7 Push Notification Strategies to Increase App Engagement

There’s a lot of discussion about the best method to acquire new users, but keeping those people is just as essential. The key to app success is loyal users since customers who use it once and never return will not benefit your app. Push alerts are your best friend when it comes to developing a smart retention plan. In other words, push notifications are an excellent method to interact with your users in a personal and efficient manner.

Push notifications may be a fantastic method to remind your consumers about your app in a smart approach. However, if you don’t correctly utilize push notifications, you risk irritating your users or, worse, being regarded as invasive. This is not, however, a reason to completely disregard push notifications. You must be creative while developing your push notification approach.

What Are Push Notifications?

Push notifications are short messages that are sent to a user's device, such as a smartphone or computer, in real-time. These messages are typically used to notify users about new content, updates, or events that are relevant to them.

Push notifications can be sent by mobile apps, websites, or other digital services, and they appear as pop-up messages or banners on a user's device. Users can choose to receive push notifications by opting in or out of them in their device's settings or within the app or website.

Push notifications are a powerful tool for businesses and organizations to engage with their audiences and keep them informed about important information. However, it's important to use them sparingly and to provide value to the user to avoid being perceived as spammy or annoying.

What is the Difference Between Push Notification and In-App Notification?

Push notifications and in-app notifications are both ways of delivering messages to users, but there are some key differences between them.

Push notifications are messages that are sent to a user's device, even if they are not currently using the app. In-app notifications, on the other hand, are messages that are delivered to a user while they are actively using the app. Push notifications are delivered via the device's operating system, and can include text, images, and sounds. Push notifications can be used to alert users about new content, promotions, or other important information.

In-app notifications, can also include text, images, and sounds, but they are usually less intrusive than push notifications. In-app notifications can be used to provide users with information about new features, updates, or other app-related news.

One of the key advantages of push notifications is that they can reach users even when they are not actively using the app. However, push notifications can also be seen as more intrusive, and users may choose to disable them if they feel they are receiving too many notifications. In-app notifications, on the other hand, are generally seen as less intrusive, but they may be less effective in terms of reaching users who are not currently using the app.

Use Cases for Personalized Push Notifications

Following are the prominent use cases for personalized push notifications, each with its own set of advantages for reaching customers in real-time through their mobile devices.

1) Event-Triggered Messaging

Marketers may learn a lot about their consumers and interact with them more personally by using mobile apps. Birthdays, impending expiration dates (product release, discounts, promotions, or other events potentially set in a preference center), and shopping cart abandonment are examples of mobile app user events that might help marketers.

Wishing clients a happy birthday through a push notification or just sending a reminder about expiring services would demonstrate a more personal level of connection.

2) Transactional Messaging

Order confirmations, shipment and delivery alerts, welcome emails, and password reset links are all examples of transactional messages. Transactional messaging methods may be enhanced with mobile push notifications, just as event-triggered messages.

For example, a brand might send an order confirmation notice that links customers to an in-app page to check the order information and get suggestions based on what other people purchased.

3) Marketing That Promotes Products or Services

One of the most fundamental kinds of marketing is offering discounts and promotions to customers. Advertisers might deliver promotional push notifications that stimulate clients’ attention to spend more time using their app. They do this by analyzing their online activity and preferences, which is why push notifications are important for advertisers.

The Best Push Notification Strategies to Increase App Engagement

Push notifications boost app participation of users by 88%, while 65% of users return within 30 days of push activation, making them essential to implement in your mobile apps. This is why we have compiled 7 of the best push notification marketing strategies for you to use:

1) Segmentation and Targeting
2) Personalization
3) Testing CTAs and Other Messages
4) Limited-Time Offers
5) App Update Alerts
6) Size Optimization
7) Timing

1) Segmentation and Targeting

Users naturally pay more attention to messages that are relevant to them. They tend to disregard generic messages, and they may even be angry enough by the interruption to opt-out of receiving push notifications from your app entirely. One method to improve your push notifications is to target your audience better.

