Why are App Notifications broken and what can you do to fix them?

“Push notifications are responsible for 92% higher app retention rates and 26% higher mobile app open rates.” (Source)

Along with the rise of mobile devices, push notifications have become an efficient way to communicate with your audience. A lot of mobile apps have users who have downloaded the app but do not use it. Push notifications are indeed a good way to turn these people into active users. However, a few bad push practices can annoy your users that may result in deleting your app — eventually harming your business interests.

Reasons why notifications are muted or broken:

1. Irrelevant information

In a survey conducted by Delvv, 78% of consumers stated that the push notifications they received were irrelevant. (Source) Push notifications that are only market-driven and not specific to the customer or his/her engagement are not likely to be entertained, and chances are high that such notifications will be muted. For example, if you run a sale in one specific region but notify every user using your app, the information becomes irrelevant for the ones who are not located in the region in question. In fact, if push notifications are too frequent and irrelevant, customers can also consider deleting the app.

2. Too many notifications

No doubt push notifications are an effective way to reach out to customers, but overusing it can get quite overwhelming or intrusive for a customer. “52% of app users feel that push notifications are annoying.” (Source) For example, if you send 6–10 push notifications in one week, users may not only mute them but also uninstall the app from their device.

3. A choice users make by default

In some cases, users feel push notifications are always a distraction and would always prefer to keep it disabled. It may be a prejudiced notion or a bad experience in the past. Some users may not want to check their phone unless it is a person reaching out to them. This is actually a tough challenge for marketers, as they have to change the regular behaviour of the customers to overcome it.

How to fix the problem?

In a survey by Forrester, it was found that 57% app users open a push notification, read it and take action in the app accordingly, meaning that consumers are actually interested in engaging with push notifications. (Source) Take a look at some of the ways to use push notifications in the right way for maximum retention and engagement -

1. Send notifications at the right time

Timeliness is an important factor when it comes to push notifications. You should be able to predict the right time to notify your users. For example, if you have app users from various countries, it is not a wise step to send push notifications to everyone at the same time. It can be the right time for some users, but that same time can be midnight for some users who wouldn’t want to be disturbed in their sleep.

Some push notifications can be scheduled, depending on pre-planned events. For example, if you have a flash sale coming up in the next 1 hour, a push notification will be the right medium to encourage your customers.

Source: moengage.com

2. Provide value

Every notification that you send across should provide some value to the customers. Pushes that are valuable for the users will be appreciated and help you achieve your target. By analyzing data based on chats or shopping/browsing history, a customer’s preferences can be known and it can be ensured that you send only push notifications that have value for them.

For example, if you offering a special discount on women apparels, sending a push notification to men will not have any value. However, if data reveals that a lot of women’s apparel has been shopped from a man’s account, sending a notification to this particular customer can be relevant.

Source: buildfire.com

3. Avoid being too pushy

“According to a survey, receiving between 2 and 5 messages in one week would cause 46% of respondents to disable push notifications.” (Source)

Push notifications should never be too pushy. There’s a saying that goes “ the good thing about notifications is they remind your users that your app is installed. A bad thing about notifications is they remind your users that your app is installed.” If users are constantly getting notified, they are bound to get annoyed.

Source: localytics.com

If you’re just starting out, 1 push notification every week works well for your users, with 90% of people willing to receive it without disabling notifications.

4. Personalization

Delivering personalized messages is integral as it will engage your users to understand their needs and preferences from your app. Apart from that, mapping the user’s journey in your app can help you create personalized push notifications. For example, if you have a gaming app and you notice a user stuck in a particular level, you can offer a special deal via a push notification.

Source: leanplum.com

Other aspects like the items in your cart for an e-commerce app, the type of articles read by a user on a news app or even in general context like how long has the app been installed or when was the last time it was used by a particular user can help you come up with engaging notifications to encourage the user to use your app. Using names, or giving out something special on birthdays and anniversaries will ensure to bring the desired results.

5. Always keep the opt-in option, offer a discount/incentive to enable notifications

A user downloading your app does not necessarily mean that you have the authority to send push notifications. A business can force push notifications, but then the user will always have the option of deleting the app entirely.

Always make sure to keep the opt-in option and get permission to able to send notifications to users. You can also create a splash screen to personally speak to the users with an attractive message about why they should opt for push notifications.

Giving people enough reasons to enable notifications is also important, and this is where incentives come into the picture. A special discount on shopping, loyalty points to be redeemed later or early access to some content are some of the ways to encourage users to willingly opt for it.

Source: WebEngage

Push notifications are indeed one of the best ways to update your audience with the latest offerings and drive sales. The main objective of every business is to optimize open rate without notifications becoming a nuisance.

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