SMS — The Broadest Mobile Touchpoint For Customers Today
SMS is an extremely familiar and convenient method of communication for consumers on mobile devices. The ability of SMS to deliver value quickly and concisely to anyone with a phone has made it a preferred channel for highly visible communication with customers who have not yet downloaded the brand’s app or opted in to receive push notifications. 

SMS, like other channels, can add a personal touch to customer experiences, which goes a long way toward growing customer loyalty. Personalized text messages deliver greater value than non-personalized messages and since SMS is delivered to customers’ most personal screens, personalization is even more important. Studies show 71% of consumers expect brands to deliver personalized interactions and 67% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. In retail, physical stores are able to meet consumer expectations and provide a more personalized buying experience through SMS updates on coupons, discounts and loyalty programs. 

High open rates: Text messages have extremely high open rates since they’re short and to the point, and highly visible, which makes them ideal for delivering important information quickly and efficiently. Studies show that over 90% of SMS messages are opened and read within a few minutes of receipt. 

Wide reach: Text is the universal inbox that comes preinstalled on every mobile device on the planet, not just smartphones. This means you can communicate with a massive audience, regardless of location or device type. No extra apps to download, and it works on every phone.

Instant delivery: Transactional and one-to-one text messages are delivered almost instantly, making them ideal for time-sensitive information. This means your messages are read quickly, ensuring that your audience is gaining instant value.

Email — Marketing’s Versatile Workhorse
Email is one of the most tried-and-tested channels of communication with customers. While push notifications can be effective, the amount of content they can deliver is limited. Email, on the other hand, provides you with more creative liberty to deliver rich and expansive content to a hyper-targeted audience.

Versatile: The main advantage of email is versatility. You can use it to deliver newsletters, offer exclusive deals or provide updates on new features, with plenty of space left over for embedding images, videos and other creative content. 

Wide reach: Similar to text messaging, email allows you to communicate with customers through their own preferred email client. With more than half of the world using email, it’s a familiar and trusted communication channel. Airship’s 2023 global consumer survey found that email address continues to be the top personal information customers will share with brands for special incentives and personalized interactions.

Turnkey: Sending is as simple as configuring your domain DNS records to point to an ESP (email service provider). By using email automation tools, you can set up targeted campaigns that deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. For example, you could send a transactional welcome email to new app users, an email highlighting new features to existing users, or a commercial email with a special offer to customers who haven’t used your app in a while, driving them back into the app experience.

6 ways to Use SMS and Email to Drive App User Engagement
Now that you understand the power of SMS and email, let’s explore some ways to use them to drive app engagement and grow your customer base.

1. Send personalized messages: For customers who have opted in to receive texts or emails from your brand, use behavior and engagement data that you’ve collected to send personalized messages that are relevant and engaging, with calls-to-action that drive them back into the app experience. 
2. Provide valuable content: Use texts and emails to provide valuable content to your app customers, such as tips and tricks, news or exclusive offers. Smaller bite-sized pieces of information are more suitable for a text message, while longer form content with embedded creative is more suitable for email.
3. Offer incentives: Use SMS and email to offer incentives to your app customers, such as discounts or promotions; or to encourage customers to opt in to other channels so they’ll have more ways to stay engaged. 
4. Use automation: Use email automation tools to set up targeted campaigns that reach customers in the context of their behaviors and preferences. Targeted campaigns can be triggered based on events and interactions both inside and outside the app.
5. Build a strong relationship: Use SMS and email to build a strong relationship with your customers by providing smart two-way messaging to orchestrate interactions, provide assistance and increase conversions. 
6. Test and optimize: Perform A/B tests across different segments and quickly validate the effectiveness of your messaging to net greater ROI.

Summary
SMS and email are critical to app user engagement. By leveraging these powerful communication channels, you can deliver personalized and targeted messages, build stronger connections with your customers and drive more engagement within your app. So, if you’re not already using SMS and email in your app engagement strategy, what are you waiting for?

