Localytics has just published a sort of tutorial on push messaging in social media apps — complete with tips and tricks for each of these big boys: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat.

The lesson begins with the oft-noted caveat: “Push messaging in social media apps can be tricky — you want to drive user engagement, but you also don’t want to irritate your users.”

Well said, Localytics.

Having the scoop on several of the biggest, most popular, and most influential social media sites is worth its weight in Facebook likes (or perhaps more).

There are some critical takeaways for social media push messaging, too.

“The biggest thing social networks need to work on is moving past the safe and standard community update notifications. Social apps should be using more call to actions and fun feature notifications to get users engaged and active within the app,” notes the post. “Another important element for social media apps is the notification settings. Make sure your push notification settings are easy to find and don’t require too much digging by users (these are important user settings, not a dead body).”

The tutorial even puts a good word in for creativity (we couldn’t agree more) and plays around with a few push ideas of its own (and invites commenters to add theirs in the comments section).

If you’ve been feeling the pull to push messaging, this one’s for you!

The post Feeling the Pull to Push Messaging in a Social Media App? Localytics Tutorial Goes Beyond the Basics appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Nine out of the 10 top e-retailers in the 2015 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 make use of push notifications to market content to consumers.

“The way to market to mobile users might just be through the push notification—notifications that pop up on a smartphone or tablet when a consumer isn’t actively engaging with the app,” according to a post at InternetRetailer. “For example, if a retailer has a sale that starts at 10 a.m., a notification could pop up at that time on a shopper’s phone whether or not she has the app open.”

Push notifications are on the rise. A study published by mobile messaging analytics firm OtherLevels in May found that 77 of the top 100 e-retailers, per the 2013 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, had mobile apps. The number of retail apps employing push notifications increased 48 percent from 2012 to 2013, and 66 percent of the top 100 retailers with an app used them, the study discovered.

Push notifications have been shown to increase engagement and retention among consumers, especially for retailers. Consumers who opted in to push notifications on retail apps generated 40 percent more monthly app opens than opted-out consumers, according to a study from Urban Airship, a vendor focusing on mobile push messaging.

The post 90 Percent of Top Internet Retailers Now Use This Mobile Marketing Tactic appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Consumers there are opting in to receive these push notifications for various reasons of course, including receiving offers and promotions, which was the top reason for doing so. Product launches and new products were also two significant reasons for opting in and allowing marketers to send or “push” marketing messages to them on their mobile devices.

That being said, UK consumers also don’t like to be pushed around and the data also showed that nearly 80% have no problem disabling or uninstalling and app if they’re not happy with it. In fact, a study from February showed that UK consumers were more likely to opt out  then opt in to marketing communications like emails (See the data here).

It’s good news and bad news for mobile marketers in the UK but, since nearly 60% of adult consumers in the country have downloaded at least one app, it’s definitely an opportunity to reach an extremely large audience.

The post Mobile Marketers Getting Pushy with UK Consumers… and its Paying Off appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“Ease of reach must not be confused for carte blanche,” says Mickey Alam Khan, one of the webinar’s organizers. “Yet many marketers today do not understand how their ubiquitous messages, be they via mobile email, SMS or push alerts, threaten the very relationships that took a long time to cultivate.”

“Indeed, the balancing act is gauging how to temper messages from marketers to consumers, and identifying strategies and tactics that resonate and fit easily into the marketer’s overall marketing mix,” adds Khan, editor-in-chief of Mobile Marketer.

With the stated goal of informing and educating retailers, brands, agencies, publishers and marketers on mobile advertising, marketing and media, this hour-long webinar is set for Thursday, April 24th at 2pm EST.

Panelists will discuss “what is working and what is not with email, SMS and push in the mobile context as message fatigue among consumers becomes a reality.”

To learn more or to register for the webinar, click here.

The post Webinar: Avoid Message Fatigue Across Email, SMS and Push appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Voxer announced today that its business service, Voxer Business, has been named the Best Overall App and Best Social Business App in the Silicon Valley Business App (SVBA) Awards.

The SVBA Awards are sponsored by Regalix, Inc.

The awards program is designed to “recognize the best achievements in business app development and facilitate the growth of the developer community by emphasizing best practices and strategies.”

The SVBA panel of judges selected the winning apps from submissions received from around the globe.

Awards were given for Best Overall, Best Social Business, Best Management, Best Finance, Best Productivity, and Best Business Utility.

For those unfamiliar with the platform, Voxer Business is a high performance PTT service that enables its users to communicate with one another from anywhere in the world in real-time and across all modern iOS, Android, and Windows devices.

