Push notifications – they come in a wide variety and are a bite-sized, like tapas. They are made to inform, intrigue and push users to make further actions. There is no other medium which has the ability to grant you this dialogue – like communication with users. You can say hi, ask a quick question, and react for an action in a split second. Your Jane Q. Public watches sandals and leaves theshop? Send her information about the pre-season sale. Is she passing nearby your brick and mortar store? Invite her for an afternoon tea and quick styling consultation. What are pushes, and how to use their magic in the most effective way?
The answer to this question can be found in this mini-compendium of knowledge on push notifications. Enjoy the reading!
Mobile lifestyle
Mobile Revolution
- 1983 – Motorolla DynaTAC – the possibility of speaking, listening and dialing,
- 1993 – IBM Simon – the ability to send and receive faxes or emails and a touch screen with a QWERTY keyboard,
- 1998 – Siemens S10 – the first phone with a color display,
- 1997 – Nokia 9000 communicator – the first full QWERTY keyboard, web browser, IrDA,
- 1999 – Nokia 7110 – the first phone with a built-in WAP protocol, that could access information from the Internet,
- 2000 – Sharp J-SH04 – the first phone with a built-in camera,
- 2005 – Palm Treo 700w – the first phone with a built-in Microsoft software,
- 2008 – HTC Dream – the first phone with Google Android OS.
Nowadays, nobody can imagine life without a mobile phone. Smartphones are used in almost every daily activity – from morning wake up, to the evening ending press review. Not everyone knows that the cells as we know them today, are less than 20 years old.
April 3, 1973 when Martin Cooper of Motorola unveiled DynaTAC, probably no one suspected how much mess in the world’s history this pound brick can make.
Approved for sale a decade later, it provided the proud owner with a possibility of a 30 mins talk time, 6 hours of standby time and held up to 30 contacts. It was the first commercially available device of it’s type. A few years later the time has come for the second generation (2G) of the mobile devices. The year 1993 marked a turning point. It was the year when the first SMS (“Merry Christmas”) was sent, and when IBM released the first smartphone that had a calendar, email inbox, and even applications! It was the beginning of the mobile boom. Another milestone was development of 3G technology in May 2001. It allowed for a much faster data transmission which in turn opened the door for video and audio streaming. In 2007, when the first iPhone was introduced to the world, there were about 300 million users of 3G technology globally (which accounted for only 9% of the total number of cellphone users). It didn’t take much time when more and more demanding applications and media have forced a significant acceleration and optimization of data transfer. Therefore, at the end of the first decade of the 2000’s companies began to deploy 4G technology along with LTE – the popular standard for wireless data transmission, which is still used today.
The difference between the plain cellphone and a smartphone is that the latter is certainly more functional. Smartphone combines the features of a regular phone with the email inbox, web browser, pager, GPS, as well as a digital camera and a simple video camera. Smartphones can be therefore compared to the Swiss army knife that combines many functions in one. The rapid development of advanced devices caused a mad race among producers and a flood of newer and newer features.
Wearables and Internet of Things
The first product to come to existence which we can draw early references for being classified as a wearable would have to be invention of the hearing aid in 1898. Much later came the popular calculator watch, and even later the first of what we may call spy technology, earrings with embedded microphones or the SpyTie, a necktie with a hidden camera.
The smartphone era brought us a new way of thinking about electronical devices, and forever changed the way we use them. A whole spectrum of accessories was made with features that were available before only to smartphones. These are wearables, accessories, clothes even electro chips, embedded with computer or advanced electronics. They are part of the Internet of Things – the whole new conception saying that psychical devices and items may directly or indirectly gather, process, and exchange data through a computer network.
Glasses, virtual reality headsets, and activity trackers are steadily but surely introduced to games, apps and simulators. Technology of today is coming to our homes… and closets.
In 2014 Forbes magazine published an article presenting data that said 71% of people, between the age of 16-24 want to own some kind of wearable device. Fun fact: similar research was done in 2015 in UK and US, where it was reported that almost 56% of interviews said that wearables were a passing trend.
Application of wearables can be:
- private,
- business.
Devices from both categories are used as:
- fashionable accessories,
- fitness trackers,
- hearing aids,
- health monitoring devices,
- remote treatment of speech and voice disorders,
- communicating and navigating accessories.
This completely new category, introduces new devices, that intervene into the user’s body. Tattoos that allow you to operate your smartphone. A chip that goes under your skin can now inform you whenever you face north by vibrating. It’s called North Sense. Cyborg Nest, the company which created it, claims that their goal is to make it possible for humans to become cyborgs. It’s scary, but interesting because you don’t use North Sense as a typical device. It’s a new artificial sense “geo-orientation”, which is placed inside your body. Electronic devices are changing the way you experience your surrounding world, creating a new way of being.
