Leveraging The Best Of Mobile Notifications & Emails To Drive Engagement |
Posted: May 7, 2020 |
When you are promoting your business through digital marketing channels, there are several methods to help you out. The primary task of any marketing activity is to reach your users with appropriate messages and convince them to convert. Yet, selecting the right channel to do so, and ideating the right message could be the toughest job of all. Moreover, the sheer number of communicating channels complicates the issue further. Thus, marketers often find that communicating with users and potential customers might not be as easy as it seems. So, how much can go wrong if you are not reaching or engaging your users? Well, a few statistics can be help look at the actual picture. It is expected that there will be around 1.92 billion digital buyers globally in 2019. That’s almost 25% of the world’s population. Now, studies have also revealed that the average ecommerce conversion rate is only 2.86%. Therefore, with a sub 3% conversion rate, you can calculate the revenue you are potentially losing out. The right marketing channelKnowing the importance of selecting the right marketing channel brings us to the next dilemma - which one? Before we get to that, let me explain the reason for choosing a particular channel as the preferred mode of communicating.
Any marketing channel should follow some basic principles to engage users effectively. The message you send must be clear and concise. The product description must be accurate and have at least one image. Besides, it must contain a CTA to help users on their buying journey. It should not look spammy or intrude upon the privacy of the users. And lastly, the communication must enable users to convert by nudging them towards the bottom of the funnel.
Although several marketing channels and communication medium satisfies these essential criteria, the degree of success varies a lot between them. However, considering the reach, urgency, and ease of operation, two channels tend to keep ahead - mobile notifications and emails.
This can be attributed to the incremental usage of mobile phones since the last decade. Besides, a native push notification can be sent through web and app, and emails are sent to the email id, both accessible via a smartphone. Additionally, mobile users check their emails thrice as much on a mobile phone, hence making communicating with them much easier.
Since both the channels work great, you must know the pros and cons before selecting one of them as your preferred marketing channel. Unless comparing them, you won’t be able to optimize your marketing ROI efficiently. Push vs. email: The differencesBoth email and notifications are highly engaging marketing channels. Thus, the question remains about which one performs better. Before we start looking for an absolute answer, let’s check out the differences between the two. 1) Message length :The length of push messages are usually limited, or they look like snippets even if the text is several words long. Emails, on the other hand, can be as long or as short, depending on the subject. This gives an edge to the email channel, as it can contain multiple offers in a single email. 2) Visibility and accessibility :When you send chrome push notifications, it usually pops up on the user device or browsers. Therefore the message is visible instantaneously without opening any app or website. Emails, however, are sent to email addresses. The users need to access their accounts through an email app or by logging into their accounts. When it comes to instant visibility, push notifications often beat email as a preferred marketing channel. 3) Content types :Emails can be used to send any kind of marketing content in almost any format. However, the scope of sending diverse content through push notifications is somewhat limited. True, you can use rich media, graphics, and texts along with CTAs through push notification. But, if it comes to sending a different format like pdf, email trumps almost any other marketing channels with ease. Although push and email differ in some aspects, there are several likenesses among them. They are explained briefly in the following section. How alike are push and email marketing?The similarities between email marketing and push notifications are quite profound when it comes to communication and engagement. Some of the reasons that make choosing one of them over the other tougher are: 1) Segmentation :Both mobile notifications and emails allow you to send marketing communications to users using segmentations. Both help you to target users based on multiple parameters, taking the segmenting criteria together or one at a time. Therefore, users can receive hyper-targeted communications, which helps to improve engagement and conversions. 2) Inclusion of targeted CTAs :Emails and push notifications can include highly engaging and customized CTAs, directing users to the pages you want them on. Besides, you can use multiple CTAs according to the need to urge your users to take appropriate actions. 3) Wider acceptance :Emails and push notifications are sent only to users who have given their consent to receive them. It means they are already willing to engage with your business. Besides, it shows that the purchase or engagement intention is present in the users. The communication they receive helps them to take the final action. Since your users expect the messages from you, the chances of ignoring them reduces. Although either of the channels excels in some front, they have some shortcomings if used individually. However, the benefits of using them are many, thus making the tasks of marketers difficult. So, what if you choose both, i.e., mobile notifications and emails together? You definitely can, and let me tell you the benefits of using them parallelly. The right balance: Push Notifications & Email Channel In Sync
The likeness mobile notifications and emails are more targeted towards engagement and interaction. The differences, on the other hand, have to do more with the designing and presentation part. So, you can use both channels together as a part of a multi-channel CRM platform. You can even use in app notification for targeting your users to return to your apps. It can help you make your campaigns more engaging by leveraging the benefits of one channel and ironing out the shortcomings of the other channels. Still, you must be wondering about how to use both of these channels together and what kind of campaigns you can run with them. Check out the following scenarios, and you will have your answers. 1) Increase engagements :Sending simultaneous push notifications can improve your engagement rate. Push notifications provide the urgency with your messages and make your users aware of your promotion. Sending an email helps you to include more details of the promotions, or multiple content types to make it more interactive. Since both the push notification and email is relevant and speaks about the same promotion, the chances that the user will interact with one channel or the other increases. 2) Improve retention rate :As already explained, mobile notifications and emails increases your engagement rate, which subsequently improves the retention rate of your users. If you are wondering how the following example can help you understand. Let’s say you send your users a push notifications informing about a promotion. If your users are interested and buy some products, you can send them a thank you note on either email or push message or both. You can also send these messages by including some products that you want to cross-sell or up-sell. Sending the message as a push notification would prompt to act faster, while an email could help to check out the extra product details. 3) Reduce churn-rate :Mobile notifications and emails can help you to check your user churn rates too. As you can reach your users via multiple channels, your communication becomes faster. Moreover, you can reach your users via any channel as a part of a multi-channel user platform to market your products. VerdictDespite some differences between mobile notifications and emails, you can use both of them in unison to smooth out your marketing funnel. Leveraging them will help you to cover the gaps created by one channel using the other. Consequently, your marketing campaigns would be much more in tune with improving engagement and retention. Consumer behavior has drastically changed in recent times as users want a unique experience from the brands they are engaging with. Using push and email is a multi-channel marketing approach that can help you stand out in the users’ minds. Moreover, it can help you to engage your users at the right time with the right content, and on the most active channel.
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