which mobile app have the highest engagement score

jordan mobile media consumption : iOS vs android

statscounter data : feb 2016-feb,2017

There are 7.5 million unique Mobile subscribers in Jordan , with 10. 3 million of SIM connections(GSMA intelligence data) 3G penetration is already over 70% in Jordan and covers over 4.5million users while mobile broadband is a key growth area for Jordan, with 4G services already on offer. By 2020 4G penetration could reach as much as 70%.

In Jordan iOS devices are the Mobile OS of choice with over 85% market share, followed by Android whose market share is less than 15%.This means over 6.3million users have a iOS device in Jordan. Across Tablets too, the app store continues to be more popular in Jordan with 56% user base following by Android with 41 % marketshare . UAE,Egypt, and Jordan ranks among the top 3 countries when it comes to the number of mobile app downloads in this region

vectramind and cerner ties up to provide mobilehealth solutions

Cerner has joined forces with Vectramind, a mobile messaging solutions provider based in Dubai, to develop a multi-channel messaging platform. The new platform seeks to provide Cerner clients with real-time health data and personalized care management. The new tool can be integrated into Cerner's EMR and population health platforms.“This new relationship will bring to all of Cerner’s clients a tool for using mobile messaging technology that can be integrated with Cerner’s EMR and population health platforms,” commented Dr. Murali Krishna, Founder and CEO, Vectramind. 

The Tie up with Vectramind will ensure Cerner clients to increase their r reach to their patient populations, whether it’s alerting of operational KPI’s, appointment reminders, targeted condition management campaigns, or even marketing campaigns in general. Additionally and specialized for Dubai, the solution will be utilized to manage the required notifications to the patients for Pharmacy Benefits, eClaims, eReferrals and eAuthorizations,” shared Michael Pomerance, VP and MD, Cerner Middle East.

This new platform will include not just SMS services but also OTT messaging services, USSD messaging services, near field communications and secure encrypted messaging. This innovative mHealth solution is expected to add value to the way in which health care professionals connect with their patients and provide health care services.To know more about Vectramind click here

mobile internet penetration across MENA nations

Mobile internet adoption in MENA continues to grow and proliferate rapidly.The number of mobile internet subscribers in middle east and north Africa surpassed 200 million (which was 36% of the population) by mid-2016, with an additional 87 million expected by 2020. 

However, in developing countries in the region, such as some of the African Arab States, more than two thirds of the population on average do not use the mobile internet. 

However according to  latest data from GSMA ,by 2020, more than half of the population in countries such as Somalia and Djibouti will remain offline. Meanwhile mobile internet Subscribers in MENA are increasingly migrating to mobile broadband services, with mobile playing a crucial role in providing Internet access given the general lack of fixed broadband infrastructure in the region. By the middle of 2016, mobile broadband (3G and above) accounted for more than 40% of connections, up from just under 30% in 2014. While this is below the global average of 51%, it once again hides variation across the region. 

In Israel and Kuwait, for example, mobile broadband connections accounted for 88% and 84% of total connections in Q2 2016 respectively, and will account for over 95% by 2020. At the other end of the scale, only 4% of connections in Somalia were mobile broadband in Q2 2016, and Comoros and Palestine have yet to launch 3G networks

middle east and north african unique mobile subscribers exceed 350 million

By mid-2016, there were 339 million unique subscribers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, accounting for 60% of the population. According to the latest GSMA intelligence data global subscriber penetration across middle east and north african countries are now are the second least penetrated region in the world.

However there is though huge variation between countries in the region, from the advanced Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states where 77% of the population on average are mobile subscribers, to some of the African Arab states such as Comoros, Djibouti and Somalia where subscriber penetration is less than 30%. Subscriber growth rates will slow further over the next few years due to the more advanced markets approaching saturation, the challenge of growing penetration in the less developed markets, and unstable political and economic conditions in several markets that are currently showing little sign of improvement. As a result, subscriber penetration will reach only 63% by 2020, below the global average of 73%

In 2015, mobile technologies and services generated 4% of GDP in the MENA region, a contribution that amounted to more than $150 billion of economic value. In the period to 2020 this will increase to almost $200 billion (4.2% of GDP) as countries benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by increased take-up of mobile services

how chatbots have begun revolutionizing brand messaging

We all hate being stuck on a long customer service call, trying to start a chat session, or waiting a whole day or more for a company to email us back on a complaint.  Interacting with a chatbot is easier than waiting on the customer service helpline number. Now consider is if you have the option  of brands connecting you via Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, or other messaging app? 

