In today’s digital age, mobile apps have become an essential part of our daily lives. With over 2.7 billion smartphone users worldwide, mobile apps have transformed how we communicate, shop, and access information. As a result, mobile app marketing has become an essential tool for businesses to connect with their customers and drive revenue.
One key aspect of mobile app marketing is the use of mobile notifications.
In this article, we will explore the psychology behind mobile notifications and how they can be used to drive business value. We will also provide practical tips for organizations looking to win with mobile notifications.
How Mobile Notifications are Used
Mobile push notifications, or server push notifications, are short text messages sent from apps to mobile devices. They are similar to SMS messages or mobile alerts and appear as a full screen or a top or bottom banner, depending on the notifications’ function or goal.
Mobile apps use push notifications to inform users about new content, updates, promotions, and other relevant information. They can be sent anytime; users don’t have to be in the app to receive them. Various events, including user actions, time-based triggers, and automated campaigns, can trigger mobile notifications. Since they are highly engaging and personalized, push notifications have become one of the most popular customer communication channels among marketers.
What Mobile Notifications are Used For
Mobile notifications are a powerful tool for businesses because they allow them to communicate with users in real-time. This can help to build engagement and brand loyalty, as well as drive revenue. For example, mobile notifications can be used for the following:
- Customer engagement and retention: Push notifications to keep your app top of mind for your users by engaging them with personalized content around offers, reminders, and updates.
- Call-to-action campaigns: Push notifications are a great way to get customers to take specific actions, such as picking up their abandoned carts or finishing their registration
- User experience communication: They are used to send real-time notifications to keep users informed about their activities which helps create a seamless omnichannel experience.
- Identity authentication: Push notifications are becoming increasingly popular for security authentication.
How Mobile Push Notifications are Used
- Time-bound push notifications, used to send users reminders to create a sense of urgency
- Triggered push notifications, used for user journey automation to push messaging to customers who perform specific actions.
- Transactional push notifications, used to update customers on transactions, including reminders for upcoming activities
- Abandoned cart push notifications are used to Retarget and encourage users to complete an activity.
Psychology of Mobile Notifications
The success of mobile notifications depends largely on the psychology behind them. Users are more likely to engage with mobile notifications that are personalized, relevant, and timely. Here are some key psychological principles to consider when crafting mobile notifications:
- Personalization: Users are likelier to receive personalized notifications of their interests and behaviors. Personalization can include using their name, referencing past interactions with the app, and targeting notifications based on their location or other demographic information.
- Urgency: Users are more likely to engage with notifications that create a sense of urgency or FOMO (fear of missing out). This can include limited-time offers, flash sales, or time-sensitive content.
- Social Proof: Users are more likely to engage with notifications that leverage social proof, such as showing the number of people who have already taken a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
- Emotion: Users are more likely to engage with notifications that evoke emotion. Consider using emoticons or other visual elements to convey excitement or urgency.
Using Technology to Win in Psychology
Using technology can be a game-changer in winning with mobile app marketing psychology. With the right technology, like Netcore’s Automated platform, organizations can track and analyze user behavior, preferences, and engagement with their mobile app. This data can then be used to create personalized and relevant mobile notifications more likely to drive conversions and revenue.
For example, machine learning algorithms can be used to analyze user data and predict which notifications will be most effective for each user. This data can include factors such as time of day, frequency of use, and past behavior. Organizations can save time and resources by using technology to automate this process while still delivering highly targeted and effective mobile notifications.
Other ways to win in psychology with technology include:
VISUAL APPEAL AND CTA
You need to stand out as a business; images can help. Visual appeal and CTA can help with emotional arousal and create a positive distraction.
Hence, you need a platform that:
- Uses rich notifications
- Allows different media types such as images, pictures, and GIFs
- Can deliver the notifications in a speedy time.
PERSONALIZATION
One of the benefits of personalized notifications is that it makes user distractions feel more welcome and can create emotional arousal.
Hence, you need a platform that:
- Track user activities so you can personalize them based on behavior.
- Understand their preferences for better message suggestions.
- Call them by their name to make them feel special.
RELEVANCE
Your users are busy; moreover, you compete for their attention with thousands of other apps. Relevance makes distractions good, causes confirmation bias, and catalyzes FOMO.
So, you need a platform that:
- Create buckets of users based on past activities called segments.
- Allow you to target just these users with tailored messages.
- Allows you to understand the kinds of messages that give the best results
AUTOMATION
Automated messages have almost 8X engagement than broadcast messages on most channels. Automation helps with relevance, standing out, and a positive distraction.
The platform or tech you use for push notifications ought to:
- Track users’ activities in real time so you can trigger messages at the right moment for a better chance of interaction.
- Understand when users do not act for a while to try to engage them.
- Trigger messages in real-time based on the user’s activity.
Related: Behavioral/Contextual Targeting as the Future of Marketing
Getting Business Value from Mobile Notifications
Businesses must take a strategic approach to get the most value from mobile notifications. Here are some tips for getting the most ROI from your mobile notifications:
- Create compelling content: Push notifications require persuasive content that resonates with your target audience.
- Redirect: Include links to places your audience engages with most, such as your website or social media platform.
- Segment your audience: Use data to segment your audience based on behavior, preferences, and other relevant factors. Push relevant messages to your audience to increase engagement and drive better results.
- Test and optimize: Continuously test and optimize your notifications to improve engagement and ROI. This can include testing different messaging, timing, and targeting strategies.
- Optimize opt-in and opt-out options: Engaging users with their permission is important, so opt-in messages should communicate value.
- Measure and analyze: Use analytics to track your notifications’ performance and identify improvement areas—track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Conclusion
Mobile app marketing is a critical component of any organization’s marketing strategy. Mobile notifications are a powerful tool for driving engagement, building brand loyalty, and increasing revenue. Organizations can get the most business value from their mobile app marketing efforts by understanding the psychology behind mobile notifications and taking a strategic approach. To win with mobile notifications, it’s important to prioritize mobile app marketing, invest in the right technology, collaborate across departments, and stay up-to-date with industry trends.
Great Resources on Mobile App Growth
- The Netcore Cloud Blog – https://netcorecloud.com/blog/
- The Definitive user engagement guide to driving mobile app growth – https://netcorecloud.com/ebook/user-engagement-guide-for-mobile-app-growth/
- User experience beyond the design: A guide for product growth managers – https://netcorecloud.com/ebook/user-experience-beyond-design/
- Mastering app user retention: A playbook for B2C mobile apps – https://netcorecloud.com/ebook/mastering-app-user-retention-b2c-mobile-apps/
- Nudges for Feature Adoption in 2020 – An Observational Study – https://netcorecloud.com/ebook/nudges-for-feature-adoption-in-2020-an-observational-study/
- 11 best practices for a great app onboarding – https://netcorecloud.com/resources/ebook/?cat=Product%20Experience
