Common Push Notification Mistakes to Avoid at all Costs

You are deep asleep.

Your phone goes beep beep at midnight.

You check your phone in the hope of finding something important and urgent.

Instead, you see this –

In all probability, you will be frustrated.

Either you will mute your phone and go back to sleep, or if you had a really bad sleep, you would end up uninstalling the app that sent this push notification.

As a subscriber of this app, you have nothing to lose. Probably you will switch to the browser version of the brand or switch to another player.

But if you are the business that sent this notification, then you have lost a very hard-earned subscriber to your app just because you timed it badly. Remember – 48% of users make an in-store purchase after receiving a push notification. You’ve lost those sales now!

There are many such mistakes that businesses make in push notifications leading to un-subscriptions and uninstallations. Let’s look at them here.

1. Bad CTAs and Messaging

Push notifications have limited space. This makes it very important to have a copy that radiates brevity. It should be concise, sharp, and to the point.

It can always be tempting to reinvent the wheel and generate some fresh and catchy CTAs. But the sense of familiarity that customers get with tried-and-tested CTAs is not something you can ignore.

Your push notification should ideally have:

• A clear message
• A CTA to act on
• Designs to catch the customer’s eye (Optional)

Here’s an example of a good message with a familiar CTA

Use the code “XMAS” on holiday-themed products and get up to 50% off!

Shop now!”

The messaging here is clear, tells the value of discounts, what type of products, and gives a familiar CTA encouraging the user to shop.

Here’s an example of a bad message.

Are you looking for the best deals this Christmas season?

Are you tired of searching high and low?

Then stop searching!

Use our offer code “XMAS”.

What are you waiting for?

Let’s check it out!

The messaging here is unnecessarily verbose and long, and the CTA is also confusing for the user. If this is sent as a push notification, it’ll be difficult for the customer to extract the information you wish to convey.

2. Lack of Personalization

Customers like feeling noticed by their brands. Personalization adds a charm that nothing else matches. When you send push notifications without researching customer data, you’ll experience very low CTRs. Sending irrelevant notifications will make it worse.

For example, if a customer’s data shows that he’s a young professional with interest in tech products, sending a push notification like this might not make him open it –

Visit our brand for a wide range of electronic products

Instead, send a notification like this –

Make your zoom calls clearer, visit our brand new line of audio products

The above message shows that you know your customer and their need for good audio products to help them in their WFH routine. Such personalized attention can significantly improve click rates.

3. Too Many Notifications

If you’ve created your mobile app using Vajro, then it is quite natural to send multiple push notifications in a day due to the ease of creating and managing it.

But hold your horses. This is a common mistake that many businesses make. Did you know that an average smartphone user in the US receives 46 push notifications in a day?

Besides getting lost in this deluge of notifications, you risk annoying your customer by sending too many of them.

Here are the recommended average push notifications per week for different industries –

• Fashion – 2 to 5
• Electronics – 1 to 2
• Furniture – 1
• Cosmetics – 2 to 5
• Fitness – 2 to 3
• Art – 1 to 2

4. Using Notifications as a Replacement for Emails

The Click-Through Rates(CTR) of mobile push notifications are higher than emails. As a result, it can be tempting to move your email promotions to your push notification campaigns.

But you need to understand that these are two different mediums with two different content styles. Emails are great for long-form content and ideal when you want to convey a lot of things in one go. By sending such content through push notifications, it will only lead to ignorance since they won’t be able to read through all of the content.

For example, the following message will work in an email but will lead to poor experience in a mobile push notification –

“Hey,

Did you get a chance to go through our newsletter?

In case you missed it, click here to access it.

Also, as a reward for being such a great customer, here’s an offer code for 20% off on your next purchase, no strings attached!

The above message is too dense with content and will not encourage a user to click on it.

5. Not Creating A Sense Of Urgency

Push notifications have much better CTRs when they create FOMO in the minds of people. Whether you’re offering promotions or informing customers about new product arrivals, creating a sense of urgency encourages customers to act immediately.

For example, this might not be a good way to send push notifications –

“Get 50% off all kitchenware and home decor products. Shop here!”

Instead, try sending this –

“Only for today! 50% off on all kitchenware and home decor products.

Get it now before the stock runs out !”

The limited-time window, plus the urgent CTA, triggers the customer to make a purchase as soon as possible.

6. Notifications Being Too Plain

Static content is boring, dull, and doesn’t catch the customer’s eye. As we have seen above, customers are going to get lots of notifications on their phones. If you want to stand out in the crowd, incorporate dynamic designs or attractive images into your push notifications.

Here is a plain vanilla push notification –

Here is the same push notification with few images adding more color to it –

Want to make it even more attractive – Add a GIF or a video.

Videos and GIFs can be easily added to your push notification from your Vajro dashboard. Here is a detailed guide on how to do it.

7. Bad timing

This is probably the commonest mistake of all. A big blunder that most businesses make is sending out push notifications at any random time. Instead, analyze your customers, and notice when they respond most favorably to your notifications.

Also, it is important to understand where most of your customers are from. Be wary of time zone differences.

For instance, if most of your customers are located in Japan, time your push notifications to reach them during their daytime and not yours. If you can’t stay awake to send instant push notifications, schedule them.

Vajro lets you easily schedule push notifications to your preferred time.

The best practice is to send push notifications in the morning between 7 am to 10 am or in the evening between 6 pm to 10 pm. This is the time when most of your customers are awake, not busy with their office work, and have time to catch up on other activities.

Bottom Line

The key to success in your push notification strategy is constant research of your customers and timing your notifications perfectly. Try eliminating the mistakes highlighted in this post if you are not getting enough CTRs from your notifications.

When you create your mobile app from Vajro, your efforts to manage your push notification strategy are halved. Right from scheduling push notifications to incorporating GIFs and videos in a single click, your life is made much simpler.

To build your own app with Vajro's instant app builder, contact us now!