OOT messaging companies  are on the cusp of  creating messenger bots are used for everything from sending delivery notifications and confirming reservations,making a payment  to displaying specific pages from company websites without leaving the messaging app.

This messaging revolution has actually started .Retailers ranging from Nordstrom to DSW and Sephora have started to offer chatbots to find presents for your friends and family through Facebook Messenger. Need advice on making a dessert that’s gluten free? Whole Foods’ bot makes it easy to find a recipe for any occasion and dietary preference

 Chatbots offer immense potential for consumers to interact with a brand in an organic way, through one-on-one conversations within the messaging or social apps they already use. Facebook Messenger bots  have already started to accept payments natively without sending users to an external website 

What that means that the credit card information people already have stored in Facebook or Messenger can be used to instantly make purchases in bots that are part of the new closed beta the developers can apply for. To support payments in Messenger, Facebook is working with all the major players in the industry including Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Visa, MasterCard and American Express 

 And instead of forcing all bot interactions to happen through text, developers can now build web views into conversations to pull in interfaces from their websites. This way you could scroll a list of flights, consume different types of media, or even play basic games while still in the chat window. 

If the recent  findings  from the UK based marketing firm Kenshoo, which commissioned a poll of 2,000 consumers split equally between the UK and France are anything to go by ,it seems that by and large consumers( (53%) of all people in the UK and France who use mobile messaging apps  are open to interacting with bots  they can choose to block brands and  they get to control and choose  brands allowed to message them.

• Over half (51%) of messaging app users in Kenshoo’s study see messaging as faster and more immediate than email interactions with companies, while 48% feel it would be less hassle than voice calls.
• According to the Kenshoo study,  46% said they would be tempted by the prospect of receiving exclusive deals and offers, while 25% said they would use messaging to respond to ads, — 35% to participate in games and competitions in which they could win prizes, and — 24% said they would like to use messaging to receive updates on products and services they have expressed an interest in. “

Of the 2,000 UK and French consumers polled as part of Kenshoo’s study, 71% use mobile messaging apps with 51% saying they use Facebook Messenger and 40% using WhatsApp. Snapchat and Skype (for messaging on a phone) are each used by 20%. About 29% said they did not use messaging apps.

3 best practices for targetting mobile app users via messaging channels

Broadly there are 3 ways to targeting mobile app users to ensure greater engagement across mobile devices. 

1)MOBILE MESSAGING WITHIN APPS

2)DIGITAL CHANNELS ADAPTED FOR MOBILE

3)NATIVE MOBILE ENGAGEMENT CHANNELS 

MOBILE MESSAGING WITHIN APPS: These Messaging Channels have three distinct messaging capabilities and they have 3  are ways to drive mobile engagement within the mobile app channels. They consist of a)Push Notification b)In-App Messages and c)Message Centers

• Push Notifications: Push notifications have quickly become the leading opt-in communication channel. Urban Airship benchmark studies have found that, on average, 43% of users request these notifications. Push Notifications are delivered to a phone’s lock screen or via an onscreen banner alert, push notifications drive users to the app and are ideal for time-sensitive information. By including segment attributes like location, in-app behavior,message preferences and more, targeted push notifications are able toachieve greater mobile app engagement — approximately a 4-7x higher response rate — than their broadcast counterparts. 

There are two ways to use push notifications to get even greater mobile engagement/lead gen ratio

•  Rich notifications provide the ability to engage customers more deeplyby including photos, videos, GIFs and audio in a push notification,delivering it right on a user’s lockscreen. A recent mobile push engagement  research shows rich push notifications that include pictures result in a 56% higher direct open rate on average than notifications without images.Meanwhile  Interactive notifications are push notifications with interactive buttons that provide multiple response options, enabling users to interactand engage at a deeper level. 
  
