This sponsored post is produced by Urban Airship.
Last year mobile apps alone rose to account for more time spent with media than desktop and mobile Web combined. But apps are hard to master, and many brands are still learning the art of engaging and re-engaging with app users.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1757191,"post_type":"sponsored","post_chan":"sponsored","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,enterprise,entrepreneur,marketing,mobile,","session":"C"}']Urban Airship research shows that apps that don’t engage with users via mobile messaging lose 70 percent of their audience within a month of initial download. This is a big problem, particularly as brands are ramping up investment in mobile ads to build their mobile app audiences.
So where to start? Some of the most common challenges include learning how to deploy different kinds of messages, where to direct your audience, and how to get users to return to your app regularly. Master these and you’ll be on your way to maintaining those valuable users who first intalled your app.
How can I message ALL of my app users?
Mobile messaging offers a range of opportunities to provide valuable user experiences that extend beyond your app, store, or website. The most commonly used approach is push notifications.
However, innovative brands are increasingly leveraging rich pages and in-app message centers to extend their mobile notification programs to reach all app users with persistent, branded messages. In-app messaging offers a way to consolidate content that is either “favorited” by a user or curated by a brand’s communications team.
Dig deeper: Learn more about keeping users engaged at the right time. Download Urban Airship’s “10 Questions” guide to mobile messaging.
When is it best to use push messages, in-app messages, and email?
Push messages — which appear on a smartphone’s home screen — are designed to drive action, so it’s best to use them when you want the audience to respond immediately. In-app messages — which are only viewable when a customer is actively using the app — have a longer lifespan. Use them when you’d like your audience to engage at their leisure. Email is best for delivering information that can be archived such as receipts, warranty information, etc., but keep in mind you’ll only reach a small fraction of your audience since push opt-in rates are 43 percent on average, whereas email signup rates are typically just 2 percent.
How can you entice customers to come back to your app?
Everything in your app should be delivered from the mindset of benefiting the audience. Given that a majority of apps are abandoned by users after just one use, it’s critically important to make sure that the first open of the app is carefully engineered to promote continued engagement. That can be done by immediately demonstrating value to the user. Also, instead of immediately hitting up customers with the standard opt-in prompt, we’ve found that giving them a little time to explore the app first makes them more likely to opt-in to push notifications.
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Where should mobile messages direct my audience?
Don’t send the user to the home screen of your app — you never want someone hunting for the topic that captured their interest in the first place. With push notifications, take advantage of deep links to take your audience to precisely where they want to be within your app or mobile site — a destination that encourages immediate content consumption and only takes a few seconds or clicks to get there. Message center content can be consumed at a user’s convenience.
Marketers have had decades to master email and SMS marketing, and customer acquisition is a key topic. But many brands are just now exploring the mobile messaging channel to retain and engage their app audience.
Alyssa Merrit is Head of Strategy at Urban Airship.
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