App Marketers in Quarantine: Abby Patton from Shipt

For this edition of App Marketers in Quarantine Answering Questions, Ignacio Llapur from Jampp’s Business Operations team interviewed Shipt’s Abby Patton.

Q&A with Abby Patton

Abby is Growth Marketing Manager at Shipt. Through a user-friendly app and a local network of reliable shoppers, Shipt connects its members to fresh groceries and everyday essentials. Now in over 250 cities and counting, Shipt works with vetted shoppers who are able to set their own schedules and are constantly aiming to improve member experiences through a newly developed rating system. By partnering with retailers in each city, shoppers are able to move efficiently through stores.

As a digital marketer specializing in paid and organic mobile acquisition, retargeting, and engagement campaigns, Abby started marketing for companies in Birmingham's burgeoning tech industry in 2017 and has worn many hats since. From in-depth regionalized market development research, to paid social media, to App Store Optimization management, to paid mobile acquisition, the list goes on. She specializes in analyzing data to determine needed optimizations, audits, and creative redirections. Outside of work, she’s a lover of comedy and music, and obsessed with natural sciences, so we were eager to hear her recommendations both regarding our industry and interesting content to consume this quarantine!

Ignacio: Can you start by telling us where you’re based and what the current quarantine situation is like there?

Abby: I’m based in Birmingham, Alabama, which is where Shipt is headquartered. Many individual businesses, such as Shipt, are continuing to have employees work from home.

Ignacio: How did you adapt to WFH? What cadence or advice would you have for staying connected to your team?

Abby: Like many, at first I struggled with finding the home/work life balance as my apartment and office suddenly became one. Being able to take walks around my neighborhood at the beginning of the day before I start work and at the end after I finish work has been a good way to make that separation clearer. The best way that our team has been able to stay connected and keep up rapport is by having short, weekly Zoom meetings with the sole purpose of catching up and talking about non-work related topics.

Ignacio: Have you seen any usage or behavioral trends from your users? Do you think these trends are likely to continue post quarantine?

Abby: As a grocery delivery service, we did see demand for our service skyrocket during the initial national quarantine, and overnight our service went to being seen as a necessity for many. As we view our service as a habit-forming service, we feel that though users might have come to us out of necessity during the pandemic, they will feel that grocery delivery continues to be a way to make their daily lives a bit easier.

Ignacio: How did you get started in mobile marketing/ programmatic?

Abby: Before coming to Shipt, I did market development research for another Birmingham based start-up. I came to Shipt as a support team member, but when our growth team leadership decided to expand the team to advertise more in the mobile space, they felt that my background in regional behavioral research would be useful for this position, as we were quickly launching more and more cities in our goal to bring Shipt nationwide.

Ignacio: What do you think are the main challenges growth marketers face today?

Abby: I think a common cause of concern that has come up lately is attribution with the recent changes that Apple has announced they will be implementing to tracking with iOS 14. I am interested to see how this shapes our industry as we marketers find new normals in monitoring ad performance.

Ignacio: What’s one piece of advice/ best practice about app marketing you can share?

Abby: While it is definitely important and endlessly useful to utilize vendor representatives, it’s also important to ensure that you are still living in the data and critically looking at possible optimizations. You’re going to know your company’s goals and desires more than anyone, and two pairs of eyes are always better than one.

Ignacio: What are your go-to-sources of industry news and insights?

Abby: I subscribe to the Incipia App News newsletter, as well as the Grow.Co Customer Acq. and Retention Weekly.

Ignacio: What are the benefits of running programmatic campaigns/ working with programmatic partners?

Abby: It’s a great way to fill out your media mix and be able to get your ads in front of users that you might miss otherwise. I also have found these types of campaigns useful in being able to learn more about the audience that your ads resonate with by getting reporting of the types of apps and sites that your ad is serving and converting on.

Ignacio: What do you look for in a programmatic partner?

Abby: The biggest things I look for are transparency and reporting. Some programmatic vendors are not willing to pass back information regarding where your ads are serving, but the findings are very useful in learning about your audience. I also look for the partner to be able to provide creative reporting to help inform ad creation moving forward.

Ignacio: For those of us still quarantined, do you have any podcasts/ series/ books to recommend?

Abby: I love this question!

• 🎙️ Podcasts: Creature Feature, Revisionist’s History, Reply All
• 📺 Series: Mad Men (of course), Halt and Catch Fire
• 📚 Books: Between the World and Me, Ogilvy on Advertising
  

Ignacio: That’s great, thanks for the recommendations and for taking the time to chat with us!

Staying Connected

In our App Marketers in Quarantine series, we talk with mobile experts like Abby to hear their take on the current situation and their recommendations for other app marketers. You can find more Q&As here on our blog, and if you want to participate in the series drop us a line!!