  
• In App Notifications:In app notifications deliver simple, text based notifications that appear on your locked screen within the app via app on the top or bottom of the screen . As these notifications are delivered on your app they are not opt in and hence reach out to more mobile users than traditional email 
  
  
• Message Centre: An in-app message center reaches all app users and can help drive people back into your app through badge counters on your app icon (badging isiOS only). Think of it as an inbox for your app: an easy-to-author content publishing platform that allows you to send the latest offers, promotions and rich content to your audience without having to either update the app or stop users in their tracks. It’s ideal for communications and messages that are not time-sensitive

2)DIGITAL CHANNEL ADAPTED FOR MOBILE WEB :As the world computing shifts from the desktop to the smartphone, the mobile web has not only become the central digital channel ,but also has replaced desktop as a ubiquitous mobile channel where majority of search activity are happening and they consist of a)Social media/Mobile Email

• Social Media Channels :Brands which are present across social channels such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn have a greater tendency to be more visible, and are more likely to be picked by by google ,can be a great, low-cost approach to engaging with fans and broaden conversations. However, posts can be quite ephemeral and transitory — the average lifespan of a tweet is pegged at 18 minutes.
• Mobile Email :Mobile email is a technology in transition — it struggles to get the engagement rates it sees on desktop. According to Yesmail Interactive, mobile devices account for 64.5% of all email opens, but desktop conversion rates are 50% higher, with click-to-open rates at least twice as high for most industries.

3) NATIVE MOBILE ENGAGEMENT CHANNELS ; These mobile channels consists

a) Mobile Sms b) Mobile Wallets c)Wearable Device Notifications 

•  Short Message Service (SMS & MMS)Messaging Service : Text messaging or multimedia messaging, as we commonly refer to it — has broad usage and a 98% open rate, making it a natural channel for mobile engagement.
  
  
• Mobile Wallets :The term “mobile wallet” (also referred to as “digital wallet,” “wallet passes,” or “mobile wallet passes”) describes content or information in the form of a wallet item or pass stored in the Apple Wallet, Android Pay or other similar native apps on a smartphone. Think of mobile wallet as the digital equivalent of all the everyday things included in a physical wallet: loyalty cards, coupons, special offers, business cards, tickets, credit cards and more. Mobile wallet marketing is effective for mobile engagement because a wallet pass can be easily created, managed and updated, allowing a business to communicate with it’s audience and still reduce costs compared to traditional physical card programs.Similar to push notifications, expirations and location-aware reminders can also be sent to users’ home screens
  
  
• Wearable Device Notifications :Wearable marketing calls for more relevant, immediately actionable messaging. Notifications on these devices need to be concise and short, using headlines, symbols, alerts and more — anything that helps the user digest information instantly. Wearables, such as smartwatches, are integrated into the user’s larger device ecosystem including smartphones, tablets, computers, e-readers and mobile apps. Notifications delivered can serve as an independent experience and a gateway to more robust experiences across app-based properties.

top 10 mobile push notifications insights

While push notifications are not a standalone strategy, they are one of the first and best indicators of whether mobile app initiatives will be successful.

1)Push notifications boost app engagement by 88% and 65% of users return to an app within 30 days when push notifications is enables (Source: Localytics Data Team)

2)Data from Urban Airship shows that app users who opt in to push notifications are 4x more engaged than users who opt out 3

3)In-app messages increase app launches by 27%. The data also shows that they are also retained at more than double the rate of opt-out users.

4)Furthermore, our original research, based on a review of nearly 3,000 apps and 100 billion notifications sent to more than 500 million users in 2014, showed significant differences in marketing message engagement on mobile.

5) Sending even more high value push notifications can increase your app retention rate by 2-10x, while targeting your push notifications can improve response ratesby 4-7X

6)High-performing apps have opt-in rates above 50%. Compare these opt-in rates to how many people sign up to receive email communications from a brand — industry estimates peg it at 2%. High-performing iOS apps get 6x more engagement with notifications than average performers

7)On Android, high-performers have nearly 4x the engagement rates than average performers Among industries Retail has been the fastest of all industries to adopt in-app messaging.Retail
industry  get nearly 6x more in-app message opens than average performers, with more than 50% of their audience taking action to open the message Average retail apps get nearly 5x more in-app message opens than they do direct taps/swipes on notifications.

To know more about mobile messaging and push notifications click here 

3 ways to boost mobile engagement and downloads: best practices

industry best practices to increase mobile engagement and boost app downloads