Are push notifications an undervalued marketing tactic?

fourthsource.com

Marketing changes quickly. Content is of course still king, but it needs to pair with context if it is to have any effect on today’s audience. Marketing campaigns can now span a plethora of online and offline channels including television, social media, email and, a relatively new form of messaging, push notifications.

More than 70% of adults now have a smartphone, so push notifications clearly have potential; their usefulness however, continues to be debated. Are they intrusive or invaluable?

Entrepreneur Ariel Seidman is a strong believer in the power of push, as it’s the first time that you can “tap almost two billion people on the shoulder”. But you wouldn’t tap a stranger on the shoulder unless you had something important to say would you?

What you need to remember is that the app user has invited your brand into their pocket by opting to receive push notifications. They have enough of an interest in your brand that they not only want the app, but also news and updates from your company.

So why do marketers get it so wrong?

Getting someone to download your app is only half the battle; you need to keep users engaged so that they continue to interact with the app. Push notifications can be used to give users a nudge to open your app, but this should never be for the sake of it.

Facebook discovered this when it sent users an alert inviting them to update their status; this did not go down well with its members, who ironically turned to Twitter to air their grievances.

One particularly bad example of push notifications comes from MyPet, a virtual pet application that had apparently not realised that children would be likely to play with the app. MyPet sent one 9 year old girl a series of quite shocking alerts that her mother likened to cyber bullying.

Perhaps these type of messages would be funny for an adult to receive, but MyPet’s failure to consider its wider audience emphasises the importance of sending targeted content to different users. One bad experience and a customer will disable push notifications and may even uninstall the app.

So how can marketers get it right?

Context is king

According to research from Responsys, almost 70% of people who download a brand’s app opt into receiving push notifications – this means that they are happy for you to send them content and are in fact expecting it. You need to respect this level of confidence from your customers to ensure that they continue to trust you and your brand.

The key is to send useful and friendly alerts, rather than a constant interruption of spammy messages that merely serve your brand’s own interest. Sending all of your users the same generic notification isn’t going to grab anyone’s attention, especially if it is content for content’s sake or an advert. The minute that a push notification becomes an interruption rather than a welcome piece of information, chances are you’ll lose the customer’s interest.

Push notifications are delivered straight to the pocket or even hand of the target user so reaction is often instant, especially if the alert is relevant and useful, with a meaningful call to action.

A simple way to engage with a consumer is to use their name in alerts; this immediately makes the notification seem more personal and not just a generic message to all. By segmenting your customer data you can target certain users with specific information, offers and discounts.

For example, retailers can send push notifications when a customer’s order has been dispatched, or to provide further delivery information. Insurance companies could send alerts to remind customers that bad weather is coming and they should make sure their car is in the garage.

Notonthehighstreet.com is one brand that knows how to appeal to its audience. By offering exclusive offers to app users, people are given an incentive to keep the app and the seasonal context of Valentine’s Day keeps it timely and relevant.

ASOS also manages to appeal to its users with short and quirky push messages. The ASOS tone of voice is consistent with the rest of the brand and helps give them a personality that resonates with their customers.

Segmenting your users by gender and age is a good start, but it’s also important to look at their previous activity and purchases to build up a picture of who each individual is. Just like Tesco knows not to send meat vouchers to its vegetarian customers, Betfair doesn’t send football scores to people who are only interested in rugby.

Timing is everything

You’re walking down the high street early in the morning, barely awake on your way to work. Suddenly your phone buzzes and you receive a push notification offering you 50% off a cup of coffee in a nearby cafe. The timing is ideal, so who could resist?

Most people tend to sleep at night, so sending someone a push notification at 3am to say you’ve updated your app probably won’t go down well, especially if they are woken up when the alert reaches their phone. Just like a recruiter calling you when you’re at work, mistimed communication is irritating and useless.

However, if a push message reaches a customer at the right time, they will be more willing to engage with your brand and interact with the app, which is why it’s essential to make the most of existing customer data to build up a picture of your audience and establish key contact times.

So if you’re trying to reach commuters, then early morning or evening when they’re sat on a train playing with their smartphone might be the best time to target them; this would not be a good time to contact parents embroiled in the school or bathtime routine.

If the content you share with your users is timely and serves a purpose it will help to build up trust, so that an alert from your app is welcome and not seen as an interruption. Users may even look forward to a push notification from you because they know that it will serve a purpose and be relevant.

A beacon of hope for retailers

As beacon technology starts to take off across the world, push notifications are only going to become more commonplace; more retailers will be using them to target shoppers on the high street and lure people into their store.

When a shopper’s smartphone comes into range of a beacon, they will receive a content message from relevant retailers in the vicinity.  If retailers can get their alerts contextual, timely and relevant they could be an extremely lucrative way to increase store footfall from high street shoppers.

Smartphone users often download retailers’ apps expecting to receive special offers and deals; using beacon technology the consumer will get these deals when they are in the vicinity of the specific store, enticing them in to redeem whatever offer they have been sent there and then.

Don’t push your luck

The key thing to remember is not to waste people’s time – if you don’t have anything worth saying, then don’t say anything at all and don’t send too many push notifications, after all it’s quality, not quantity.

Keep all marketing messages consistent across the various channels so that it’s immediately obvious where the notification has come from and include a call to action to encourage interaction from the user.

As well as making sure your content is personalised to the user, allow users to personalise their preferences within the app. If they can choose the type and frequency of alerts they receive from you, they are less likely to zone out, because they are expecting these types of alerts.

If your users trust you, retain their trust by respecting a degree of decorum when it comes to push notifications. Keep them short, infrequent, personalised and relevant.