Archive for September, 2011

Push notifications and location updates are proven engagement drivers for mobile apps so there is strong incentive to maximize opt-in rates. Like it or not, most users will not give you a second chance open these valuable lines of communication. Asking for permission to send push notifications and to track location is a pretty big ask for most people. This is why every app developer should consider taking a look at how their app treats the opt-in moment and upon seeing the request, answer these two questions.

1. Have I had a chance to experience this app? Building trust is essential and building trust takes time. Instead of asking a user to opt-in right as they open the app (which is the default approach) let them explore the app and see all of the cool features and content that it offers.  Then link the opt-in to an action – whether it be posting their first comment, creating a user account, or beating the first level of a game. Even looking to delay the ASK to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th time that they open the APP is being tested, and working successfully. After experiencing the cool features and great content that you’ve developed you will have increased your chances of getting permission to message, while providing context as to why you may track location of your users to provide valuable content tied to geo.
   
2. Is there compelling value exchange if I accept push notifications and location sharing? The term “push notification” can mean something different to every end user. While the term describes a technology ,that many people still do not understand, your users associate it with the inherent value that notifications will provide them. When you ask a user to opt-in to notifications and location sharing, think about how you can demonstrate a value exchange by telling them how notifications will benefit them.  What will they get in return for saying yes?  If you can put together a compelling case then you will have increased your chances of winning the opt-in moment and help increase the success of your app. In the end you must show with the value of the content and context to keep the relationship. 

Get it here: Guide to Push: Five Ways to Engage and Maintain Your Audience

Once again, our fearless leader is off to the Bay Area to speak at the prestigious mobile industry conference, Mobilize, which is put on by the good folks at GigaOm. This year it expands to become a two-day event, and the line up of other speakers is very impressive, as always.

Our CEO Scott Kveton will be on a panel of execs from a few other mobile infrastructure players. The topic is around how companies like ours are able to sell direct to developers and publishers while skipping over carriers, which really shrinks the cycle. He speaks at 1:30pm on Day One, September 26 at the Mission Bay Conference Center.

Bob Egan, who is an analyst for GigaOm Pro, will moderate the session, and Scott will speak alongside execs from Cotendo and Appcelerator.

If you are going too, please give us a shout! We’d love to connect. Watch the @urbanairship Twitter stream of real-time insights while we are at the show.

The Jelli music app began promoting community and game features with a social strategy using push notifications to revitalize social sharing and rating functions.  Their real-time alerts highlighting the app’s unique features drove a measurable increase in engagement, repeat app opens, and usage of key social features.

Download the Case Study

“We didn’t pretend that we’d build push for a nanosecond. We were looking for something that would get us started fast and grow with us. Time and money were the key factors in choosing Urban Airship. We knew that we could go to market in no time and run huge volume for little cost. It would have taken us a couple of months to build our own Push, with Urban Airship we did it in no time.”

- Sarah Bacon, Director of Product, Jelli

Download the Jelli app in the itunes store here or visit the Jelli site.

Want us to share your Urban Airship success story?  Contact us.

Download the Case Study

Who loves their customers? We do! That’s why we’re excited to introduce two new professional grade pricing plans that will allow you to take advantage of the same benefits previously only available to enterprise customers. We have also simplified In-App Purchase and lowered the pricing for Subscriptions. We hope these changes will help make engaging with your customers more convenient and effective.

We developed our new pricing plans based on the success of our Premium plan, which we introduced in June. For the first time we packaged together unlimited Push Notifications and Rich Push along with our premium tools, Push Composer and Reports. The Premium plan has worked well for high-volume customers and now we want to extend these features to everyone.

Now companies with less-intensive audience demands can take advantage of unlimited messaging to their users and access our powerful composition and reporting tools. Additionally, to help promote in-app revenue opportunities we’ve simplified our In-App Purchase model so that customers now pay the same low price for all downloads regardless of file size, up to a 1 GB limit. This new approach should allow for easier planning and budgeting while encouraging more In-App Purchases compared to our previous, file-size based pricing. Our new professional grade plans are called “Pro” and the “Pro In-App Purchase”. Both plans are configured to serve up to 10,000 users per month with unlimited Push Notifications and Rich Push. Both also include the Push Composer and Reports tools. Current customers can upgrade to the new plans directly from your account billing page. Visit our pricing page for details or to create a new account.

• Pro is for customers looking to drive more app engagement with a core messaging strategy. In addition to unlimited Push, Rich Push and access to our Pro tools, it offers In-App Purchases at six cents per download.
• Pro In-App Purchase is for customers whose mobile strategies rely heavily on generating in-app revenue. This plan includes everything that the Pro plan offers plus 10,000 In-App Purchases per month with additional purchases at four cents each. It offers subscriptions according to a similar model (10,000 users per month, five cents per additional user) and includes support for Apple’s Newsstand, an exciting new feature in iOS 5.

Accounts using our Basic plan never fear. We are still offering the first million push messages per month for free and the new service prices will not affect existing customers – everyone stays on the plan they signed up under until they choose one of these new offerings.  We think you will like our new In-App Purchase and subscription offerings.  We’ve removed the In-App Purchase file size tiers and offer a flat rate of 10 cents per download, and subscription prices for Basic have dropped to 10 cents per user per month.

Visit our pricing page to see more details on our pricing and plans. Sign up today and start a free trial of Push Composer and Reports.