So many of these activities happen in the early stages of a customer’s app journey — usually the first hours or days. Then what? Should you just wait for them to come back?

Your customers will spend most of their mobile app journey with your brand in the Engagement phase as you work to maximize their monetization and create app loyalists. That only happens by continually driving customers back into the app.

Your app’s Engagement Score (DAUs/MAUs) is a good indication of how well you’re generating traffic. Our benchmark data shows that after a slight dip in Q3 of 2022, Engagement Scores have been steadily increasing and now sit at their highest point in over a year at 19%.

Push to Pull Customers into Apps 
Push notifications are the natural mechanism for driving customers back into your app. It’s worth noting that using targeted push notifications improves the open rate by 76% over non-targeted notifications.

But push notifications aren’t the only channel you should be using to drive app visits. In an omnichannel world, consumers consume information across channels in an almost seamless manner. What’s important to them is that you present them with relevant and contextual information, which demonstrates that you know them and are listening to them. Amplifying those messages, and coordinating them across channels, reinforces your commitment and respect for their continued brand loyalty. 

You Never Write!
At most brands, email is an important promotional channel, but often operates in a silo. Beyond encouraging the initial app download, email campaigns do not typically focus on driving mobile app re-engagement.

Today’s leading mobile app marketers leverage email, push notifications and SMS to drive traffic to the app. Then, onboarding and adoption experiences can guide customers to complete high-value actions that monetize their visit.

We’ve Got This
If you haven’t already explored adding Airship’s email and SMS capabilities to increase your app traffic, you’ll want to evaluate how these powerful add-ons can aid mobile app marketers and drive more app revenue. It’s an easy way to save money and stretch your budget.

To learn more about how Airship can drive more app visits, increase your Engagement Score and save you money on email, contact your Account Manager or support@airship.com. 

Navigator is Airship’s customer newsletter covering the latest mobile app industry trends, product updates, use cases and best practices, and other learning resources. It’s yet another resource to help you deliver better mobile app experiences and create greater value more quickly. If you’d like to receive our monthly Navigator newsletter, please sign up here.

The post Don’t Just Wait For Traffic. Generate It. appeared first on Airship.

What we’re talking about is the “Dynamic Island,” which, along with an Always-On display, is only available to iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max users — not iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Plus users. 

The Dynamic Island is a new pill-shaped cut-out – replacing the top-notch – that enables new ways to interact with the iPhone. It adapts and expands into different shapes in real-time to show important alerts, notifications and activities, and maintains an active state so users can control ongoing background activities with a simple tap-and-hold. Best of all, it seamlessly integrates with iOS 16’s new Live Activities, so third-party apps can provide dynamic updates such as sports scores, ride-sharing arrivals, day-of-travel updates, workout stats, developing news stories, delivery and reservation statuses, and more.

Net-net: Apple gives third-party apps more surface area for creating compelling and glanceable app experiences, even if another app is in the foreground.

Apple has updated the Lock Screen on the Pro models to be Always-On, which dims the screen and allows users to see the time, their widgets, notifications and Live Activities without needing to wake the phone. Always-On, combined with Live Activities, keeps dynamic information top and center on the Lock Screen, increasing the number of engaging moments your brand can have with customers. 

Airship is working to make Live Activities in iOS 16 easier to manage for developers. We’re  exploring innovations to help product managers and marketers as well. If you’re interested in incorporating Live Activities in your iOS app, we’d love to conduct a product discovery session with you.

The post An Exciting New User Experience Awaits Some iPhone 14 Owners 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.

The post Google Revolutionizes the Mobile Wallet Experience for Android appeared first on Airship.

Outside of the U.S., Android is the most widely adopted mobile operating system (OS) by a long shot. According to Airship’s decade-plus analysis of notification opt-in rates and their downstream impact on app engagement and retention, Android’s move has serious ramifications for brands.

In this blog, we go further into those ramifications and then suggest what you should do about them. 

The Challenge for Brands
Last quarter, medium-performing apps on iOS averaged a 51.6% opt-in rate, according to Airship’s platform data. In contrast, Android apps in the 50th percentile saw an average opt-in rate of 80.3%. This substantial difference has been relatively consistent for years, during which time Android opt-ins were by default and users were required to navigate to OS settings to opt-out.

