Push to EngageCHRISTIAN GLOVER WILSON

Hello.Why talk about notifications?

Not just app and web

“…notifications themselves are becoming that third runtime…”

Benedict Evans venture capitalist with Andreessen Horowitz

Nat

ive

apps

Responsive web

NOTIFICATIONS

http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2015/3/24/the-state-of-messaging

Broad adoption across businesses

Seen on more than just the phone

Smart TVs and consolesConnected cars and HUDs Connected appliances

Desktop notifications Watches and wearables AR and goggles

Positive consumer sentiment

70% of consumers found all types of push

notifications, including order updates and location-based messages, to be valuable

47% of consumers want mobile offers on

their devices when they pass by a store

Responsys Feb 2014

They already reach a lot of users

52% of people enable push in their apps

iOS 46% Android 59%

• The average US smartphone user has 47 apps on their phone

• In any given week, we actively use about a third of those

• Most people spend about 80% of their time with just five apps

• Users pick up their phones 221 times a day

Localytics Aug 2014

“The New York Times reaches about 15 million devices with our breaking news alerts, which is just a crazy number. No communication medium in history has ever allowed us to reach that many people all at the same time, maybe with the exception of television. I mean even if our Twitter account had 15 million followers, only, what, 2 percent of them would see a tweet at any given time. We have this great power in being able to say whatever we want to all of these people at a moment’s notice — and so with that comes a lot of responsibility.”

Andrew Phelps New York Times

The platform with the broadest reach

What are notifications?

notification [noh-tuh-fi-key-shuh n] noun 1. a formal notifying or informing. 2. an act or instance of notifying, making known, or giving notice; notice. 3. a written or printed notice, announcement, or warning

Definition of notifications

notify [noh-tuh-fahy] verb, notified, notifying. to inform (someone) or give notice to

inform [in-fawrm] verb 1. to give or impart knowledge of a fact or circumstance to 2. to supply (oneself) with knowledge of a matter or subject

• Push-driven communication rather than the traditional pull-

driven experience

• Users don’t hunt for an app but respond to notifications

• Ultimate ‘lean in’ interface

• Grabs users attention (don’t do that lightly!)

• Not just written, push notifications could use any sense

‘Push’ changes behavior

Tone of voice

“Notifications are difficult. It’s a new format and it’s a new form that has this sense of immediacy. But also because the most common form of notification is a text message, they can also be silly, they can be light, they can be personal.”

Noah Chestnut Buzzfeed News

• Use icons that are well understood

• Adhere to the recommendations for the meaning of colors

• Make sure any actions to be taken are clear

• Choose only shared language and terminology

• Keep messages short and “glance-able”

Notifications must be understood

1. Opaque symbology

2. Confusing

3. Uncorrelated to urgency

4. Unclear next steps

5. Can encourage ‘notification fatigue’

6. Damages trust

How not to BE UNDERSTOOD - DASHBOARD WARNING LIGHTS

What’s new & improved?

1. Web Notification API

2. Interactive notifications

3. Notification Center

4. Smart Watches

New & improved

1. Web notifications

Part of HTML 5 specification

38%62%

Supported by majority of web users’ browsers

Requires users to opt in

Displays icon, title, message, and URL

Good for messaging, collaboration and transaction notifications

Android mobile web supported

Now web pages can notify mobile users of updates and alerts

• Not just text, interact with notifications

• iOS and Android

• No need to interact with the app

• Dismiss or reply to a message

• Take immediate, specific action

• Make decisions or choices

• Express preferences

2. Interactive notifications

Cross platform

Jelly Bean 4.1

Released July 2012 Released Sept 2014

Swipe to dismiss or interact

You can add two to four actions and decide how their app handles the action: buy now, favorite, cancel appointment, etc.

