We’ve likely all experienced both sides of the push notification spectrum—delight when we get a push message that’s well-timed and tailored to us..or despair when an intrusive message makes us feel anonymous.
Push messages don’t have to be a turn off. If managed intelligently with some analytical horsepower, they’re an incredibly powerful customer engagement tool. Push messages are also a clever way to battle user churn, a constant challenge faced by app publishers and brands, given that one in five apps are only used once.
IOS 8 is here, and notifications are an important feature of the new operating system. This means that with iOS 8, push messages will further evolve from a reminder and re-engagement function to a fully integrated messaging feature that encourages users to interact with their app directly from their home screen.
Segmenting Push Messages
According to a new study, 52% of all app users opt-in to receive push notifications on their mobile devices. With iOS 8, we should see the push opt-in rate increase further, so push messaging has even greater potential to drive your business goals, rather than drive users away. It does require, however, understanding your user segments and their in-app behaviors and using that information to personalize push messages. To illustrate:
- Compared to generic, broadcast messages, which have a three percent open rate, segmented push messages drive a seven percent open rate.
- Of people who open a push notification, 54% will convert from segmented push, compared to only 15% from a broadcast message.
- Push messaging drives 88% more app launches for opted-in users. This is even greater for e-commerce apps, which saw a whopping 278% lift in engagement. After all, imagine receiving a well-timed and personalized push message that lets you know the items you were browsing last week are now on sale.
There’s no doubt that when used correctly, push has a significant impact on engagement and retention. Push also helps counter one-time app use, which decreases for push-enabled users from 21% to 11%. What’s more, push-enabled users spend more time in an app, with more than 50% of them returning to the app at least 11 times.
Success Story: A+E Networks
Global entertainment media company A+E Networks, known for its popular cable TV shows such as “Duck Dynasty,” “Pawn Stars” and “Project Runway,” has a suite of apps that let people watch full episodes and clips on their mobile devices. The company was looking for a way to alert users to new content in the apps and encourage them to return frequently to the apps and consume the content.
But rather than blast impersonal messages to viewers, A+E Networks took a data-driven approach. By digging into its analytics, A+E Networks was able to cleverly segment its apps users according to their content preferences, as well as in-app behaviors such as the time of day they open the app or the length of time spent in the app. Using these insights, A+E Networks crafted customized, targeted push notifications designed to appeal to fans’ specific interests and habits. The result: a 200% increase in push notification engagement and a significant boost to the company’s digital communications goals.
In an increasingly competitive digital marketplace, push messaging—done right—is a highly effective way to cut through the noise, grab your users’ attention and increase your app’s stickiness. Using analytics to help target and personalize your push messages will go a long way to keep app users coming back for more, taking the kinds of actions you want them to take, rather than turning them off.
Raj Aggarwal is CEO of Localytics.
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