The most successful retail apps have a well-defined mobile engagement strategy. Push notifications have proven to drive significant results, but they are only a piece of the story.
Urban Airship recently compiled the industry's largest study of opt-in rates and trends, revealing that on average, only 43% of users opt-in to push notifications. Of those who don’t opt-in, less than a third of users engage with an app again after the initial installation.
This is where additional tools like in-app messaging, message centers and digital wallet offerings provide a brand new opportunity. Because they allow you to address all of your users inside and outside of your app, these tools provide significantly more reach. They also provide you with a lot of control to communicate new product offers and promotions, address abandoned carts, and encourage profile signups to keep your brand top of mind.
Sign up for this webinar and join Bill Schneider, Urban Airship’s director of product marketing, to learn:
• How to expand your messaging tools beyond Push notifications
• When to use Push, In-App Messaging and Digital Wallet
• How to maximize the Push Opt-in opportunity
• Strategic insights on building messaging solutions that support each other
4. Mobile’s growing influence on sales
Source: Deloitte Digital “Navigating the New Digital Divide”
“We see both digital and mobile influence growing by
double digits, with mobile growing faster than digital.”
10. Different tools, different reach
Message Center
In-App Campaigns
Push notifications
100%
of app users
Push
opt-ins
Majority of
app users
Digital Wallet
100%
of smartphone
users
11. Establish your mobile value proposition
USERBRAND
• Sell products
• Reach, engage, retain
audience
• Generate repeat
business
• Drive in-store purchase
• Save money
• Get good value
• Make it easy
• Learn and explore
• Have fun
12. The mobile engagement process
App download
Onboarding
Conversion Retention
Re-engagement
Push opt-in
Location opt-in
Welcome series
Product view
Add to cart
Wish list
First purchase
Loyalty member signup
Customer sat
Service reminders
Replenishment
Win-back programs
Account re-activation
Branding halo
15. Massive gap between average & leaders
High-performing apps see 45% greater opt-in than median
16. The gap represents massive opportunity
Low, Medium and High opt-in rates for retail apps
Millions of users
Millions of app opens
Millions of dollars
17. 1. Set the expectation on first app open
increased 31%
since implementing
the value proposition
messaging
NHL’s opt-in rate
20. 4. Give users control
• Categorize your
notifications into
different types by utility
• Consider a manageable
way to allow users to
control notifications by
topic
26. Personalized message center
Changing the mobile
application retail
experience-
Nike Soccer content is
personalized and
dynamically fed based
on location, language,
and in-app behavior.
45. Takeaways: Get a jump on the holidays
the week before Thanksgiving as
shoppers started to plan
their holiday shopping
100%
Engagement rates jumped
46. Thank you
To learn more, download our white paper by copying this link in your browser:
http://bit.ly/1dKsMQO
Notas do Editor
Great to be hear. Intro…
We’re here today because MOBILE IS EATING THE WORLDMobile’s not just here. It’s everywhere.
Brands must think mobile-first--or die.
89% of time on phone is in apps. (Nielsen Q4 2013 data)
People spend more time on mobile than TV
People look at their phones an average of 26 times/hr
- It’s having a big impact on every sector. And retail is no different. We’re seeing a big impact on digital. But mobile is having a bigger impact and it’s happening faster than any medium previous.
Retailers can no longer afford to treat digital as a separate or distinc business. This concept goes well beyond the current conventional wisdom of omni-channel. This is not about connecting the channesl but instead about leveraging digital in a dramatically different way.
This is driving dramatic change in the retail category, with innovative companies grabbing this trend as a competitive differentiator. Deloitte found that as digital influence has increased, so has market volatility. They found that over the last 5 years the top 25 retailers lost 64 billion in market share at the hands of smaller operators.
Among consumers who use digital to shop – almost 1/3rd say they spend more due to their use of digital during the shopping process. Most often they spend more because they either perform product research (leading to purchase or take advantage of a discount they found online. People that use digital also convert 20% higher in-store.
