Our 10 Most Popular Blog Posts From 2016

December 28, 2016

From getting the most out of your app investment to a cheat sheet for choosing the best mobile messaging channel, our blog posts from the past year covered a lot of ground.

Based on our analytics and reader feedback, we’ve pulled our most useful and popular posts from 2016 together for you here in one spot. We hope you find something here you can use today!

As we head into 2017, we’d also love to hear from you about what you’d like to see on our blog. Leave a comment on this post, get in touch with me directly, or contact us here. Our goal is to make our content super useful for the mobile community, and your feedback is essential for making that a reality.

Enjoy these posts — we hope you find something here you can put to use today!

To avoid FOMO in the new year, why not subscribe to our blog right now? We’ll send you one email a week with posts that will help you make your job easier, move your metrics in the right direction, and meet (or beat!) your most ambitious goals.

1) How to Make a Successful App: 10 Fundamentals for Maximizing Your Investment

Need to know how to build an app that starts creating value for you and your users on day one? These 10 fundamentals will help you get more value from your app and your development investment — and set yourself up for success. Tip one: Why would anyone download your app? To succeed, you’ve got to make sure you’ve nailed your mobile value proposition.>>

2) Making Sure Your Future, Our Future, Everyone’s Future is Wide Open

We launched our new Mobile Growth Platform this year, and it caused quite a stir. In this blog post, our VP of Engineering, Mike Herrick, dives deeper into what Open Platforms and Open Channels will mean for Urban Airship customers — and why he’s super excited about it. Mike: “By opening up our core platform components we can help businesses address any channel that exists today or emerges in the future.” >>

3) Mobile Messaging Cheat Sheet: Choose the Right Mobile Messaging Communication Channels Every Time

Ever wish you had a handy checklist for matching the message you want to send to your mobile users with the right mobile messaging channel? Now you’ve got it. Get the checklist of mobile messaging channels. >>

4) The Mobile Engagement Loop: From Onboarding to Re-Engagement

Is the classic “marketing funnel” still a useful construct for mobile marketers? In this post, Bill Schneider, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Urban Airship, shows how mobile marketing has the opportunity to interact with customers in a new, more effective way. Bill, “The classic marketing funnel is dead. It’s an artifact of the traditional days of broadcast marketing. Enter the mobile engagement loop.” >>

5) Top 10 FAQs About Mobile Wallet Marketing

The number of customers using mobile wallet passes for coupons, loyalty cards, tickets, boarding passes and more continues to grow exponentially. In this post, we answer the burning questions mobile marketers have about how to take advantage of the mobile wallet opportunity and the nuts and bolts of getting started with making and sending mobile wallet passes. Get your mobile wallet questions answered. >>

6) Shifting from Mobile App User Acquisition to Retention

App engagement and app retention are key to success on mobile. In this post, you’ll see how mobile analytics play a key role in making sure you’re staying on track. Get the three metrics that will help you better understand your users — and take advantage of automation for better engagement with in-the-moment, personalized messaging. >>

7) How to Earn Push Notification Opt-Ins: 7 Essential Resources

Users who opt-in to push notifications are 4x more engaged with apps — and are retained at 2x the rated of users who opted out. So getting the opt-in is pretty important. From benchmark reports to case studies to a how-to on building an opt-in “soft ask,” this post collects some of our best thinking on getting more opt-ins. >>

8) Building Your First Mobile Marketing Strategy

Alyssa Meritt, Head of Strategic Consulting for Urban Airship, lays out three fundamentals for building an effective mobile marketing strategy — no matter where you’re starting from. Alyssa: “While not every business needs a mobile app, every business does need a mobile marketing strategy.” >>

9) 5 Things the Best Mobile Notifications Have in Common

Are your mobile messages following best practices? Five can’t-miss fundamentals for making sure the notifications you send will engage your users — and meet and exceed your KPIs. Number one on the list: The best notifications make it easy for users to take action. Get the rest. >>

10) Use the Power of Pictures to Further Mobile Engagement

Notifications an embedded image can generate as much as a 56% higher direct open rate on average than notifications without images. That’s a lot. See how you can use rich media to create better customer experiences and boost engagement. >>

BONUS!: We published a lot of how-to content on the blog this year that readers found quite helpful. Here are links to the top 5:

What would you like to see more of (or less of!) on the Urban Airship blog in 2017? Leave a comment or contact us and let us know!

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