What Is Mobile Engagement?
Mobile engagement is the process of interacting with customers through experiences on mobile devices on the web and in the app. Companies use mobile engagement to deliver innovative customer experiences, support business goals, communicate business value and build long-term relationships with customers.
Mobile App Engagement Channels
Mobile apps have three distinct messaging capabilities: push notifications, in-app messages and message centers.
Delivered to a phone’s lock screen or via an onscreen banner alert, push notifications drive users to the app and are ideal for time-sensitive information. By including segment attributes like location, in-app behavior, message preferences and more, targeted push notifications achieve greater mobile app engagement (approximately a 4-7x higher response rate) than broadcast counterparts. This is especially true of rich push notifications that include media like photos and videos.
In-app messaging delivers simple, text-based notifications. Because these messages are delivered in your app, there isn’t an opt-in process, allowing you to reach the majority of your app audience. For this reason, they are a great complement to push notifications for new feature updates and other messaging.
An in-app message center reaches all app users and can help drive people back into your app through badge counters on your app icon (iOS only). Think of it as an easy-to-author content publishing platform that allows you to send the latest offers, promotions and rich content to your audience without having to either update the app or disrupt the customer experience.
Mobile Engagement Platforms
Mobile engagement platforms help businesses implement and manage their mobile engagement strategy. These platforms typically offer various tools for creating, delivering and analyzing different types of mobile messages across multiple channels.
Airship is a leading mobile engagement platform that helps brands master the art of customer engagement. Our platform offers several features that optimize a company’s strategy, including:
- Cross-channel messaging
- Advanced segmentation
- Predictive AI
- Real-time automation
- A/B testing and optimization
- Rich analytics
- Privacy and compliance tools
With a good mobile engagement platform, companies can enhance their mobile engagement strategy and create a more cohesive, data-driven user experience.
Other Mobile-Native Engagement Channels
In addition to the messaging you can do through your app, there are other ways to reach your customers on mobile that don’t necessarily require an app.
With broad usage and a 98% open rate, SMS is a natural channel for businesses to use for mobile engagement. Typical use cases for SMS mobile engagement include billing, shipping, special offers, event promotions and appointment confirmations.
Mobile wallets — aka digital wallets — carry the digital equivalent of everyday items included in a physical wallet: loyalty cards, coupons, special offers, business cards, tickets, credit cards and more. Accessible to everyone with a smartphone, mobile wallet passes provide businesses with an ongoing mobile engagement channel to reach users.
Mobile-first social channels such as Snapchat, X (formally Twitter), Facebook Instagram are an effective, low-cost way to engage with customers and broaden conversations. But, the average lifespan of a post on X is estimated at 18 minutes, and ongoing adjustments to platform algorithms like Facebook’s mean a business may only reach 2% of its audience without additional promotional investments.
Mobile email, on the other hand, is highly engaging. The average person will check their email roughly 36 times per hour. According to TechReport, mobile devices account for 60% of email opens. That said, customer engagement opportunities with email are limited.
The Best Mobile Analytics to Understand Mobile Engagement
The best mobile analytics are those that help you gauge the impact of your strategy on your goals. Every mobile experience will have different business drivers and user interaction points, as well as different internal stakeholders with varying needs. Make sure to stay focused on the end goal as well. Engagement, for its own sake, isn’t enough if it’s not driving customers to take high-value actions that meet business goals.
Want to learn more about how Mobile Engagement can help you connect with customers at each stage of the customer lifecycle? Contact us today, and let’s talk!
FAQ
What is a Mobile Engagement Platform?
A mobile engagement platform is software that lets businesses create, manage and optimize their interactions with mobile customers. These platforms act as a centralized hub for executing a mobile engagement strategy across various touchpoints in the customer journey.
Key features of mobile engagement platforms typically include:
- Unified Dashboard: provides a single interface to manage multiple channels, which simplifies the process of coordinating messages across different touchpoints
- Advanced Segmentation: lets businesses divide their audience based on behaviors, preferences and demographics for more targeted messages
- Automation Tools: allows companies to create triggered responses based on user actions or predefined events, ensuring timely and relevant interactions
- Analytics and Reporting: offers in-depth insights into user behavior, campaign performance and overall engagement metrics
- Personalization Engines: utilizes user data to tailor content and messaging for individual users to enhance relevance and effectiveness
- Integration Capabilities: connects with other business systems like CRM and marketing automation tools for a more cohesive strategy
What is Mobile Customer Engagement?
Mobile customer engagement is any interaction with users through their mobile devices. A mobile engagement strategy is a crucial part of modern business plans. This approach includes various methods to interact, provide value and maintain ongoing relationships with consumers through smartphones or tablets, such as:
- Push notifications: sending timely alerts and reminders directly to the home screen on users’ devices
- In-app messaging: communicating with users while they’re actively using a mobile app
- SMS and MMS: reaching customers through text messages, which often have high open rates
- Mobile email: designing email campaigns that work well on mobile devices
- Mobile wallet passes: utilizing digital wallets for loyalty cards, coupons and tickets
- Location-based services: using GPS data to provide relevant, location-specific content or offers
- Social media: interacting with customers on mobile social platforms
Effective mobile customer engagement strategies often result in higher conversion rates, customer retention and customer loyalty.
How to Keep a Customer Engaged on the Phone
- Personalize the interaction: use collected data to tailor the conversation to the customer’s needs and preferences
- Be responsive and attentive: listen carefully and respond promptly to prove you value the customer’s time and input
- Provide value: offer helpful information, exclusive deals or solutions that address the customer’s specific needs
- Use a friendly and professional tone: create a positive experience that encourages further engagement
- Gather feedback: use surveys or in-app messages to collect insights on the customer experience and improve future interactions