They also found that consumers are 30% less likely to use mobile for price comparisons than last year. Indicating they are using it more for inspiration and idea generation.
By the end of this year, it’s projected that digital influence factor will be up to 64%, with over half of that being driven by mobile.
One aspect of mobile that is unique is that it’s a channel buster. It’s the anti-channel. This is redefining the way we engage our customers. It’s a consumer driven trend. So grabbing audience is incumbent upon us to win.
You mobile app bridges the digital and the physical worldIt does this through location, context, and real time messaging.It is uniquely 1:1 and connects your brand, your user, and their social network in real time.
It’s personal. So people expect it to deliver what they care about.
And the ad market is responding. Mobile ads are now up 80% y/y and climbing. This is very similar to what we saw with ppc ads when search first came on to the scene.
And the picture gets worse when you consider that the majority of your installs don’t stay with you in just a short week after they first download your app.
http://andrewchen.co/new-data-shows-why-losing-80-of-your-mobile-users-is-normal-and-that-the-best-apps-do-much-better/
We did our own study about a year ago and found similar defection rates for users that don’t opt-in to push notifications. On the positive side, we found that among uses that opted-in to push, had a 4x engagement rate and 2x retention rate – basically doubling the efficiency of your acquisition spend.
Turns installs into long-term customer relationships
16x – this number was reported by RedBox during out SXSW seminar. It was such a huge response it crashed their servers.
10x – this number was reported by the 2012 London Olympics “Join In” app, comparing pushes to email in generating audience actions.
8x – this number was reported by Air bnb, in terms of how fast people complete bookings supported by push vs. other channels
We double your return on your investment spend
And this is the opportunity for apps to take advantage of. And it’s much more than push. The surface area where you can interact with your users is expanding in this new category to provide messaging opportunities outside your app with push and digital wallet and inside your app with in-app message and message center.
Each solution provides a different level of opportunity to engage with your audience..
At the heart of your messaging is to connect with your utility with the users wants and needs. Good mobile enegagement is the overlap between brand and user goals.
It’s getting the right message to the right user at the right time
Shopping today is less about brands and products themselves and more about the consumers’ feelings and needs.
And doing it in context of the user’s journey. From the moment a user downloads your app, they are on a journey that you are trying to help them navigate.
Your goal is to create enough utility that they view you as the defacto choice in your category. To create a habit…
Step 1: Onboarding…
Typically one of the first steps in the onboarding process is the opt-in process. Push is an opt-in channel like no other. It’s intensely personal. It’s immediate and it outperforms just about every other opt-in channel in existence.
What you see here is the 50th percentile push notification opt-in rates for the 15 verticals we analyzed. By 50th percentile we are referring to the average performers. A few verticals stand out immediately. Charities and foundations – proving that people are generally good. Business, education not too far behind. And then sports, travel and utility apps. When you think about these verticals, it makes sense. People love their sports score updates, they need to know when their airport gate changes while they are traveling, and people love reminders when they need to accomplish a task in a utility app.
We were able to also get a view of year-over-year performance (2013 vs. 2014), and we found that the notification opt-in rates for most industries declined only slightly. The all industry average declined 45% to 43%.
Let’s shift gears to Retail and Media. These are two of the largest verticals represented here. They also saw the biggest declines in avg. opt-in rates, 9% and 8% drops respectively.
These are also two industries characterized by one-size-fits-all messaging, including sales from retailers and breaking news headlines from media. What we don’t see here are the 90th percentile . The top performers. These are the more advanced brands that are focused on a number of ways to ask for the opt-in the right way and also personalize push notifications.
What I want you to focus on here is the massive difference between the 90th percentile and the 50th. Good vs. great.
There is a massive gap. High-performing apps see a 45% greater opt-in than the average performer.
For retail specifically, the gap between low, medium and high opt-in rates represents millions in opportunity.
Talk about the opportunity.
