Boosting App Usage and Revenue Through Engaging Push Notifications

Context

I worked with the digital marketing team at Mango Languages to launch push notifications that would increase usage by mobile app users and drive in-app purchases to access more language content. I developed the content strategy with all of the messaging for the push notifications including variation to A/B test different timing, triggers, and variables.

Goals

  • Overall, this was an initiative to drive mobile learning sessions and boost the number of lessons started by users, as this is the main KPI for Mango Languages.

  • Increase app usage for users who downloaded the mobile app but don’t use it, and change inactive users into active users

  • Increase in-app purchases (ability to upgrade to access more language content)

Result

To make sure our notifications were relevant and useful, we sent a mix of situational notifications where frequency and timing were manually set and behavioral notifications that depended on the user’s activity in the app. Here is a sample:

Welcome Push Notifications

  • Automatically triggered 3 days, 7 days, and 15 days (at the end of free trial period) after profile creation or linking a free account via public library, school, or university

  • The goal was to retain users and get them back into the app

  • Encourage conversion to upgraded full-app access after the end of the trial

 
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Peak Time Push Notifications

  • Experimented with different timing: when users are more likely to use their phone; or on specific days of the week. For example:

    • In the morning, reminder to use Mango during commute to work

    • Before bed, to encourage learners to meet their language goals

    • Specific days: ‘TGIF,’ ‘hump’ day, etc.

  • Needed to be fun, engaging, and provide value to users and promote language learning

  • The goal was to put Mango top of mind and increase learning sessions

 
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Personalized Push Notifications

  • Behavior-based push notifications were sent after the user started a lesson or selected a language. For example:

    • Language-specific notification a few days after a user selected a new language

    • Lesson-specific notifications targeting users who started/finished a specific lesson

    • Helped users meet their goals

    • Reminded users to complete an action

  • The goal was to upgrade account to unlock more languages, lessons, etc.

 
 

Reminder Push Notifications

  • Targeted users after 15 days, 22 days, and 29 days of inactivity

  • The goal was to re-engage inactive users

 
 

Feature Highlight Push Notifications

  • Promote mobile-specific features like downloadable lessons, offline access, auto play, etc.

  • Promote features specific to upgraded accounts like family profiles, multiple languages, etc.

  • The goal is to drive usage to specific features to boost sessions and conversions

 
 

Results

Variant vs. Control Group (Oct 2018 - Dec 2018)

Users who received push notifications had much higher engagement with Mango’s app. Here’s how those numbers broke down:

  • Users who received push notifications opened Mango’s app 43.04% more

  • Users who received push notifications had 16.21% more sessions (number of lessons started)

Other KPIs (Oct 2018 - May 2019)

  • The average rate of each notification was:

    • Open rate: 33.11%

    • Lesson started: 21.65%

    • In-app purchase: 0.17%

  • On average, each notification brought $51,000 in revenue*

*Revenue = number of subscriptions x LTV of a subscription)