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.