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How to craft optimized push notification content for immediate engagement?

Push notifications are the major drivers of app engagement.

Think of how often you pick up your smartphone when you hear your device’s notification tone. At this point, we are almost hardwired to respond to notifications.

This naturally makes it vital for app startups and businesses to finetune their approach to push notifications.

Let’s take the United States as an example. Smartphone users in the US receive close to 46 notifications everyday. The reaction rate to notifications is 7% for Android and 4.9% for iOS. (Source)

Put simply, Android users are likely to respond to three notifications in a day. iOS users on other hand are likely to respond to two.

You can do a number of things to make sure your users and customers respond to notifications.

Firstly, you can get the timing of your notifications right. Reaching people at the right moment can help you maximize engagement.

The second part of the puzzle is getting your notification content spot on. A nice CTA or tagline can make a world of difference when it comes to enhancing your notification engagement rate.

It is very easy to build a WooCommerce or WordPress app with the help of AppMySite. Getting app marketing right still remains a challenge. Push notifications are part of the same discussion.

This piece provides a guide into some lessons you must keep in mind while framing your notification content.

Also read: All you need to know about mobile app push notifications 

#1: Pique the curiosity of your app users

As mentioned before, app users are bombarded with notifications every day. A generic and monotone notification is likely to get no attention from app users.

Your job as a copywriter drafting notification content is to tap into the curiosity of your audience. This naturally requires some level of creative and marketing flair.

There are many ways you arouse curiosity amongst your users. Bringing up an interesting offering or feature of your app is obvious. Your pitch and hook need to be interesting and unique, thereby forcing app users to take notice.

Here are some tips on writing content that piques user interest:

  • Add numbers, percentages, and other useful stats in your content. Many apps tend to send users notifications about their app usage. These nuggets of content are unique because they bring a personal touch to the table.
  • Use camel case text in your notification content. Camel case is a much better option if you wish to draw the attention of your users to specific words and phrases in your content.
  • Make sure your title holds something back. For example, a notification title like “15% off in this year’s summer sale” gives away your entire premise in a few words. It is better to create a sense of mystery in your notification title.

#2: Always write actionable content

Always write actionable content

Notifications are meant to bring users and customers back to an app. The entire point of sending notifications to users is making them come back to your app.

To make users perform an action, your content needs to be evocative and actionable.

Notice the difference between these two lines:

  • There is a 15% sale on our store
  • Earn your 15% discount today!

The first tagline is not actionable. It only mentions the fact that there is a sale without directing users to take any real action.

The second title is driven towards action. It is asking users to perform a definitive action.

There are endless ways you can trigger users to perform an action. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while crafting actionable notification content:

  • Always make it a point to tell users what to do and how to do it. Don’t just tell users to perform an action without telling them the steps they need to take to complete it.
  • Look beyond conventional CTAs. Most people are used to common CTAs. Try your hand at short storytelling or empathy marketing to evoke a reaction and trigger an action from the users.

#3: Adopt a personal tone

You may have come across this tip when looking over many online resources on writing. Writing personable content starts with something as simple as using second person pronouns like you and your.

As we move deeper into the subject, personable content becomes much more data driven and analytic.

On a basic level, it simply means writing content that makes readers feel you are addressing them directly.

Readers these days come across endless streams of content. It is easy to lose context and interest when bombarded with so much content.

This is a big reason behind the low notification open rates we mentioned earlier.

Writing in a personable tone makes users feel that the information you are providing to them is relevant. Try to tone down the promotional aspect of your content and instead focus on how a deal, discount, or offer is going to directly help a user.

Here are a few tips for writing personale content:

  • Think about your value proposition from the perspective of your users. If there is no way to present it as beneficial in a meaningful way, try working on something else.
  • Use second person pronouns. This opens up a world of innovative writing possibilities as you can directly address your users and customers.
  • Make a list of pain-points your users are likely to have. You can spin each pain-point into a convincing notification.

#4: Understand your content limitations

At the end of the day, you have to understand this: you are writing notification content.

You cannot spin long yarns and engage in salesy storytelling. A typical notification contains three lines: one for the title and two for the subtitle below the title.

While framing your content, you need to be aware of these obvious limitations.

There are other less obvious limitations you have to account as well.

If you are sending a notification to all your app users at once, you cannot speak about specific features that only a small subset of the users know about. Instead, you have to adopt a more general topic and hook.

The knowledge of the users and customers you are reaching is also a limitation.

As a copywriter, you must keep these limitations in mind. This makes you much more efficient and skillful at writing small and crisp notification content.

#5: Learn empathy marketing

Like 30-second Super Bowl ads and brand taglines, notifications have to connect with app users instantly. There can be no room for ambiguity.

In the short term, you can stumble into great lines for your notification content without actually understanding your customers. This can be beginner’s luck or just a result of bringing a fresh perspective.

In the long run, the only way to write good notification content is understanding your users and customers.

This brings us to the importance of empathy marketing. Customers and users today reward apps if they provide value.

But what is value? Every marketer can create a subjective definition of value. Ultimately, any information your users deem noteworthy and important has value.

If you practice empathy marketing and understand your users and customers, you can make your notifications stronger from an emotional standpoint.

Here are a few points you must remember about empathy marketing:

  • Understanding: Empathy means understanding the pain-points of your users and customers. It is a foundational pillar of empathy marketing.
  • Personalization: With understanding comes action. Personalization simply means using the information you have about your customers to optimize your marketing efforts, which includes writing content for notifications.
  • Sensitivity: Sensitivity simply means treating your customers with positivity. Your notifications must reflect an upbeat tone.

Also read: Know what empathy marketing is and why is it so relevant today

Push notifications on AppMySite

push notifications

AppMySite is a free iOS & Android app maker you can use to build mobile apps for WordPress and WooCommerce websites.

In a recent update, AppMySite enabled support for push notifications on its platform. You can now send notifications to your app users from the push notifications module in your AppMySite account.

You can write the title and content of your notification and immediately send it out to your app users. Alternatively, you can schedule your push notifications and send them at any optimal time.

Want some help configuring the push notification feature in your apps built with AppMySite? We have you covered with our guide. Refer to it and get all the help you need.

In conclusion

Push notifications are a great medium for enhancing app engagement and maintaining the retention rate. As it is so easy to go from website to app these days, there is an emphasis on getting app marketing and retention right.

This piece provides five crucial tips of writing content for push notifications. You stand a much greater chance of writing powerful notifications if you keep these tips in mind.

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