How To Use Game Push Notifications To Engage or Activate Your Dormant Players

A game dev’s job is not done when they get a new user, it’s now all about making sure the user plays the game. User acquisition costs are on the rise because of the increased competition, and as a developer, you need to do everything in your power to retain all the players you acquire. Dormant players don’t make you any money and you lose the opportunity to monetize players when they stop playing your game. 

Luckily, there are many game marketing strategies you can use to activate your dormant players, and the best of them is game push notifications. Push notifications allow you to engage dormant users with personalized messages and bring them back to the app. The notifications are difficult to ignore and can help you remind players about the amazing gameplay features they can enjoy when they log back into your game. 

In this article, you will learn how to use push notifications to drive players back into your game.

The importance of good push notification

Push notifications are an effective communication channel for engaging players. You can use them to send crucial messages at the right time to catch the attention of players. It adds immense value to your customer management strategies by helping you stay connected to your audience base through personalized communication. 

Game push notifications also play a major role in improving engagement and player retention. It’s been established by HBR that boosting your customer retention by 5 percent can increase your profits by up to 95 percent. While there are other strategies you can implement to grow your company profits, retaining your current players has the biggest impact on your bottom line. And game push notifications are perfect for this. 

When you segment your users based on their behavior, push notifications that deliver targeted marketing communication can produce incredible results. Even users who don’t play your game often or those who have totally forgotten about it can be retained by regularly sending them push notifications. Identify the players' areas of interest and use smart marketing automation software to send targeted communication to capture their attention. By sending exclusive offers to dormant players based on their interest, you show them that you care and can yield powerful results. 

Now, to put this into perspective here's how to use game push notifications for player retention:

• Use marketing automation software to identify users who have not been active for a while. 
• Study player behavior and use the information to craft targeted messages promoting in-game features and events. 
• Track player activity after sending the notifications. 
• If the user is active, the flow is complete. 
• If the player is still inactive, send another push notification with better personalized offers. 

Push notifications also come in handy when you need to improve player engagement. Developers need to constantly stay in touch with their users and can deploy unique and personalized communication to engage players on a regular basis. When you launch new features or introduce new characters, use in-app push notifications to let players know about the new additions. Players are always looking for new skins, characters, and assets to enhance their gameplay experience and you can use push messages to inform them about the new assets available to them. 

When a player makes a purchase, send them a thank you note and details of other similar items they can buy to take their experience to the next level. Don’t miss the chance to cross-sell in-game items and a good push notification strategy will help you recommend the right items to players. 

However, you shouldn’t be too aggressive with your push notifications so your users don’t feel spammed. Always go for quality over quantity to ensure your messages are relevant to the users you are trying to reach. You can automate your flow with the right software to ensure players get the right messages at the right time to boost engagement. 

Figure 1: Wordscapes push notifications. Source: NotifyVisitors

Many mobile games have used push notifications to engage their users and achieved great results. Wordscapes is a popular game that not only has a great design and simple onboarding but also uses push notifications to engage players. The lovers of this game must agree to receive push notifications, and when they do, they receive updates that tell them:

• To finish daily puzzles: Players receive notifications to encourage them to complete the daily puzzles. 

• Occasional hints: When players are not able to complete a challenge because it’s tough, the app sends random hints through push notifications to encourage users to return to the app. 

6 effective tips on using push notifications for your game

Now that you know how push notifications can help you improve retention and engagement, here are tips for creating an engaging push notification strategy. 

Sharing of social achievements

Informing dormant users about how other players are beating them in the game is enough to motivate them to get back into the game. Gamers are competitive by nature and the thought that someone else is about to break their high score will drive them crazy. This will motivate them to log back into the game to set a higher score. 

Developers can use this feature when a player has been away from the game for a while. Personalize the notification by stating the player’s current score and level, as well as the new high score they need to beat. 

Increasing invites to the game

Your game isn't the only app that's sending push notifications to your users. Online stores, social media sites, and even websites use push notifications to attract traffic. To ensure your push messages don't get lost in all the noise, you should amplify your push notification strategy by increasing invites to the game. 

Send as many invites as you can without spamming your users. Your invites should have different messages to entice players to open your game to enjoy its amazing features. Use emojis, pictures, and buttons to stand out from the competition. The more vibrant your notifications are, the higher the chances a user will click on them. 

Offering discounts on in-app purchases

Do you have any in-app items you believe can enhance the user experience? Then you should use push messages to notify players about these assets. And since everyone loves a discount, offer the players a discount for every in-app purchase they make. 

This move will help you re-engage players who had left the game because they didn’t find it interesting anymore. By acquiring the in-game assets for a discount, you give dormant players a reason to log back in and play the game. You will also be able to boost your revenues and complement your other revenue streams. 

Increasing your rating on app stores/play stores

Sending notifications to request users to rate your game will help you collect valuable feedback to improve the game. Players will be happy to rate your game and leave a review since they know such feedback helps developers make improvements to their creations. 

Figure 2: Asking users to rate a game. Source: Reddit

Offer your players a reward to encourage them to leave a review. The reward can be extra coins to acquire more in-game assets or a special skin for their player character. You need to find appropriate moments to ask players to rate your game since doing it when they are in the middle of gameplay will see you end up with a bad rating. 

Prompting users to spend more time on the game

Sometimes you need to engage your users with direct messages to let them know what your real agenda is. You want players to spend more time in the game, and you can use push notifications to encourage them to do that. For example, if a player has completed a certain level and is ready to quit, send them a notification explaining the adventure that awaits them in the next level. Work with a game marketing agency to craft appealing messages to entice players to spend more time in the game.  

Creating FOMO

FOMO is an effective strategy when you need to bring dormant users back to your game. Make the players feel like they are missing out on a good time to tempt them to perform the desired action. Briefly describe the things the players are missing out on such as the new features and characters you’ve just introduced to the game. 

You can also use FOMO with your promos and discount offers. Create a sense of urgency with time-limited offers to encourage users to make in-app purchases.  

Fulfill your quest with mobile game marketing

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Leveraging game push notifications for retention marketing is important. Players can easily get distracted by events in their life that they forget your game exists. Push notifications serve as a reminder that your game exists and players can open it to have a good time. 

Now it’s time to create the perfect push notification messages to re-engage your users. 

If you need help with your push notification strategy or anything else regarding your video game, make sure to contact us.