How do I use Push notifications in my app?

You're at home, sitting in the living room and suddenly your cell phone vibrates and the screen lights up, you look and you see a notification. This notification isn't from some message someone sent you, but from an app you've recently downloaded, you've just been involved in App Marketing .

This type of notification is known as push notifications, it is a kind of interaction that the application brings to the user making him feel the need to update the content . Behavioral neuroscientist Susan Weinschenk already addressed this issue of the need to interact with notifications and explains a little about it in her book Neuro Web Design - What Makes Them Click? , translated to “Neuro Web Design - What makes them click?”, published in 2009.

Push notifications

These notifications can be addressed in applications of various industries, large companies such as iFood use with great frequency and take advantage of the results of these mobile alerts to profit even more from their platforms.

If you're thinking about building an app and want to understand more about how to implement these notifications within your project, stay until the end, I'll tell you the secrets of building a successful app through these magical notifications .

Concepts behind push notifications

They carry the facility to update users without needing them to open the application. But don't worry if your goal is precisely that, because the next step after directing the user to the mobile screen is to make him interact with this notification .

To better understand how to create notifications that bring engagement to your app, you need to take into account the theory of psychologist Daniel Kahneman, an expert in behavioral finance. He argues that our brain works with two types of responses : intuitive and emotional (faster) and logical and thoughtful (slower).

To achieve good results with notifications in your project, you need to connect with your customers' emotions. Bringing the expectation to the user that they will be rewarded for accessing that particular content will be the difference to engage more people in your app, and for that we will build these notifications in 5 steps.

Find out below the 5 steps to implement push notifications in your app

Not everything we do follows a cake recipe, but when it comes to human behavior there are several patterns, mapped by scientists, that we have followed for a long time. To help you achieve better results in presenting your content to your audience we'll cover some of them here.

1 - Be unique

This doesn't come in the sense of being a single brand, or in the sense of working with an app in a field that no one has explored, here this concept is completely different. I mean for you to be unique when it comes to your customers' interaction options .

Sending a notification among the 500 others that already exist on your app users' mobile phones will not be as effective as sending notifications at times when it's very likely that only yours will be there.

In general, the best alternative is to present these alerts at times when it is in your customer's interest to consume your product, at a certain time of day.

For this it is necessary to draw a profile that you want to achieve in a certain action or campaign in the application and adjust the notification emissions to it, the good thing about it is that you can test the best ways and results by analyzing the results obtained.

2 - Exclude possible distractions

Imagine that you've already got your customer's attention, but suddenly he looks away and sees something more interesting to interact with. It can be difficult to completely delete the content that the user will have access to when they see your notification, so the next step is to have it directed inside your app.

Inside your platform the environment is controlled so that your customer has access to what you have set aside for him, so what is external to that is isolated outside the screen he is accessing. That way you keep his attention focused on your content and the chances of profiting from it increase.

3 - Generate expectations

The first step was to send the notification, the second was to forward it to the app and the third is to make it follow the routes within the app that lead it to consume something. Like steps, these steps can be divided into beginning, middle and end.

In each of these processes there must be a hook to forward to the next one , try using something like "coupon 15% off the pasta menu, come check the available dishes" or "finalize the activities to receive the final prize”.

These are examples of notifications that make the user curious and interested in the next step . The content is slightly small, between 50 and 150 characters, and purposely misses information. Instead of presenting the dish at a discount, there is an invitation to see the menu, instead of giving the prize, it presents the possibility of receiving it, and so on.

4 - Empathy is the key to the business

Think that you are not selling a product/service, you are offering an experience and that experience must be in accordance with your audience. The feeling of empathy connects your customer to the essence of your brand, enabling a lasting bond with it.

This step comes after creating the notification, as it is inside your mobile app, it should talk about your company and also be ready to receive your customer. It should be built in such a way that it is possible to listen to users' opinions , post comments, criticisms and praise.

And the secret is here: the best way to generate empathy within your app is to resolve a customer pain . If you are working with education, generate content to teach in a fun way, if you are working with management, generate facilitating tools. There's no mistake, you need to put yourself in the customer's shoes to get good results and listen to your audience's opinion.

5 - Observe the results

Having implemented everything so far, it's time to analyze your goals. Did you achieve the expected results? What was missing to get a better result? Who were the users most affected by the campaign? These are some examples of questions that should be asked at the end of each closing of a notifications cycle.

Get clear metrics to know which region was most reached, which age group consumed the most, etc. User profile data is extremely useful for the success of future strategies when implementing push notifications within your app.

The first steps with the tool

If you already have this function within your app, I hope this post could have helped you improve your results with it, use these tips to build successful campaigns within your app.

If you don't have it and want to implement it, please know that we at FWC Tecnologia are a company specialized in mobile application development and we are here to help you.

Get in touch with one of our team members to bring this functionality into your app and learn a little more about our work!

We are available to answer questions and guide you through the process of building an application. Seeking to bring the most current to our customers, always investing in innovative technologies and training our development team.