Congratulations! After all that work you put into developing the app and promoting it, your prospect has downloaded. You have a unique moment here, at that first app open, to talk about your push notification program and the value of opt-in in. NHL added this user experience and saw a 31% increase in rates. As app users get bombarded more and more with the push notification prompt with every app they download, it is becoming key to . Those that do opt-in will know what to expect and the idea is they should engage at a higher rate once they do receive notifications (assuming you’ve stayed true to the value prop you promoted).
In addition to setting expectations, I truly believe it is equally important to give your user options and control. Here, you can see NHL has offered a “Not Now” button. Maybe you can hit them up later with the request.
Retail me not uses a similar tactic.
VS does a particularly good job with their opt-in process..
Those that do a good job asking for opt-in are seeing opt-in rates on the higher end.
Earlier we were talking about the offering a “remind me later” button, and then asking for the opt-in later when it is more contextual. Think about when it make the most sense to pop the question. I like this example from RetailMeNot. As I’m setting my favorite stores, I get a message asking if I want to be notified when new coupons are available. This is great! I’ve seen this on travel apps as well. As I’m viewing my flight details, an option to set notifications for that fight is presented and I can turn them on/off as I see fit.
This ideas is becoming more popular in the media vertical. ABC news app is chock full of notification personalization features.
And finally give users control
Next up is conversion
At the heart of conversion is identifying how mobile uniquely serves your customers with the problems they want to solve on that channel. Forrester research talks about these opportunities as mobile moments. The reimagining of the customer journey with mobile in mind.
And response rates have the ability to really soar
The key to engagement success is targeting
Message Centers provide a powerful way for marketing and merchandising teams to control offers and messaging in your app.
Nike Soccire uses a message center to target offers in 13 countries among numerous football clubs…
Using data can help you inform and filter your campaign.
On to retention
Mobile offers advantages that other channels don’t when it comes to retention.
It collapses the
Loyalty cards have long been a part of retention efforts. It’s been slow to attain widespread adoption, with a few leaders blazing trails. We believe this will change
now that Apple Wallet and Android Pay have been revamped to encourage more transactions, we expect wallet use to increase.
Here’s an example of using all the elements
A compelling event
Push notifications to serve as the trigger
And the loyalty offer through passbook to serve as a reward
And once you have the pass installed on your users wallet, you can keep the conversation going….
Another great way to build retention is to deliver value on existing purchases. To go above and beyond their experience to serve up something that’s truly delightful. Apple Watch certaintly does that but it can also be served through the phone..
Here’s an experience I just went through that really met the call to keep me informed and keep my interests peaked…
There are lots of places where you can add value based off a previous conversion event that keep your users engaged.
Here’s an example of creating some urgency around a product a customer previously put in a cart.
Here’s another pay it forward type campaign
So that’s
Think about in-app campaigns. So we’ve talked about standard push notifications that are opt-in only on iOS. In-app message centers that reach all app users, including opt-outs. There are also in-app “campaigns”. These are kind of like “pop-up” messages that can reach users while they are actively browsing your app. Here’s an example of what a message could read taking into some of the best practices we talked about earlier. Promote the value prop, give the user options.
And finally, think about other channels whether it is targeting opt-outs with a Facebook ad, or using email. Here are two examples from Pandora and Rue La La.
Also use low use as an opportunity to learn more.
Cattle prod
Waze does this for traffic. Dark Sky does it for weather. ESPN’s app does it for my sports teams.
It’s not a channel- front door
It’s beyond the app: nuance and amplification
It’s a daily habit: gamification- psychology behind getting people to engage
It needs to be integrated with your business: people process and infrastructure
Data provides insight that drives interaction and results
SPEAKER: Steph
Who out there is downright afraid of going to the stores on Black Friday? As Bill mentioned earlier, foot traffic in stores is down while online traffic is up. At Urban Airship, we saw engagement rates on mobile devices jump 30% on Black Friday and they held steady through the weekend. I like to break down this spike in mobile engagement in two ways. First, mobile gives in-store shoppers tools to plan their shopping excursion like never before. Second, those that chose to do shopping in the comfort of their own homes no longer feel chained to their laptop in order to be notified of the best deals.