One of the best parts about push notifications is your ability to reach users outside of the app. You don’t need to wait until they come back to your app (if they ever do). Instead, a push notification can serve as a friendly tap on the shoulder to remind users about how awesome you are.
An effective re-engagement push notification should entice users to come back to you by reminding you of exactly why you downloaded the app to begin with.
What does a good re-engagement push notification look like? Below are 5 real-life examples I received over the past 2 weeks:
1. Sweet Green
SweetGreen’s “last chance” push is the perfect example of how to drive customers back into your store. The above push notification has all the elements to entice me to visit the salad chain for lunch.
The timing of the push is spot on. I don’t know about you, but by 10:50am my stomach is rumbling and I’m just waiting for the clock to strike 11am so it’s acceptable to start talking lunch plans.
Combine the opportune timing with the sense of urgency that their most popular salad will soon be gone (plus great use of the salad emoji!), and there’s no doubt this push had plenty of people hitting up SweetGreen for lunch.
2. Yelp
If delicious looking pastries aren’t enough to win you over, do you even have a heart? Yelp delivers all the key elements of a world-class push with this one:
- It’s a rich push notification
- It’s personalized to the end user 2 fold: they use my name and location
- It has an emoji
Hats off to Yelp for nailing it with this one. Rich push and personalization are only going to become even more important as we look towards 2018 (too soon?).
3. Reddit
Who doesn’t love a little TIL from Reddit? I used to read this subreddit often, but truth be told I hadn’t visited it in quite a while. Reddit clearly recognized my lapse in sessions and serve up this engaging push to remind me what I’ve been missing.
Since receiving this I’ve picked up my visits to not only the TIL subreddit, but my overall time in the app.
4. Amazon
Back-to-school online? For my generation, this was non-existent, but for today’s kids it’s their new reality. Amazon’s push serves as a great reminder to parents that they’re a one-stop-shop for all of their back-to-school needs for all of their kids, regardless of age.
The key to maximizing the results of a message like this are to make sure you target it at parents.
5. Podcast
Podcasts are all the rage right now.
Shameless plug. We launched a podcast!
Letting users know when the latest episode from their favorite podcasts is live is a perfect way to keep them in the know and coming back to the app.
Final Thoughts
Re-engagement is a critical part of every mobile app marketing strategy. And while push notifications are an incredibly powerful tool at your disposal to drive users back into your app, it’s also an easy one to screw up.
Any re-engagement push notifications you send need to fully consider behavioral information about the user. As much as it hurts, these users have clearly lost interest in you so you’re on thin ice.
You usually have one chance to win them back so make sure your push is tailored to the end user and very enticing. Follow suit of the above examples and you’ll be in good shape.