Appboy Announces In-App News Feed, Delivers Game Changer for Mobile Engagement

NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Appboy, the leading platform for mobile relationship management (MRM), is reinventing user engagement once again by introducing an in-app News Feed, an industry-first. Drawing on conventions found in many social media platforms, the company has built a dynamic, fully-customizable feed that lives inside the app, delivering customized messages and announcements to specific segments of users. The News Feed enhances Appboy's existing multi-channel messaging products to help app developers combat low retention rates and increase engagement by 30%.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131126/NY23704 )

Appboy's News Feed has real advantages over existing mobile messaging channels, and expands the reach of in-app messaging:

• News Feed messages have a permanent location inside the app rather than disappearing right away as with push notifications or in-app messaging.
• Four types of templates (and counting) can display content of various lengths and visual formats.
• The message remains in the user's News Feed, able to be accessed at any time without causing interruptions or intrusions.
• The News Feed natively reinforces campaigns that use push notifications, in-app messages and mobile email.

Since launching the News Feed a few weeks ago, client adoption and campaign performance have been remarkable. Appboy's Success Squad has worked closely with clients such as Urban Outfitters, SHAPE, Bloomberg and Text+ to help build and optimize their engagement campaigns, ranging from regular message updates to special promotions and social media updates. The News Feed has shown consistent results with a 30% click-through rate (CTR), a significant improvement over the 0.8% CTR on mobile display ads.

"Appboy's News Feed has made a measurable impact on our fall messaging campaigns, including our Top Up Tuesdays promotion," says Tricia Bertero, CMO of Text+. "Using the product in conjunction with targeted push notifications helped us convert a significant portion of non-paying users into customers and increased our average revenue per user."

With the introduction of the News Feed, mobile marketers finally have more control over the in-app experience. They can launch campaigns in just minutes from Appboy's dashboard and use protocol URLs to drive their audience to specific screens inside the app. Scheduling capabilities and behavioral targeting ensure that the right content is delivered to the right audience at the right time.

"A huge flaw in mobile is only focusing on push messaging. That's 10% of the solution. With Appboy's multi-channel approach, which now includes our in-app News Feed, our customers can now move their users from point A to point B," said Mark Ghermezian, Appboy's CEO. "By creating a completely new engagement channel via the News Feed, we give our clients a powerful solution to reduce user churn and build the ROI of their mobile business."

The launch of the in-app News Feed and related best practices report follows a string of news that gives Appboy incredible momentum heading into 2014. The company recently announced $7.6M in venture funding, the launch of its Unity SDK to support a thriving mobile gaming community and the appointment of a new Vice President of Sales to lead the company's global growth.

About Appboy
Appboy is the most powerful data-driven marketing automation platform for mobile apps. Built by a team of mobile marketing experts, the company enables the world's brightest businesses to manage the lifecycle of their audience and execute on any mobile KPI and goal. Clients like Text+, Urban Outfitters, GSN and PopSci use Appboy to increase engagement, reduce churn and build their mobile ROI. Appboy has raised $7.6M in venture financing and is based in New York.

Media Contact
Cezary Pietrzak, Appboy, 504.327.7269, [email protected]

SOURCE Appboy