As you've probably figured by now, the Swrve platform is not not 'just' about A/B testing, in-app campaigns, analytics and segmentation. We've now added push notifications to the mix as well. That's good news on a few fronts. Aside from anything else, we now provide one single dashboard from which you can deliver, manage and measure pretty much every activity you need to drive mobile app performance.

And to celebrate, we'll be counting down 5 tips for push campaign success right here on the Swrve blog. The intention is to fill you in with the steps you should be taking to ensure that you aren't just 'using' push. You're also delivering real results that are making an impact on your app and your business. So without further ado:

1. Deliver Value

Well, that sounds a little obvious. But consider this: a user who is willing to receive push notifications is giving you a chance. They’re willing to have a conversation with you. But as in real life, that conversation won’t last long if all you have to say is worthless, irrelevant or self-promoting (trust me - I learned that the hard way!) And on the recent evidence, precious few organizations are truly thinking carefully about whether their push campaigns pass this test.

So remember first this golden rule - unless you have something worthwhile to say, say nothing.

In this context, ‘something worthwhile’ means something that you genuinely believe is a message, offer or promotion that is, or could be, of real interest to the person you are sending it to. If you follow this rule, you are on the way to a successful long-term relationship. If you don’t, your campaigns will actually have a negative effect on your business. Remember, plenty of users won’t respond to invasive push notifications by carefully updating their notification centre. They’ll just uninstall your app.

By way of example, a 50% bonus on in-app credit available on a particular day is probably a message that is fair to communicate to your users (whether they have recently been inactive or not). The fact that there is a new item available in your in-app store probably isn’t, and certainly isn't if it's an item of a type that that particular user has never shown any interest in.

Of course, ultimately this is a judgement call, but track your click and conversion rates. If they start falling, it’s time to re-think exactly what goes into your push notification campaigns.