6 Best Practices to Boost Your Push Notifications’ Opt-in Rate
The mobile push notification service is one of the most promising ways for businesses to increase app adoption, customer engagement, and in best case scenarios, customer spending. Reaching customers in real time and at a low cost compared to many other channels, the push notification service renders many important functions for businesses, namely, sending reminders, promotional messages, discount coupons, service-related messages, and more. It is one of the most potent contact center technologies a customer-focused business can use.
However, to get the full benefits of push messaging, there is a crucial first step that businesses need to take – getting customer opt-ins. While Android users get automatically opted in after downloading the app, they can easily opt out the moment they feel the messages are getting intrusive or irrelevant. Businesses again need to approach them seeking permission for sending push messages. iOS devices have rather strict rules – they need explicit user consent, and what’s more, no business can send out an opt-in prompt before Apple shares a one-time default iOS alert with the user asking whether they would like to receive notification from that business. If the user clicks “Don’t Allow”, the business can’t share any Apple push notification opt-in prompt with the user again unless the latter voluntarily allows them to do so.
To get around this and leverage the Apple push service, businesses share a pre-permission prompt with users (even before the native iOS alert is shared) that informs users about the benefits of opting in. This way users can make a more informed decision about whether to choose “Allow” when the default iOS prompt is shown. If they say yes to the pre-permission prompt, then the native iOS permission dialogue box is opened and users can opt-in there as well to complete the process. Businesses need to be careful while sharing these messages, as a no from a user can potentially lead to them to lose that customer forever. So how do businesses ensure their opt-in prompts (pre-permission prompts for iOS users) are not ignored?
1) Don’t Rush Users with Opt-in Requests Immediately After App Download
Viber business messages offer full-service communication with chatbot capabilities for brands looking to communicate better with their customers. This Viber enterprise channel is definitely a more suitable business communication tool compared to the Viber app for a number of reasons. It enables brands to directly message their customer database — the customers do not need to store the brand’s number on their phones unlike with the Viber app. Businesses can initiate conversations, and so can customers. Another key difference between the Viber app and Viber Messaging for Business is that the latter doesn’t come free. Brands need to get in touch with Viber’s official messaging partners in order to be able to access the channel.
Many businesses make the mistake of showing the opt-in prompt or pre-permission prompt the minute the users download their app. As users have only just downloaded the app, they may not immediately see any clear benefit in opting-in, and may choose not to. The moment of sending these prompts should be carefully chosen to maximize the possibility of the user saying yes. Businesses can perhaps make the prompt the last part of their onboarding sequence, during the course of which they have demonstrated at least some value to the user. Others can wait longer and request the opt-in:
- right after the user has browsed a product
- after they have made their first purchase