Countless user personas and behaviors make it hard to know which user is interacting with which channel. Creating interactions with users through the right channels helps you reach your goal efficiently. Next Best Channel (NBC) automates your decisions about users by leveraging strong data analytics functions, complementing Next Best Action and Next Best Product (NBA/NBP) decisions by choosing the delivery channel rather than the offer itself.
Fundamentally, Next Best Channel performs channel optimization by deciding on the best channel option for each user and leading them to the specified channel.
You can select the following channels for the Next Best Channel:
How does Next Best Channel work?
Next Best Channel uses machine learning (ML) to calculate the probability of user engagement for each messaging channel. This algorithm is also used for the Likelihood to Engage predictive segments of Insider One.
Each user’s engagement probability for each channel is predicted using ML models that consider hundreds of different signals from users on your website, mobile app, and messaging channels over the last 6 months, including interactions with messages sent by both single-channel campaigns and Architect Journeys. These models are updated regularly by Insider One’s AutoML platform Delphi. The engagement probability model adjusts itself based on the changing behaviors of customers and seasonal conditions. The number and importance of the input signals vary among channels and change with time to fit recent user behavior better. Below, you can see some examples:
The first time that a user receives/opens a message,
The average time it takes a user to receive/open a message,
The number of times that a user receives/opens a message,
User’s click-through rate for a channel,
Total number of the user’s sessions on website and mobile app,
Total number of the user’s page views on the website and mobile app,
Total number of the user’s purchases on the website, mobile app, and CRM,
The user’s average period/frequency of purchases,
The user’s average session duration,
The user’s reachability status for the channel,
The Engagement Probability algorithm decides which channel is best for that user by selecting the channel with the highest probability of engagement.
If a user’s scores are equally good for multiple channels, Next Best Channel will randomly decide which channel to use, or it will use the Fallback Channel if the customer specifies it.
Advantages of the Engagement Probability algorithm
Uses all messaging data, including all message interactions from single-channel campaigns and Architect journeys.
Considers Reachability as an additional parameter in its decision-making.
Specializes in messaging channels such as Web Push, App Push, Email, SMS, and WhatsApp. Each messaging channel has its own algorithm based on the nature of its interaction types.
Adjusts itself to changing conditions, such as customers' campaign usage and a changing user base, to normalize the data.
Channel scores calculated by the Engagement Probability Algorithm are updated daily.
The Engagement Probability algorithm is trained for 6 months of past user data.
If a channel has fewer than 1,000 engagement events in the last month, NBC cannot be used for that channel, and a validation error will appear before launching the journey.
Engagement events required for each channel are listed below:
Web Push: Click, View
App Push: Click
Email: Open, Click
SMS: Click
WhatsApp: Click, Reply
Use cases
With Next Best Channel in your journeys, you can:
Engage users through the most appropriate channel to lead them towards your goal.
Evaluate which channel is generally the best for your user base.