One (Fictional) Marketer’s Journey: Focus on Affected Users

Jenny takes your advice and, before doing anything drastic, she searches through the email chain to identify what the actual problem was and who the bug impacted.

Turns out, only 30 percent of the user base were impacted, and only 10 percent of their monthly active users had updated the app. It was also an Apple-only bug, which limited the reach of this snafu even more. The bad version was pulled back from the App Store, so no one else can install it. Feeling relieved that they had a chance to get ahead of things, Jenny outlines a plan for her boss before getting to work.

First, she suppresses iOS users from all the update-focused campaigns and Canvases. Then she creates one segment of users who have already installed the version, and another segment of users who have installed it and are impacted by the bug (turns out it’s only users on an older OS). Lastly, she makes a segment of users who have the old OS but have not yet updated the app.

With her segments created (bonus, she can track the sizes of each over time), she builds out three quick campaigns:

1. An in-app message for all users on the older iOS versions who haven’t updated the app yet, warning them not to update to the new version until they get the all-clear. She knows the update has been rolled back, but figured it was better safe than sorry.
2. An email campaign to target the users on the older iOS who unfortunately did update the app and now can no longer even open it (rendering most of their marketing channels useless). She lets them know what’s going on and when they can expect a fix, and directs them to The Politer’s mobile website, where they can still read the news.
3. A clone of the original Canvas that was supposed to start deploying to users with the update...and simply suppresses the segment of users who the new update won’t work for. She figures there’s no reason to turn off all marketing for everybody!

Jenny recognizes that this wasn’t the easiest route, but she’s confident that messaging customers for the experience they were having, instead of making a blanket statement, was the right call. She just hopes the chain of command feels the same way...