Similar to other permissions, such as location or microphone access, apps on Android 13 must now serve a system prompt to solicit notification permission. Without modification by the brand, this prompt will display when an app is first opened. This will be a challenge for brands because users won’t yet have an idea of the value of the app or its notifications. It’s akin to meeting someone for the first time and immediately asking them out on a date.

What Brands Need to Do Now
In response to Android’s shift from its default opt-out experience to an opt-in model, brands should follow the 6 best practices below to protect and grow the value of their Android app audience.

1. App publishers should immediately implement Airship’s latest SDK 

Given the substantial hit brands are taking with the default opt-out, it’s all the more important that they implement the Airship SDK to maximize engagement with customers.

Once someone has downloaded your app, there are many experiences vital to sustaining their engagement and growing app loyalty. The Airship App Experience Platform (AXP) goes far beyond message-centric approaches, enabling product, digital and marketing teams to create, adapt and publish no-code native app experiences on their own — without ongoing developer support or app updates. New innovations give business users full control to rapidly onboard app audiences, build first-party and zero-party data collection, and accelerate monetization goals.

2. Modify the timing of Android’s system permission prompt

Android 13 gives apps total control of when and where the opt-in system dialog can be displayed, which means that brands can decide when and where they want to trigger it. However, once a user selects “Don’t Allow,” that prompt cannot be triggered again. Apps that are targeted to earlier versions of Android will also need to manage this prompt once users’ devices are on Android 12 or 13. Therefore, it’s vital for brands to think carefully about when and where to ask users for their permission to send notifications.

Users should have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with your app first so they can understand the value that notifications could bring them. You also don’t want to dissuade your users by sending a lot of notifications too quickly. 

Users opted in to notifications prior to Android 13 will have notification permissions pre-granted upon updating to Android 13. Similarly, users tapping “Don’t Allow” on a notification opt-in prompt from apps that are not yet targeting Android 13 will be opted out and can’t be served the system prompt again until the app is updated to target Android 13.

3. Create an onboarding tutorial flow and make Android’s system dialog subservient to it

A thoughtfully curated onboarding flow is a great way to showcase your app to users, while also demonstrating the value of notifications and encouraging users to opt in. AXP Scenes allows you to create a rich and interactive multi-screen onboarding experience, including the ability to request user permission for notifications. Ideally, you should serve the Android system prompt only to users clicking “Yes” within the onboarding flow, making most of the one time you are able to serve it. You can measure, assess and continually adapt AXP Scenes, all without developer support or app updates.

4. Give users granular choices for the types of notifications they will receive

In your onboarding flow, reinforce for users the fact that they will have total control over the types of messages they receive. Describe the various types of potential notifications so they can decide which ones they would value the most. 

AXP Preference Center, a critical component of the Airship App Experience Platform (AXP), can allow your non-technical teams to continually modify the types of choices offered to users to encourage more relevant communications and allow for opting down rather than the full opt-out. We surveyed 9,000 global consumers and found that the top reasons people opt out of notifications are that they are too frequent or the messages were not personally relevant. Furthermore, users are more likely to remain opted in if they have control over the reason, frequency and channels.

5. Continually look for the right moment to request opt-in within the user’s context

Given the out-sized impact notifications have on app user engagement and retention, brands may be tempted to ask new users to opt in right away. A better approach is to ensure that they understand the value of opting in before you make the ask.

For instance, a media company might serve a tailored opt-in request after users have read 3-4 articles on a specific topic, while a retail brand might decide to serve the opt-in request after a user has added items to their wish list or viewed a couple of products within a category. With AXP Scenes, you can create an opt-in explainer with options “Yes,” “No” or “Maybe Later.” This will give you the opportunity to follow up with the “Maybe Later” group at a later time and serve the one-time system prompt to those who say “Yes.”

6. Use all the tools in your arsenal and don’t give up

Getting users to opt in to notifications from your brand is a challenging task, but remember that you can send highly targeted in-app messages and in-app inbox messages to users without requiring opt-ins. It’s the perfect opportunity to remind them of the value of opting into notifications that can reach them proactively outside the app experience, particularly when it’s things like delivery notifications, airline gate changes, subscriptions set to auto renew or a whole host of items the user would want to know right away. Even if they’ve previously selected “Don’t Allow” from Android’s system prompt, you can deep-link them directly to OS settings to enable the opt-in.

