How To Improve Your Efficiency With Push Notification

Acquiring users is a first step of the best practices with push notifications, but then comes another challenge: retaining your users within your app. In 2021, on day 1 after installation, the average retention drops to about 27%, and after 5 days to about 16%. At 30 days, it is below 10%.

Thanks to the sending of push notifications, you can improve your app's retention, but not without any strategy: it is essential to develop this strategy together with your communication plan and segment your users to send each one the communications that work best. Personalizing these communications and the type of message as much as possible is a key to push notifications. If you don't, this practice can turn against you, and you will end up with the opposite of what you expected.

Push Notifications: What Are They And What Are They For?

We start with the basics and first let's see what push notifications are. Push notifications are short, catchy messages that can be sent to the app and game users who have opted in to receive those notifications, even if they are not using the app, to engage them with the product and improve engagement and retention.

Push notifications are commonly used on mobiles and tablets, but they can also work for the web or smartwatches:

Best Practices And Tips For Creating Effective Push Notifications

To make your push notifications as effective as possible, here are a series of good practices that we advise you to apply when preparing the communication strategy for your app or mobile game:

Generic Messages And A Small Sample Of Users

If you are starting to implement an engagement strategy, it is advisable to begin with generic messages to measure their impact on your users and their first reactions. We do not recommend making massive shipments to the entire database but instead testing with control groups from different segments and types of users to compare and understand the various reactions and behaviors derived from said action.

User Segmentation

Another tip is to start with a primary and straightforward segmentation. Base yourself on the gender, age, activity and key behaviors of your users. All the segmentation criteria must be oriented to the objectives you want to achieve or the actions you want your users to carry out in the app.

Customize the message based on user segmentation: not only the content but also the tone and message. Keep in mind that it is not only what matters but also how.

Also Read: How To Boost User Engagement With Push Notifications?

Time Zone

It is essential to test on different days and times of the week to learn and define which is the best day and the best time to send push notifications. According to Google Analytics statistics, we recommend that you start with the day that most use is made of the app. You will also have to limit and define the number of shipments based on user behavior and reactions to your campaigns. If you send too many communications, you can cause users to uninstall the app or disable notifications.

Catchy Text

In addition, the content you send should attract the attention of the user. We recommend that the push contain a maximum of 10 words to be read in their entirety. Do not send the push randomly or with content without value for the user. If the push does not add value to the user, the open rate will be shallow. Use images, gifs and sounds to attract attention and differentiate yourself from other apps.

Push Notification Customization

Do not forget that the more you personalize the messages in the push notification, the more significant impact it will have on the user who receives them. We recommend that you include the person's name within the message or add another form of personalization, as it can improve the opening rate of your push notifications by up to 1.3x.

Deep Linking

Thanks to deep linking, you can take the user to the section of the app you want and to which he hopes to reach by clicking on the push notification. This will significantly improve the conversion rates to the target stock. Measure the effectiveness of the push and events carried out by users to collect data and thus analyze, modify and adapt your engagement and communications plan to your users.

Also Read: How To Design The Best iOS Push Notifications Strategy

Use Of Emojis

A Hubspot study showed that push notifications containing emojis have an 85% higher open rate. They also help improve conversion and retention due to their eye-catching visual character. In addition, some particular emojis work best because they convey positivity to users.

User Behavior

Once the campaigns are sent, it is essential to analyze the reactions received. For example, if a user opened a push where you prompted him to act and finally performed it, you don't have to hit him again with the same communication. If you detect that the user is very active in your app, adapt the message and communicate differently. If, on the other hand, you have users who do not react to the campaigns, study their behavior well in the app (analysis of events carried out) and try to find out (through communications testing) what type of stimulus causes positive results for them, and consequently, for you.

Cross-channel Communication

Although you can choose to send only push notifications, they generally work better if they are part of a cross-channel communications strategy and are combined with other channels that have their characteristics and advantages, such as in-app messages that allow reinforcement. The engagement of active users within the app.

According to this Braze report, brands that use push notification campaigns within their cross-channel communication strategy can see their engagement ratio improve up to 844% more than brands that do not use them.