State of Customer Messaging - 2022 REPORT - OneSignal
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
State of Customer Messaging 2022 REPORT
What’s Inside
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
State of Customer Messaging in 2022
How Messaging Strategy is Evolving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05
The Value of a Multichannel Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
Delivering Hyper-Personalized Experiences at Scale . ...... 12
Growth Hacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Earning Push Notification Opt-in Permission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Measuring Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
How OneSignal Can Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 2
Introduction
Today, users expect hyper-personalized, relevant, and timely
communication across every touchpoint.
It’s hard to fathom how many unprecedented changes have occurred in the
last few years — and humbling to think what that could mean for the future.
Some digital trends that we assumed were temporary a short time ago have
now permanently altered how we communicate, congregate, and conduct
business.
Creating a multichannel communication strategy has become table stakes
for companies who want to compete in today’s digital age. Although
mobile was already an important channel prior to 2020, the pandemic has
transformed it into a top priority for many companies. As people continue to
spend more time on digital channels, the opportunities to engage with users
across a range of devices have become more abundant. Reports show that
users spent 30 percent more time per day on mobile apps in 2021 and app
spending rose by 20 percent to reach $170 billion.
But new opportunities also breed new challenges. As the demand for digital
experiences has increased, so have user expectations for those experiences.
Users spent 30% more time per day on mobile apps in
2021 and app spending rose by 20% to reach $170 billion.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 3
Today, users expect hyper-personalized, relevant, and timely communication
across every touchpoint — whether they’re ordering groceries on an app,
tracking an online order, or confirming an upcoming vaccination appointment.
There’s no question that attracting, retaining, and converting users requires
robust data and technology solutions. But what impact can those solutions
and features really have on your business? And how can companies continue
to evolve to meet the challenges ahead?
We surveyed more than 500 product and marketing professionals, engineers,
and C-suite members from small startups to international brands and
compiled statistics from 10 billion daily messages sent through OneSignal
to help you evolve your communication strategy in 2022 and beyond.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 4
How Messaging
Strategy is Evolving
Marketers, developers, C-suite members, product, sales, and
business owners all ranked push notifications as the number one
most important channel to their business.
Although push notifications are a relatively new channel compared to email,
they’ve become an invaluable resource for sending both transactional and
marketing messages. In addition to being a highly visible form of communication,
this channel has the ability to reach a global audience even after they’ve
exited an app or a website. They’re also an incredibly versatile medium,
which is why marketers, developers, C-suite members, product, sales, and
business owners all ranked push notifications as the number one most
important channel to their business.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 5
61% of respondents said that mobile push notifications
are currently the most important channel for their
business.
Customer Communication Ranking Based on Importance
Source: OneSignal Survey
However, the rising popularity of push notifications doesn’t mean that older
channels are becoming irrelevant. In fact, survey respondents still ranked
email as the second most important channel to their business. Compared to
push notifications, email has greater longevity in a user’s inbox and provides
more room for content, making it well-suited to communication like news-
letters, invoices, and onboarding workflows. Despite some early skepticism
about the fate of email in a mobile-first era, email continues to be a valuable
resource — even for mobile apps.
If there was any question as to why mobile push notifications were voted
as the most important channel, this statistic says it all. The immediacy of
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 6
mobile push notifications makes this channel ideal for re-engaging users
and enticing them back to an app or website.
The majority of respondents said that mobile push
notifications are the most effective re-engagement
channel for their business.
Most Effective Re-engagement Channel
Source: OneSignal Survey
Although cost-per-install for mobile apps is at an all-time low, retaining and
converting app users into paying customers is becoming more expensive.
As customer loyalty wanes amidst rising competition, companies will
continue to look for opportunities to improve retention and increase customer
lifetime value (LTV). And for good reason — studies have shown that a five
percent growth in customer retention can result in revenue gains of 25 to 95
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 7
percent. Compared to new customers, retained customers also spend more
and make purchases more often. If you’re looking for opportunities to boost
customer loyalty, mobile push notification will continue to be a must-have
channel.
