Why and How to Optimize In-App Messaging Strategy

User engagement is the key to success for any appl or for that matter any customer/client / user-centric system. Ever since the mobile apps have come to existence, the bigger challenge has been not to successfully launch the app, but to retain and grow the users. And how do you do that? By keeping your users engaged with information & promotions is just not enough. To transform an app idea into a reality and then into a successful venture, you certainly need a very effective means of customer engagement. In-app messaging aims to exactly do that and has become an app marketers’ favorite child.

In-App Messaging is beyond just a knowledge sharing tool, it is a tool to keep users engaged and give them the mandatory push to come back to the platform to engage with the community large. Whether you use in-App messaging for providing users offers 1-to-1, share some fantastic insights statistics or engage in the group activities. What-ever be the use-case, it can be used effectively for boosting an app’s user engagement.

However, the two important questions that should be addressed are: WHY and HOW you can optimize In-App Messaging Strategy.

First, let’s see WHY you should have a good strategy in place to optimize your in-app messaging.

WHY in-App Messaging Optimization?

1. Help users learn to use your App
A new user of your mobile app doesn’t exactly know how he/she can effectively use the app. By providing helpers via in-app messaging, you can make him/her feel at home. The user feels welcomed and comfortable if the app guides him on how to use it. In-app instructions help the user know where to navigate, what actions to perform and its effects. Some early guidance can really help users getting familiar with the app quickly. The idea will be for users to mingle among themselves or with product owners at one to one or one to many bases to know about the utility and benefits of the application.

2. Personalized Rewards and Offers
A must-use feature of the in-app messaging is to offer customized benefits to users and allow them to purchase right from there itself. With rich media messaging users can get customized deals and also finish their purchase within the messaging box. If the offers are made visually appealing then in-app promotions drive conversion rates beyond average.
According to the data from Smaato, the native in-app promotion had the highest install-to-register conversion rate of 35.5 percent. Hyper customized ideas of engagement can be a great way to keep users coming back and improving overall engagement rates.

3. Transactional Updates
Imagine you have purchased something from an eCommerce app of your favorite store or an eCommerce site. Soon you start getting periodical updates about the progress of your order instead of bulk emails which is tedious for you often. For that very reason, in-app transactional messages are important for any shopping app. Keeping their users updated and notified in real-time for deliveries, purchases, transaction’s success or failure, unpaid shopping carts, travel plans and so on.

4. Community Building
Humans love to connect and if they are like-minded then its lot better. It is important that you all co-users interact and share thoughts beyond just being your customer. Marketers and product managers can use these interactions for improving the product and communication strategy.

HOW to Optimize In-App Messaging?

1. Create Rich In-App Messages
The in-app message allows you to create rich media-based messages to a precise in-app text message. A great way to start a conversation which can later result in higher conversions. An in-app message can be of rich media message with a CTA, link to website or message option.
A rich in-app message means it should have the right ingredient in the right amount. Don’t overwhelm the users with more than needed content in the in-app message. Be precise and convey the right message.

2. Appealing In-App Message
An in-app message should be such effective that the user is tempted to take action and make a conversion. It should be about them and not you. For that, it should have an appealing design, user interface, and content. Using bright and catchy colors with good contrast button makes a very appealing in-app message.

3. Super- Personalize
One should always personalize rather super-personalize the in-app message. A personalized in-app message gives the user a sense of ownership and gets him excited to take action.

4. Integrate Chatbots
Designing the Chatbots for in-app interaction with users will greatly affect the user conversion and user engagement. Using AI (Artificial Intelligence) chatbots can not only give the user a great customer experience but can also train machine learning models to understand user behavior and give the user a more personalized experience. AI-based chatbots coupled with in-app messaging can take much of the load from the app and automize lots of functions.

5. A/B Testing

Always try more than one version of your in-app message to know the effectiveness of what will work better. There is a popular and effective technique called A/B Testing. A/B Testing is basically making two copies of your model and use them simultaneously. Gather data for both the copies and whichever is more effective, use that model further.

7. Use Insights and Analytics

You must analyze your in-app messages and conversions. Proper analytics of your in-app messages will show you what kind of promotions or conversions are more effective. They will also help in understanding user behavior and user conversions. The analytics of in-app messages will give you a precise report of what content keeps user more engaged and what are the key area that you need to focus on for user retention. Use conversion funnels to find out the most effective in-app messages.

In-app messages are one of the most essential parts of your app today. It is great to support your efforts for user retention, user engagement and user re-engagement. In-app messaging has potential which push notifications, emails and other channels of messaging don’t have.

Read my article on: https://www.applozic.com/blog/why-and-how-to-optimize-in-app-messaging-strategy/