Picture this: It’s right around the end of a long work day, and right as you start to pack it up for the night your phone buzzes. Is it a phone call? Nope. A text? Negative. It’s a push notification from your favorite pizza company reminding you that it’s almost time for dinner and they have a special. What do you do? Ignore it or launch the app and have a steamy pepperoni pizza waiting for you by the time you get home.
Push notifications are messages that pop up on your mobile device used to trigger app usage. Statistics show push notifications have the ability to boost app engagement by 88%, but 50% of users find push notifications annoying.
When it comes to push notifications, timing is everything. Alerts based on time of day, a special event, a reminder, or breaking news are all appropriate. You can even segment your audience based on time zone, geo location, or other attributes you may track within your app such as age or gender.
Done right, push notifications can provide real added value, while on the opposite side of the spectrum, it can leave a bad taste in your mouth. According to research, 46% of consumers who received 2-5 messages in a week disabled notifications but don’t let this dissuade you from using push notifications, consider the other 50% of consumers who find these messages helpful.
Even if your customers are on the fence about push notifications, you can still drive strong mobile engagement by taking a strategic approach to understand what kind of personalized messaging your customers want and when from their apps without being too pushy.
