Push Notifications: Best Practices

All Aloompa apps include Push Notifications! Push notifications are highly effective in engaging users and keeping them informed about relevant updates. They provide instant communication, allowing you to reach your audience in real-time with important messages, promotions, or personalized content. Notifications are a simple, yet effective way to keep your audience informed. Examples of notifications can include:

• ‘Welcome’ and ‘Thank You’ notifications
• Event updates - start times, delays, cancellations, etc.
• Weather updates
• Sponsored messages
• Traffic-driving notifications. Guide attendees to less populated areas of your event.
• Transportation

Below are some best practices when it comes to sending Push Notifications. If you are a Premium client and would like to discuss your Push Notification strategy with a member of our Client Support team, please click here to schedule a Strategy Session! We'd love to help you think of ways to keep your audience engaged through your mobile app.

Strategy and Objectives

Map out a strategy

By planning your push notification strategy in advance, you will develop a clear picture of how attendees will interact with the app over the life of the event. It’s important to define parameters surrounding what you hope to accomplish with Push Notifications (what to send, when to send, how often to send) prior to launching your app in order to make the most of this feature.

The in-crowd

You’ll see the highest engagement from your attendees when you provide them with some sort of new information or exclusive offer. Providing a unique ticketing link that allows app users to purchase tickets early or at a discount, for example, is a great way to encourage attendees to keep the app throughout the year. On-site you can offer discounts on merchandise or announce surprise guest appearances. Communicating the possibility of exclusive announcement and offers via social channels and on-site signage is a great way to drive app downloads and total users as well.

Shout 'em out! 

Sponsored push notifications are a great way to foster engagement between your attendees and the brands that make your event happen. Remind them about a fun on-site activation or let them know about a drink special. Try your best to avoid simply pushing out that the event is sponsored by X. Bonnaroo did a great job of this with State Farm, reminding campers on Sunday that State Farm was around to give them a jump in the highly likely event their car battery was dead.

Bonnaroo worked with State Farm to offer campers with dead car batteries a free jumpstart after a fun-filled weekend on the farm.

Content

Get creative

People don’t want to receive the same message twice. If you need to reiterate a message with another push, consider brainstorming a different way to phrase it. Eaux Claries used Push Notifications to announce the track titles to Bon Iver’s newest record. (See example to the right.)

Know your audience

When writing copy for push and proximity notifications, try to use a consistent voice that personifies your event and uses language that your attendees or target demographic will relate to. Outside Lands executes this perfectly across all of their marketing channels via ranger dave (pictured): a fun-loving, clever park ranger with an aversion to capital letters.

Etiquette and Attendee Retention

Don't overdo it - 

It’s important not to bombard your attendees with too many push or proximity notifications. We recommend one Push Notification per hour (or less) during your event as a benchmark. Remember that the point of notifications is to enrich and enhance the attendee experience, not to distract or annoy them. It’s a good idea to keep this in the back of your mind during the planning process.

Tag! You're it

Push Tags and Push Segments are powerful tools. With Push Tags you can allow your attendees to decide which types of notifications they want to receive via the onboarding process. By using Push Tags, you decrease the likelihood that attendees will opt-out of notifications due to content irrelevance or high notification frequency. Push segments are a great tool for targeting attendees based on their on-site and in-app behavior. For example, you can remind attendees who have Maren Morris scheduled in the app that her set is starting in 20 minutes.

Bon Iver debuted their newest record "22 A Million" at Eaux Claires 2016 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. As they performed each new song, a Push Notification with the track name was sent out.

Timing

24/7/365

Notifications aren’t just for event days; there are plenty of ways you can make use of push and proximity notifications as a year-round marketing tool. In fact, some of our highest engagement rates for Push Notifications are on pushes sent prior to the event. CMA Fest drives traffic to their app each year by announcing the lineup exclusively through their app. You can also keep attendees informed about partner events and promotions throughout the year via push and proximity.

Communicate when it counts

Push notifications can be a vital part of an event team’s toolkit when time is of the essence. We’ve seen our fair share of weather emergencies over the years at various events; in the event that you have to evacuate the grounds, push notifications are quickest and most effective to communicate. Then, when you reopen the gates, send another push to get attendees back to the action.

Work smarter, not harder

By making use of our FestApp’s push scheduling system, you can make your life a lot less stressful during the event. With your strategy and copy mapped out, you can schedule your push notifications so they’re sent out, quite literally, like clockwork!

Quick tips

Average Push Engagement is around 1.5%. If you’re able to achieve something higher than this, stick with your strategy: it’s working!

Add hyperlinks to your Push Notifications by typing in the URL to the Push Composer in the FestApp CMS.

We’re happy to help out with Push Notification strategy. Ask Client Support for more information by using the Support beacon or Contact link.

CMA Fest drove user engagement in 2016 by announcing their lineup exclusively through the app in the months leading up to the event.