In- app Messages are the marketing contents that are directly delivered to the users while they are active in a certain mobile app. Different brands call them with different other names such as in-app notifications, and message center messages. These messages are key components of an overall mobile user engagement strategy that included different other message types like mobile wallet, push notification, email, and SMS. 

How do in-app messages make communication simple?

Apps can use this facility to explain how their new features work when the user opens that particular menu or feature.  

Messages can be displayed on the full screen, so there is a great chance to utilize the screen to display the features both textually and visually. 

First-Time User Tutorials

Interactive tutorials, onboarding, events, and tip-of-the-day, there is a great chance to utilize in-app message facilities for these instructional flows. These messages are generally used to incorporate efficient and seamless onboarding flows for new customers. Marketers prefer this facility, as it can provide the onboarding process without bogging down the app usability. 

In-app messaging vs push notifications

Before diving deep into the actual topic, it is important to know about the difference between in-app messages and push notification. By understanding the differences, you can use these communication tools to its best. In-app messages are used to establish communication with the users internally, whereas push notifications are used to send external communications (out of the app) to the user’s device. Though in-app messages are restricted within the app, it cannot be considered to be a less effective strategy. If you try to send push notification to your user mobile, they might feel intrusive and can also opt-out for further notification. Whereas, sending the same message through in-app communication can be suitable as the user will read the message when they are exploring the app. 

When compared with the push notification, the average engagement rate is 26% for medium performing apps and 90% for high performing apps. The read rate of the app is 44%, so the engagement opportunity is quite high. 

In-App Message Types

There are several types of in-app messages, and among them, the simplest one is the “banner style notification” which is a ribbon notification that is usually placed on the top or bottom of the screen. 

The next type of in-app message is the full-page display, which offers more screen space to convey your message. Apart from the text content, these messages can showcase rich media content such as images, videos, etc. to create a greater impact.

In-app messages with deep linking or social sharing features enable you to direct a specific user to a specific page or event such as a promotional offers page. The message can also contain a social sharing capabilities button to activate your user’s network. 

Common Use Cases and ROI

In-app messages are useful in several ways, one of the most powerful and common ways are listed below:

1. Feature or Product Launch: When new products or features are introduced in the line, marketers make use of this to send messages and take it as an opportunity to explain the benefits. 

2. Onboarding: When new users register and try to explore the app and its features, you can send messages to highlight the essential things to be considered. Making an impressive onboarding experience is very important because statistics state that 80% of the users may defer if they do not communicate the features properly. 

3. Transactional Messaging/Customer Service: Offering users with relevant service updates or recent purchases is a highly-relevant approach to using in-app messages. 

4. Promotional Messages: One of the greatest approaches for sending promotional messages is through in-app messaging. The essential factor to success is utilizing segmentation to ensure that the message will be valued by the user. Various eCommerce apps use previous in-app behavior and location targeting to figure out the users who are near the instance that showed recent purchase and receive almost 32% conversion rate. 

Benefits of In-App Messages

1. Help you to reach a wide audience base: Push notifications are a great way of messaging that gets back your user to the app, but they are efficient only if the user opt-ins, a study states that the push-notifications reach about 45% of the target audience. Whereas, in-app messages are a part of the app experience and don’t require opt-in to reach users so that it can reach most of your audience. 

2. Easy implementation: In-app messages are easy to the author as they are simple and straightforward text-based messages or rich, full-page displays that offer content and marketing teams to communicate easily without making a separate code. 

3. Part of app experience: In-app messages are great when they look and feel like the app is integrated. If you are about to send promotional messages, it should be targeting the right set of audiences with relevant and highly personalized content. Ensure the promotional message should not give a marketing feel to the users, rather it should be more like a service. 

4. Personalized in-app message experience: The messages that you are targeting to your users should be highly-tailored to match your brand value. Based on the users, you can also customize the deep-links that enable users to navigate to the destined location anywhere in the app or website. Airship offers multiple capabilities to ensure that the messages are delivered at the right time to the right customers based on their previous context. 

5. Doesn’t require opt-ins: As per the statistics, over 57% of users opt-in for social media apps push notification, but when it comes to other verticals, the percentage is very low which is 10% for travel apps, and 19 percent for mobile games apps. Whereas, in-app messages don’t require any opt-ins and lets you reach most of the app users. 

In-app messaging best practices: 

1. Invest time to figure out the best approach for your app
2. Come up with a unique and personalized message for marketing 
3. Make use of A/B Testing to determine the efficiency of the marketing 
4. Identify the best time to reach your customers
5. Concentrate more on the Call-To-Action to figure out the desired action 

Takeaway

Most of the users have a lot of control over the mobile experience, as it is one of the most efficient personal communication channels available. Marketers consider in-app messages to be highly effective and receive over 8x the response rates of push notification. Making the best and efficient use of in-app messages are suggested to achieve great customer retention rates.