Airship supports Android 13 on Day 1 via our updated Android SDK 16.6.0. Now is a good time to get it, not only due to Android’s permission changes, but for the no-code native experiences we now power, that enable app teams to be much more agile and successful.

Contact us to learn how you can create the best onboarding experience for your users. Remember, serving the standard system prompt to “opt-in” your users to notifications is significantly easier for them than being deep-linked to settings later. First impressions matter, so make them count!

The post Brands on Notice with Android 13 Default Opt-out appeared first on Airship.

3 months, 

517,000 new web notification opt-ins

96% retention rate 

McDonald’s France was looking to increase engagement with app customers, while increasing the number of returning customers. It had already introduced web push notifications on its website and launched numerous sporadic campaigns – for example, announcing the new McBaguette – but engagement levels continued to decline. 

Based on performance insights and first-hand knowledge of industry benchmarks, Airship’s client services team worked closely with McDonald’s France to strategize turning engagement levels around. The strategy consisted of the following: 

1. Create a perfectly timed Welcome series: automate a multi-touch web push notification series launched within an hour of opt-in to deliver an optimal click-through rate and ultimately, conversions. 
2. Segment customer journeys: tag individuals to audience segments to increase relevance of communication.
3. Target specific segments: target the least responsive audience segments with re-engagement messages, informing customers about their top product offers of the day.

By implementing the new strategy, McDonald’s France achieved a 10% higher engagement rate than previous non-automated and non-personalized campaigns. During the first three months, McDonald’s reached 517,000 web notification opt-ins, 96% of whom continued as subscribers through the end of the time period.

Read the full case study here

Airship Client Services is the on-the-ground team that works closely every day with brands to:

• Coordinate communications between brands and cross-functional teams at Airship
• Gain a deeper understanding of business objectives and help brands meet them
• Provide guidance and insights on best practices, new product features and implementation options 

Get in touch today. 

Check out our recent blog posts for the latest thinking on creating more value for your brand and customers at every phase of the customer app lifecycle.

The post How Airship Supported McDonald’s France to Drive Communication Opt-Ins and Retention appeared first on Airship.

This post highlights eight best practices for leveraging MMS messages as part of your mobile marketing strategy.

MMS. vs. SMS: What’s the Difference?

Before covering the best practices, let’s take a quick look at the differences between MMS and SMS messages.

• Short Message Service (SMS): SMS is a service for sending short text-based messages of up to 160 characters to mobile devices. SMS messages are the standard, text-based messages that just about everyone uses and is familiar with.

• Multimedia Message Service (MMS): MMS messages are handled by the same native apps used for text messaging. The key difference is that MMS can include multimedia such as pictures and animated GIFs. MMS messages also don’t have a standard text limit, allowing for longer messages of up to 1600 characters.

Make sense? OK, let’s dive in!

1. Get the Opt In

First things first: marketers must get permission before sending MMS or SMS messages to a customer, as well as keep track of opt-in and opt-out requests. The good news is that if you’re already using SMS marketing, you can also send MMS messages to your opted-in audience.¹ 

2. Use MMS Selectively

Some messages are a better fit for MMS marketing than others, so it’s important to consider your goals and the type of content you plan to send. 

SMS messages are great for simple transactional messaging, time sensitive updates, and other concise information that requires less than 160 characters of text. Whereas MMS is well suited for promotions and creative marketing messages that rely on visuals to engage your audience. If you’re not sure which works best for your message, the way to find out is to test, test, test!

3. Time it Right 

You’ve heard the adage: send the right message at the right time. It’s especially true for text messages, because most people read them within just a few minutes.

Automation is key to timing your SMS messages right. With intelligent automation and event triggers, you can respond to specific user actions with messages that are relevant and useful. For example, by sending a welcome coupon after a customer’s first interaction with the brand or delivering a loyalty card immediately after sign-up. You should also ensure you’re respectful of factors like time zones and holidays.