Electronic devices are entering our bodies, widening the spectrum of human experience and adding new layers to what we refer to as innate human senses. And companies like Cyborg’s Nest are coming forward with intention statements of creating these artificial senses.
Increasing Pace of Information Transfer
It can be said that development of the Internet has changed the world, by significantly increasing the range of possibilities for the average person, and the smartphones boom has made its contribution too. General access to information has created a demand for countless new industries and therefore new jobs. Currently, more than 3.4 billion people all around the world have access to the Internet. That’s nearly half of the world’s population!
Information about events from around the world are now just a few clicks away. Services such as Twitter allow anyone with Internet access to become a reporter. Wikipedia – global encyclopedia created by users removed the barriers that block the knowledge flow. In 2011, the access to Internet has been recognized by the UN as one of the fundamental human rights.
However there is the flip side. The new medium allows for the rapid flow of information which for the greater part is good, but at the same time opens up a space for new threats to come into play.. Starting from the necessary business modernization through the socio-psychological problems, to the “deep web” – the dark side of the Internet.
Quick access to information has caused many problems. Shrinking the average human attention span, and messing with the human ability for learning, especially among children. Why learn something if you have access to scientific publications on the topic by 3 clicks or less away?
Today both business and marketing content must be personalized. It’s not a fad, it’s a must. In the information flood, no one wants to see tons of spam on their smartphone screen. To gain a user’s attention it’s more important than ever for the content to be considered useful by the reader and with the ability to personalize it brings providers of information a step closer to being relevant. Appropriate use of email, push notifications and web presentation are now some of the main factors determining the marketing success.
FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – panic fear of missing important messages and obsessive inbox checking.
Ringxiety – from ring + anxiety – anxious awaiting for a new message resulting in sensing the phantom phone vibrations.
Appification of Life
Unlike traditional websites that are built around storing content applications have the purpose of performing tasks. They are everywhere: on desktops, in smartwatches or the Internet of Things devices. Applications have the ability to make life easier, and most customers will use a dedicated brand’s app before even entering the website – it’s just more convenient.
More and more web pages are being designed to resemble the user interactivity present in their sister app – oriented to satisfy needs, they become something more than simple content containers. World navigates towards the concept of the Internet as a network of applications that help you perform tasks and collect data simultaneously, so they can improve processes and make suggestions that are within the needs of the user at any given time.
Communication with Users
Relation Building
- 1 in 5 people in the world own a smartphone.
- 90% of people aged 18-24 consider the mobile device as a central part of everyday life, 84% of the general population agrees with this sentiment.
- US adults spend an average of 2 hours and 51 minutes a day using mobile devices. 89% of this time they spend using applications.
- There are 224 million monthly active app users in the US.
- As of June 2015, the Google Maps app averaged 76.47 million unique U.S. visitors per month. For the average-performing apps, this number is much lower.
- More than 80-90% of apps are deleted after only one launch.
So how to create a long-lasting relationship with the user?
The most important task is to build up their involvement. Even the best and most beautiful app is doomed to oblivion if it doesn’t interact with its users. There are many ways of drawing the user into a dialogue – through the social media plug, in-app communication, or encouraging them to share their opinions. Regardless of the chosen strategy, you should know how to create good notifications (even as if just an emergency plan as a precaution if the main strategy doesn’t work) – targeted and personalized for specific groups. Finally, mobile devices provide so much behavioral and demographic information about users that it’s a shame if you won’t use it.
Users’ engagement is like a campfire. If you leave it after building the fire, it will extinguish. You have to add some logs from time to time, so it can burn as long as you’ll need it to. Gaining the engagement of a user is not enough. You have to build it up and maintain it. Like a flower – even after blooming it still needs water. Most important at this stage is to run a dialogue with users and to monitor their reactions. To run a dialogue, you can use the pushes, emails and other notifications. Don’t limit yourself to the strict offers – send a birthday or New Year’s wishes, reward the loyalty and engagement with a small gift, share your knowledge. Use proper software to monitor users’ reactions and engagement. It’ll also help you to check the feedback, spot non-active users, and create multi-step and multi-channel marketing campaigns.
Methods of Communication with App Users
Due to their similarity to traditional letters, emails are a great medium to send more sophisticated content, that can be red at any time, for example; progress summaries, ranks, complex offers or newsletters. They can also be used as an abandoned shopping cart, or win back message.
