Welcome back to our third installment of Back to Basics, a blog series in which we discuss beginner-level mobile engagement topics for our new customers and those interested in mobile engagement but are new to the industry. Previously, we’ve discussed audience segmentation and the goals of your messaging strategy. In this post, we’ll go over the tactics to accomplish the latter.  

Mobile Messaging Basics 

In the Goals of your Messaging Strategy post, we went over the variety of goals set with a mobile messaging strategy – increase revenue, reduce churn, drive content engagement, and company updates. But how can you actually get there? There are many different channels under the mobile messaging umbrella, each with their own strengths to accomplish your goals. Below are five mobile channels to utilize, their strengths, and examples of great campaigns.  

SMS/MMS 

Text messaging’s strengths revolve around the immediacy and the open rates. 99 percent of text messages are opened, that’s an incredible open rate. However, it’s the most personal channel – texting is typically reserved for friends and family, so if you start over texting them, you’ll likely get an unsubscribe quicker than other channels. SMS is great for very specific campaigns and should be used the most sparingly, some examples of great SMS campaigns are: 

• Important company updates and necessary customer information; e.g. COVID-19 procedures and available products and services during the pandemic 

• Geolocation targeted revenue driven campaigns; don’t overuse SMS for sales purposes too often, but offers based on users’ locations to make them more relevant can be effective 

Push 

Push notification has similarities to text messages – it likely pops up as a notification on a phone, a message that is most likely opened at time of delivery. There’s more leeway from users on how often you can send them a push but become overbearing and you risk churn. Push requires a personalized touch to stay relevant to their interests. Target them through the wealth of data available from your app. Some great push campaigns could be: 

• Hyper-personalized sales campaigns; use the 6W’s to segment your market into similar groups and provide personalized experiences.  

• Foster customer loyalty through push campaigns to app users through rewards, personalized experiences, and more 
• Drive content engagement to users interested in the content’s topic, genre, source, and more.  

In-App 

In-app messages is a newer channel within the mobile engagement industry and can be great for next-best-action campaigns. In-app should also be used quite sparingly – it should offer logical next-steps triggered from relevant app actions. You never want to disrupt someone’s app experience with an irrelevant popup. In-app is great for upsell and cross-selling campaigns and customer information. Some great campaigns would be: 

• Cross-selling campaign for relevant products; a popup message before checking out offering complementary products or adding to cart such as a pair of shorts to go with the shirt purchased 
• Upselling campaigns for relevant products; a popup message asking if you’d like to add something to your meal, more tech specs for a phone or computer, etc.  
• Messages informing customers of necessary information; e.g.. closing hours during checkout for orders in need of physical pickup 

Inbox 

Inbox is similar to email but exists within your app. A benefit of inbox is users are able to read your message when it makes sense for their schedule. Another benefit is those messages are lasting – they don’t disappear Great usage of inbox would be sending messages that are less time sensitive, such as rolling campaigns, company updates that aren’t in need of immediate action, and rewards programs. Some great campaigns for inbox could be: 

• Rolling sales or offers that will increase revenue but are available for a long period of time 
• Company updates that go into effect in the future, helpful information that isn’t pressing, or changes to memberships or policies 
• Promote joining your rewards programs and showcase the offers and benefits to members  

Mobile Wallet  

Mobile wallet is one of the newest mobile channels within mobile. Mobile Wallet exists as mobile messages within wallet platforms such as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay. A Mobile Wallet solution allows consumers to store your offers, passes, membership cards, and more within these platforms. Mobile Wallet is great to retain customers and promote loyalty. Making your offers and rewards programs more accessible will delight your users and increase conversion on your campaigns. Some great campaigns include: 

• Store coupons, offers, and rewards in users’ Mobile Wallets to increase conversion  
• Store membership cards and all the benefits in Mobile Wallet to make more accessible and make your members happy – thus increasing loyalty