4. Rightsize Your Images

Although MMS messages don’t have a standard text limit, you’ll need to be mindful of media file sizes. Large images take longer to load or may not load properly depending on the device and other factors. With Airship, you can add images to MMS message content or templates of up to 2MB for JPEG or 1MB for PNG or GIF files, however, as a general rule we recommend keeping those files under 650KB.

5. Test & Optimize

As with all marketing channels, testing and optimization are essential to making every MMS marketing message and customer experience the best it can be. With robust A/B testing, you can run experiments with different variations of your MMS messages, determine which ones perform best and optimize your campaigns.

6. Take a Global View 

Knowing where MMS is most effective and where it’s not can save your company money and optimize your MMS spend. Your customers in Europe may not respond to your promotional messages in the same way as customers in the United States. That’s why it’s important to not only localize your MMS but to also optimize the content by country.¹ 

7. Use SMS Keywords 

When a brand encourages customers to text them a word or phrase like LOYALTY or SAVE to participate in a promotion or sign up for a loyalty program, they’re using SMS keywords. With SMS Keywords, you can identify and act on specific text in SMS messages that your users send you. Those handy keywords work in MMS messages too, and make it easier for customers to respond to your calls to action and stay connected with your brand.²

8. Use Fallback Text

While a majority of phones are capable of receiving MMS messages, a small percentage cannot. Fallback text ensures that users who can’t view the original MMS message still receive a message that makes sense. Read more about how it works in Airship’s documentation.

Airship’s customer engagement platform gives you everything you need to use MMS and SMS to create better, deeper and more valuable connections with customers. Orchestrate your text campaigns as part of a multi-channel engagement strategy, segment your audiences, manage opt-ins/outs, schedule personalized messages, monitor performance, and more—all in one convenient package.  

For more insights and ideas, check out our SMS playbook. And if you’d like to learn more about using MMS in your strategy, get in touch!

LEt’s connect

We can help elevate your mobile marketing strategy with MMS.

Contact us today!

1. Airship MMS is currently available in the United States only. 

2. Current U.S. regulations require that SMS are two-way, allowing for the end user to respond to marketing SMS or MMS. In other regions this is not required and messages can be one way. Make sure to check for regional/local regulations.

The post 8 MMS Marketing Best Practices appeared first on Airship.

Let’s look at how in-app messages can help improve CX and reduce friction, as well as keep your users engaged in this new era of consumer privacy.

Benefits of In-App Messages

In-app messaging is a key component of a great omnichannel engagement strategy, complementing other channels like push, email and SMS. However, mobile apps and in-app messaging play a unique role in that mix because of their ability to serve as a focused point of reference and dedicated communication channel between brand and consumer.

In-app messages are also highly effective. Past Airship research found that message center messages outperform push messages by a significant margin. Plus, your app users tend to be some of your most loyal customers. These highly engaged customers are likely to interact and engage with your brand across other channels, becoming super users and maybe even lifelong brand advocates.

Furthermore, in-app messages can make the app more useful to customers, giving them more reasons to hang onto it. That’s important because 77% of daily active users drop off within the first three days after installing an app and 25% of installed apps are never used in the first place.

When to use In-App Messages

When it comes to effectively orchestrating your messages, it’s critical to consider the channels that customers prefer or are active on, and which channels (or mix) provide the best CX.

In-app messaging serves particularly well as a contextual channel, allowing you to reach customers on their mobile devices with easy to find, timely and relevant information, as well as transactional messages. Some of the top in-app use cases include:

• Welcoming and onboard new app users
• Educating customers about new features 
• Using surveys or other forms to gather data on user needs and preferences 
• Driving positive app ratings and NPS scores
• Getting people opted in for push notifications (especially those that opted out initially)

New iOS Privacy Features Elevate the Value of In-App Messaging

In light of Apple’s recent privacy-centered changes to how their devices handle notifications—new “focus” settings and requirements that marketers get permission for marketing messages—it’s more important than ever to send timely and relevant messages on the right channels. You’ll also need to leverage first-party and zero-party data as intelligently as possible and take advantage of opportunities for transactional messaging that streamlines CX. 

The good news about in-app messaging is that once a customer is registered and using the app, they don’t need to opt-in, creating a prime opportunity for personalized and effective communication. Plus, by engaging customers through the app you can fine tune your engagement with in-app behavioral data, preference centers or by sending in-app surveys.

