I tell our team here (and those we meet throughout our work, for that matter) that we are a communications company — NOT a software company. I tell young entrepreneurs this too. Communication drives everything from sales, to development, to personal relationships. Fortunately, our friend and Director of Digital Marketing for Papa John’s, Bernie Fussenegger, wrote an article concerning both my passions of mobile development AND communication — and I’m excited to welcome his thoughts to our Founder’s Corner! Take it away Bernie…
– Luke
Your Mobile App Communication Strategy:
Types of Messages, App Inbox and Your Message Center
Guest Author: Bernie Fussenegger, Director of Digital Marketing | Papa Johns
This past week I focused on the Mobile App communication strategy, the types of messages you can be sending to your app and you App Inbox and the advantages of having that message center.
Communicating to customers that use the mobile app is very important for engagement and brand loyalty and as more and more people are using mobile devices, your brand needs to be ready to communicate to those customers in ways they want.
You have an app(s) that your customers have downloaded and are actively using. Here is the fun part – now you need to put together your communication strategy and how you plan to use App Alert Notifications, App Inbox Messages, Push Beacons and Geo-Location Services. Things to think about include triggered messages, preferences for the customer to choose from – and the type of message you want going to your customers.
Using Alerts
As we get more into App and the types of messaging you can use, I will start with your basic push notification or push alert. Push notifications or push alerts are messages that appear or pop up on the mobile devices of those customers who have downloaded your App and choose to allow push notifications from your App.
What are they used for? There are many uses, but the main use of these alerts are for; sports scores and updates, news alerts, traffic reports, weather reports flight information or any time of instant communication that is more real time.
A good use case of alerts is NBC’s Olympics App located in the iOS App Store.
The App Inbox
The App In-box allows you to message YOUR ENTIRE APP AUDIENCE, without an opt-in! That is why it is very important to have an In-box or Message Center within your app – you can still reach your customers even though they have opted to not receive the Push Notification Alerts. High-performing apps see average message center read rates of 44%, increasing to 49% for retail apps, meaning nearly half of all messages sent are opened and read.
About Bernie
With more than 23 years of experience in marketing, Bernie is the Director of Digital Marketing at Papa John’s International, based in Louisville, KY. His current focus is building and scaling a progressive digital marketing foundation that balances the needs of both consumers and national/local stakeholders — all while delivering measurable ROI to the business.
Additionally, Bernie oversees brand representation for Papa John’s digital properties and manages direct-to-consumer channels including email, SMS and push messaging. Recent initiatives have centered around bringing together larger promotional efforts with targeted campaigns to engage the consumer at the precise moment of interest.
Follow Bernie on Twitter @B2the7 or @B7_Design & The B2The7 Blog.
