This is a question a lot of you must have asked yourselves at least once or twice. And if you haven’t – you probably should, because the last thing that you want to do is to send notifications to your app user that come across as spam.
If you use geofencing to send your push notifications, the odds are much lower that you are spamming your app users because your notifications are targeted by time and location and users would get fewer notifications by default.
However, there are situations where, even with geofencing enabled, you might still end up spamming your users. For situations like that, we’ve put together a quick checklist for you to rely on and also outlined the ways to avoid it in the future.
1. Are You Targeting Your App Users at Too Many Locations?
If you have a lot of geofences located close to each other, for example in central city areas, your users might end up getting too many notifications as they move around the centre and as a result they will feel overwhelmed & spammed.
Geofences located close in central city areas
How to avoid it?
Learn to prioritize your notifications and avoid bombarding your app users with multiple notifications in areas with high location density. Plot Projects has a feature for this situation called Cool Down. It ensures that a certain amount of time would elapse before an app user could receive another notification from you. This would limit the amount of notifications your app user gets from you. We usually recommend for this time to be at least 24 hours, but you can make it shorter or longer depending on your case.
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Cheat Sheet: The Do’s & Don’ts of Proximity MarketingThe Plot Projects rescue team has assembled a cheat sheet for you with essential best practices to follow and nail your proximity marketing for a relevant mobile app experience that drives engagement.
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2. Are You Re-Targeting Your App Users at the Same Locations Too Often?
If you are showing the same notification multiple times to your app users as they re-visit the same location, you are most likely spamming your users. People will make a connection between a location and your app and very likely use it next time they are at the same location even without receiving a location based notification.
How to avoid it?Don’t re-send the same notifications to users at locations that they have already visited, unless you think it’s absolutely necessary and will add value. At Plot Projects, we recommend our customers to use a feature called Non-Resendability, which ensures that a user doesn’t get duplicate messages at locations that they have visited in the past. |
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3. Are You Not Targeting Your App Users Based on Their Characteristics & Preferences?
App users share a lot of their data with apps – their age, gender, marital status, personal preferences, the type of content they view and so on – and they know that you have this data. In turn, they expect a personalized and relevant app experience. If you do not provide them with that kind of experience and just send generic notifications, they will naturally start feeling spammed. If this occurs, users are likely to delete your app!
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How to avoid it?Whenever you decide to reach out to your app users with an offer, try to think about the segments that would be most interested in that offer. Ask yourself questions such as:
By segmenting your notifications based on your app users’ characteristics and preferences, you can provide personalized recommendations. Here at Plot Projects, we have a segmentation capability in place and our customers use it to incorporate their insights about users into the targeting process. Don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t need to apply all the data you have at once – you can start out with one or two segmentation variables and take it from there. It’s important to keep user segmentation on your radar and gradually incorporate the user data you have. |
Extra Tips
For more ways to optimize and personalize you push notifications, check out our blog post 3 Rookie Mistakes Setting Up Your Location Based Notifications.
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Want to know more about geofencing?Download the Ultimate Guide to Geofencing for Mobile Marketing to find out more about geofencing and beacons and why to use them in your app.
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