Why we shouldn’t retire email in mobile apps

rainmaker-labs.com

Chat apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp may be taking over the online personal communication industry, but emails still hold a place in our world.

App marketers still need channels to communicate with users, and in-app messaging and push notifications don’t serve as wide of a range as emails do. In-app messaging, while effective in increasing conversion and retention rates, are restricted by their context, and push notifications can only fit so many words into that precious rectangle.

Email is evolving to meet these needs. App marketers have developed technologies that are able to send personalized emails, and their effectiveness is only enhanced as devices like smartphones and tablets become more ubiquitous each day, which emails can be effortlessly transferred to. We’re even able to check email on our wrists now!

Personalized emails are the future of app marketing, and for these reasons:

Just like in-app messaging, email marketing for apps has the potential to boost retention rates. It is important for users to keep coming back to the app, and the best way to do this is to maintain communication with the users. Emails that are personalized to the users will hold their attention, while irrelevancy is the easiest way for an app to be dismissed as spam. Emails must deliver the right content to the right people; a vegetarian subscribed to a gym app would enjoy seeing healthy vegetarian meal recommendations and consistent workout routines, for example.

Also, many people simply disable push notifications. According to studies, only half of app users opt-in for push notifications, yet it is still the most popular way for apps to communicate with users. As noted earlier, push notifications are already limited by the amount of words they can fit, and now they are suffering from a shrinking audience. You can only entice users so much with one sentence, but an email can contain much more valuable content such as videos and lengthier (and more useful) information to keep people coming back. Email marketing can and should be used to remedy the failure of push. App marketers who devote the proper time and resources to emails will find themselves with a much stronger user base.