How to grab more audience eyes through messaging apps [Infographic]

“You’ve got mail!”

It’s been 22 years since the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks love story was released and email has come a long way since then.

One would almost say it has become too common. 

Every day, users are flooded with a high volume of email that many just delete without even reading the subject line. 

So what can you do to boost your overall open rates and still get your messages seen? 

According to this infographic created by Cadoo, messaging apps result in an increased open rate and catch consumer eyes more effectively than email marketing. 

With such a high volume of promotional and marketing emails, a lot of consumers send them to spam or simply delete them without giving them a second look. 

Messaging apps stand out by sending a specific and direct notification to the consumer so they are more likely to see it and open it.

Let’s learn a bit more about this up-and-coming medium.  

Real companies, real results 

Companies from all over the world have experienced great results with messaging apps. Below are some noteworthy examples. 

HubSpot

HubSpot ran an experiment where they sent the same message via email and messaging app. The open rate for the messaging app was 80% while the open rate for the email was only 33%.

They also experienced a 94% open rate for a conference event invitation that was sent via a messaging app. This was a leap up from event open rates sent out via email. 

Holiday Pirates

Holiday Pirates is an international travel community that utilizes multiple messaging apps to notify users of upcoming deals. Since implementing they have experienced 90% open rates and 50-60% click-through rates.

Sport1
Sport1, is a tv channel based in Germany that uses messaging apps to update sports fans with the most recent scores and news. With this strategy in place, they have achieved 20,000 clicks and 50 new subscribers per day. 

Activision
Activision, the creators of the popular Call of Duty video game franchise, thought up a bot that mimicked the character Lt. Reyes.

This bot encouraged fans to interact with it which resulted in 6 million messages back and forth. This kind of interaction increased the hype around the game and really got users excited to purchase and play.

What are the benefits of messaging apps? 

If the success stories haven’t sold you on marketing on messaging apps yet, let’s check out the benefits. 

1. Messages currently can reach all users without relying on an algorithm or fee. 
2. There is a broad target audience. Since messaging apps work directly through smartphones, the user base is large and diverse. This provides greater visibility of your brand to more consumers. In fact, according to Cadoo, messaging apps overtook social media in 2015 and have experienced steady growth ever since.
3. It encourages direct communication between a company and consumers. This gives you the opportunity to boost customer satisfaction and build trust.
4. Most people have notifications that pop up right on a user’s home screen which is not always true of email. 
5. The average unsubscribe rate for messaging apps is under 1%. 
6. Message history is stored and easy for consumers to come back to. 

We’re not done yet, here are tips to boost your open rates on messaging apps

Build a community for potential clients and partners.

If you are already on an active messaging platform, odds are your targeted clients and partners are too. If you are able to build a community within the messaging app platform, where they can contact you directly, it will help you build trust and establish deeper relationships. If you have a personal relationship with your audience, you will less likely be viewed as spam and they will be more likely to open your messages. 

Build a community for existing clients and partners

Existing customers will enjoy the ability to stay in the loop with the real-time communication benefits from the messaging app. Customer satisfaction will directly correlate to loyalty and similar to the community for prospects, partners here will less likely view messages from you as spam. 

Utilize chatbots to deliver content

Chatbots are a great tool for creating promotional opportunities. You can deliver content and encourage customer engagement. Consumers find it enjoyable and also like to get the information they are looking for in an easy and no-fuss way. A perfect example is the Activision case study above. 

Use one-to-one personalization

Consumers love to feel like you are speaking directly to them, so if you personalize their messages it is likely to make a strong and lasting impact.

Where should I start?

Now that you are bought in and ready to implement messaging apps, how do you know which is the right one for you?

Check out this article on how to choose the best messaging app for your business to jump-start your research and if you want even more statistics and tips check out the full infographic below.