Segmentation is the process of categorizing your users into smaller groups based on characteristics such as behavior, geography, and hobbies. You may create messaging that is more relevant or enticing to these users using these specified demographics. Push notification segmentation ensures that each message you send to your users is more relevant and more interactive.

2) Personalization

It’s not enough to know that your push notifications are helpful; you also need to figure out how they benefit each user. Push notification personalization guarantees that you reach the appropriate users at the right time with the best content.

Push alerts may be customized in creativity, frequency, delivery timings, location, and content type. As a result, you’ll need to divide your audience into user groups. When feasible, address your user by name and offer additional information relevant to your CTA. For example, if you’re reporting a flight delay, you might add the flight number and time or mention order numbers when informing a user of their future delivery.

It would be best if you also customize push notifications based on the user’s lifecycle. This entails determining when a push notification is most likely required for a user to accomplish the desired activity. To keep increasing app engagement, you need to customize push notifications and engage the users properly during their user lifecycle.

3) Testing CTAs and Other Messages

While a call to action (CTA) instructs users on carrying out a particular activity, a call to value is intended to show consumers what they may gain. For example, a travel app’s CTA might be “check-in immediately,” while an entertainment app’s CTA would be “add to watchlist,” and a call to value might be “get your summer look with 20% off all goods.”

It’s critical to determine which kind of creativity performs best for your audience and each target segment. Your outcomes may also differ based on the aim of your push notifications: a call to value isn’t going to assist a user find out if their flight is running late.

4) Limited-Time Offers

Offer limited-time discounts to motivate consumers to finish your CTA. This sort of offer promises distinct value for the user, and it’s obvious why you’re sending the push notification in the first place: to allow the user to gain a profit before it’s too late. Taking advantage of limited-time offers necessitates defining what you have to offer that would entice users and experimenting with different ideas to see what works best.

For example, to keep consumers interested, a mobile game may supply in-game cash for a short period.

5) App Update Alerts

Push notifications may also be used to notify users of app changes. This is important for users who don’t have automatic updates turned on, ensuring that they get your product’s most incredible possible experience. When notifying consumers of a recent update, make sure to highlight the benefits and upgrades they will lose out on if they do not update.

6) Size Optimization

Notifications on a user’s lock screen require direct advertising. To achieve that, you can change the size of your push notifications to something more appropriate. Avoid writing lengthy, uninteresting paragraphs that will waste your users’ time. If at all feasible, use keywords to express your message concisely.

When using push notifications, you must have something relevant to communicate. It’s the equivalent of approaching someone and patting them on the shoulder. If you do that, you must have something significant, engaging, and relevant to say. Otherwise, people will become irritated. Turning off push notifications or deleting the app are two possibilities in the case of push notifications.

7) Timing

In the case of push notifications, timing is the key to everything. In this case, it makes a huge difference because you may either add something of value to the users or upset them.

Our first piece of advice is to avoid sending a push notification when people are sleeping or occupied; otherwise, you won’t get the full effectiveness of push notifications. It would be best to learn more about your mobile users’ behaviors to determine the optimum time to send them a push notification and what to include in it.

In general, the ideal time to send push notifications is in the afternoon. However, as previously said, it will always vary based on what you want to achieve, who your audience is, and where they are.  You’ll need a thorough knowledge of your users’ shopping history and which portions of the app connect with them the most to place a push there and reap the most benefits.

Final Thoughts

People underestimate the effectiveness of mobile push notification marketing. Push notifications may significantly help you in the growth of your app’s company.  When utilized wisely and intelligently, push messages may drastically alter how users see and use your app. Hopefully, these seven strategies will have provided you with some ideas for effectively engaging your app users.

If you wish to learn about the matter, here you can find a list of the best push notification tools.

Also, keep in mind that push notifications, although very beneficial, are not enough to have a successful user engagement strategy. You also need to put some thought into your in-app marketing efforts.