Let’s start with an example: you have a smartphone with many apps on it—how many do you use often? Five? Six? What about the others? What could motivate you to open those unused apps that you know are helpful but rarely use? What’s the first thing that comes to mind? Yes—a push notification. When you, as a developer, begin to think like a consumer, everything becomes clearer. Nothing brings a user back to the app like a well-planned push message.

push notification

Did you know a recent study found that the main reason people uninstall an app is because of annoying notifications? Forrester also reported that consumers in the UK and US use about 24 apps each month but spend over 80% of their time on just five of them. This is concerning data and shows that a push notification, when used correctly, can be very effective, but when used carelessly, it can hurt your business significantly. Let me share some best practices for using push notifications effectively to increase user engagement:

  1. Limit the frequency, hit the bull’s eye: Unless there is truly 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 were to 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 it 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— and it is, so 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!’
  4. 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 further—create two best looking designs and deploy. The analytics will automatically let you know which design got more responses. Lesson learnt.
  5. Master the timing, master the world: Its 4 am, your customer is sleeping and you push 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.’

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.

Originally published on ShepHertz Blog. Photo Credit: Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain