More than a decade after the launch of the first iPhone, we’re living in a world profoundly shaped by mobile devices. But while smartphones are everywhere, and there are approximately 4 million apps available on Google Play and Apple’s App Store, not everything is rosy when it comes to mobile engagement—for one thing, we’re seeing smartphone users decrease the number of apps they use each year. So how can brands ensure that consumer keep engaging with their app as competition for consumer attention increases? Using push notifications to keep users engaged with relevant content is one smart solution.

NASCAR, a Braze customer for four years now, is one organization that exemplifies what’s possible when it comes to using push notifications to reach their mobile app users. Pat DeCola, the Digital Editorial Manager at NASCAR Digital Media, spoke with Braze to discuss on how his team’s marketing campaigns successful leverage the Braze platform to drive mobile and desktop engagement.

Segment Users to Provide Personalized Pings

Push notifications deliver content directly to smartphone users. As these messages pop up directly on a consumer’s screen, your push notifications are competing with over 40 notifications a consumer is receiving from other brands each day. Personalization, targeting, and knowing when best to send push notifications all increase the likelihood of your message being opened, and NASCAR utilizes this knowledge expertly when creating campaigns.

“What Braze allows us to do is to really craft these very specific segments of fans of certain drivers, fans of certain aspects of the website…or just the leaderboard itself. We know who's going to want that content and we know when they're going to want it,” DeCola explains, adding that “without Braze there's no way we could've known that prior.” By taking the time to understand the varying preferences of their individual users, NASCAR’s push campaigns are able to use consumer data to pinpoint what specific drivers, power rankings, and even emojis particular mobile app users are most likely to engage with. Something as simple as triggering a push notification in response to a user action can boost open rates by 5.5x.

NASCAR leverages push notifications to support a variety of different messaging campaigns, from educating mobile users on legendary NASCAR racers and sending reminders about upcoming races to recommending users to join NASCAR fantasy games and updating users on penalty reports. NASCAR also skillfully incorporates images into some of their push notifications, too. DeCola personally enjoys the process of “figuring out the right photo that’s going to work” for each message and “making it the best and most appealing alert” possible.

Send Push Alerts to Desktop Users

Push notifications aren’t limited to mobile devices. You can also program alerts to push consumers to your website from their desktops. When discussing how NASCAR using thoughtful messaging to nudge people to check out their website, DeCola describes the roll out of “web alerts just to get people to nascar.com on a desktop” as a “tremendous success.”

Plus, NASCAR uses web push notifications to drive cross-channel engagement by sending messages that encourage users to download their mobile app. That strategy encourages additional engagement on mobile and opens up new outreach possibilities with mobile-only channels.

Final Thoughts

Push notifications are a valuable asset to marketers who want to reach their consumers directly. From brief urgent outreach to rich messaging experiences incorporating emojis and images, push notifications allow marketers to customize their outreach to speak effectively to each recipient and drive stronger engagement right here, right now.

To learn more about how the Braze platform can support the personalization of messages regardless of channel, check out our cross-channel personalization guide.