• Up to four actions can be shown from popup alerts, two from the lock screen, notification center or banner notifications

• Destructive actions, like trashing an email, are color-coded red

• Relatively neutral actions, like dismissing an alert or declining an invitation, are color-coded gray

• Actions that change state, like marking something as read or accepting an invitation, are color-coded blue

• Choose whether to require a passcode for any action

Ample developer control

Instant reply

This one’s for Apple only

Embedded media in notifications

This one’s for

….this one too

• Exists on all platforms that support notifications: mobile, watch and desktop

• Provides an overview and history of notifications received

• Often synced across devices (both Apple and Android ecosystems)

• Support ‘widgets’ of varying complexity

• An interface in itself, often how users interact with apps

• A consistent access and discovery point

3. Notification center

iOS• Introduced to iOS in iOS 5 (end of 2011)

• In iOS 9 sorted by date, removing a common complaint

• 100s of widgets available

• Interact with notifications directly

Android• Much more mature than iOS, debuted in 2008

• With Lollipop have very fine grain control

• Supplemented by notification light

OS X• Also supports widgets

• Can be muted

• Developers can now customize the system Share and

Action sheets to add their own extension items.

4. Smart watches

Android wear

Multiple cards of information for a single notification, flip through for further detail pages

Swipe-able vertical stack with a card for single notification, grouping

multiple into one

Replies are allowed via voice or with pre-defined

text templates

Apple Watch“I’m not sure people are going to be

launching that many apps through the day on their watch. It’ll be about the notifications,

the glances, and the watch faces,”Matt Bischoff

the iOS Engineering Lead at Tumblr

Two forms of notification

Short Look Long Look

Simple to design for

Short Look Long Look

Nat

ive

apps

Responsive web

NOTIFICATIONS

Not just app and web

Everything in moderation

• On average we receive over 70 notifications a day

• Over 60 percent of notifications are social messages

• Never risk spamming your users, err on the side of fewer notifications

• It’s an interrupt-driven world, respect the priority of the messages

• “Frequent notifications and spam notifications can turn users off,

thereby risking your ratings and user base.” Google HIG

Excess volume is a problem

Of course it's important to get the balance right.

Even in a connected home you wouldn't want an overexcited

fridge letting you know every time it reordered milk

…but you need to know the instant your smoke alarm detects anything.

Get permission

Know when to say goodbye

Offer sensible opt-out choices

Stay relevant

It takes data to stay relevant

“…one of our issues with notifications at the moment for us is that at the moment we don’t have much personalization in notifications. [When] we send a BBC News alert, it goes to everybody — no matter what time of day or night it is,

wherever they happen to be, and regardless of whether or not they’re interested in that particular topic or not.”

Robin Pembrooke BBC

• Trigger notifications when users enter a geofence

• Set up regions for business premises

• Analyze data to target users in, or previously in, a given region

• RetailMeNot increased engagement x4 by using geofences

Stay relevant with geofences

• Detect location with greater precision

• Trigger notifications with maximum context

• Map beacons to business meaning and not just location

• Surveys, coupons, directions, and local information can be sent with confidence of relevance and timeliness

Use beacons to go further

Timing is everything

over 3x increaseLocalytics Aug 2014

3% of broadcast

push messages are opened

7% if the push message is segmented by user behavior and preferences

over 2x increase

only 15% of users who clicked on a broadcast push messages converted

54% of users who clicked on a segmented push message convert

a USER StORY - real added value

1

A coffee shop story

you’re notified as you walk past the same coffee shop each morning

Add real value by understanding your users’ needs in their current context

you’re notified as you walk past the same coffee shop each morning

1

you walk in and a special coupon is put into your wallet, your watch vibrates

2

A coffee shop story

Add real value by understanding your users’ needs in their current context

you’re notified as you walk past the same coffee shop each morning

1

you walk in and a special coupon is put into your wallet, your watch vibrates

2

transit problems mean you don’t have time to get coffee before your meeting; you’re warned as you leave home

3

A coffee shop story

Add real value by understanding your users’ needs in their current context

Conclusion

1. Business are focused on apps and responsive web

2. Notification often underestimated and neglected strategically

3. Real results are clear from astute user engagement with notifications

4. Damage can be done to trust and goodwill by misusing the medium

Conclusion

1. Use analytics and data to send relevant messages

2. Use personalized, actionable language

3. Calibrate timing and frequency from user insights

4. Allow users to opt out or tune their notifications

5. Ensure always informative or entertaining

Ongoing strategic principles

Thank youNew York London Wrocław Dubai Singapore Tokyo Sydney Melbourne San Francisco

Christian Glover Wilson VP, Technology & Strategy christian.gloverwilson@tigerspike.com