How to Maximize Value from Push Notifications?
Tags: pushnotifications, android, ios, codenewbie
Published: 2020-05-13 10:02:08

In a rapidly evolving mobile environment where millions of apps contend with each other and where user expectations continue to skyrocket, retention has become one of the biggest hurdles for apps. 

<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/751532/worldwide-application-user-retention-rate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Statista</a> recorded a 32% retention rate of mobile applications across the globe in 2019, a stark decline from 2018's 38%. Because of this, premeditated and functional re-engagement campaigns have become exceptionally essential for boosting both retention and revenue. This is where push notifications come in, so let us give you some best practices to make them work in your favour.

## What are push notifications?
Push notifications are a method of marketing automation in which mobile apps directly send messages to a user’s device. These messages contain important information which are connected to the app in various and personal aspects. Push notifications can contain breaking news, latest updates, awaiting requests, new app developments, status updates and in-app activities. 

## Why use push notifications?
The intimacy of mobile push notifications and their ability to tap users with minimal limits makes user re-engagement more straightforward and robust. In line with paid retargeting, they’re inexpensive and cost-effective compared to other methods, and when it comes to results, they come with huge payoffs. Plus, SashiDo enables you to <a href="https://blog.sashido.io/sending-milions-of-push-notifications-with-go-redis-and-nats/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">send a million push notifications per minute</a>, which definitely saves you all this time and effort.
![jamie-street-33oxtOMk6Ac-unsplash](https://media-blog.sashido.io/content/images/2020/05/jamie-street-33oxtOMk6Ac-unsplash.jpg)
The power to produce engaging push notifications creates an authentic and highly versatile platform for API developers to capture the attention of their users. The push notifications of today can now include a designated notification tone, brief personalized messages as well as the capability to accomplish actions without even opening an app. Best of all, publishers can send these messages to their users for targeted re-engagement at no cost. They will only pay the standard <a href="https://www.sashido.io/en/pricing/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pricing</a> for their accounts.

## What you need to consider when using push notifcations?
Although they come with a lot of perks, discovering the right path to execute your push notification ideas is both an art and a science. Sure, push notifications are the way to go, but if you don’t know how to properly use them to your advantage, you’re most likely to still be stuck in a rut. 

In this guide, we’ll list some push notifications tips that can help you move users into action: 

#### Take into account time zones 

<a href="https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2018/04/4-best-practices-for-push-notifications/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Web Designer Depot</a> recommends sending mobile push notifications according to your users’ time zones as well as the time when they’re most active and occupied with their phones. That way, they’re most likely to also engage with your app. 

With this in mind, think about your users. A person wouldn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night, thanks to a ping on their phone from mobile push notifications. Consider your users’ geographical location to guarantee that all your patrons are receiving pushes at reasonable times where they are more likely to interact with your application. 

Besides this, get to know your users better by analyzing them. What times and days in the week do they usually engage with their devices? Ponder on how this may vary due to different factors like area, demographics, as well as user behavior. Ditch the lazy scheduled pushes and make your messages more personalized. 

#### Think twice about user behavior

A good technique to keep in mind is to modify your push notification ideas to fit your target. If you’re only <a href="https://blog.sashido.io/sashidos-getting-started-guide/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> getting started on push notifications</a>, this is one important takeaway to keep in mind: if you want to drive open and engagement rates upward, you need to tailor your push notifications to your users. You can do this by segmenting your push notifications. 


You can segregate your patrons by looking at user behavior. Observing the different ways users engage with your app offers precious insight into what they pay attention to, what concerns them, and how invested they are with this item or brand. This helps publishers grasp how often to send push notifications and which elements of the app to focus on when they execute their push notification ideas. 

For instance, you can divide your customers into highly engaged, a bit engaged and disengaged. If you spot a disengaged user, don’t bombard them with notifications to reel them back into your app. They’re more likely to view this as spam and would not spark re-engagement at all. 

![facebook-notification-gift-in-stocking](https://media-blog.sashido.io/content/images/2020/05/facebook-notification-gift-in-stocking.jpg)

This strategy is also effective during relevant holidays. Let’s say it’s almost Christmas and you have a user browsing your store often but hasn’t pulled the trigger on the purchase. She’s been thinking about this scarf to give to her sister for quite some time now and has added it to her cart a few weeks before the big day. You can up the frequency of your mobile push notifications to remind her that there’s an item awaiting their purchase.

As opposed to generic blasts, behavior-based push notifications are more guaranteed to boost your open rates. The most successful strategies acknowledge user behavior and use them to their advantage. By perceiving and considering individual behaviors, you can re-engage app users with content they actually care about. 

#### Consider user preference 

Another strategic way to segregate your patrons is through their partialities and predispositions, which provides a heads up on which items customers pay attention to or support the most. With the <a href="https://financesonline.com/best-telecommuting-tools/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> best telecommuting tools</a>, publishers can be enlightened with users’ preferences through viewing previous engagements with products through both app and website and through determining their inclusive and exclusive traits. 

Inclusive traits indicates a positive preference towards an element whenever a user engages with a product via your site or your application. Meanwhile, exclusive traits are exhibited when a user disregards notifications, promotions and emails for a particular item. This translates to a user’s negative preference towards the ignored item.

If your users have clearly identified traits, ensure that your engaging push notifications are oriented to their inclusive traits and dismount from notifications that run parallel with their exclusive traits. 

#### Give your users more control 

User engagement should not only be beneficial for your business. You must always keep your users in mind whenever you send those push notifications web to your patrons. 

To offer more freedom and control for your users, think about creating an in-app micro-permission control center. This enables users to pick the kinds of notifications they are interested in getting. 

Let’s say you’re running a grocery store. Create a control center that allows users to dictate which products they usually purchase, so that they can receive notifications about promotions and discounts involving their preferred items. That way, there’s more guarantee that they would interact with these notifications, which drives user engagement upward. 

#### Keep testing 

Although these steps offer sound insights for your push strategy, it’s imperative to continue running tests and shaping your timing and tempo to match and discover the optimal time to reach and interact with your users. 

Experiment with your audience until you have achieved maximum efficiency. By testing to see what works and what doesn’t, you can examine results and make the necessary changes to your push notification strategy until you’re satisfied with your results. 

## Conclusion

Push notifications are a great and cost-effective way to boost both conversions and revenue, but don’t abuse them. Instead, use them to build a more meaningful relationship with your users. 

Be thoughtful about their needs and preferences. Send them relevant messages so that they don’t end up dismissing your pushes as something annoying. Make sure your mobile push notifications are helpful for your users, and they will reward you with higher engagement. 

We hope these push notification tips helped you craft your mobile strategy. Good luck!