Push notifications are a super effective way to deliver timely, relevant messages to users that convince them to convert. Although they’re a powerful digital marketing tool, it’s not easy to optimize your campaign.
So, we’ve created this guide to the 10 push notification best practices to guarantee success for your business.
Let’s go!
What Are Push Notifications?
Push notifications are messages that appear on your desktop or mobile device to alert you to different things, such as discounts or actions you need to take.
Generally, they contain a small amount of text and rich media like buttons and images. They’re designed to prompt users to take a desired action, like making a purchase.
They’re highly effective at increasing user engagement and boosting conversions. In fact, 28% of users who open push notifications convert.
They’re not just used for marketing purposes, however. They can also be used as a security mechanism and for broader communication with your audience.
10 Push Notification Best Practices
Now that you’re familiar with what they are, here are 10 push notification best practices to increase your brand’s conversions – or, you can skip this part and hire InboxArmy instead.
Our email marketing campaign management service enable you to integrate your email marketing campaign with an effective push notification strategy. As a result, you get a bespoke, multi-channel marketing approach that boosts engagement and revenue.
1. Use them sparingly
In digital marketing, there’s a surefire way to put users off your brand—bombarding them with messages. This applies to all channels including as email, SMS, and push notifications.
In the US, the average mobile device user already receives 46 push notifications per day. So, to avoid annoying your users, you need to utilize them sparingly by focusing on urgent and relevant messages.
For example, if you have a limited-time offer on one of your products/services, users need to hear about this quickly. In fact, they’ll be happy you told them about it.
On the other hand, they probably won’t appreciate hearing about an offer that starts in three months.
If you’re unsure how often you should send push messages, pay attention to user behavior. For instance, if one of your audience segments interacts and engages with your messages when you send one per day, then stick to this frequency.
The main rule of push notification marketing is “If users don’t need to know this right now, don’t send it“.
2. Segment and personalize
As with all digital marketing channels, your push notification campaigns must be segmented and highly personalized.
Segmenting your audience means dividing your subscribers into smaller groups based on shared characteristics. Personalization means tailoring your messages to each segment based on those characteristics.
The most common segmentation demographics include:
Age: Different generations prefer different types of products/services. Plus, they respond differently to marketing messages and often use slightly different language. If you don’t believe me, consider how differently a 70-year-old uses the word “sick” than a 20-year-old.
Industry or job title: Users have varying interests depending on their job and industry. For instance, a lawyer will be more interested in a mobile push notification about your attorney-client privilege blog than a baker.
Geography: You should also send messages based on your users’ geographic locations. For example, if you have a physical store in a specific location, send mobile push notifications to users in the area about any upcoming sales.
Interests and hobbies: Pay attention to what users are interested in outside of their day jobs. Have you noticed that many of your users are cat lovers? Well, remind them of your cat-related product category pages. This is an excellent way to use push notifications to boost your conversions.
Behaviors: It’s much easier to engage users and increase conversions if you’re aware of their past behaviors. For instance, if a user previously bought a PlayStation 5 from your e-commerce store, you can send them a promotional message about related products, like games console controllers.
3. Create compelling opt-in offers
Before launching your campaign, you need to ensure that users have push notifications enabled and have opted-in to your messages.
The best way to achieve this is to craft a compelling offer encouraging users to opt in. If you offer them something valuable as an incentive, they’re much more likely to engage with your brand’s messages.
This can include:
- Discounts on products/services
- Free eBooks about relevant topics
- Free online courses
- Giveaways of free products/services
To work out which incentives will be most effective for your brand, segment your audience before sending your opt-in messages.
This allows you to create highly personalized and targeted opt-in messages that successfully convince users.
Additionally, use compelling language that demonstrates the value of your offerings. For example, don’t just say “download our free eBook”. Instead, highlight a benefit like “learn how to boost your conversions with our free eBook”.
4. Craft valuable content
The most important part of push notification optimization is the message content. The issue is that these messages are very short, and it’s tricky to communicate everything you need to in such a small nugget of text.
