Push messages are increasingly being used as a marketing channel to engage with their users. As the usage of push notifications grows around the world, businesses started to leverage it without following best practices.
When brands send out push messages without following the best approach users get bombarded with both relevant and irrelevant messages both on their browsers and mobiles. While push notifications are powerful, versatile, and can be customized according to user requirements, marketers need to look for effective ways to engage their users.
Importance of push notifications
When used in the right way, push notifications can offer great opportunities to drive users to engage with your website on a consistent basis. Push messages boost mobile app engagement by 88% when used properly. The key is to send your push notifications to the right audience at the right time so that you can avoid being too pushy. However, there are a very few marketers who actually know the techniques to use push notifications to get the best results.
Look at the below image showing the tweet where 38 experts share how to use push notifications in the right manner.
In the blog, a digital media strategist and pro-blogger Ritchie Pettauer stresses on using push messaging to keep the conversion rate on his blog amazingly high.
Jonathan Aufray who is the CEO at StartGrowthHack also considers push notifications as one of the most powerful eCommerce strategies to increase conversions.
Best practices using push notifications
The impact of push messages on the growth of the business is really huge. To improve the effectiveness of push notifications, you must follow the best practices and avoid pitfalls when using push messages as a marketing tool. Let’s explore the do’s and don’ts of push notifications.
What are the Do’s and Don’ts of Push Notifications
Do’s of push notifications
-
Do personalize your messages
Personalization is very important for push notifications, both web, and mobile push notifications. According to research, personalized push messages with an effective emphasis on business intelligence improves the conversion rate by 5.5%. Different types of users respond to push messages in different ways. However, most of them opt-in to push notifications that are personalized messages.
People are generally tired of seeing irrelevant messages hitting their browsers and apps. That is why you have to customize all your push notifications by analyzing the requirements and preferences of your users.
-
Do send the requests at the right time
Yes, timing your push notifications really matters. Instead of sending out push notifications to your users at random times, determine the best time to send push messages to users. When timing your messages, it is important to consider the geographical location of your users as well. Time your messages when your users are not busy with other things so that you get their attention.
To find out what timing is the best, you could test the timing of your push messages. Perform continuous testing to determine when your users are active to ensure that you are not interrupting them.
-
Do treat every new user initially
If you want to dramatically improve the performance of push notification campaigns, treat every new user like unique individuals. Greet users by their name which helps to build familiarity and trust and send personalized messages that guide them towards relevant and valuable content.
The first time a new user visits your website or app, get them to answer a few questions to drive more personalization. This way, you can offer more personalized marketing recommendations by adjusting the content based on their needs. Personalized messages make our users feel like your products were made just for them.
-
Do segment your users to offer more value
All your push notifications must be targeted to specific users. If they are poorly targeted, you cannot refer to useful products that match their needs. Personalizing push messages always starts with a good segmentation strategy. Segment your users based on their website interaction and profiles so that you can eventually improve your click rate for your push notifications.
-
Do experiment with proven CTAs
Push notifications by its very nature increase your click rate tremendously. When you combine that with relevant CTAs, it helps to attract new subscribers by taking your push messages to a whole new level. The CTA button guides your users to take necessary action. Without it, users may struggle to find out what to do next. With a CTA button in place, you can also boost your revenue significantly.
With the marketplace flooded with competition, users are looking for things that will add value to their lives. The best way to gain a competitive advantage in the industry is through customization. It gives options to your users adding further value and giving them more control over the actions they want to take.
Don’ts of push notifications
-
Don’t send generic content
Sending generic push messages to your users is a big mistake that can significantly reduce the effectiveness of your push notification. Always avoid sending long and generic content and also do not repeatedly use the same content for all users and purposes.
-
Don’t interrupt users with poorly timed requests
Sending a poorly timed push message request can only help to interrupt a user. Bad timing can turn even well-crafted push notifications into a disturbance no matter how great your products are. Even if your users truly enjoy using your website or app, wrongly timed notifications can negatively affect your user retention. If you message your users at the wrong time, they are likely to abandon the website or your app.
-
Don’t send general welcome messages
Push notifications are a critical communication channel. Just because you have got a new visitor on your website doesn’t mean that you have got a customer. Most websites welcome new users and greet them with things like settings and customer support which new users won’t be interested in.
-
Don’t send the same message to all users
No matter how good your craft and time your messages, it is not reaching the right person, it doesn’t have any value. It is just like a salesperson talking about the products he wants to sell to a kid who is home alone. Even if your sales pitch is very good, the impact will be null as it is wasted on the wrong user. Finding your target audience is the foremost step in running successful push notification campaigns and if you fail to achieve that, your efforts are of no vain.
-
Don’t ignore CTAs
Most marketers ignore CTAs without understanding the real significance of tested and proven CTAs. No matter the type of push notifications you are sending out, it is important to personalize the CTAs and test it to understand what your users may or may not like. As your target audience is interrupted by push notifications you need to use effective CTAs to cut through the noise and reach your target audience.
Conclusion
Push notifications are very powerful marketing tools for brands in all domains to re-engage users and retain them. The expertise of a professional level push notification provider is required to create, manage, and send push notifications efficiently.
However, follow a well-planned strategy to send out your push messages to the right audience at the right time and allow them to understand the value they receive before asking permission to send your messages. Following the best practices of push notifications for effective delivery and performance of push notifications.
Leave a Reply