When used as part of an omnichannel engagement strategy, in-app messaging is a powerful tool for staying connected with customers, providing them with valuable information and making their lives easier. Plus, it provides a tried and true means of communicating with today’s mobile consumers, who have more choice than ever when it comes to marketing messages and privacy. 

Are you interested in adding in-app messaging to your channel mix? Or are you not sure which channel is best for your messages? We can help!

LEt’s connect

Looking to elevate your in-app engagement?

Contact us today!

The post How In-App Messages Improve CX and Reduce Friction appeared first on Airship.

Check out a few highlights below, and download the eBook for more.

Authentic vs. AI

While many brands turn to AI chatbots for in-the-moment engagement and support, the reality is that most people (86%) prefer talking with another human. And when the customer’s only other options are emailing or calling, that creates friction that increases the chances they’ll walk away. The key to Live Chat is the ability to trigger 1-to-1 chat interactions from any marketing channel in those pivotal moments. Trigger live chat opportunities based on customer actions, location, behavior, or any other data that makes sense for your brand, so you can be there to:

• Answer questions
• Assist with payment
• Upsell
• Cross-sell
• Drive repeat purchases
• And more! 

Two-Way Conversations in the Moments that Matter

For brands not already using Live Chat, you might assume it’s primarily a responsive channel. However, Live Chat opens up a world of opportunities to proactively engage your customers and foster valuable relationships at key moments in the customer journey. Examples include:

• Offer to assist with onboarding
• Let them know about a special offer
• Get them enrolled in a loyalty program
• Ensure a seamless BOPIS/Click & Collect Experience
• Check in about an abandoned cart
• Create a Concierge Service Experience

In the ebook, we look at a variety of use cases to help acquire, retain and grow your customers and drive results. 

Adding Live Chat to your channel mix opens up a world of opportunities to create better customer experiences, reduce friction and drive toward your goals. Download the ebook today for more live chat insights, resources and use cases to help you take advantage of this exciting channel.

LEt’s connect

We can help you foster valuable customer relationships

Contact us today!

The post Build Stronger Customer Relationships at Scale with Live Chat appeared first on Airship.

Here are just a few ways you can use in-app messaging to reach your retention goals!

Welcome & Onboard New App Customers

First impressions matter, especially to your customers when they first download your app. Use that opportunity to welcome them and guide them to the most important actions that will keep them engaged longer. Message them about setting up their profile or account, setting their preferences, or signing up for the loyalty program. Use the app download to trigger an Airship Journey of welcome messages across channels, starting with an in-app message to grab their attention right away. 

When onboarding with in-app messaging is done right, you can see a 60% expansion in audience like Gasbuddy saw with Airship!

Deliver Relevant, Engaging Promotions

Consumers are more likely to leave your brand if they’re not getting the information they want to receive. In fact, 48% of consumers get so frustrated when they receive irrelevant content from brands, they are likely to switch to another brand. Use customer attributes (such as birth date, zip code, loyalty status or age) to personalize your in-app messages with content that will resonate with your customers. Using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get!) editor will also help make those messages more engaging with bespoke designs and dynamic content.

Make sure that when you’re in a hurry sending out time-sensitive or rinse-and-repeat style messages that you’re not forgetting to personalize those as well. Templates are a great way to get those set up in advance with content blocks and merge fields to make sure all your in-app messages are personalized going forward.

Make Sure You’re Not Over Messaging Within the App

Many of us have had the experience of receiving a promotion for an item after we’ve already purchased it – it’s annoying to be sure, especially for new customers. Using cancellation events to stop an in-app automation can ensure you’re not over-messaging your customers and sending them the most up-to-date and relevant messages. For example, use a purchase event to cancel a promotional message so your customer won’t receive any additional messages about making their first in-app purchase, or cancel messages about the loyalty program as soon as a customer signs up.

Airship’s In-App Messages are Easier & More Engaging than Ever Before

In-App messaging allows you to make the most of every moment you’ve got with customers while they’re actively using your app. We made our powerful, easy-to-use In-App Messaging solution better than ever with new features that help you create personal, relevant messages that will improve retention for your app users. If you want to learn more about how our In-App Messaging & Automation solutions can help you meet your app engagement and retention goals, contact us today!

