Push notifications are an important part of the mobile user experience. They allow you to engage with your users even when they’re not actively using your app and can be a great way to increase engagement and retention.
Push notifications are also relatively easy to implement — as long as you follow a few best practices but, being able to answer the question of what are push notifications is only part of the equation. With that in mind, here are some tips for creating effective push notifications:
Push vs. pull communication
In the past, all communication was pushed — you had no choice but to listen to whatever was being broadcast by media outlets or advertisers. But now we have access to a wealth of information through social media and search engines that allow us to pull the information we want from sources we trust. This is true for mobile users as well — if they don’t want to receive your push notifications, they can always turn them off in the settings menu or even uninstall your app altogether.
As a result, when you’re sending out push notifications, it’s crucial that you communicate something your users will care about. This can be done by aksing yourself the following questions:
- What value is this bringing to my users?
- Why would they want to hear from me?
- What should I expect from this communication effort?
For example, if your goal is simply to build brand awareness, then a simple message like “A reminder for our loyal customers — we have a new sale going on!” might be appropriate. But if you want to increase conversions and revenue for your e-commerce store, for example, then you need to get people into the app with a notification that includes an offer or an incentive.
Learning two-way street communication
You can communicate directly with your users, but they aren’t just one-way traffic. The key here is a two-way street: You want to send out content that will be useful or entertaining for your users while also allowing them to respond or take action on it – whether that means liking, commenting or sharing something; or taking an action like making a purchase or completing an action in your app (for example, by signing up for something).
Don’t overwhelm your users
While push notifications are useful in many cases, they should not be overused as a means of communicating with customers because it is easy for many people to become annoyed by them if they aren’t relevant or helpful. Instead, make sure that all of your messages sent using push notifications are relevant and helpful so that people will respond positively rather than negatively when prompted by one.
To avoid overwhelming users with too many messages at once, limit your use of push notifications and reserve them for important updates such as new features or product launches.
As you can see, there are a number of ways in which push notifications can be used to help increase app engagement and retention. However, it’s important that you don’t overuse them or send messages too frequently because doing so could annoy your users and cause them to stop using the app altogether. And it boils down to the first step, getting a grip on how to best use push notifications. If you do decide to utilize push notifications for marketing purposes, use them sparingly; only send messages when necessary.
