How to Increase App Engagement using Mobile Push Notifications?

What are Mobile Push Notifications?

Mobile Push notification is a medium of communication incorporated with each Smartphone sold today. These messages are the bread and butter of numerous mobile applications, and they can be extraordinarily powerful if used correctly. They are best utilized for engaging users and delivering time bound content.

Some of the popular uses of mobile push notifications incorporate activating inactive users with exciting offers, re-targeting users abandoning the shopping cart, holding loyal users with personalized content and more. According to a recent survey by Localytics, 52% of individuals have enabled push on their devices.

And these notifications can be used to benefit businesses in many ways. Here is how.

The Benefits Of Using Push Notifications In An App

Push notifications are fundamentally intended to facilitate the timely stream of data. When utilized in the right manner, these notifications keep users connected – not irritated. Businesses are progressively depending on push messages nowadays as a communication channel to generate traffic consistently.  Here are some of their benefits:

1. Increased Traffic

Mobile push messages help retain users. Using them, you can get real-time traffic on your websites and applications, which help in making the content viral and increase reach significantly more. In addition to increasing interaction on the topic of the message, they also help increase the profits you get from your application.

2. Provides Insights on Customer Behavior

Push messages give important information on user behavior by tracking the messages, interaction device, time, situations and platforms which generate engagement, uncovering where, when, why and how clients utilize your application. Mobile App push notifications give modern analytics with data on the delivery receipt, engagement and open rate time.

3. Foster Engagement

The application of your company is a direct line of communication with customers. Individuals stay away from applications that just consume space on their phones. However, when an application has push notifications, each *ping* and message that comes, in a split second informs a user to what’s happening and can drive them toward action.

4. Drive More Sales

50% of the people that sign-up for mobile app push messages do it for getting information about exclusive or special offers. In others words, these individuals are as of now looking forward to purchasing from you and you convert that desire to sales via Push Notifications. The key is to find how to leverage them right to optimize open and retention rates.

Also Read: Top 5 Reasons Why Mobile Apps Crash

Best Practices to Use Push Notifications that Increase App Engagement

As per Localytics, over half of the users find Push Notifications of no use. Users are continually flagging a large part of the push notifications as ‘irritating distractions’ and consider them irrelevant. That means, the time has come to make your users wait for your notifications and avoid the “Why I am getting this?” type of user’s reaction. Here are some best practices that you can follow to achieve the same:

1. Always Keep Push Volume in Mind

It’s not difficult to run over the edge with push and end up irritating your user with absurd and irrelevant messages. You should be particularly cautious about overstepping the line. Try not to do it like this:

Sending one push message in a week for behavior-based campaigns works effectively. For example, you have a video streaming application like Netflix and you need to reach a user who viewed the first three episodes of a show however didn’t watch the fourth, this is an incredible method to bring them back into the application.

According to Marketing Land, 90% of people are ok to receive one type of push message every week. But, send multiple, and you risk pushing your users excessively far and provoking them to stop receiving notifications.

2. Push the Right Message at the Right time

Sending the right content at the Right Time to the right audience is the key to leverage push notifications for the success of your app. Timing should be a crucial part of your push messaging procedure.

Recall how irritating you feel when you receive a disturbing Push Message at 5 am? Do you still keep that app in your phone? Or subscribe to its offers? No.

That’s why, you have to make sure on-time delivery of the notifications. According to Leanplum, on-time delivery can lift push message open rates by up to 800%. Personalizing the content of your message can deliver a 4x lift on open rates.

Also remember, content and timing of any push notification go together. If the users get a generic message even at a proper time, they are bound to reject it.

See how Uber is utilizing this strategy:

3. Select the Right Words

The rule is very simple here: content should be intriguing. Choose the correct tone and be tricky with your wording because you just have around 10 words to make a positive impact on your users. Here are a couple of tips for crafting the messages:

• Be obvious and precise about what you want to convey

• Add a clear call-to-action

• Use your 10 words wisely

In case you are giving a discount, utilize phrasal words. Pushes that incorporate words like “off,” “now” “today” give a feeling of urgency and work great.

4. Provide Clear Call-to-Actions that Drive Revenue

Mobile app push notifications not just enable you to advise your users about your most recent offers but in addition give them a clear call to take action which can trigger a buy. No, obviously adding a call to action catch may not cause a 10X increase in conversion or engagement. But, it gets out the users to take a well defined ‘ACTION’ which increases the value of your overall messaging.

5. Personalize Smartly

It’s been discovered that messages sent to every one of the subscribers result in low engagement. Adding a personal touch to your mobile application always takes you an additional mile. Make your app users feel good by promoting them the most pertinent content.

For example, when Localytics asked mobile users which type of push messages they like the most, 34% reacted with “an offer based on my location”. And brands like Neoshop are doing the same. Have a look at this push notification:

It’s personalized on two levels – it incorporates the first name of the user, and tells him that there’s a shop location nearby where he can utilize some of the credits he has collected. That is another approach to add value for your user. Rather than asking them to go out of their approach to engage with you, you’re making an opportunity when it’s advantageous to them. That makes it simple for anybody to find a reason to use your application

Wrapping Up

In the end, all app developers require to make it their need to improve retention and reduce churn rate of their mobile apps. Embracing some of these tips will help set you making a road for keeping your users engaged for a long time. After all, people simply need to realize you’re paying attention to them and obliging to their needs. No burning and no churning!