The use of push notifications for marketing purposes has taken over different marketing channels with its rising popularity. They promise enhanced customer reach and increased conversions like no other marketing tools.
However, for the push notifications to be effective, timing it right is critical. Receiving push messages at inappropriate times frustrate users and can even cause them to turn away from your brand. Push messages that are used intelligently can vastly improve the quality of engagement between your brand and your users.
How often you should send push notifications
The ideal frequency of sending push notifications to your users greatly depends on different factors like the type of industry your business works on, the purposes of sending push notifications, etc. For example, the frequency of sending push messages varies for gaming websites, news websites, travel portals, ecommerce platforms, fitness apps, etc.
For news websites, consider sending notifications 3 to 4 times a day depending on the significance of news according to the user’s interests. Likewise, for game and travel websites, aim to send 2-3 push messages a day. Whereas for game websites and fitness apps, send once a day or 3-4 times a week depending on the type of niche.
Best time to send push notifications
If you want to know the best time to send push notifications, there is no ideal time that suits all users. Instead, you need to find the best time when your users are most likely to engage with your push notifications and that varies according to the time zone of your users.
If you have users living across the globe living in different time zones, your users don’t tend to engage with your website at the same time. Due to this, you need to make sure you are sending your push notifications at the best time for your audience. Generally, there are 3 delivery options for your push messages- Sending messages immediately, pushing messages based on the user’s time zone, and smart push notification delivery.
Sending push messages immediately when you need to send messages to your users urgently. For example, if there is a piece of breaking news that has to be sent to users immediately, you need to send them off immediately. The next option is to deliver your messages based on the user’s time zone delivery.
If you are running a promotion that ends at midnight in each time zone, you have to send reminders before the evening in each time zone otherwise your users would mostly miss the messages and never see them. With smart push message delivery, you need to optimize notification delivery time based on when each user is most likely to engage with your website.
Here are some of the tips to time your push notifications the best way.
Check the time zone of your users
Technology has bought the world very close so you might have a broad range of users spread across the globe. The time zone of your users might be different. That is why the time at which your users receive notifications is significant, adding to the impact of your push notifications.
Before automatically scheduling push messages to your users, you must make sure that you schedule it according to the time zone of your target audience. For example, if you send push notifications on your website or mobile app promoting a discount coupon, you must make sure to send it at the right time to boost the bookings.
Schedule the days
When planning your push notification campaigns, you need to plan the days when you will be sending your notifications. For example, if you have planned to run a promotion on Friday, sending it one the same day or one day before won’t make any impact. Instead, schedule it earlier to make sure your users receive it at the right time. For most brands, there are particular days and time that shows high click rates.
Keep a check on upcoming events
When timing your push notifications, customize them based on the time of any upcoming events or important holidays to make the whole initiative effective. Sync your notifications planned with the events that happen around the year.
It helps to avoid a situation where your messages may get ignored for reasons that it falls on busy holiday days. Follow the track of events which will help to develop specific push notifications for events to constantly gain considerable response rate.
Best practices for sending push notifications
Push notifications are powerful marketing tools that are currently used by businesses and marketers in different ways. Besides timing your push notifications, there are other aspects you need to focus on for effective push message delivery.
Here are some of the best practices for sending push notifications for a better impact.
Customize your notifications
Understanding the activities and behaviors of your users is not valuable unless to learn how to apply the data. When creating push messages, you must make sure the message is customized according to the interests of users. Push messages that are targeted to specific user segments have a 50% higher click-through rate than push messages sent with personalization and segmentation.
For example, if you are a clothing brand, you need to send customized messages to users based on their browsing history and previous purchases. You also have to send out different recommendations for men and women. The approach of personalization must be backed up by the data you collect from your website.
Use rich content
Rich push notifications contain images, short videos, icons, action buttons, etc. in the messages. As the users have the choice of not to subscribe to your notifications, make sure you make the push notifications, you must make it appealing and compelling to show them what they could be missing out on. While rich notifications are not always required, use them if your content demands it as it can be a powerful tool in your toolbox.
Use call to actions wisely
When sending out push notifications to your users, you must ensure your users get where you want them to go. Users will check out the push messages if they receive messages that take them to where they are expecting. If not effective, they will ignore your messages. Use the call to actions wisely and integrate relevant links.
Don’t use the buzz in your push notifications every time
Most users have their smartphones with them all the time, even when they sleep. Hence, don’t use a buzz or vibration in your push messages until it is an urgent message, a buzz in push notifications can be very powerful but when it reaches your user at inappropriate times it can be disturbing as well. If a notification is very urge犀利士 nt like you need to notify your users about a flight that is to be missed, don’t use the buzz in your messages often.
Don’t take push permissions for granted
Most brands make the mistake of taking the push permissions for granted, thinking it is easy for you to get your users opt-in for your push notifications. This is not right. You can send out push messages to your users unless they opt-in to receive your push notifications, they won’t receive any messages from you.
A user visiting your website or downloading your app is not a guarantee that they will subscribe to receive your push notifications; you have to really prompt them to op into your messages. And that makes our next point.
Change the way you prompt
Once a user rejects the request to accept your notifications, they will have to manually activate it through the settings of the browse or mobile app. That is why picking the right time to send out your push messages and promoting it the right way matters.
With your push messages, make it clear to your users why they must opt-in and how it is beneficial for them to receive your messages. If they understand the value they will gain for your push notifications, they will mostly subscribe to your messages.
Test your push notifications 犀利士 before sending out
Before sending out web push notifications, perform A/B testing to test your user’s reactions to different types of messages. By testing to analyze what works, you must analyze the users’ reactions and make changes to your push notification strategy accordingly.
For instance, assign a particular title, message, and images to message A and just change the images in the message B. Test these images against each other and find out how different images affect the engagement and conversions.
Conclusion
The bottom line is to customize and time your push notifications in the right way to maximize the performance of your push notifications. If you are looking for the best time to send push notifications, it differs according to the time zone of your users.
The key is to find a strategy that helps you to schedule your push notifications to suit the time zone of all your users. By leveraging, data collection, performing AB/testing, and following the best practices of push notifications, you can figure out how and when to send out push notifications effectively.