Rich Push Notifications: Harnessing the Full Potential of Multimedia Messaging for Better Engagement

Humans primarily use natural languages to communicate both verbally and in writing. Our senses, however, allow us to receive a variety of other non-linguistic stimuli and cues, expanding the ways we interact with each other. The importance of visual communication in business is not to be ignored but rather explored and modern technology provides just the right means for it. Mobile Push notifications are an excellent channel for increasing user engagement with the app and offer a number of features that can increase the impact your messaging has on the audience.

Rich Push notification features

Message copy still stands as the core conveyor which must contain the complete information package. That said, there are various visual and interactive elements available with Mobile Pushes that play an essential role in amplifying it. 

A Rich Push notification is a format designed to help you offer more value and capture customers’ attention even better with visual features including:

• Emoji

• Images and gifs

• Action buttons as interactive CTAs 

• Deep linking

• More extensive analytics

• Better branding opportunities

Adding any of these elements instantly makes your Pushes more visually appealing and turn them into mini Emails focused on eliciting a specific action from the user, with their biggest advantages being the immediacy and compact format. 

💡 An interesting experiment you could run is to recycle some of your Email creations into Rich Pushes, using similar but obviously shorter copy and the same main visual element, be it an image or a video, to see which channel drives better user engagement for you.

Rich Push statistics

There’s a fair amount of data available that supports the efficiency of Rich Push notifications in marketing communication. Research in this area has revealed the following regarding the use various visual elements in Mobile Push notifications to improve their performance:

Emoji

Push notifications with emoji show an open rate of 85%, boosting CTR by 9.6%. The most popular ones you may want to try using include 🔥🩵🍕👍⏳Interestingly, the usage of emoji in Push messages in recent years has increased by 163%.

Rich Push notification open rate and click rate

Companies in many industries saw significant improvement in click rates once they’ve added big images in their Pushes.

Action buttons

In general, Push notification campaigns that included CTA buttons delivered 40-60% better results. When using them, make sure they send your subscribers to relevant, optimized pages.

💡 The available data points to the fact that Rich Pushes are at least worth experimenting with to see what user engagement results you can achieve by adding more visual elements and branding.

Designing your perfect Push with MessageFlow

Let’s now talk about the best use of the different real estate available with Rich Push notifications. You have some text to work with and some media to add and amplify your message. 

Working on copy with no character limit in mind or dropping just any image into your Push isn’t the best practice at all. For the biggest, most desirable impact, you want to optimize these elements.

💡 A very important caveat at this point is that although MessageFlow offers you a Push preview in the panel, the way it will actually display may slightly differ depending on the device that receives it. At the end of the day, a specific combination of mobile hard- and software decides how to present the notification to the user.

Rich Push notification copy guidelines

Regardless of the image or other media you’ll use, your audience will still read the message copy, so above all else, make sure it’s clear and concise. A general rule is that less is more - avoid being too wordy in order to not have any of your message truncated. Not only will it look bad, it’ll also render the message incomplete, and so it won’t do what it’s supposed to do. Don’t invest time and effort into lengthy copy your audience won’t be able to see anyway. Focus on short and sweet.

Now, any Push notification will be comprised of two textual elements:

• Title

Here, the real estate is particularly limited while also essential. It’s likely the very first thing the recipient will see. Ideally, you should aim to keep the title under 35 characters for iOS and 45 characters for Android.

An important thing to remember is that different letters take up different amount of space, with ALL CAPS being even more expansive (so leave them for special occasions), and that every emoji, while recommended and important for user engagement, is equivalent to two characters.

💡 If you’re sending a campaign to a variety of devices, sticking to the lower character limit will be a reasonable idea to ensure the crucial title isn’t getting clipped.

• Body copy

This element serves as the continuation of the title, providing more space to elaborate on the header’s main statement, promise, or offer. 

When sending Rich Pushes, still aim for as little body text as possible. At the end of the day, no one wants to be reading long copy, plus, let the attached image do some of the work for you. Now, as far as the length goes, it’s best to keep your message under 250 characters for iOS and 100 characters for Android.

Rich Push notification image guidelines

The main reason why you’d want to add an image to your Push alert is to immediately capture and retain the customer’s attention. 

There’s a lot of freedom in terms of exactly what kind of image you can add. You can use a realistic photo depicting people or products, a cartoonish design if it fits your brand, or show no actual items, focusing on numbers or some other graphic elements instead, emphasizing the message content. 

Regardless of the direction you’ll take, the general guidelines for sending Rich Pushes with MessageFlow are as follows:

• File format: JPG or PNG. Conveniently, you can choose the image to be included in your notification from a variety of sources other than your device.

  

• Minimal file size: 512x256 pxl

• Optimal file size: 1024x512 pxl

• Maximum file size: 2048x1024 pxl

• Maximum file weight: 1 MB 

When combined with a clearly visible logo, which is an integral part of a Push alert, you create a powerful messaging experience that not only captures attention but also enhances brand recognition and fosters a deeper connection with your audience, ultimately driving engagement and boosting sales.

Examples of Push notifications with emoji and images

Tesco is taking it a step further and instead of simply promoting its offer, it's showing the app users what they can turn the items available at the stores into.

Seasonal produce is a highly coveted part of any grocery's offer. The color palette and the diversity of shapes make for a compelling and engaging image.

Below is a nice example of how a single image can be used to showcase a variety of products, all within one notification, saving effort and reaching customers potentially interested in different items.

In conclusion

The power of Rich Push lies in its capability to amplify your message, make it more visually appealing, better converting, and provide a consistent on-brand experience. Rich format helps you maximize the potential of your mobile app by including a variety of visual and interactive elements in the notification design.

MessageFlow facilitates the creation and delivery of personalized Rich Pushes directly from the user-friendly panel, as well as the inclusion of deep links and action buttons. Once the campaign is over, you can check detailed analytics and manage various user groups according to whether or not they have engaged with your notification.

Contact our Communication Experts today if you have any questions regarding Rich Push campaigns or are new to MessageFlow and would like to get started.