Push notifications are a great way of interacting with your most valuable app users and driving them back into the app to complete key actions. But their reach is ultimately limited to users who have chosen to opt in for notifications. This is why the in-app inbox provides a huge engagement opportunity for marketers and developers. A centralised inbox inside your app essentially acts as a dedicated content repository for all of your users. For every push campaign you deliver to your opted-in users, you can send a broadcast or tailored campaign to the app inbox, allowing your users to access content at their own convenience.

The marketing opportunities are endless and it’s not just limited to e-commerce or news publisher brands either. Depending on your audience, inbox campaigns can include highly targeted time-sensitive offers, breaking news updates, tailored by viewing history, and personalised transactional and service messaging. Think of it this way: you have gathered all of these rich, valuable insights on every user which you can now directly leverage to drive engagement and increase customer loyalty using rich, customised messaging.

We like to think of it in terms of nurturing a friendly and consistent level of dialogue between you and your customers. With this in mind, here are 5 examples where the app inbox can really enhance your mobile engagement strategy:

 

1. Nurture your app users at every stage of the lifecycle

 

Set-First-Goal

 

It goes without saying that onboarding is absolutely critical to engage and retain new users, especially when a user has opted out of notifications. This is where the engagement potential of the inbox can really drive user journeys to successful goal completions. When a user initially opens the app, the inbox can display a welcome series of messages to users, allowing them to get started quickly.

This can be particularly effective, for example, with a productivity or lifestyle app that requires the user to become familiar with certain app features in order to get the best possible user experience.

 

2. Avoid Push Notification fatigue

 

Scheduled-Offers

 

Although we now live in an age where customers expect highly personalised communications, it’s still very easy for brands to bombard their users with push and in-app notifications. For e-commerce retailers, in particular, there is always the inherent danger of delivering too many notifications about offers and flash sales, resulting in frustrated customers and a surge of opt-outs.

Retailers can still deliver targeted time sensitive offers to the inbox, however, which the user can browse at their leisure. What’s more, each inbox notification can have a set expiry date to ensure users always have access to the latest offers and promotions, even when they retrieve content at a later date.

 

3. Boost Page Views by promoting similar content

 

News-App-Inbox

 

Publishers frequently leverage the immediacy of push notifications to share breaking news updates with their readers. These serve to drive users into the app and boost incremental advertising revenue. When a publisher adds a deeplink that directs a user back to the article in question, they can display similar content of interest to their readers in the adjoining app inbox to drive app engagement and deliver truly personalised experiences.

 

4. Support a wider variety of User Experiences

 

Airport-Inbox

 

Push messaging can be limited by its very stringent content restrictions, particularly on iOS. The app inbox can support rich, HTML5 content, meaning that everything that is going on with your brand, from social streams to email content can easily be repurposed for the app inbox.

An example brand where this would be very useful is a major international retail airport. They want to deliver weekly offers from their retail tenants and promote third-party services, such as parking and car hire, to their users as they move around the airport. Using the app inbox, the airport can easily upload their own customised HTML5 creative from week to week. The rich media capabilities can also allow passengers to retrieve redeemable mobile coupons and download an airport guide at ease.

 

5. Increase Customer Lifetime Value

 

Game-Inbox

 

Mobile marketers are faced with the everyday challenge of driving user engagement and increasing average revenue per user in a highly competitive space. The typical mobile customer is inundated with notifications, from social media to mobile messaging apps. Capturing a dormant customer’s attention with push messaging is not always easy.

This is why the app inbox is incredibly beneficial in allowing users to retrieve content later at their leisure, uncluttered from other marketing materials. A gaming app, for example, can use the inbox to display personalised promotions to gamers based on their level in the game, purchase history and whether they are close to hitting a milestone. Delivering a consistent level of personalised content that enhances the user experience will drive increased revenue from your most valuable users.

 

About Xtremepush

As part of our suite of analytics and engagement technology, Xtremepush provide a fully customisable branded Mobile App Inbox that allows brands to reach out and connect with their entire audience using personalised, rich media messaging. To find out more, please contact our sales team.