Welcome Push Notification: Importance, Examples, and Best Practices

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Welcome. Bienvenue. Welkom. Bem Vinda.

No matter what language they speak, people all around the world love to feel welcome. Whether you are entering a new client’s office or the home of a family member, a warm greeting goes a long way.

The same principle applies when someone downloads your app or surfs your website. Introducing yourself is vital to set the tone for your brand and build relationships with your audience.

However, a successful welcome is not that easy.

New users are unpredictable. It is hard to know when they will abandon your app and why. You’ve got a narrow window to win them over or lose them forever.

That’s why in this guide, we’ll show you how to welcome users via push notifications in the right way. Let’s get going!

The importance of welcome push notifications

Before we show you why welcome push notifications are important, we want to tell you a story.

Amway, which started as a basement run operation (which now reaches $8.5 billion in 2020), used a smart tactic a few years ago. Amway asked its sales representatives to go around and give free samples to customers in a device called a BUG. Products ranging from cosmetics to detergents were given as free samples.

Sales representatives told customers to just try the product. No one could refuse that appealing offer. At the end of the trial, representatives returned, took the remaining BUG, and gave it to the next potential customer. Customers had been trapped in the web of reciprocity and ended up buying the product. This resulted in a significant growth record for Amway.

That’s what Robert Cialdini talks about in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” He lists down 6 principles, out of which is the Principle of Reciprocity. This happens when “people are obliged to give back to others in the form of a behavior, gift, or service that they have received first.”

As a customer, doesn’t it feel great when you’re being acknowledged, given the importance, and then entertained with exclusive offers?

For first-time app users or web visitors, giving a warm welcome becomes critical to show that you appreciate them subscribing. Using push notifications, you can convert visitors into a customer. As these visitors subscribe to notifications, reciprocating their action with a welcome push notification with a unique offer is an excellent way of kickstarting a relationship.

Welcome push notifications also assure users that they’ve successfully subscribed to your app/website. Thanking people is a necessary part to make them feel valued and welcome push notifications play a pivotal role in making this happen.

The concept of acknowledging and welcoming people is powerful, but many marketers don’t recognize it. Welcome push notifications are exactly like welcome emails that you receive once you’ve subscribed to a newsletter. However, unlike emails, push notifications have a much higher impact and a far higher chance of being noticed, because they enjoy higher visibility. It’s surprising to know that push notifications can produce twice as many open rates and click-throughs as emails.

5 welcome push notification examples

More than 74% of users that download an app abandon it right after just one use.

You have one shot to impress your new users and convince them to come back to your app/website

Thus, don’t leave your users in the dark after they’ve subscribed. Continuing the onboarding process with a nurturing welcome message can benefit both you and your user.

In this section, let’s look at how some big-name brands welcome their users, and how you can incorporate their tactics into your push notification strategy.

Attract with an upfront value

One of the integral blocks of push notification best practices is the consistent delivery of value. By dedicating to a set of push notification standards right from the beginning of your relationship with each user, you can ensure that you never land in the dreaded “spam” territory.

By the way, what should your standards be, you may ask?

With every push notification you send, aim to deliver an engaging, valuable experience that adds something special to your users’ day.

HelloFresh did this perfectly. With a combination of on-brand imagery and a new member welcome discount, the brand greets new users with open arms.

Its unconditional discount acts as a “thank-you” to users, which gives users the time needed to get to grips with the app. It’s also safe in the knowledge that their first-box discount is right there waiting for them when they are ready to commit.

Encourage completion of registration

When it comes to welcoming new users, many E-commerce apps, such as Shein, use a practice called “lazy login.” This adds a third state to the traditional “logged in - logged out” paradigm. New users can explore the app, learn its benefits, and experience its value before fully registering for an account.

In theory, an app requires account registration only when users decide to make purchases. But app marketers, like Shein, encourage users to sign up faster through timely welcome push notifications.

Using incentivized offers in welcome push notifications is a smart way to push a partly registered user down your sales funnel and convert them into a paying customer.

Create FOMO with limited time offers

According to studies, 68% of millennials say that they have made a purchase as a direct result of FOMO (Fear of Missing out). Scarcity in marketing makes offers appear more exclusive, valuable, and desirable.

