A push message is a message that is sent from a server to a client, typically in response to an event. Push messages are used to update the client in real-time, and are often used to deliver notifications or other information.
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Push messages are a relatively new technology that many people do not understand. This article will provide a basic introduction to push messages and will explain how they can be used to improve the user experience.
Push messages or push notifications are sent using a protocol called the Push Notification Service (PNS). The PNS is provided by Apple, Google, and Microsoft, and is responsible for delivering push messages to clients.
When a push message is sent, the PNS will choose the best way to deliver the message. For example, if the client is using an iPhone, the PNS will use the Apple Push Notification service (APNs) to deliver the message.
Push messages can be used to deliver a variety of information to the client. For example, they can be used to provide notifications, such as a new email message or a new social media post. They can also be used to deliver information that is not time-sensitive, such as a weather forecast or an updated stock price.
They improve the user experience in a number of ways. For example, they can be used to provide timely information to the user, without them having to request it actively. They can also be used to reduce the number of interruptions that the user experiences, as they can be configured to only deliver information when the user is inactive.
Push messages can be used to improve the efficiency of the user's interaction with the system, by only delivering information that is relevant to the user. They are powerful tools that can be used to improve the user experience. However, they should be used judiciously, as they can also be a source of interruption and annoyance.
With the help of this function, consumers may still get support for their problems without constantly checking the status of their case. Sending prompt alerts enables support personnel to be proactive and reach users quickly in order to avoid a backlog of tickets.
Additionally, push messages strike a balance between more conventional and contemporary methods of customer care. Users can make use of a contemporary, asynchronous form of communication that comes with a response notification, so they can enjoy other apps on their phones, as opposed to being in a chat box or waiting an arbitrary amount of time for an email response (or put them down entirely).
Let us understand push messages even better starting with learning its benefits.
As soon as a user installs or uses a mobile application, the app will ask for permission to access their location. Most users agree to give permission, allowing mobile applications to determine their location. Businesses will thereafter be able to use location-based push alerts to give customers a customized experience.
Push notifications can be used to inform users about deals that are available in their area. Through web push notifications, businesses will also be able to target users according to their city, state, or country. Businesses will undoubtedly benefit from increased customer engagement thanks to push messages that are based on users' whereabouts.
An important factor that will offer you a clear indication of how well your mobile app is functioning is user retention. The number of users that downloaded the app, used it, and then went back to use it again may be determined by mobile app developers and organizations thanks to this crucial indicator.
When an app is being updated or adjusted, developers are continuously looking for user feedback and analyzing other factors, such as which features people like. The value of your app is zero if a user downloads and installs it on his or her phone but never uses it again. A straightforward but efficient method of reawakening idle users is through push messages. When used properly, push messages have the potential to increase retention rates by 3 to 10 times.
Push messages will benefit organizations by increasing online conversion rates as well as user retention and application engagement. For instance, users will almost certainly pay attention to push notifications that offer discounts. Some users might even be persuaded to buy goods or services from it.
According to a number of studies, well-designed mobile push notifications can increase conversion rates by over four times. Businesses should pay greater attention to segmented push messages because of this. These push alerts essentially function as individualized communications.
Businesses will be able to categorize the users of their mobile apps depending on things like how they use the app, where they are located, what they are interested in, and more. You will be able to quickly deliver customized and pertinent push messages to a certain category once you have developed such categories.
Businesses that are using push messages strategically will be able to increase user engagement. The best thing about push messages is that they give companies a useful way to interact and engage with consumers of their mobile apps.
Another tactic is to deep link within the push notifications, which will direct app users to the desired location. For instance, you can deep link the push notification with the link to the app update if you want users to update the app to take advantage of recently released features.
Users will therefore be taken directly to the app update choice when they click the push messages. Users only need to select the update option at this point and wait for the update to finish. By delivering a push notification with a deep link to the newly released products page, you may accomplish the same goal of introducing newly released products to app users.
It is important to determine how push messages bring value to each user. You can target the appropriate users at the right moment with the best creativity by using personalized push notifications.
Push messages can be customized using push notification software or personalization software in terms of creativity, frequency, delivery window, location, and content type. This implies that you must divide your audience into several user groups. Additionally, wherever possible, utilize their names when addressing them and offer any information that is pertinent to your CTA. If you are reporting a delay, for instance, you might also provide the flight number and time, or if you are informing a user of a delivery that is coming up, you might include order numbers.
According to the user lifecycle, push messages must also be customized. This entails figuring out when users are most likely to require a push notification to finish an action. The personalized notifications and successful customer engagement at the appropriate points in their user lifecycle are crucial if your main objective is to increase LTV and keep users engaged for longer.
Knowing why you are sending a specific push message is important. Engagement, retention rates, and user experience will all suffer if the value of a push notification to a user cannot be determined. Make sure to inform the user in the push messages exactly what action they need to take. Your CTA (call to action) needs to be successful in conveying this practical guidance.