Majority of respondents said that mobile push
notification will be the most important channel to their
company in the next couple of years.
Most Important Communication Channel in Next 1-2 Years
Source: OneSignal Survey
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 8
The Value of a
Multichannel Approach
Mobile push notifications may be considered the most valuable
channel, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one you need.
Using multiple channels to communicate with customers has been shown
to help companies reach a larger audience, respect audience preferences,
improve their user experience, and ultimately boost brand loyalty.
Another benefit of a multichannel approach is that it allows you to match
your messaging content and context to the appropriate channel. Whereas
push notifications and SMS are well-suited to time-sensitive content and
alerts, email might offer more content “real-estate.” Understanding the
strengths and drawbacks of each channel can help you choose the right
one for each messaging use case. For instance, our data shows that in-app
messages have 25 to 30 times higher click-through rates than push notifi-
cations on average. This performance gap is likely due to the fact that in-
app messages are displayed to an engaged app audience. In-app messages
also don’t require opt-in permission, so they have the potential to reach a
broader audience than other channels. Simply put, if you’re only using one
channel, then you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to engage more
users on their terms.
68% of respondents said that having a multichannel
communication strategy was very important or
extremely important to their user experience.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 9
Understanding Messaging Use Cases Across Channels
We asked survey respondents to characterize their use of different channels
into three categories: transactional messages, marketing messages, or both
transactional and marketing messages.
What are Transactional Messages?
Transactional messages are typically automated messages that are triggered
by a specific action that a user or customer has taken. These messages are
unique to each user and contain important information regarding the action
in question. Transactional messages are sent on a “need to know” basis and
are critical to creating a seamless user experience. Examples of transactional
messages include order confirmations, delivery updates, shipping information,
account balance alerts, and password reset links.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 10What are Marketing Messages?
Marketing messages are sent to influence a user into taking a specific action.
Whereas transactional notifications are more logistical in nature, marketing
messages are meant to delight and entice your audience. They’re typically
sent to segmented user groups and include some personalization to make
the content more relevant to the recipient. Marketing messages can promote
special offers or deals, or may simply share relevant content to entice users
into re-engaging with your site or app.
Types of Messages Sent by Channel
Source: OneSignal Survey
We found that most channels were used in a versatile way for both
transactional and marketing messages. However, web push notifications
were used most often for marketing messages and SMS was favored for
transactional messages.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 11Delivering
Hyper-Personalized
Experiences at Scale
Notifications that use personalized content have a
259% higher engagement rate than notifications that
don’t use personalized content.
Message Targeting & Personalization
In a short span of time, personalization has gone from being a “nice to have”
to a fundamental customer expectation. And the stakes are higher than ever
— more than half of consumers say that they’re more likely to become repeat
buyers after a personalized shopping experience, whereas 45 percent say
that an un-personalized experience would cause them to shop elsewhere. In
other words, investing in personalization is paramount in order to compete
and thrive. When it comes to your brand communication, the impacts of
personalization are profound.
If you’re not personalizing your brand communication, then it’s not just your
user experience that’s suffering. The customer engagement generated by
personalized content completely eclipses that of non-personalized content.
This delta represents a profound growth opportunity for savvy companies
to gain a competitive edge.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 12Messages that use Segments have 83% higher rates of
engagement than those that don’t.
Personalization isn’t just limited to message content. Segmenting your
audience can help you personalize your messaging strategy to an even
greater degree by targeting messages to the right audience and delivering
them at the right moment in their user journey. In addition to these personal-
ization benefits, proper segmentation can help you automate and scale your
messaging strategy with greater ease and efficiency — two benefits that
will help you outpace your competition.
