Ignore all that advice about minding your manners. Businesses that avoid getting pushy do so at their own peril. Your best customers are walking around with your branded app on their hips or in their purses and you need to engage with them.
Without surprise, push notifications have emerged as a key channel of conversation between brands and their mobile customers because they can be sent even when the consumer is not engaged with the application.
However, even in its’ infancy, overuse and misuse of push can already be seen. There is a fine line between what is effective engagement and what – for lack of a better term - is “too pushy.” A poorly executed push notification campaign that provides little value to end-users can prompt users to opt-out of notifications or, worse, uninstall your application. What a lost opportunity!
How should a progressive brand engage their mobile customers to build a healthy, long-term relationship? When, where, with what, and how often should messages be sent?
What follows are a few high-level pointers mobile marketing managers should consider when deciding how to leverage this unprecedented engagement opportunity. They include content selection, targeting, cadence, and performance review.
1. Content is king
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| Xtify Rich Push Notification |
ALWAYS make sure your message is worthy of interrupting your audience.
A marginal reduction in the price of a shirt?....eh.
Your annual Memorial Day sale with 20% markdown? ….Awesome!
Make every push notification count by trying to delight your customers.
2. Send rich, branded content
Your message should be on-brand, easy to read, and possess a persuasive and compelling call to action. Include your logo and sharp designs so the user automatically associates your message with your brand.
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| Xtify Rich Push Notification Share |
You can make your push campaigns even more effective by using them to drive your customers to Facebook, Twitter, corporate blogs, and mobile websites.
A link in the push notification can take users to your social networking pages to contribute to the buzz of your enterprise campaign. Some of Xtify’s best campaigns started by bringing a Facebook page to the attention of loyal brand customers.
Also, give users the ability to share your push notifications with their friends and family, even those who have not downloaded your application.
Incent viral spread! People love spreading a thought-provoking article, an emotional picture (or a video of a cat playing with yarn). Push notifications CAN and SHOULD be used for new customer acquisition.
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| Xtify User Preferences Screen |
4. Deploy user preferences
App users have different opinions about what they want to see and when they want to see it. Insert a preferences page into your app that asks users what kind of content they want to receive via notification, i.e. if they want to hear about new products, scarves, pants, checking accounts, sales etc.
When sending your push notification campaigns accommodate your customer’s needs and interests to improve message relevancy and campaign performance.
5. Harness all your customer knowledge
Leverage the data in your CRM, web analytics, and offer management systems to target campaigns to a single customer or across all of your marketing channels.
For example, if you don’t typically offer free shipping, group your “heaviest online shoppers” and send them a notification with a limited-time
free shipping offer.
We'll soon publish the 2nd-half of these mobile engagement best practices (Steps 6-10). Stay tuned!
Please drop a note to business@xtify.com if you'd like to discuss your mobile customer engagement needs and how Xtify can help.
Please drop a note to business@xtify.com if you'd like to discuss your mobile customer engagement needs and how Xtify can help.