The post In-App Messaging Tips & Tricks to Improve App User Retention appeared first on Airship.

Web push notifications deliver messages to opted-in users on their desktop and mobile browsers. Businesses with or without a mobile app can now engage web visitors with instant, high-value, notification-style messages to meet specific customer needs using Airship Web Notifications.

With use cases ranging from transactional messages (like confirming an order has shipped) to promotional messages (like highlighting the latest product or service offerings available), web push is a channel you’ll want to add to your marketing toolkit. (See more ideas and examples in our Web Notification Inspiration Guide.)

Ready to get started with Web Notifications? Get in touch and we’ll help you get your newest communication channel up and running.

In this post, we offer a tutorial for creating a web notification using our web notifications solution in our Message Composer. You’ll see how easy it can be to create and send web notifications that engage web visitors with relevant and timely messages.

Let’s get started.

Web Notifications: Six Steps to Sending Your Own

Step 1

To begin, create a new message in the Airship Message Composer. We recommend giving your message a name to make it easier to find later in Messages Overview. To do so, click the gear icon in the top navigation bar. 

To send a web notification, select “Web” as the channel. (Note: If you want to send a notification to multiple channels at once, such as Web, App, and Email, enable all your channels on this step). 

Define the audience for your web notification. If you want to send your web notification in multiple languages, you can enable Localization in this step. You can also enable “Generate retargeting segments”, which will automatically create segments that can be used to easily retarget users who did or did not interact with your web notification. 

Next, choose your message type. If you are sending your message to multiple channels, you’ll notice you have a separate tab for each channel, allowing you to customize the content of your message by channel. 

Step 2

Next, it’s time to write your message. Because maximum notification length varies by device, we recommend writing your text in a way that makes sense for all users, including those who will receive your notification on a desktop device.

Web notification character limits vary. If you’re sending to Chrome, we recommend keeping the character count to 180 for the best experience across desktop and mobile devices. Firefox and Opera will display up to 30 characters.

Remember, you can include handlebars in your message to personalize the content your user receives. You can also create your message using a stored template.

Step 3

Next, select where users will go when they tap or click on the notification. For web notifications, you have three options. You can:

1) Send users to the webpage you’ve designated as “Home” in your settings (usually your website home page), or

2) Send them to a different URL — a product page on your site, your Twitter or Facebook page, a form page — any URL will work. To do that, select the “Web Page” action and enter the URL.

3) Send them to an adaptive link to open a Mobile Wallet pass (for mobile web users).  

Step 4

Now it’s time to configure the optional components of your web notification! Here are your options:

Buttons: If you want to add some interactivity to your web notification, you can add up to two buttons. We provide some button pairs out of the box such as “Yes/No”, “Buy Now”, and “Follow”; or, you can create your own custom button(s) on the fly! 

Title: If you want to include a custom title with a web notification, you can add it here. (Otherwise, the title will be the default you set up — usually your company name.)

Media: Make your web notifications richer and engaging by adding a large image. Note: Image support varies by browser and OS. See documentation for details. 

Icon: If you’d prefer to use a custom icon instead of your default logo, you can add it here.

Step 5

The next step is choosing your delivery date and time. You can send your notification right away, schedule it to be sent later on a specific day and time, or set up a recurring message that repeats on a specific cadence (such as, once a week on Friday at 4pm). Our Message Composer also allows you to customize send times for different time zones.

You can also specify certain delivery options on this step as well, such as campaign categories for reporting, ignoring any channel message limits that may be set, requiring interaction on your notification, and more. 

Step 6

The final step is to preview the notification on each channel  with our built-in preview window, review your selections , and send or schedule the notification! If you are sending your message to a subset of your audience, such as a specific segment or attribute, you can also generate the audience count for your message on this step. 

Engage More Customers with Web Notifications

Now you know how easy it is to compose a web notification, to add it to your engagement strategy on the web. You have the tools to deliver timely, relevant messages that surprise and delight your customers — and see higher engagement rates.

Ready to begin? Contact us to get started!

The post How to Create Web Push Notifications appeared first on Airship.