The post How to Use SMS and Email to Drive App User Engagement appeared first on Airship.

It’s this expansion that Airship is most excited about. A new generic pass type opens up more use cases for brands to engage their customers with simple and seamless mobile experiences. Businesses must also make preparations for the Pay-to-Wallet name change, so read on to learn more.

The Big Picture
“Generic” anything doesn’t normally inspire, nor does it scream opportunity, but it does now! Google Wallet and Apple Wallet are now at parity for the types of mobile wallet pass experiences that can be supported. That’s a massive consideration for businesses that want to offer consistent, streamlined experiences across platforms, without care (or focus) for whether customers are using an Android or iPhone device. 

Additionally, mobile wallet and contactless payment adoption soared during the pandemic. A recent survey found that contactless payments increased for 69% of retailers. This set of use cases was rather small, but extremely desired. Necessity breeds innovation, but in the digital age, innovation quickly becomes expected and establishes the new normal. Consider it took mere months into the pandemic’s onset for consumer preference for Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store (BOPIS) to switch from the value of safety to one of convenience, per McKinsey. Similarly, mobile wallet use cases beyond the POS are set to explode. Businesses will reap benefits by having a direct line to their customers while also driving more users into the app experience.  

Generic Means Adaptable
Previously, Google Wallet (er, GPay) offered seven pass types: loyalty card, offer, gift card, event ticket, transit ticket, boarding pass and vaccine card. All came with use-case specific fields and features.

Generic passes allow you to offer new mobile wallet experiences that don’t fit neatly into those use cases. Some of those may include:

• Membership cards (gym, library, club, etc.)
• Parking passes
• Stored value vouchers for redemption
• Driver insurance cards
• Reservations of various kinds

While generic pass types open up a wide variety of use cases, it’s more important to think about the customer experience and how you can streamline it. With Google Wallet and Apple Wallet there’s no app to download or website to visit, and the experience can be made almost automatic as passes are location-aware and can notify users in different scenarios. 

For consumers, the mobile wallet offers extremely convenient access to a brand’s loyalty or membership cards. Wallet passes can also have a huge impact on driving app adoption for a brand’s most loyal customers if used properly. Marketers can include a link to download the app on the front and back of the pass, and incentivize installs with app exclusives, loyalty points or discounts. Apps can also recognize that a user has the brand’s pass in their wallet, and provide a cohesive loyalty experience with dynamic updates across both app and wallet experiences with incentives to keep them coming back to the app.

As brands continue to think about how their mobile experience can work in conjunction with their in-store experience, mobile wallets help in blending the two experiences by allowing brands to reward users for visiting a store or redeeming loyalty points via the app with an in-store purchase.

A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet
Android users are now starting to see the Google Wallet app update available for download. Brands that are using Google’s “Add to GPay” buttons will be expected to update to the new “Add to Google Wallet” buttons, across apps, websites, social networks and advertisements. No deadline date has been provided for this yet, but it is expected that all brands will need to follow these guidelines in order to keep their pass programs in compliance with Google Wallet brand guidelines.

Only Airship supports all pass types across Google and Apple. With Airship’s patented Adaptive Link technology, we’ve made it extremely easy — the only thing required by a brand is to add a single link to buttons or other distribution points (in-store QR codes, email, SMS, social, advertisements). Airship’s technology will auto-detect whether to serve a Google Wallet or Apple Wallet pass, and can automatically pull in customer information to both distribute and personalize the pass. This can include an external ID for connection to CRM, custom coupon codes, expiration date, user information and location. All of this information can be displayed on the pass for identification purposes. Tags can also be applied to passes to allow for audience segmentation, querying or applying dynamic pass updates in a streamlined way.

For more information, please visit Google’s provided Brand Guidelines & Assets, or contact us to learn how you can make the most of this contactless technology.

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