In-app Notifications
In-app notifications – short messages that appear only when the application is launched. One of their main purposes is to increase user engagement, for example by offering a discount when a customer is using the shopping app. Such notifications may take different forms: a pop-up, notification bar alert or extended information, and more.
The conversion is generally higher than for other types of notifications, mostly due to the fact that the receiving user is already engaged in the application. But it is a double-edged sword – you won’t see in-app notifications, if you won’t start the application.
Push notifications are short messages displayed on the main screen of a smartphone or a tablet
Text notification
Text pushes are simple messages consisting of a bolded headline and text. They are an interesting way to create a company -customer relationship. The personalized text appearing on the notification bar will surely help build a positive brand image. Text pushes can be used for providing information, sending invitations, sending coupons and discounts, etc. One of the most common uses is the “up-selling.” When a customer buys pants, she quickly gets a thank you notification with a proposition to buy a matching shirt added.
URL notification
The mentioned up-sell message can include a link to the featured product – if you use the URL push notification, which is simply a notification with a link. Its use doesn’t need an explanation – clicking on a link redirects the user to a specific landing page. Thanks to the deep linking technology, such notifications may also target directly to a specific application screen.
Dialog notification
Dialogue notifications are for asking the user simple questions and allow them to answer within a split second – usually by choosing one of the two available options (confirm or deny). “Do you like our new product?”, “Do you agree to receive more notifications?”, “Do you want to get a 50% discount for London shopping?” – The user selects the desired answer, which takes him just a second, and your company will access to valuable information – depending on the posed questions.
Push Notifications’ Importance
Push notifications are short text messages that appear on the screen of mobile devices. The user can receive them at any time of the day or night. They open many new possibilities for marketers. You could call them SMSs of the app world, with a very high visibility. Proof? Even if you want to delete the notification, you must first display it.
Examples
There are various types of push notifications, depending on the applications you have installed. Probably every smartphone user encountered the notification like “Someone sent you a present” from Candy Crush, “You have a new comment under the photo” from Facebook application, or even “The bus leaves in seven minutes” from jakdojade.pl app.
History
Push notifications were introduced to the world by Apple in 2008 as the Apple Push Notification System (APNS). A detailed description of APNS is: the system that allows developers to send data notification to the external applications installed on the Apple devices. With the marketing success and obvious functionality of such mechanism, pushes were also adopted for Android and Microsoft devices.
Why companies use it ?
First of all, push notifications are very a convenient way to communicate with users, because the user must display them. In Apple’s iOS pushes appear even on the lock screen, and in Android – on a special notification bar, which is opened very often, due to other useful features in it. Last but not least, pushes don’t go to the SPAM folder, and their CTR can be up to twice higher than in emails.
How to Create a PUSH – Visual Guide
Graf – najlepiej kółka i strzałki – w poziomie – można z tego zrobić “węża” przez cały ekran
1. Permission (Always ask users if you can send them notifications)
2. Purpose (Why do you send this particular push?)
- Sales
- Discount information
- User reactivation
- Engagement enhancement
- Inviting people “from the street” to the store
- Engaging users in a field game
- Other
3. Type (Which push notification type fits the purpose)
- In App
- Text
- Dialogue
- URL
4. Creation (The body and the looks)
- Proofreading
- Concision
- Compliance with brand’s image
- Aesthetics
- Distinctiveness
- Special effects (sound & vision)
5. Personalization (just enough amount)
- Time
- Location
- Language
- Activity
- Notification reaction
- In-app behavior
6. Sending
7. Results analysis
PUSH Personalization
Personalized push notifications have a 3 times higher conversion rate than others, as shown in the above research. You can implement personalization with consideration to multiple variables, such as behavior (Click rate increment 8.6%), profile (CR increment 13%) or combine them both (CR increment 30.6%).
If you want to segment users like a pro, you’ll need a deep understanding of their needs, habits and behavior. For example, you’ll have to ask:
- why and how they use your app,
- which modules are most used,
- which functionalities are chosen over others,
- where do they use them,
- when do they use them.
Insight this deep may be achieved by using CRM for mobile apps that gathers the answers for all those questions in one place.
It doesn’t really matter what kind of message you are preparing – push, in-app or email – you should know the answer to these important questions:
- To whom?
- Where?
- When?
Follow us, and we’ll analyze them.
To whom (I send my message)?