Across all channels, mobile push notifications have the highest increase in
engagement when segments are used. When Segments are used for mobile
push notifications, the average engagement rate improves by 50 percent.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 13Message Design
When it comes to your messaging strategy, aesthetics matter more than
you might think. Images, emojis, gifs, and other design elements can help
draw attention to a message and lend emotional context and depth to the
content.
Impact of Images on Push Notification CTR Across
Google Play Store App Categories
App Category Avg. Increase in CTR App Category Avg. Increase in CTR
Art & Design +289% Lifestyle +53%
Beauty +64% Maps & Navigation +58%
Books & Reference +131% Medical +1,634%
Business +128% Music & Audio +267%
Education +119% Parenting +90%
Entertainment +138% Photography +522%
Events +23% Productivity +58%
Finance +52% Shopping +53%
Gaming +267% Social +1,147%
House & Home +322% Sports +71%
Source: OneSignal
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 14On average, notifications that use templates have 17%
higher engagement rates compared to those that don’t.
Messaging templates offer a variety of benefits, whether you’re using
them for email, SMS, push notifications, or in-app messages. On a basic
level, using templates can save you time and resources when crafting
messages and reduce the margin for error when sending content to different
devices.
In addition to streamlining content creation, messaging templates help
to deliver a consistent and recognizable brand experience that extends
beyond an app or website — and ultimately helps to create a seamless
omnichannel experience that users trust.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 15Although using templates is smart, not all templates are created equally.
High-quality templates are typically built to be responsive to different
device types so that the content always looks good no matter where it’s
viewed. A good template will also help to create a hierarchy of information
and use design elements like headers, buttons, and spacing to make the
content easier to understand and point to a specific action the audience
should take.
On average, notifications using OneSignal templates
have 31% higher engagement rates than notifications
that use custom templates.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 16Growth Hacking
It’s not uncommon for campaign optimization to take a backseat to other
competing priorities. Oftentimes, companies settle for good performance
numbers without realizing that they’re forgoing greater ROI and growth
potential. There are a variety of simple, yet overlooked opportunities to
improve messaging performance. The statistics below highlight the significant
impact that small strategic changes can have on your success.
Honing Notification Timing
Notifications sent using Intelligent Delivery perform
better than notifications that are scheduled for a specific
time.
Timing may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of
personalization, but it certainly falls under that umbrella. In addition to the
message content, the timing of a message can make it resonate or seem
irrelevant.
For time-sensitive content such as transactional messages, the importance
of having good timing is obvious. But timing can also impact the effectiveness
of marketing campaigns. Using engagement triggers to customize the
delivery time of promotions and opt-in requests to each user’s journey can
help increase the likelihood of conversion.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 17Optimizing Message Performance with A/B Testing
On average, A/B testing leads to a 15% improvement
in message engagement.
A/B testing, or split testing, is the process of testing out different message
variations on sample audience groups in order to optimize campaign
performance. Testable notification elements include title, subtitle, body
copy, images, icons, badges, emojis, sounds, logos, launch URL, and CTAs.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 18Message Localization
Notifications using localization have a 28% higher
engagement rate than notifications that don’t.
On a basic level, message localization entails customizing your messaging
campaigns based on users’ location. One of the most common types of
message localization is language localization, a process by which messages are
automatically translated into different languages based on a user’s phone
location or preferred language settings.
If you operate an international company, language localization is a must-
have feature because it helps to create a more personalized and seamless
user experience. Even for national brands, localization techniques such as
altering message send time by timezone can improve UX and engagement
rates.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 19Earning Push
Notification Opt-in
Permission
Using a pre-permission prompt improves iOS opt-in
rates by 50%.
In a world where the average person receives upwards of 60 notifications
a day (including spam messages), many users have become more selective
about the types of communication they’ll allow and increasingly wary of
vague requests. Oftentimes, when users reflexively click “no” to web browser
and mobile permission requests, what they’re really rejecting is irrelevant
interruptions and unexplained demands. Herein lies the catch-22: how can
companies live up to customer expectations for push when the first notification
a user receives undercuts the value of this medium?
