Max Engage Six Steps For Success.pdf

Max Engage

Six Steps for Success

Defining Max Engage Success

Max Engage publishes custom, geo-targeted video content from your Max workstation directly to your mobile app. The explosion of growth in content consumption on digital devices means content providers must learn and adapt quickly to changing consumer needs. To assist with this paradigm shift, we have developed six simple steps you can use to measure success with Max Engage:

1. Consistently Post Video Headlines 5x Per Day

Research shows that posting video headlines to your app at least five times per day, regardless of the current weather situation, leads to success. The goal: Have at least one active video headline sitting on the homepage of the app every time a user visits.

Make sure your expiration times overlap and plan with your entire team to ensure there’s always something relevant on the app at all hours of the day; if there is no contextual information to consume, users will see your app as unreliable and will stop visiting.

It’s okay to post more than five times per day – during active weather situations, you may likely post many more videos. Reference the “Publish Times” document located in the Insights tab of the Max Dashboard in your Max application. Posting times listed in this document are based on research and correspond to times when people are most likely to be heavily consuming digital media.

Don’t forget to post on the weekends, as well – especially Saturday and Sunday mornings. Weekends have the highest number of users online consuming digital media.

Consistency is key: Just as viewers know when to tune in for your on-air newscasts, they will expect to see new information at specific times on your mobile app. The Max scheduling tool can help you spread your posts out consistently throughout the day and weekend to keep and inform the viewers you have and grow your mobile audience.

2. Send a Push Notification 3-4x Per Day

Push notifications get users to open your app, rather than waiting for them to discover relevant content on their own. These types of active notifications work especially well during active weather situations and special events – but they can also attract users when the weather is quiet.

At a minimum, each mobile user of your app should expect to get at least one push notification every 8 hours. Recent research shows that almost 30% of survey respondents said that 3 push notifications per day is optimal per app. Furthermore, users spend ~2.5 minutes longer in an app session when directed to the app by a push alert.

Using push notifications will help make your app a part of your audience’s daily routine, just like traditional newscasts have been a part of the TV viewing routine for decades. Push notifications should be used sparingly during the early morning and late evening/overnight hours so you won’t wake people up with non-urgent information.

As you increase the number and frequency of your app’s push notifications, you will likely receive user feedback. Your goal should be sending push notifications at consistent times during the day and whenever the weather warrants it. Increases in all metrics should follow.

3. Geo-Target Your Posts Whenever Possible

You are a trusted local weather source because of the accurate, hyperlocal information you can provide in context. By geo-targeting your video headline posts, you ensure that your mobile app users are always getting relevant information for their selected forecast location or current location based on GPS positioning. This helps build user loyalty with your app and makes them want to come back for more.

Geo-targeting down to street level allows you to reach specific audiences without alienating people who aren’t immediately affected by that event – something we can only dream about in the TV broadcast world. If your video headline mentions a thunderstorm, this content should be targeted to the users in the path of the storm or those who have requested forecasts for the affected location.

4. Post Engaging Content Every Day

Your content shouldn’t rehash your newscast but rather delve more deeply into what’s interesting and relevant to your audience. The “Everyday Weather Ideas” document, located in the Insights tab of the Max Dashboard, offers samples of compelling weather content that you can post to the app when the weather pattern is benign (i.e. daily planning content such as what to wear, astronomy content, historical weather stats). Keep in mind: Sound has become optional. Silent video is popular on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure that users know what’s going on even with the volume off.

5. Make Content Look Native for Digital

Your content needs to be specialized for your “small screen” audience. Let graphics tell the weather story by modifying existing on-air graphics to create mobile-friendly versions with larger labels and text boxes to tell the story. Though silent videos are popular on social media, as mentioned above, you should still record audio (and use the hit windshield to place your Max webcam video in the corner of the screen for the user to see your face); thus, your user has the option of hearing your analysis with the video headline if he or she so chooses.

6. Promote the App

A common twofold mistake is assuming that your viewers know about your mobile app and have it installed on their mobile devices. Chances are they don't. Steady, cross, and blanket promotion of your weather app is key to maximum audience reach.

Make sure everyone in your newsroom and your media partners download and actively use the app; if your colleagues aren’t excited about it, nobody else will be either. Here are some other ideas:

If everyone uses your weather app, it will come up in conversations with friends, family, and on air. The math is simple: The more people who download your weather app, the more video views and station revenue you'll likely achieve as a result.

For more information on Max Engage, visit The Weather Community.