All of this culminates to generate extremely clickable welcome push notifications to send to your new users. Limited time offers, like Groupon’s use of “24h only!,” directly play into users’ inability to turn down a potential opportunity.

For Groupon, this strategy is not only an efficient marketing technique, but it also introduces behavior that sees users claim the most value on their platform: “Act fast, or you’ll miss out!”

Use geo-targeted push notifications

The Apple Store app sends users a “Welcome” push message that explains the benefits of using their app in-store when they are near a physical store.

This geo-targeted push helps users understand the benefits of the app, as well as favors long-term user stickiness over short-term sales. Meanwhile, it promotes the enhanced in-store shopping experience customers can have by using the app to make purchases and learn about products.

Encourage referrals

It is not only vital to welcome new users with incentives, but also encourage them to refer others. You should inform them about your campaign and the benefits that they can get out of it.

This is a sure-shot tactic of building subscriber motivation and gaining new users. Let’s see how Peachmode welcomes its users via push notifications! The brand offers a discount of 40% on the next purchase for people who refer the brand to a friend. Quite appealing, right?

7 welcome push notification best practices

So, how can you be sure that your welcome push notifications set customers up for long-term engagement? We asked push notification experts in our company to share their best advice, and examples of welcome messages from companies they think are getting it right.

1. Welcome your newest users in real-time

You should send your welcome push message to new subscribers right after they sign up. Following up at the moment often leads to higher open, click, and conversion rates than messages sent later in the day or week.

Once you’ve downloaded, messaging app LINE sends a welcome push notification driving you to an in-app message (which is an under-utilized messaging channel). It showcases popular features along with the ability to send stickers and messages.

LINE could have just told its users how to send stickers and messages, but leveraging push, it does a great job of showing instead.

2. Include a special offer or free shipping

Already sending push notifications in real-time? Improve your own stats even more by including a special offer, as many brands do with their welcome push notifications.

Doing so has been proven to produce double the transaction rates of real-time sends that do not include offers. And including free shipping can actually sweeten the deal and generate the highest transaction rates.

Many brands use this tactic, as HelloFresh or Groupon do above. You can also see an example from FurnFab right below. The brand not only welcomes new users, but also offers a coupon as an incentive to use its app and make a purchase.

What else helps? You should use bolding and colors and keep your language positive and upbeat as you are emphasizing the unique value of your products or services.

3. Personalize your welcome push message

You can start personalization by addressing new users by name. This is the most common way used by brands. In addition, you should include as many pertinent details specific to the user as possible.

4. Keep them engaged, while they are already engaged

In-app messages allow you to reach users at their most engaged, when they are most ready to hear from you and interact.

QuizUp - a gaming app - takes advantage of this built-in attentive audience by motivating first-time users to get started using right upon download with this push welcome message (or welcome gaming challenge?).

The game QuizUp suggests is also easy for dipping your toes into the app, ideal for getting to know what the app is all about.

Related topic: Push Notification vs. In-app Notification: How Are They Different?

5. Use multi-channel messaging to your advantage

Combining push notification marketing with other channels will increase the impact of your outreach. Instead of sending only one welcome push message, you can create a series with a combination of different marketing channels.

AVADA Commerce helps you do that easily. You can set up an automated welcome workflow, including both push notification and email marketing.

As you can see, AVADA Commerce lets you build your own workflow with different messaging channels and different wait times. You just need to drag and drop elements from the left panel to the workflow, and boom, it’s done!

For more information, you should head to this article!

6. Don’t be pushy with push

If there is one thing users hate, it is spam messages. Carefully consider how many push notifications to send new users and when.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach for push notification cadence - the right amount varies depending on your app type and user base. For example, a news app could deliver several push messages per day with relevant breaking news, while a travel app might send only one push message per week notifying users of the latest travel deals.

In order to strike the right balance, you should keep messages helpful and relevant to each user’s preference.

7. A/B test your welcome notification

Marketing is all about delivering the right conversations with the right people. You should send multiple versions of the same push message to see which one resonates with your new users, and then keep improving your welcome campaign results.

The bottom line

That’s it for welcome push notifications!

We hope you find this article informative and helpful. In case you need more expert welcome advice, don’t hesitate to contact us right now!

Thanks for reading, and happy sending!