Today more than ever, users expect companies to earn their trust before
asking for access in return. With regard to opt-in messages, meeting this
expectation requires honing your message timing and using a pre-permission
prompt.
Pre-permission prompts appear before the native iOS prompt and pro-
vide users with the context they need to make an informed opt-in decision.
Whereas Android devices automatically allow push notifications (with
options to disable), iOS users must first provide consent by responding to
Apple’s native permission prompt, which makes pre-permission prompts
even more vital.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 20Using OneSignal’s in-app messaging tool, it’s easy to execute a pre-permission
prompt that automatically triggers the native prompt. The best part? You
don’t need to implement a complex messaging flow in order to see results.
Creating a single, short prompt message improves iOS opt-in rates by 50
percent.
Although pre-permission prompts aren’t yet vital for Android, that may soon
change with the release of Android 13. In addition to future-proofing your
messaging campaign, implementing Android pre-permission prompts can
actually improve the user experience and prevent users from opting out of
notifications in their phone’s settings. In fact, Android apps that implemented
pre-permission prompts boosted their opt-in rate by 15 percent.
Android apps that implemented pre-permission prompts
boosted their opt-in rate by 15%.
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 21Measuring Success
It’s no secret that measuring the success of messaging campaigns can help
you pinpoint areas for optimization. Tracking engagement can also help you
boost revenue and unlock additional growth opportunities for your business
beyond your messaging strategy. A majority of consumers today expect
brands to provide personalized cross-channel experience — delivering on
that expectation in real-time demands that businesses collect and leverage
first-party data wisely.
Click-through rate is the primary KPI used to measure
messaging strategy effectiveness.
KPI to Measure Messaging Strategy Effectiveness
Source: OneSignal Survey
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 22Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of clicks that a message receives
divided by the number of times it’s shown (i.e. impressions). Measuring CTR
can tell you how effective your messaging strategy is at inciting action, which
is why it’s a popular performance barometer. Good CTR typically means that
messages are relevant to their target audience, whereas poor CTR can indicate
room for improvement.
Although CTR is an essential baseline metric, it won’t give you the full story
behind a click. For instance, it’s possible for a notification promoting an online
sale to earn a high click-through rate and not lead to many purchases. To truly
understand user engagement, it’s important to identify where users drop off in
their journey and evaluate CTR in relation to other overarching goals.
A majority of respondents were very or extremely
confident that messaging campaigns were having a
positive impact on company goals.
Confidence in Messaging Campaigns Positively Impacting Company Goals
Source: OneSignal Survey
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 23How OneSignal
Can Help
As you look for a messaging provider, it helps to understand the ROI of
different solutions. However, locating objective data on that subject can be
tricky. We wanted to help take some guesswork out of your search and pro-
vide greater visibility into the ways that OneSignal can impact bottom-line
performance. In order to do so in an objective way, we commissioned For-
rester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study to ex-
amine the potential return on investment (ROI) companies may realize by
using our product.
Download the full study to discover why our clients earned 425% ROI over
three years and other ways we supported their growth.
The Total
Economic Impact TM
of OneSignal
Download Study
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 24About OneSignal
OneSignal is the market-leading customer messaging and engagement
solution, offering mobile and web push notifications, in-app messaging,
SMS, and email. OneSignal’s powerful multichannel platform enables
over one million businesses to deliver billions of messages daily.
Powered by superior architecture, OneSignal is designed to scale and
deliver personalized and engaging messages. By providing an open API,
extensive documentation, free accounts, and intuitive personalization and
analytics tools, OneSignal helps businesses of all sizes provide a seamless
messaging experience to create meaningful customer connections.
Trusted by Leading Brands
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 25Start delivering more personalized
user experiences at scale
Create a Free Account Contact Us
© 2022 OneSignal
State of Customer Messaging in 2022 26You can also read
