In today’s digital savvy era, each company is trying hard stay on the top of the mind of their customers through personalized marketing. One of the latest ways to keep your customers engaged is via push notifications on apps and websites. But, random bombardment of irrelevant and generic notifications definitely do not help in any way. Such messaging rather leads to a bad customer experience. To ensure sending timely, relevant and personalised push notifications (app as well as browser), let us look at some best practices to follow:
1. Shift from the monotonous
You must have observed that when you download and open an app for the first time, a window pops up saying “XYZ would like to send you push notification: Notifications may include alerts, sounds, and icon badges.” There are buttons named “OK” or “Don’t Allow”. Such a message might feel very intruding to a first time user.
A better way would be to give the advantages of opting in for the push notification. For example, you might say, “Get the latest news on Sensex by allowing XYZ notification” or “Don’t fall behind on the latest happenings in Bollywood. Allow ABC to send notifications”.
Now, the chances of the user opting in are higher as he/she knows what the benefits of opting in are.
2. Be strategic
Some apps ask you the permission for sending push notifications as soon as you open the app for the first time. At this moment, the user is more focused on checking out the features of the app and using it. He/ he is likely to ignore your opt in request.
Instead of doing this, if you send the same notification at a strategic moment, chances are higher for the user to subscribe. For example, assume a user is on a fashion app and checking the offers in section A, and a pop up appears saying “Grab the best discounts at the earliest! Allow ABC to send you notifications.” The user would want to check out the deals and hence say yes to receiving notifications.
Another strategy can be to use two step opt in request, so that you get another chance to ask even if the user declines the request initially. “Not now” option is better than “Don’t allow”.
3. Real time
Wouldn’t it be great if an app reminds you to carry an umbrella as it is raining near your office? Or if another one notifies you about new arrivals of shirts at a mall nearby.
Sending the users time sensitive and location specific notifications will engage them with your brand/app. At the same time, make sure you don’t send the user notifications at odd hours like late at night when the user is not likely to view the notification. It will be a waste of effort if your user gets up to 20 notifications, with yours lost in as the ones from other apps. The focus on your app will be lost here.
4. Know the device
Your user could be using iOS or Android. It is important to understand the functioning of notifications on the lock page for these two. On an android device, when the user checks the notification for one app, the other notifications still flash on the lock screen. Whereas, for iOS, all the notifications on the lock screen are cleared even if the user checks any one of them or when he/she unlocks the device. Hence, the android user can see your notification on the lock screen and is reminded of your app/brand until he/she doesn’t clear the notification manually or clicks it. Due to this, it is observed that the retention rate for android users is higher than that for iOS. The brand has to put an extra effort via other means to engage the iOS users.
5. Be relevant
It is always important to send relevant notifications as per the browsing history of the users. You may also include a feature where the user can opt for specific the type of notifications he/she wants from your app. For example, a news app can give an options of notifications on different categories like sports, politics, market, Bollywood, Hollywood, etc. Do not send irrelevant communication.
The above hygiene checks will ensure the best engagement with your user. It will make sure that he/she is engaged with your brand thus increasing the customer lifetime value for you.