Keep in mind that your CTA should serve as an invitation to do a specific action or an update on a user-requested course of action. These messages may ask you to finish your boarding pass or notify you of a flight delay if you have a travel app. These illustrations or advanced analytics make it crystal apparent how this benefits the consumer and how they ought to respond.
People don't typically use your app at the same time due to customers' diverse interests and varied time zones across the globe. Because of this, you need to be certain that you're sending your communications to your users at the most effective times.
Push messages typically have three delivery options: delivering them instantly, sending them according to the user's time zone, and, if you're using PushNinja, intelligent delivery.
When you have an urgent message to deliver to your users, it makes sense to send notifications right away. For instance, they would want to notify the impacted parties as soon as possible if there was breaking news or if an airline had to cancel a flight.
PushNinja optimizes notification delivery using advanced targeting depending on when each user is most likely to interact with your app. This is based on the average number of times users have opened your app over a three-month period. Your push notifications will be sent and opened at the most convenient times for users thanks to PushNinja
Let's imagine you've combed through your vast user database and developed what appears to be an effective push notification approach. However, you shouldn't end there.
You can test how your audience will respond to various messages using A/B testing. You can evaluate the outcomes and adjust your plan as necessary by conducting tests to determine what is effective. To accurately identify the factors impacting the outcomes, you should only A/B test one variable at a time.
The title, message, and image for Notification A, for instance, can all be unique. Notification B can have a different graphic but the same title and wording. You may find out how the various images may affect engagement and conversions by testing them against one another.
Although there are even other best practices that you can explore, ensuring that you follow these steps would give a good start for skyrocketing.
Never send push notifications that contain promotions for different goods or services. Sending your subscribers these messages would be pointless because they are explicitly forbidden by the Google Play Store. Use a different channel if you want to promote a service you provide that is separate from your app or website.
The information in push messages should always be actionable and pertinent to the user. For instance, if you want to send push notifications wishing people a happy Valentine's Day, make sure the message includes information that is pertinent to them in addition to the greeting. Your subscriber might appreciate you reminding them of a reservation they made or flowers they ordered. Keep in mind that a push notification is delivered directly to their phones, which means that if it is worthless, it may have a very bothersome or disruptive effect.
Push messages that request an app rating run the risk of getting users to unsubscribe. Avoid interrupting users to solicit a good app store review because this strategy degrades the user experience, especially if the message is received when the user isn't even actively using your app. Make sure the information in your notifications is useful to them and actionable.
Knowing how to write effective push messages and what other aspects to take into account can help you develop a successful strategy as you develop your push notification plan. Through this article, we hope you got the gist of push messages and their importance. On the end note, we would like to recommend you to check out PushNinja by 500apps. Not only does it help you design the best drip campaigns with efficient push messages but also provides you with access to 50+ applications that meet end-to-end business requirements.
Not that long ago, the notion that you could send a message straight into the pockets of millions of people, capturing their attention at the touch of a button, would have sounded like the stuff of a marketer’s dreams – but that’s exactly what push notifications offer.
The era of mobile computing arrived so quickly that we almost didn’t have time to notice how close to magic push notifications really are. And yet, most marketers don’t give push notifications the care and attention they deserve, despite the endless benefits they can yield for both company and customer alike.
Certainly, push notifications require care and thought – people’s attention cannot be taken for granted. But push notifications that are personal, relevant, and well-timed can help users achieve their goals in real time.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to use push notifications the right way, and above all how to make them valuable for your users.
Push notifications are short pop-up messages sent to users via their smartphones (or browsers) that contain useful information, news, or offers. They’re used to inspire customers and prospects to take a specific call to action.
By nature, push notifications are brief and short-lived. As such, these messages are engaging and effective as a marketing strategy only if they’re personal, relevant and, most of all, provide value to your recipients.
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It doesn’t matter whether a push notification is coming from a fitness app, a news app or a social media app. Whatever the case, the content of your message must be captivating enough to warrant a click-through. Here are some examples:
These short, powerful messages take planning to get right. Start by building a strategy based on information about your recipients. Think about when they’re normally active on your app or program, or how often they might like to receive blog articles, news or updates from friends.
Begin by asking yourself the following questions:
When (and how often) you encourage users to opt in for future push notifications can affect whether or not they choose to do so. There are several options to consider:
Keep in mind that push notifications should improve a user’s experience, not hinder it. If it’s difficult or confusing to turn notifications on manually, consider offering your opt-in prompts intermittently instead of only once. You can always talk to your users to find out what they like or dislike about the timing and frequency of your opt-in notifications.
Again, think about the user experience. When deciding how to deliver and display your opt-in notifications, consider what it will look like within your app’s UI on the user’s device.
A simple in-app, full-screen opt-in prompt is often the go-to delivery method for smartphone apps. As an app publisher, you’re helping ensure that your users get the experience they want, without them having to manually search through their phones to find the right opt-in settings.