Do your customer or user profiles sound like this:
“Well-educated woman, in mid-30’s, a Londoner…”
Is this profile really getting you results? How many companies do you think this person also finds themself qualifying as a customer or user. It’s time to expand on understanding of your customers or users.Your app connects with a device that spends 24 hours in their pocket! Take advantage of this!
Mobile marketing automation platforms offer a function of behavioral profiling that gives you access to:
- Identification of mobile app users,
- Automated identification of the users future visits and the time spent using the modules,
- Device identification,
- Geolocation,
- Etc.
As you can see, you can tell who, when and how they use your app! You should gather this information to profile and segment your customers.
When (they will read this message)?
Remember when you had to get rid of an annoying telemarketer trying to sell you something that was about as useful as a third glove and worst of all whilst you were in the middle of something important. Don’t copy his mistake. Send your messages when people are using your app or passing your store. Remember: 90 percent of text messages are read within 3 minutes.
Where (they will receive my message)?
How can you choose the place where the person will receive your message? The answer: beacons and geolocalization. Beacons are tiny devices using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to communicate with each other and with users’ apps. If you are around the brick-and-mortar store, the beacon signal can trigger the in-app rule, and send you desired information, or a discount code. Geolocation uses GPS built into a smartphone. With this module, you can send users alerts tailored to their location – an invitation for coffee, information about the nearest sales points, local promotions and events, etc.
PUSH Automation
Can you imagine having to manually send hundreds of thousands of personalized push notifications, that’s a day in the office no one would want, and one which who knows would ever have an end. So you say reduce communication to sending the same message to the entire database, this also doesn’t sound like the brightest idea given everything we have mentioned so far. Fortunately, there is a solution. Modern mobile marketing software, which allows for notification automation.
The automation rules allow for automatic responses based on users behavior. The rules enable you to execute simple actions, such as automated notifications, or fully automated, complex and advanced marketing campaigns. This technology guarantees that the messages are not only perfectly tailored, but also delivered to the right users in the right time.
Push sending can be triggered by:
- using app’s feature (buy, translate, add to the cart, proceed, etc.),
- using the specified module (screen),
- push notification reaction,
- entering a location,
- making a purchase,
- choosing a specific item (green gloves and suede shoes),
- filling the form,
- …and many others.
Automated pushes allow you to create effective campaigns and events designed to increase the app users’ engagement, solve their everyday problems, or to inform them of local promotions. Examples:
Scavenger hunt – use geolocation, some clever puzzles and information on the execution of tasks, you can invite users to search for hidden treasures in the urban landscape.
New employees onboarding – instead of running with each freshman around the office, simply prepare the application, which will lead him to Jessica from the Office with a complete set of documents, to the coffee machine and will inform him where to find a brand new laptop.
Increasing brand awareness – marketing is not just discount coupons, but also a tough task to build brand awareness among the users. Push automation allows you to prepare a simple educational series that will periodically provide users with small portions of useful knowledge.
Real-time marketing – mobile marketing is effective if it is context-based. By sending users notifications related to their current location, and to the current needs you increase the chance to develop a relation based on a two-way communication.
Facilitating mass events – notifications can help users in many ways. From navigating through the exhibition, to directing to the food court, to informing the first aid point about the accident.
PUSH Win-Back Campaign
A win back campaign is designed to re-engage those users who stopped to use the app. For such a campaign you’ll need a Mobile Marketing Automation platform. That provides advanced analysis of customer behavior, push notification wizard and automates the entire process, saving your team a lot of time.
What messages (and to whom) you should send?
Up to 10 days inactive – If a person uses the app, but stops for a few days it is a great moment to activate the push. Remind her about the app and offer a small bonus for the immediate return. It can be something small – an upgrade, small discount or a free item.
Create the sense of urgency by writing something like this:
„Hi, Tommy! Log in now and collect 3000 units to spend in a weapon store.”
„Jenny! The gloves sale is active only today until midnight. Buy the gloves that are in your shopping cart and use this 10% discount.”
14-30 days inactive – If the app’s last launch occurred a fortnight ago, the user might be considered dormant, and you shouldn’t send him the messages described above. They will irritate her rather than convince to launch the game. If you want to win her back, you must re-introduce her to the app and offer a noticeable benefit. If it is a game – give her access to the new, exclusive level set and some bonus for a fresh start. Remember to make the time-limited offer. The example? Here we go:
„Hi Matt, for the next 2 days we unlocking the new land especially for you. Clean the dungeons and win the Vorpal Sword!”
If you have a fitness app, don’t „scream” about the zero progress. Use the geolocation instead. Send a discount to the nearest cafeteria or health food store in exchange for saving the progress.
