Interview with Gaela Le Janne from Wallapop
Gaela Le Janne has been working in the digital industry since she graduated in Economics & Marketing. She joined Wallapop 4 years ago when the app was just launching and she is dedicated today to engage and build long-term relationships with 21 millions of Wallapop users in Spain. Passionated about new technologies, she is also involved in Geek Girl Meetup Barcelona, the organization she co-founded to empower women in tech.
Get to know more about Gaela!
Quick quiz Gaela Le Janne – Wallapop
Gaela will join us at Applause 2018 on Friday 1st of June at W Barcelona Hotel and she will participate at the Mobile Growth panel discussion. Don’t miss Gaela’s interview!
1. How and when did you arrive to the mobile industry? Why did you decide to stay and work on this sector?
I have been working in web since I graduated 10 years ago and I could observe that little by little, a lot of businesses were turning mobile. I decided to jump into the mobile industry in 2013, to participate in the launch of a brand new project: wallapop. In some months, the app was having millions of downloads and I was fascinated to see how things were going so quickly in the app industry. I definitely want to stay in this sector: things are constantly changing and you can keep continuously learning. You can never get bored working on this sector!
2. What project are you working on now?
I have been working on the wallapop CRM for 3,5 years now, before I was in wallapop France at the Growth Team. My role is to engage and build long-term relationships with 21 million of wallapop users in Spain. Each month, wallapop launches new features (like delivery, shipping, featured format, etc) and my objective is to encourage users to use it across all our communication channels (push, in-app messages, web push, e-mail, wallapop Magazine, etc).
3. What is the most important professional quality an app marketer can have?
I thing one of the most important quality an app marketer can have is to be curious. The app industry evolves continuously and if you want to be noticed among the million of apps available in the market, you always have to go ahead your competitors. You have to be aware of the news of the sector, try new things continuously and be creative.
4. What KPIs do you control every day? Which ones are the most important?
As for wallapop, we control the number of listings, chats, item sold, users registered. We also control all the KPIs related to revenue: number of featured items, number of item shipped, etc. Our most important KPI is the number of item listed: the higher is the number of item listed, the higher are all the other KPIs.
5. What problem do you face in your everyday as an app marketer?
The main difficulty for the CRM job is to personalize as slightly as possible the communication. We have more than 20 million users, all with very different behavior, devices, characteristics. We have to work constantly on analyzing our huge database and creating accurate segmentation.
6. What is the best option to monetize a mobile app?
I think it depends a lot of the app and nobody could give an universal answer. At wallapop we believe the customer that pay a service in the app has to receive extra-value, and that is why we are constantly measuring the effectivity of our paid services and optimizing it. The more you work on offering a quality service, the more chances you have to be successful in monetizing your app.
7. What advice would you give to a company or startup before launching a mobile app?
Think big, act quick, test, optimize and be creative and disruptive.
8. What are the biggest challenges facing the mobile app industry?
The mobile app industry is still growing very fast. I think one of the biggest challenge for the millon of apps available in the market is to find the best way to monetize the app, and especially for Android users (that generate way less revenue than IOS). Another big challenge is to offer an effective and optimized experience to users across all the channels (app, tablets, web,…).
9. What trends will mark 2018?
As for CRM, the integration of Artificial Intelligence and predictive marketing will definitely keep being a strong trend for 2018. The hyper-personalization is one of the biggest challenges for CRM communication, in order to build sustainable customer relationships.
10. How do you keep up to date with all the news in the app marketing industry? What sources do you consult?
Braze blog is a good reference for CRM news and tips. As a women in the industry, I also follow @Women_in_Mobile and @Geekgirlbcn (a meetup group I have cofounded) that are both organizing great events about app & tech industry. To keep up to date with all the news in the app marketing industry, it is also very enriching to participate in events and connect with other professional in the sector.
11. What will you talk about in Applause 2018? Why the attendees shouldn’t miss your keynote?
I will be joining a panel with other mobile marketers to discuss about retention and user engagement strategies. We have tested a lot of different strategies in wallapop and I’ll reveal what is working for us. I hope to see you there and give you some tips you will be able to use too for your app.
12. To finish, what apps or games have surprised you in the last year?
I am crazy about the home connected apps: home automation seems amazing to me!
- Really happy Uber finally make it in Barcelona.
- I surprised myself buying digital currency in Coinbase and following this end of 2017 trends.
- Amazon Prime Now is definitely becoming an indispensable app on my day to day.
- And, Wallapop made an amazing job with the shipping option (and I don’t say it because I’m working on Wallpop) 😉
See you on Friday 1st of June at Applause 2018!
