Are you reading this blog on a mobile device? Statistically speaking, there’s a good chance the answer is yes, considering more than half of website traffic is generated through mobile phones.
And if you’re like most people, your phone is the first thing you check in the morning and the last thing you check at night. In fact, one study found the average American checks their phones 96 times a day—equating to once every 10 minutes!—and another study revealed that a staggering 65.6% of Americans check their phones up to 160 times daily.
With so many people constantly attached to their phones, business owners have an opportunity to reach their audience through a number of different communication channels and marketing strategies.
In this blog, we’ll cover one of the easiest and most effective digital marketing strategies you can implement to connect with your members, boost class attendance, increase member engagement, and improve retention rates.
What Is a Push Notification?
A push notification is a short message that pops up when users have your app installed on their device. Mobile app push notifications are designed specifically for phones and tablets, whereas web push notifications are designed for laptop and desktop users. Certain web browsers, like Chrome and Firefox, have pop-up push messages that alert users of notifications. However, not every mobile device supports web push notifications.
Depending on the device, push messages may look slightly different and have different character limits. Mobile app push notifications typically look like text messages, and can only be sent to users who have your mobile app installed on their device if they have agreed to receive push messages.
How a Push Notification Strategy Can Increase Customer Retention
A push notification strategy is an effective way to keep customers engaged with your business, win back inactive members, improve retention rates, and boost revenue. It’s all about relationships, and push messages help strengthen the bond with your customers by offering a simple, familiar way to keep in touch. In fact, one study found that push messages increase retention rates three to 10 times, while boosting engagement by 88%!
Here are a few examples of how you can utilize push messages:
- Share updates about new classes and digital offerings to spark interest
- Motivate clients by celebrating milestones
- Share links to fun and interesting content like recipes, nutrition tips, or How To’s
- Offer promotions and discounts
- Encourage members to book services or purchase products
- Send alerts for upcoming classes, new services, or expiring memberships
4 Tips to Improve Your Push Notification Strategy
- Define your target audience: In order to increase your open rates and conversion rates, you need to define your target audience. You can use the member data you have on file to create tailored lists by using information such as age, goals, class attendance and purchase history to categorize clients. Doing this helps you create messages that you know will be relevant and of interest to those audiences.
- Make it personal: Happy members become loyal, long-term customers and brand advocates. One of the best ways to get your clients to care about your business is to show you care about them. While some messages may apply to all, sending too many impersonal and irrelevant messages will likely lead members to opt out of receiving your push messages. Use the member data you have available to keep the messages relevant and personal. Sometimes it’s the little things—like sending a push message to celebrate a milestone or anniversary—that can make all the difference.
- Timing is (still) everything: The best time to send push messages will vary based on the content you’re delivering. For example, class reminders should be sent 30 minutes before the class begins, whereas the best time to send general information can vary. Generally speaking, push messages sent between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. have the highest open rates, but you should always check the data to see when your customers are most responsive.
- Keep it short and sweet: When it comes to writing your push messages, you want to keep it brief, clear, and persuasive. While different platforms have different character limits, the ideal length is about 10 words. Since the text will appear differently across devices, it’s always best to keep it as short as possible.
Conclusion
Push messages are an easy and effective way to reach your audience and keep customers engaged. By creating tailored distribution lists, you can deliver relevant and interesting content to defined audiences, which will help improve your overall push notification strategy and retention rates.