Push notifications have remained the biggest weapon in app marketing arsenal so far and will continue to dominate 2018 and years to come. Why? Because there is no better way that does not require advertisement and still manages to bring users back on app and boost engagement than a finely crafted, well timed and personalized push notification. A lot of times people keep certain apps that are important for them but seldom open them due to various reasons—maybe they procrastinate, maybe they are just busy, or maybe they forget at times—if you were a part of this group what would remind you or give you a reason to open those apps?

A push notification.

I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that the biggest reason people uninstalled an app was annoying notifications, so it is extremely important to use them wisely—because you never know how many bad push notifications will lead to increased uninstalls. This is an alarming figure and just shows that a push, when used wisely can do wonders but, when used randomly can kill your business entirely. Let me give you 5 push notification best practices that you can follow to get the maximum out of push notifications:

1. Limit the frequency, hit the bull’s eye: Unless there is truly an important message to convey, do not push any notification to the customer. Why? Because if your customer is not using your app regularly anyway, sending an irrelevant push is only going to aggravate the situation more and they might end up uninstalling your app. This practice works differently for different type of apps, for instance, a news app would attract more customers if latest and more relevant news was pushed by them before any other competitor, on the other hand a lifestyle app would get more responses if a message was pushed occasionally—like on Christmas eve the app may notify the customer of a new discount at a popular store. Same way a fitness app could get more word of mouth if it would notify the user to not miss the workout based on their usage on the app.
2. Know your user, segment strategically: Your customer wants to feel important and needs your attention. When you segment your users based on their behavior, location, activity and send relevant push to them they get an impression that push is tailor made for them. Let’s say I’m using an app that lets me book tickets to events/movies/concerts, now say I recently purchased tickets of a concert of some rock band—there is another upcoming rock concert and I get notified about it—there is a very high chance that I will use the app to make another purchase. Similarly, let’s say I checked out the first rock concert a couple of times but did not buy tickets, the app can notify me about the upcoming concert with a message like, ‘Missed out on the previous concert? Here is the new opportunity,’ and probability says this time I might just make a purchase! Works, right?
3. Talk, not push, gives more wins: Continuing the above point, your users want an assurance that you are there and interacting with them individually. So, talk to them. Since push has design limitations, it is very important that your write personalized and actionable message for your users based on their segment. Now you may think managing segments is a little tedious job—there are quite a few marketing automation tools out there to help you. Let’s say Halloween is round the corner and an e-commerce apparel store wants a boost in sale, what can they do? To females they can push message like, ‘Only for today! Be the damsel diva you always wanted to be—flat 10% off across all dresses!’ and for men the message can be, ‘Only for today! Beat all the odds and be the star of the night—flat 10% across all jackets!’ When in doubt, A/B test—who knows what works and what doesn’t better than customers, right? If you or your team cannot decide which—copy is going to work or if the text is too long or too short or too verbose or too common—just without stressing your mind furthermore—create two best looking designs and launch. The analytics will automatically let you know which design got more responses. Lesson learnt.
4. Master the timing, master the world: Its 4 am, your customer is sleeping and you push a message with a very attracting sound hoping to conquer the world. But what happens in reality? That customer may wake up from their sleep, hurl some expletives and may even uninstall your app. Game over. What exactly should you do? Pay attention to your user segments’ time zones and customize messages according to the occasions. For instance, its Valentine’s eve and a restaurant finder app may send a notification in the evening like, ‘Be datelicious! This Valentine’s give an extravagant experience to your date at XYZ. Here’s your 15% off coupon code.’
5. Be smart, send localized content: With technologies like geo-targeting, geo-fencing, & beacons easily accessible, why not leverage them to send contextually personalized messages to the right people at the right time for maximum conversions! Let’s say if you own a chain of a popular restaurant, you could send a notification to the people who are around with text like, “Hey, we are offering a discount of 15% across all our desserts. Since you’re around, drop by to satiate your sweet tooth for a while”. Or an example of geotargeting that is being used by a retail company could be, “We love you and your city! Which is why we decided to offer flat 15% across all categories and across all stores! Hurry, offer lasts until Friday.”

Moreover, if you could send any of these messages to users in their native language, the chances of getting conversions increases dramatically.

Remember, your customers may not be using your app regularly but they are not entirely negligent to its existence and are open to receiving relevant information. Use this channel wisely and your app will always be in everybody’s good books. Word of mouth is the cheapest way to market your product and relevant push campaigns might influence your customers to bring in more. If you would like to learn more about how you can achieve this through push notifications, please click here to get in touch with us and we will be happy to assist. 🙂