“Remember about the after-workout meal. Save your today’s track and have a free shake in the X cafeteria!”
More than 30 days inactive – Feedback request. The plain fact is that on average, 70% of your users will stop using or delete your app within 30 days. If none of the above works and the user is inactive for a month, you should find an explanation of this situation. The push will work fine. Ask her for the feedback. Make her indicate the reason she no longer uses the app. Request some remarks on how the app should work to fulfill her expectations. You have a chance to find a common factor that will help you to improve the app or add the requested feature. It will put an incredibly powerful weapon into your hands. Imagine that you are coming back to the user and inform him that annoying bug is fixed.
„Hi Daniel, we have simplified the purchasing process! Now you can add the items to your cart with one touch! Check it and share your opinion.”
Be careful to not re-invite the users if you haven’t fixed the errors they indicated! The Mobile Marketing Automation software can remember and categorize all users for you. Apply this solution to your company.
Examples of PUSH Notification Campaigns
eCommerce
Founded in 2000, Price Minister is a leading online electronic commerce website, that attracts more than 23 mln visitors monthly, and offers around 127 mln discounted products.
The company was acquired in June 2010 by Rakuten Group, one of the world’s largest ecommerces with a turnover reaching near US$5 billion.
Challenge:
Sending targeted and automated promotional push notifications to its iOS and Android mobile app users, and assessing and optimizing push notifications response rates.
Actions:
Broadcast of automated push notification messages based on the customer lifecycle. Set-up of a cross-channel loyalty program depending on the customer status. Distribution of loyalty prizes to reward customers and incentivize purchases.
- 2 push notification messages sent weekly on iOS: service messaging and promotional advantages.
- 1 push notification message sent weekly on Android: private sales, discounts.
Results:
- Doubled monthly usage for app holders who are opted-in for push notifications.
- Conversion rates increase for users receiving push notifications.
- Users receiving notifications purchase 3 times more than those who do not.
Real Estate
With over 100,000 sales professionals, 7,000 franchised broker offices and operations in 77 countries worldwide, CENTURY 21 is considered as being the most respected brand in the real estate industry. Since 2012, its domain has been the most visited real estate franchise website. Moreover, CENTURY 21 is also recognized as a leader in emarketing and has received numerous awards.
Challenge:
Increasing the amount of active users, optimizing retention and engagement rates, promoting app usage and generating leads (calls).
Actions:
Creation of dynamic segments so as to send targeted push notifications and in-app messages based on the app install date, the number of days since the last visit and the amount of visits.
Automatic Activation Program: welcoming new users, giving tips and suggesting actions.
Automatic Reactivation Program: promoting key app features to inactive users.
Testing the broadcast of messages at different time slots to find the most appropriate moment to send push notifications to maximize reaction rates.
In-app messaging program asking the most active users to rate the app.
Results:
- Increased application usage by users targeted with push notifications.
- Optimized reaction rates by sending messages at the most appropriate time of the day.
- Volume of app store ratings 6 times higher thanks to in-app messaging.
HR&Recruitment
Jobbio is a recruiting platform for both Talents and Brands. A jobs marketplace where you can discover amazing opportunities with over 2000 Brands. For Brands, Jobbio provides a simple and effective platform to present themselves, post amazing job opportunities, share them with the world and organize the resulting job applications digitally and efficiently at an affordable price.
Challenge:
Talent acquisition is a rising problem for many online recruitment brands. With a skills shortage looming over many sectors, the challenge facing Jobbio was two-fold – to help brands connect directly with relevant talent in their specific sector and to re-engage potential candidates with personalized job alerts for brands they have followed. Considering the average CTR of recruitment email marketing campaigns is currently only 2.34%, Jobbio was searching for another channel to reach and re-engage users effectively.
Actions:
Portal decided to leverage the automation of personalized notifications that allow for instant contact with the customer. They included information adjusted to the user’s industry, location, interests and last logging date.
To deliver hyper-targeted notifications to the right customer at the right time, Jobbio can leverage data directly from their Google Analytics account which provides full visibility of their website customer insights. And with goal-tracking, A/B testing and real-time campaign reporting capabilities, the team at Jobbio are able to measure and optimize the results of each campaign in order to deliver maximum impact and boost ROI.
Results:
Jobbio have achieved remarkable results using Web Push notifications – on average the click rate has been 17.5% in the initial pilot. The conversion rate has been well over 50% with users directly applying for relevant positions from the notifications they have received. Web Push Notifications have significantly increased Jobbio’s ability to market new opportunities to attract great talent for brands.
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