How Cross-Channel Messaging Can Drive Higher User Engagement

Viewing the modern marketing landscape is like looking at a surreal painting—a crazed creation begging for your attention every way you look. There are so many different devices and platforms and channels, so many competing brands and products. It’s not surprising that a lot of marketing today gets lost in the shuffle, unable to stand out from all the other campaigns and messages consumers are inundated with.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Using cross-channel messaging, brands can create an individualized experience that connects with each user in responsive, meaningful ways, building strong relationships and driving long-term business success. To dig deeper into how cross-channel can move the needle for your marketing and boost user engagement, let’s take a look at three leading brands who leveraged cross-channel messaging to help create memorable experiences and connect users with their brand.

Segmentation Strategy With Showmax

Leading African streaming service Showmax found a way to separate itself from the crowd by focusing on content that was relevant to its audience members. By leveraging Braze, they were able to create a complex and effective segmentation process that powered personalized messages across email, push, and in-app messages (IAMs).

These tailored cross-channel messages organized audience segments in a variety of ways: Lifecycle stage (such as new or existing users), content preference (600 genre-related metadata tags), points in time (about to finish a tv series, for example), and user characteristics (device used, subscription length, etc.). This data-driven strategy enabled Showmax to increase their ROI by 37% with an enormous 204% increase in subscribers. They also achieved a 12% increase in winback rate and a 71% retention rate.

Hinge Uses Cross-Channel to Make Love Connections

Another brand working in a saturated market, Hinge, is making waves by trying to get people off dating apps altogether. To help accomplish this, Hinge utilized cross-channel messaging to foster real relationships among their users.

The effort featured Hinge launching its “Most Compatible” campaign, which leverages a Nobel Prize-winning algorithm to pair users every 24 hours with people they are most likely to connect with. To make the most of the feature (and nudge users towards a love connection), Hinge built out a cross-channel messaging campaign complete with email, push notification, and IAM. After some experimentation, they found that excluding pictures from emails led to an increased click-through rate. Testing push notification timing led to Hinge implementing a morning and evening reminder, a gentle push as opposed to an obtrusive wave of notifications. The result? After launching the campaign, click-through rates skyrocketed by 200%.

iHeartRadio Reinvents Contests and Connections

Established media brands, such as radio stations, can have a difficult time engaging users, compared with newer, digital-first competitors. iHeartRadio Australia jumped that hurdle, growing their app audience to over half a million monthly active users (MAUs) through a truly cross-channel campaign powered by Braze.

To accomplish this feat, iHeartRadio Australia came up with the “KIIS 1065 Cash, Cars, and Stars” contest which challenged listeners to identify five celebrity voices in hopes of winning a new car. The station implemented clues via IAMs to encourage the use of the app. Listeners scanned a unique code, triggering an electronic DM to be sent with additional clues. Overall, there was a 17% boost in MAUs, 11% increase in time spent listening using the app, and a 37% increase in the click-through rate for clues delivered. Embracing a cross-channel strategy led to KIIS 1065 reaching its highest ever number of unique listeners as well as the highest level of time spent listening in the IHeartRadio app.

Final Thoughts

Today’s marketers are operating in a noisy environment. But by leveraging cross-channel campaigns to reach customers where they are, brands can power more responsive, more impactful marketing efforts that support stronger engagement and better user relationships. To learn more about building cross-channel messaging campaigns that can support memorable connections with your customers, check out the Braze Cross-Channel Data Report.