Here are three steps you should take when crafting your push notification content:
- Use CTAs: Always include clear and compelling CTAs that encourage users to take a desired action. Use urgent and descriptive language like “join the fun” or “try it for free”. The whole point of a CTA is to increase conversions, so pay close attention to them when you send notifications.
- Keep it short: As mentioned, push notification messages are very short, but how short should they be? Typically, you can use around 100 characters in the main message and about 50 in the title. So, use simple language and remove unnecessary words like “really”. Users don’t want to spend time reading these messages, meaning the shorter they are, the better.
- Include social proof: Social proof is another good way to increase user engagement and conversions. Users are more likely to purchase products/services when they see real-life user feedback. The simplest way to do this is to include a link to a positive review or case study.
5. Provide easy opt-outs
Of course, you want your users to opt into your messages and stay with you. However, legally and morally, you must make it easy for them to opt-out if they want to.
Easy opt-out mechanisms are a good way to build trust and credibility with your audience. It shows them that your brand is honest and transparent and isn’t looking to bury them in marketing messages they’re not interested in.
Opt-out mechanisms can vary depending on the platform. However, it’s best to include an opt-out button within your push notification messages.
If a high number of users are opting out of your messages, it could be because:
- You’re sending too many messages.
- Your messages are irrelevant.
- You’re sending messages at the wrong times.
6. Use A/B testing
A/B testing is a vital part of any type of digital marketing. It involves creating two versions of the same message with one altered element and testing each version to see which one gets the best response from your audience.
Once you’ve identified which version of your push notification message works best for each audience segment, you can use it to target users more effectively.
The most common elements that are altered during A/B testing are:
- The content
- The title
- The CTA
- The images
- The timing of the push notification
The more you test your messages and use the data you collect to optimize them, the more successful you’ll be at increasing conversions.
Note: Make sure you have benchmark stats set up first. If you don’t know what you’re measuring against (which we’ll get into more of here in a second), you can’t know if the test is successful.
7. Measure your results
You must track and measure the performance of your overall push notification campaign.
The best way to do this is to establish your marketing goals and create KPIs that align with them. This could include:
- Increasing conversions by 50% within six months.
- Driving 25% more traffic to your site within three months.
- Boosting opt-in rates by 100% within a year.
The push notification platform you use should have a built-in analytics tool for tracking key performance metrics.
8. Integrate with social media
Your push notification marketing strategy should be integrated with your other channels, like email, SMS, and social media.
By doing so, you can use push notifications to amplify your other channels and enhance the overall performance of your digital marketing strategies.
For example, if you’ve created an informative social media post about the best SEO tools for e-commerce sites, notify your audience using a push notification.
This increases engagement with your social media channels and enhances your credibility and authority by promoting relevant, valuable content to your audience.
9. Ask for feedback
Asking your audience for feedback is another key push notification strategy. Typically, this involves asking users for:
- A review of a product/service or your app
- A response to a survey
- A rating for your offerings, site, or app
This is an effective way to build user trust by demonstrating that you value audience insights and want to improve user experience.
10. Highlight features and benefits
Last on the list of push notification best practices is highlighting the features and benefits of your products/services. This may seem obvious, but many digital marketers fail to do this.
The aim is to tell readers why they should use your products/services and exactly what they’ll get out of them.
Let’s say you run an e-commerce store that sells food supplements. Your push notifications should tell users about the specific health benefits each one provides. This highlights your value proposition and is a proven way to increase conversion rates.
Also Read : Push Notification Benefits , Push Notification Types, Best Time to Send Push Notifications & Push Notification Examples
Final Thoughts
If you follow these 10 push notification best practices, you’ll create a highly targeted, relevant, and engaging campaign that drives conversions.
From crafting compelling content to A/B testing, all of these steps are vital for building a strategy that delivers the results your business needs. For more information, feel free to contact us. We are one of the trusted push notification service providers, ready to help you enhance your strategy
FAQs
What are the best push notification platforms?
The best push notification platforms include:
- PushEngage
- OneSignal
- PushAlert
- Google Firebase
What’s the difference between mobile app and browser push notifications?
The difference between mobile-app and browser push notifications is where the messages are generated. Browser push messages are generated within a browser, and mobile-app messages originate from within mobile apps.