How frequently you send your push notifications will depend on your marketing goals, user behavior, and the type of content you’re sending.
Think about what type of content your app provides its users and how it provides value. If people use your apps to stay up to date on industry trends, consider sending real-time or daily push notifications. If someone is looking to improve their health but needs help getting motivated, weekly push notifications might be exactly what the user needs to keep themselves on track.
Now that you have the basics down, let’s talk about some best practices for creating, sending and monitoring the effectiveness of your push notifications.
Before sending out mass push notifications, A/B test on a small percentage of your audience. This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not. Begin by testing individual variables, such as the following:
Do text messages have a higher clickthrough rate than pop-ups?
A/B testing is helpful only if you have the right tools to measure success. Try using Intercom’s A/B testing capabilities to experiment with your push notifications. You may not be able to get it right the first time, but don’t be discouraged. Just keep testing!
Personalization is the key to improving engagement: in order to compete with notifications such as messages from friends, family and coworkers, push notifications from brands must pay attention to the smallest details. We can’t emphasize enough how critical it is to use accurate, person-level data to inform your notifications. Event parameters, language and life cycle are all great ways to make sure your message is as personal and targeted as possible.
For example, just adding the receiver’s first name can help push notifications perform better (in some cases up to 4x better). Intercom is great for sending these targeted push notifications, but the advice remains the same no matter what tool you’re using.
If customers aren’t reading your messages, or if you’re seeing a lot of customers turn off or opt out of push notifications, your messages are either not relevant to your recipients, are being sent too frequently or are simply reaching customers at the wrong time. Make sure your messages are hyper-targeted and relevant to your recipient by monitoring open, click-through and unsubscribe rates.
Despite the incredible amount of mobile usage, most forms of content are still closely tied to the rhythms of the desktop computer. Newsletters are delivered to a subscriber’s inbox at 9 a.m.; blog posts are scheduled to publish at 5 p.m. These schedules have long worked for traditional types of media but don’t automatically translate to notifications and mobile.
Andrew Chen has pulled together some excellent data that shows that while brands are sending a ton of pushes leading up to the evening (and dropping off quickly after), open rates are actually higher after 6 p.m. The data is clear: send push notifications between 6 p.m and 8 p.m., when engagement is at its highest.
Credit: Andrew Chen and Leanplum
Note: 6 p.m.-8 p.m. should only be taken as a rule of thumb. The timing of your push notification will also partially depend on the urgency of the message. In this case, it’s worth creating a simple notification map that matches each notification with the right priority.
Interactive notifications mean little if what you’re communicating is of no value to the user in the first place. Most businesses continue to use notifications as a signpost — a piece of vague, cryptic content meant to entice you back into the app. But notifications work best when the notification is the message.
The message above, from Quartz, works fantastically well because
Real-time adaptive notifications might be beyond most brands right now, but push notifications with current, immediate information get the highest engagement.
Some publishers are doing incredible work designing notifications that automatically update as new data becomes available. It means you’ll only ever get the most timely and accurate content delivered to you. These types of notifications can include:
Real-time adaptive messages provide users with the information they want, the minute it’s available.
As well as measuring open rates and click-through rates, look for signs that your users don’t like what they see. A great way to start is to track repeat-usage behavior. (Our piece on measuring retention is a great first step.)
While click-through rate and open-rate metrics can indicate whether a user reads your notifications, they don’t help you understand whether users are getting the information they really need.
For example, a successful push notification could be a self-contained, stand-alone message, as discussed above. The point is, just because a user doesn’t click-through on a push notification, doesn’t mean that notification didn’t do its job.
Instead, look for negative signs:
Pay attention to how users are actively reacting to your push notifications to determine whether or not they’re truly effective.
Intercom makes it easy to send and receive push notifications, both internally (between team members) and externally (between team members and customers). Simply navigate to “Outbound” in your Intercom dashboard, click on “new mobile push,” as shown in the photo below:
You can A/B test different message variables, choose where to direct your customers (i.e. different pages on your site), select a target audience, set goals for your messages, and schedule them accordingly.
Push notifications can also be used to notify team members when a user completes a target goal (e.g. when they click through to a new page or sign up for a product demo). This is helpful for determining which type of messaging is most effective at engaging and converting users.
Learn more about how Intercom’s push notifications work.
In today’s digitally-focused world, our phones — whether they’re Apple or Google/Android — are the lifelines that connect us with the people we love, the information we need, and the pastimes we treasure. They’re intimate devices that we have on us at all times, whether we’re working out, watching TV, or out grocery shopping.
As a marketer, this lifeline is an opportunity to connect directly with our individual customers, and push notifications are the mechanism that makes it possible. Use these messages to engage with your customers and provide value to them in real time, wherever they are. That’s the key to converting users into long-term, loyal customers.
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