Push notifications– You are sipping your favorite coffee, walking in the mall, doing your window shopping and suddenly a boy comes and hands you a flyer. What do you do? You take it. Ignore the matter written on it and throw it with your coffee sipper in the trash can.
The flyer here acts as a push notification that comes from nowhere to interrupt you in between a peaceful moment of reading your article. The dialogue box with a free promo and a giveaway is the push notification. You ignore them, and another more luring discount coupon from your favorite brand comes on your screen. They come anytime on your screen and instigate you to either disable or ignore them altogether.
What are Push notifications?
Push notifications are the unwanted pop-up messages that appear on your screens then and now. They use a delivery service to land it on your screens instantly. Sometimes it is used to schedule it in a further time, at a specific time slot, or is set as a trigger-based delivery- a chain of notifications that are triggered by specific user actions.
For example- You invested a good lot of time adding your favorites to the cart, but on reaching the checkout screen you make an easy exit. The chain of triggers or dialogues that appear on your screen to complete your purchase is triggered by push notifications.
The adding of criteria in Push Notifications
The notifications are addressed based on specific criteria. The criteria set them into particular classes. The event 8 hours ago who all were active on the website but didn’t make the purchase will divide the customers into two basic types. Those who made the purchase and those who didn’t.
How effective are push notifications?
Excess of everything could be better. So are the irritating push notifications. Notification with an exciting deal or offer may help you get the audience to land on your webpage but unnecessary bombarding will only lead to getting irritable customers who may disable and never return to the webpage again.
So what is the frequency one should maintain?
Let’s understand it better-
Service Notifications:
As the name suggests these are in particular service notifications that are to be redirected to specific persons only. They include order status, bonus accrual, or other specific notifications pertinent to the person.
Marketing Notifications:
Any transaction that takes place undergoes different stages till the final purchase takes place. In the language of marketing, they are coined as stages of the funnel. They are onboarding engagement and retention, and reactivation.
Remember the excess of notifications is only going to irritate the customers. So it must be vigilantly decided when to make the push notification so that it lands safely without any repercussions.
Composition of Push notification
A push notification must be composed keeping in mind the brand tone and voice. The notifications must be calm, short, to the point, and respectful. The Ui displayed must also be clear and consistent.
The flowchart of push notifications. The sequence of actions must be followed through the following path only.
- 👨🏽💻Analyze your target audience (TA).
- 👨🏽💻Define goals for each stage of the funnel.
- 👨🏽💻Identify segments for each stage.
- 👨🏽💻Determine triggers and brainstorm ideas for push notifications.
- 👨🏽💻Prepare the text for push notifications.
- 👨🏽💻Review the notifications with the person responsible for communication.
- 👨🏽💻Set up the delivery.
- 👨🏽💻Experiment and iterate.
Types of push notifications at different stages of the funnel
We will consider push notifications at the onboarding, engagement and retention, and reactivation stages.
Push notifications during the onboarding stage
This stage implies the time period between (registration/authentication) and the completion of the desired action. It can be conducted in various ways.
The push notifications are triggered in the following cases–
- 🎯To Help the user complete the registration process.
- 🎯Encouraging the user to perform the first desired action intended
- 🎯Prompt additional auxiliary actions that increase the likelihood of getting back to the website and making it the primary website.
Examples of such notifications include-
- 🎯Asking for the Rating
- 🎯Linking the card
Push notifications during the engagement and retention stage
Engagement and retention are the most important steps in the product lifecycle. The primary goal of notifications in this stage is to create a habit and increase the frequency of the product. Notifications are intended to repeat the desired action of making a sale or doing a transaction.
Creating a Personalised notification
Personalized notifications create a positive effect. Simple user reminders imply that app genuinely cares for its users.
- 🎯For example- Spotify creates personalized playlists for users.
- 🎯Duolingo created passively-aggressive engaging notifications that create a meme at some point.
- 🎯Offering some benefits to users is also possible, such as discounts, promotions, free delivery, contests, or cash back.
- 🎯Notifications on a holiday, an event, or news.
Push notifications during the reactivation stage
Reactivation is a stage that occurs when the user deviates from using the app or website. In such a scenario, a push notification is given to the users to initiate the reactivation. The main aim of such notification is to bring back the user to the standard pattern of product usage.
For example-A fitness app sends a notification to its user if they haven’t returned to the app in the past few days.
Sometimes the Reactivation costs involve the money spent on special offers. For example, a company may want to bring back a user by offering an additional 10% discount on their next three purchases. The main aim of such notification is to hook up the person on their product or service.
To conclude,
Push notifications are one-on-one communication with the user that help to engage the user.
Think of push notifications as an opportunity to get closer to the user. Don’t try to sell to them in every possible way. It is essential to Identify their needs and help fulfill them. At the moment, it may not lead to increased sales, but certainly, it will help you gain a more loyal customer. Call your Web service providers to know more about the push notifications