Advertisers are steadily venturing into
sending messages to consumers phones, but research shows that the impact
on consumers is more likely to be irritation than gratitude.
“Fifty-two
per cent of the people we surveyed said that push messages are an
annoying distraction and only 26 per cent were grateful for being
informed of things they had an interest in,” reported US software firm
Localytics following a recent survey.
“However, the
results are not a surprise as push notifications have a reputation for
being unwelcome. When you consider the fact that over 35 per cent of
them are generic broadcast blasts to all users, it is easy to see that a
lack of relevancy plays a major role in this perception.”
Indeed,
the lack of personalisation of push messages has contributed directly
to their low reaction rate, finding that although mobile phone users
have opted in to push notifications they hardly interact with the
senders because they do not relate to the messages sent.
“In
2015, the average opt in rate for push notifications among mobile phone
users was 71 per cent, mostly because Android users are automatically
opted-in by downloading an Android app.
However,
despite the high opt in rate, consumers rarely engage with brands via
this platform as the average reaction rate was found to be 8.7 per cent
due to a lack of personalisation of these messages,” said a 2016 study
by Accengage, a company that specialises in push notification technology
for mobile apps.
Keeping consumers engaged and loyal
therefore requires personalisation, especially where brands are
investing in digital platforms, such as the Kenyan banking sector.
Personalisation
In
this, Equity Bank is typical, in having launched a mobile application as
a marketing tools to acquire clients. But without personalisation,
using the platform becomes counter productive.
According
to the Localytics research, sending more than one push notification in a
week will lead to consumers either deleting the application or
disabling the notifications.
“Forty six per cent of
people will opt-out of push notifications if they are sent two to five
times a week. Another 32 per cent will stop using the app altogether if
they get between six and 10 push notifications in a week,” reported the
researchers.
“The more the push notifications a person
gets in a week, the lower the open rate of these messages. If a marketer
sends one message per week, it will be opened 12 per cent of the time
whereas 10 messages will only be opened six per cent of the time.”
Preferences
Improving
consumers’ perceptions, reactions, and opening rates rests on sending
messages that are unique and add specific value to them, so that they do
not feel overwhelmed with information that is irrelevant.
“Offering
consumers information based on their preferences can make a brand
relatable. It also creates an opportunity because customers will find it
convenient to engage with the brand thereby giving them a reason to
open the application and react to the push notification message,”
reported HubSpot, an inbound sales and marketing platform.
Thus,
aggressive push marketing remains a viable tool, but unless it is
sparingly used, and actually useful to consumers, the result can be
losing customers instead of gaining them.
- African Laughter
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