“Businesses with distributed workforces need a way to communicate quickly and efficiently from a reliable service that works from just about anywhere,” says Nicole Strada, head of marketing at Voxer. “Taking home the win for best overall and best social business app further validates our goal to provide efficient and instantaneous communication for organizations that are dealing with a growing mobile workforce.”

The post Mobile Multimedia Messaging Platform Earning Praise in Silicon Valley appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following post is a guest contributed article by Cezary Pietrzak, Director of Marketing at Appboy.

One of the most successful weapons in a mobile app marketer’s toolbox has been the push notification. Popularized by Apple in 2009, the marketing channel has gained incredible traction over the last few years, lighting up billions of smartphones with short messages about breaking news, launching sales and friends’ activity. Those who use push regularly see engagement jump by 30-60%, a breath of fresh air for an industry plagued with abysmal retention rates.

The beauty of push is that it gives marketers unsolicited access to their audience. Once a person authorizes push on a particular app, that app has the ability to send them notifications 24/7 and incentivize them to return to the app experience.

But, as a growing number of marketers adopt the medium and the average number of apps on each phone rises, there are clear signs of push fatigue. Rather than delivering utility or entertainment, many push notifications now clutter mobile phone screens, interrupt people at the wrong moment, present information that lacks context and drain a phone’s battery life.

Despite these warnings, many marketers still equate push notifications with a mobile messaging strategy. Some are not aware that other marketing channels exist in mobile, while others don’t take the time to utilize them. Many also lack a customer-first approach and ask questions like, “What should we do with push?” rather than “How should we communicate with our customers?”

Luckily, nothing in the mobile ecosystem stays the same for too long. In recent months, a variety of messaging options have emerged that give marketers new ways to engage their audience and free them of their overreliance on push. Let’s review the most interesting ones and explore how marketers can utilize them to achieve their business goals.

In-App Messages

In-app messages are growing in popularity because they provide the same communication channel within an app as push does outside the app. Think of them as small notifications that slide up from the bottom of your app and alert you of something interesting or important. Because they disappear after a few seconds, in-app messages are much less invasive to people than push. Marketers often use this channel to drive feature discovery, encourage and reward their customers and also to upsell them via in-app purchases. The ability to add protocol URLs to in-app messages means that you can drive your audience to any part of your app and personalize the experience.

News Feed

Can a news feed be a messaging channel? Of course! Many marketers have realized that this well-understood mechanism is a great way to drive engagement with their customers. A news feed is beneficial because it acts as a repository of information that people can access at any point during the app experience. Some apps use news feeds in conjunction with a notification center to alert people of a new message. Others store their push notifications and in-app messages directly in the feed so they can be referenced later. Still others import their RSS feed or blog content to provide people with a constant stream of news. The beauty of the news feed is it that it integrates nicely into the existing app experience and can be accessed at the leisure of each person.

Email

Many marketers are still waking up to the power of email in the web world (where open rates grew to 16.3% in Q4 2012), so it’s not surprising that they’re completely neglecting this channel in mobile. For apps that collect email addresses, email carries several benefits. Similar to push, it’s a very effective way to drive app re-engagement when the message links directly to an app. A recent stat suggests that 41% of emails are now opened on mobile and will surpass desktop by the end of 2013, which makes this possible on a larger scale. Because it’s accessible from desktop devices, email can also be used to drive input-intensive transactions that are better suited for a big screen. Finally, the medium is permanent and can be accessed at any time, making it perfect for longer-form content such as a summary of a person’s in-app activity. Email will continue to grow in popularity as more marketers realize it carries the same benefits on mobile as on the web.

Social Messaging

Apps that authenticate with Twitter or other social networks give marketers another option for communication. Social messaging is especially useful to respond to complaints or praise that happen outside the app experience, as well as to engage with people in a 1-to-1 dialogue. Smart marketers often use social data to proactively identify their most influential customers, and focus their relationship-building efforts with this group. While social communications are not scalable (you can’t send a mass message to all of your Twitter followers), it’s still an important part of the broader conversation in mobile.

So, how can you approach the new reality of multi-channel messaging?

First, start with a customer-centric approach to all communications. This involves getting a better understanding of your customers and their needs and creating messages that enhance the value of the app experience. If you’re a marketing pro, it means defining a formal content strategy with micro- and medium-length content that appeals to the small-screen environment.

