages for maximum effect.

The web-mobile combination

Despite the continued growth of mobile finance, users still rely on desktop websites and apps for their digital finance needs. Particularly for banks that embrace the mobile-first approach, it is important to create a sustainable web presence to use as a strategic touchpoint, driving users to relevant, specific functionality where they’re most likely to convert.

Segmentation sweet spots: Scale vs specific

When utilising advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google to acquire users, it’s worth keeping target audiences broad enough to have sufficient scale for machine learning, but specific enough to find the unique users you’re looking for. Bear in mind that this cap will change per platform and can also change over time.

Follow the funnel

As a general rule, almost all marketing efforts, especially audience segmentation, follow the specific conversion funnel of the app, or suite of apps, given the diverse functionality offerings of mobile finance. However, beyond keeping the app experience relevant for, likely, existing web or offline users, following your funnel also improves the collaboration and communication across departments, leaving less room for confusion and duplication.

Customer adoption of a financial institution’s app is a vital step in digital marketing, as it enables banks to build a picture of the entire customer journey. Using data, it becomes possible to understand, model, and predict user behavior. This allows for profitable targeted marketing, as well as giving insight into how customers are interacting with a service. In turn, this enables financial institutions to efficiently cross-sell banking products to an audience that modelling shows will be receptive to it. This level of mobile measurement of users enhances the relationship between business and customer, increasing the ‘stickiness’ of mobile users. Done well, it can give banks a true competitive advantage and contribute to the all-important goal of attracting and retaining customers.

COLLABORATION OR CONFLICT?

DAVID NOËL, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, SOUTHERN EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA AT APPDYNAMICS, ON HOW TO KEEP THE PEACE IN THE IT PRESSURE COOKER

These are challenging times for IT departments the world over. Rapid digital transformation and soaring complexity have heaped extreme pressure on IT teams over the past year, and there is no end in sight. As we move into the second year of the pandemic, business leaders will continue to look to their IT departments to deliver innovation and faultless digital experiences to customers and employees. And with digital transformation set to accelerate even further in 2021, the pressure on IT departments will only intensify.

Without doubt, IT departments have risen to the challenge of COVID-19 in a phenomenal way. Their skill and hard work have enabled businesses across all sectors to rapidly launch innovative new digital services to meet huge fluctuations in customer needs and to allow entire workforces to operate from home during the pandemic. But behind the scenes, it’s a different story. More than a year of constant firefighting and extremely long hours is understandably now taking its toll. Research recently conducted by AppDynamics amongst global technologists, including those from the UAE, (Agents of Transformation 2021: The Rise of Full-Stack Observability) found that many feel under immense pressure and are struggling to switch off from work. This is an unfortunate, although not unsurprising, finding. Cracks would undoubtedly appear in any team, no matter how strong and united, when asked to operate under that level of pressure for such a long period of time. The difference for IT teams at the moment is that there is no time away to reflect or recharge, no natural break or end point in the distance to aim for. None of us know when the pandemic will pass and when the pressure will start to subside. For IT leaders, it’s important to consider possible causes for any heightened conflict in the IT department, beyond the fact that people are simply overworked and exhausted. Not only do they have a duty to protect the wellbeing and mental health of their people, they also need every technologist to be operating to their full potential during this critical period. They can’t afford any distractions. By understanding why more disputes are occurring within IT departments, leaders can find solutions and nip this issue in the bud before it impacts on engagement and productivity. One possible source of contention that emerges from our research is the lack of accurate, real-time data that many IT teams have into technology performance across their IT estate. This means that technologists are having to base decisions on hunches and feelings, rather than cold, hard facts. In a high-pressure environment, it’s inevitable that this will lead to differences of opinion and heated exchanges if things don’t go to plan. As our research found, almost three quarters of UAE technologists (73%) stated that they cannot afford to rely on gut instinct with technology performance anymore — they need accurate data. Rapid digital transformation and the acceleration of cloud computing initiatives have left technologists attempting to monitor and optimise an ever more dispersed patchwork of legacy, cloud and hybrid technologies, and all of which are continually presenting them with massive volumes of data. And it is this neverending data ‘noise’ which is becoming so overwhelming for technologists, because most currently don’t have adequate observability tools to effectively monitor their entire IT estate and identify performance issues quickly. For all of the pressures and challenges they are facing, UAE technologists remain optimistic about the year ahead and as committed as ever to making a positive impact to their organisations. 80% say the next year feels like a defining moment for them professionally and a chance to shine. Technologists also recognise the need to come together with people both within and outside the IT department to drive through digital transformation at speed. But they no longer want to guess or spend hours trying to identify IT performance issues — it’s not only detrimental to customers and the business, it opens the door to conjecture and conflict in the IT department. In fact, as many as 96% of UAE technologists stress that the ability to collaborate more effectively based on accurate technology performance data will be important in 2021 and 92% believe that they need to find ways to break down team silos will be important in order to succeed. Business and IT leaders must take note. If they are to meet their innovation goals and deliver world-class digital experiences for customers and employees, they should be doing all they can to make the IT department a harmonious and collaborative place.