As push notifications become common and popular these days, it becomes harder to bring people back to the app. According to a report on push notifications' impact, the average click rate of push notifications is 10.3%. IOS users have a lower open rate than Android users almost in most industries, including B2B & Finance, Education, Gaming, Media & Entertainment, etc.
Regardless of the low click-through rate, “mobile app push notifications can boost app engagement up to 88%”. For this reason, lots of app managers, developers and marketers are testing and implementing new techniques and strategies when designing mobile push notifications.
What are Push Notifications?
Push notifications are messages that are sent from an app to a user’s device and shown on lock screens. They are used by app companies as an imperative and effective marketing strategy to engage and call back users. The biggest advantage of this marketing strategy is that the app companies do not need any contact information from their users. They just have to obtain users’ permission to send notifications, especially iOS users, as they will need to manually enable the service.
However, even if app users have enabled push notifications personally, they may still feel disturbed by them. So how to leverage your push notifications strategy to engage with your iOS users better instead of pissing them off?? We hope this article will help you understand push-notifications and formulate your engaging strategy better.
3 Benefits of Push Notifications
1. Bring Back Users
Push notifications are the most effective way to bring back users. Research has shown that 65% of users return to an app within 30 days when push is enabled. The reason can be that push notifications are the only way to communicate with the users directly when they are not using the app. Using this technique to attract users with in-app activities or information that they are interested in can easily bring them back to the apps.
2. Keep App Users Engaged
Push notifications are a powerful tool to keep app users engaged. They display content that is appealing to users and inspire them to further explore by launching the app and getting the most out of the app services. To engage and retain users, you have to continually show the content they are interested in using push notifications, which is also a crucial element to long-term success.
3. Onboard Users in Real-time
What are the most instant ways to communicate with app users in today’s digital world? Yes, they are push notifications. Users can receive this kind of message in real time when they are actually using a feature but opt out of the app. When the mission conducted by the app is finished, push can inform the app users and guide them to the next step. In this case, push notifications can serve as a guide to onboard users and guide them to use the feature in real time.
Push Notification Strategies for Mobile Apps
1. Ask for Permission at the Right Time
To send notifications to users, app companies must require app users’ permission. However, app users can be vigilant when the app requires their permission. So they will think twice before enabling it. To earn their trust, you should ask permission at the best time. For example, a chauffeur app may ask permission when users place an order. This tells the users the value of the push notifications as they can show real-time alerts such as someone has taken the order, how long the driver will arrive at the destinations, etc. Under this circumstance, app users are more likely to turn on the notifications.
2. Personalize Push Notifications
People are more sensitive when the information is more relevant to themselves. Personalized notifications target the right users at the right time. Segmenting users based on locations, in-app behavior, gender or interest can help with personalizing push notifications as you can design content and style of message accordingly, and better address users when sending them notifications. This will help better catch their attention. For example, a shopping app can inform users of the dynamic status of their orders by including their names in the push.
3. Use Motivating Words
Push notifications are used to engage with users and motivate them to perform a specific action in the app. Word picking is important when composing a message. Using push notification power words can increase the click-through rate as it can create a sense of emergency and urgency, which can render users to take action immediately. For example, a push with the word “Limited-time” is more motivating than a push without one.
4. Add Rich Media
To catch users’ eyes, rich media is a good tool. People are more appealing to rich media such as emojis, gifs, pictures, and videos. Creating push notifications with gifs can lead to further interaction. And thus users will get engaged with the app. For example, a video app attracts users with the header image, which can raise users’ curiosity and they will finally launch the app to find it out.
5. Offer Values
Apps themselves are supposed to offer value to users and push notifications are the bridge to deliver the value of the apps or the value users will get. For example, a promotional push containing “Save 22% of Your Money” is seen to be adding value to the app users as they can save money if they make a purchase now. So they are more willing to open the app and make a purchase. Values shown on the push notifications can be an incentive that renders users to engage with the app.
6. Instant Support and Encouragement
Push notifications can be instant when connecting users personally. When users are hindered or interrupted by potential bugs, a push notification that tells what is going on and what to do next will be helpful to users. When users accomplish a desired task, it will be encouraging to them if they receive a congratulatory push. This will create a sense of achievement in users so they are more likely to continue using the app.
7. Keep Users Up-to-date
Keeping users up-to-date with the new app features, on the one hand, can stick them to the apps and improve LTV in the app; on the other hand, it can also onboard or inform users of the new features that they can use to achieve their goals. For example, a game app notifies users about their newly updated skills and teaches them how to use them in games.
8. Sending Push Notifications Moderately
Mobile app users receive many notifications every day from various apps. To avoid users feeling disturbed and annoyed, it is a good idea to send push notifications moderately. They should be just enough to motivate users and create a sense of encouragement or excitement. Research has shown that one push notification a week can best prevent users from stopping using the app.
9. Pick the Right Time to Send
People are busy with their schedules all the time. So if you want to let app users jump right into your app and engage with it as soon as they see the notification, you should pick the right time of the day. The best time to send the push varies from app type. How to pick the right time to send the push? Firstly, think about the time when users need your app or will be free to enjoy the app. Secondly, do research about user behavior and the most common time when users are using the app. Finally, choose the best time to send the message, and check out the engagement rate. You can always adjust and reschedule the push notifications to A/B test the result and find out the better moment when the click-through rate or engagement rate is much higher.
10. Get Connected with Users
Push notifications are a sort of medium to connect with your users. Always showing that you care about them evokes a sense of importance. For example, sending app users personal wishes on important holidays and special moments, their birthday——for instance, is a great way to get in touch with app users. This kind of information conveys a willingness that you want to keep the relationship in the long run.
Create Code-free Push Notifications with Appflow.ai
Push notifications help communicate instantly and conveniently with app users. However, building push notifications with code costs time and engineering resources. And it is also not flexible to alter your engaging strategy. Here’s what Appflow.ai’s value is to you.
Appflow.ai’s code-free push notification feature can help build push notifications and send them immediately to the users’ devices. Appflow.ai enables you to compose the content(multi-language supported) and pick which operating system (iOS or Android) to run. Meanwhile, you can choose which segment of the user to send and decide on the notification trigger: time trigger or event trigger. These are achieved on one page. So you don’t waste time on coding. Editing and clicking are all you need to do.
Sending push notifications can be easy as long as you choose the right tool. Appflow.ai can help conduct the push strategies and therefore build a profitable long-term relationship with app users and improve LTV.
In a Nutshell
Push notifications play an important role in engaging or re-engaging with app users. They are also a good method to increase in-app conversion rates and LTV. However, sending too many push notifications may bother app users. Keep in mind the strategies we talk about above and obey the general rules. Furthermore, using a code-free tool to send instant pushes helps build a profitable long-term relationship with app users.
Push Notification Strategy for Mobile Apps