Then, do an inventory of all the messaging channels at your disposal and match each one’s role against the messages you created. For communications that drive re-engagement, push notifications or email may be best, while engagement within an app is better served with in-app messages or a news feed.

All messages you create should be as personal and contextual as possible, ideally sent to specific segments of your audience. You should also be careful about the frequency of your interactions, as too many messages may upset your customers and force them to leave permanently. Too much of anything is never good.

To be clear, push notifications aren’t going away very soon. They will continue to be a great mechanism for re-engagement and will evolve alongside the rest of mobile. But as the ecosystem becomes more powerful and more complex, it’s clear that push alone won’t suffice as compelling marketing strategy. A new, multi-channel messaging world has arrived. Marketers who harness its power to deliver a better mobile experience to customers will be the winners.

About The Author

Cezary is the Director of Marketing at Appboy, a customer engagement platform for mobile apps. He writes about mobile strategy and advises mobile businesses on engagement and retention. Read his thoughts on Appboy’s blog and follow him on Twitter at @cezinho.

The post Beyond Push Notifications: The Rise of Multi-Channel App Messaging appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Put differently, push marketing means to push a product into the buyer’s line of sight when they’re not already looking for it.

Push marketing efforts generally encompass a wide reach. From text messages (SMS marketing) to TV commercials, an immense variety of mediums today use an equally vast array of marketing strategies that employ some form of push marketing.

While some deride the strategy as “interruptive,” there should be no concerns for you or your message recipient as long as the push marketing efforts are handled appropriately and executed correctly. Consider, for example, Groupon. Many digital offers served up by Groupon are deemed entertaining and informational, despite what some may see as being little more than “pushy” adverts.

Push marketing is commonly considered to be most effective when a business needs to raise awareness for new or largely unknown products and services.

The post What is Push Marketing? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The platform in question is designed to help connect merchants with both current and potential customers in real-time.

This approach grants merchants the ability to build direct relationships within their community while enjoying a competitive edge. With Babberly, merchants can connect with loyal users that are looking for their products and/or services when and where they need them.

According to details put forward today in an official press release from the company, Babberly says that with more and more merchants searching for a way to tap into the ever-growing trend of the “SoLoMo” (social, local, mobile) phenomenon, the company’s offering serves as a low cost, real time marketing solution that is superior to other platforms.

“We are on a mission to provide merchants with an easy way to connect with their local community and drive more business through their doors,” says Babberly’s CEO Bobby Marhamat. “Babberly is an on-trend “local goes social” solution that we’re excited to put into the hands of merchants so they can reach our ever-growing user base of potential customers.”

To learn more about the new platform, click here.

The post Babberly Unveils Hyperlocal Mobile Ad Platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This webinar will discuss every facet of push messaging; including how it works and why some of the largest brands around are using the technology for user engagement and retention.  “While the number of connected consumers continues to skyrocket, brands still struggle to drive core business goals using mobile marketing,” the company explains.  “Consider changing that with a mind-blowing mobile opportunity: using relationship-driven push messaging to increase consumer engagement, conversion, and retention.”

Brent Hieggelke, CMO of Urban Airship, will discuss how different types of organizations deliver real-time, context-driven interactive engagement using push technology.  Based on real-world examples, the webinar will also uncover best practices and new technologies to help put these practices into place.  The goal is that attendees will walk away knowing how to bring together customer location, CRM, and customer-stated preference data to build relationships that translate into improved customer lifetime value.

The webinar is scheduled for Tomorrow, August 21st at 10am PDT.  You can register to attend here.

The post Webinar Tomorrow: Mobile App Engagement & Retention Using Mobile Push Messaging appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Urban Airship, the largest provider of push messaging technology, is sponsoring a new webinar right here on MMW to discuss every facet of push messaging; including how it works and why some of the largest brands around are using the technology for user engagement and retention.  “While the number of connected consumers continues to skyrocket, brands still struggle to drive core business goals using mobile marketing,” the company explains.  “Consider changing that with a mind-blowing mobile opportunity: using relationship-driven push messaging to increase consumer engagement, conversion, and retention.”

Brent Hieggelke, CMO of Urban Airship, will discuss how different types of organizations deliver real-time, context-driven interactive engagement using push technology.  Based on real-world examples, the webinar will also uncover best practices and new technologies to help put these practices into place.  The goal is that attendees will walk away knowing how to bring together customer location, CRM, and customer-stated preference data to build relationships that translate into improved customer lifetime value.

The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21st at 10am PDT.  You can register to attend here.

The post New Webinar: Mobile App Engagement & Retention Using Mobile Push Messaging appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.