Push notifications, not buttons: Are brands going overboard?

The marketing fraternity is having a chat about push notifications these days. Marketers are concerned that the number of push notifications going out from their end, is hampering user experience. Jacob Joseph, VP Data Science at CleverTap shared that this awareness is growing amongst marketers and they want to know what other brands are doing, what strategies are being adopted and what the optimal number is.  

What has caused this stir? Let’s pan out a little and picture a scenario. 

Imagine it’s a Sunday, and you wish to sleep for a couple of hours more than you do on weekdays. You don’t usually put your phone on silent at night, just in case there’s an emergency call. At 8 am your phone buzzes with a notification. You ignore it. At 8.02 am, it buzzes again. A tad irritated, you ignore it again. For the next 5 minutes, it keeps buzzing. Now you grow concerned, thinking has there actually been an emergency. 

Just as you unlock it, you see a huge list of early morning push notifications by different brands. Some wishing you good morning, some asking you to grab breakfast, some speaking about a morning sale on groceries and so on and so forth. 

Ironically now, the morning doesn’t remain ‘good’ for you anymore. Think about the level of patience that gets tested throughout the day, when more such notifications keep popping up.  

A quick 24-hour poll on LinkedIn done by the author proves the point. The poll simply asked people whether they thought these push notifications seemed fine, could be lesser in number or are they just sick of them. 

47% of people voted that they are sick of push notifications by brands, 46% felt the number of notifications could be brought down and a mere 6% feel that they are fine as they are now.

So that begs the question – are brands overdoing it? Are they not realising where to hit a pause?

Finding the Balance

Keyur Dhami, VP - Customer Success, WebEngage agrees that while it is crucial to stay engaged with your users, bombarding them with too many push notifications can lead to annoyance and opt-outs. “The frequency and timing of push notifications can greatly impact their effectiveness. It is important to consider the preferences and behaviour of your specific user base,” he said.  

Experts point out that the key to avoid annoyance, is to strike the right balance between timing and relevance. Mitesh Kothari, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, White Rivers Media explained, “Send them at times when users are most likely to be engaged, and tailor them to their specific needs. Remember, the goal is to deliver value, not just spam.”  

The strategy, experts believe, also differs from industry to industry that the brand operates in. For instance, food delivery before meal times, and entertainment during transit can be a good rule of thumb.  

However, Siddharth Devnani, Co-Founder & Director, SoCheers adds that in these cases too, each user is unique and past data should be considered before sending the push out. “Of course, there are blanket rules like nothing at night time in the respective time zone or when the service won't be practically useful,” Devnani further explained.  

Consequences of overzealous notifications  

Joseph feels that the key aspect that should determine the number of push notifications that brands send out in a day, should be the intent of the user.  

For instance, Joseph says, if a user is searching for a pair of jeans on Amazon, and has made a couple of searches but not yet made a purchase, sending out 2-3 notifications while the need persists, sits fine. But once the purchase is complete, the very same number might feel annoying to the user. 

An agency head shared a similar experience with exchange4media, on the condition of anonymity. The person shared that they simply looked up some blood tests on the app of a healthcare brand and kept getting notifications when they left the search in between, for the next 2 days. “Even when I got the tests done, I kept getting notifications for more related tests. Constant promotional push notifications, that too on a topic as sensitive as health, is just in bad taste I feel,” the person added. 

The result? The app was uninstalled by the said person, who now uses a different brand for the same need.  

Ironically enough, push notifications are considered one of the key ways to build on customer engagement and retention. However, Joseph shares that the problem with brands is that whenever they face the problems of increasing sales, reducing uninstall or increasing retention, the first thing they approach is what sophisticated engagement technique should be followed.  

“It should rather begin with the basic analytics, segmentation and only then to engagement,” he said. Brands right now are investing little on the analytics and segmentation, and more on the engagement bit, which is where the entire push notification game is going for a toss.  

Redefining Success Metrics Beyond Click-Through Rates 

Kothari suggests that instead of just focusing on click-through rates of these notifications, brands need to dig deeper into metrics like conversion rates, revenue, and user retention. “Ask yourself; Do your notifications drive people to take action? Do they keep them coming back for more? And most importantly, are they finding them helpful or just plain annoying?” he said.  

Dhami mentioned that conducting A/B tests with different notification variations allows to compare the performance of different messaging strategies, which helps in identifying the most effective content and timing for push notifications. “Another effective strategy that has led to fruitful results for us is tag-based analytics. Tags are used for more efficient grouping and organisation of campaigns, which helps in quicker access and a collective analysis of push campaigns,” he added.

Not all brands are creating annoyance though, it seems.  

Myntra, Netflix, Swiggy and Google were some brands whose push notifications were appreciated by the above mentioned experts. Kothari mentioned that Google sends personalised and relevant notifications that are genuinely helpful, like a timely reminder about a Google Calendar appointment or a traffic update based on your current location. “It's a subtle art, but one that's worth mastering,” he said.