Top 10 Creative Push Notifications Examples to Inspire You

Push notifications offer exciting opportunities for mobile marketers. First, marketers get the chance to encourage users to opt in to receive notifications, fostering a direct line of communication. Once users are engaged, delivering valuable and relevant messages becomes essential for enhancing their experience. However, just being useful isn’t always enough.

Adding a touch of creativity can make your push notifications stand out from the countless others that users receive every day. A little creativity—without going overboard—can transform a mundane alert into something engaging and memorable. 

What Are Creative Push Notifications?

Creative push notifications are messages that are designed to catch users’ attention with unique and interesting content. They go beyond simple and generic alerts. 

This is because:

• Only 51% of iOS and 81% of Android users opt-in to receive push messages.*
• Nearly 30% of users uninstall an app due to excessive ads or notifications.
• The average push notification CTR is only 2.25% across all verticals.

Creative push notifications aim to stand out by incorporating interactive and compelling elements. Nowadays, businesses use fun copies and smart ideas to encourage users to open their apps. 

Top 10 Creative Push Notifications Examples

With a very short window to bring value to your users through push, actionable and creative push alerts are instrumental to user engagement. We’ve curated the top 10 most innovative, valuable, and funny push notifications we’ve seen to spark your creative juices on how you can engage your users through push.

1. How Amazon Made Shipping Updates Feel Personal

Transactional push messages, like shipping notifications, are useful because they don’t require the user to open the app to receive an update. Most apps simply alert the user by saying, “Your item has been shipped!” However, Amazon goes the extra mile by making the language specific to the content. 

Although it does not push the user to open the app immediately, the above example provides a useful update in a clever way and builds a relationship with the user through relevant language.

You don’t have to wait until an abandoned cart to reach out. This push was delivered after a user spent a fair amount of time engaging with a product page: clicking through product photos, reading reviews, etc. 

Amazon pays attention to this level of engagement and finds subtle ways to nudge users to take a second glance, even if an item never made it to the cart. This makes the user feel noticed and can rekindle interest in an item they might not have reconsidered otherwise.

2. QuizUp’s Creative Win-back Strategy

Users are so inundated with win-back campaigns, these messages often get ignored. Instead of just sending the typical “we miss you” campaign, QuizUp takes a unique approach to win back their users. 

As a gaming app, they don’t need to offer a discount or free shipping to push users back into their app. They simply remind users of why they downloaded the app in the first place—because it’s fun!

3. SimonCircles Brought in Their Competitive Developer

Think about the nature of push notifications—they’re a casual way of interrupting your users’ daily activity to get them back into your app. So make them conversational!

The gaming app Simon Circles playfully reaches out to users by apologizing for a developer blasting players with high scores. Most users probably understand this isn’t real, but they’re reminded of their place on the leaderboard, which encourages them to play again. Who doesn’t enjoy a little friendly competition?

4. Minibar Used Seasonal Alerts for Special Occasions

Seasonality campaigns are a great way to tie your app to a holiday or an upcoming event. Minibar, a liquor delivery app, cleverly uses the upcoming election to not only encourage users to vote, but also to use their app to order alcohol for Election Day.

5. Tinder Got Users Clicking With a Risky Message  

Sometimes it pays to be presumptuous. Tinder challenged a user to “prove them wrong” with a snarky, funny push notification. Even if the user may agree with the message or doesn’t even care, Tinder provides just enough information to spark a user’s curiosity and possibly dig into the app.

6. Netflix Taught us the Importance of Personalization

Personalized messaging is always a great strategy for push notifications. Here, Netflix uses witty and fun copy to announce the release of the next season of their show Narcos. Not only does it communicate the release date (which isn’t actionable), but it nudges the user to watch the trailer (which is).

7. CNN Moneystream Made News Fun and Relevant

Who doesn’t love pizza? Additionally, who hasn’t experienced an awkward interaction with a delivery driver? The push notification grabs your attention by instantly relating to you. News about pizza deliveries via self-driving cars itself may not be actionable, but by relating to the user’s interests, this push compels the user to see when self-delivering pizzas will be available in their area.

8. Duolingo Caught its Customer’s Attention With a Witty Threat

If you’re dying to know what the English translation is (like me) it means: “Mess with me and your family won’t have fingers.” While the content itself is a bit aggressive (and a tad violent), it doesn’t matter. The push delivers a quick challenge to the user with only two ways to find a solution: either retype the phrase into Google translate (which is difficult) or open the app.

9. How Level Profitted from a Little Flattering

Sometimes a push doesn’t need to be actionable. A few words of encouragement can be all it takes to surprise and delight your users. Level uses push notifications to celebrate their users’ accomplishments, priming the user to keep up with the app. 

Making your users feel accomplished both in and outside your app not only increases the chances of them continuing to use your app but also prevents them from pulling the trigger on disabling push notifications.

10. Jet Shared Easy Saving Tips through Push

How much is enough LaCroix? The limit does not exist. Whether you’re a fan of the fizzy beverage or not, users can relate to the savings of buying their favorite products in bulk. While it’s not directly actionable, it gets the value of the app across in one simple and straightforward push notification.

Ready to Get Creative With Push?

Don’t let your push notifications get lost in the noise. With witty copy, a unique edge, and an actionable or educational takeaway, you can have your users not only clicking on your push notifications but even tweeting about them. 

Looking for more push notification best practices? Download our Push Notification Benchmark Report for more tips on how to engage and convert users.

Among push notification platforms, CleverTap offers unparalleled features to elevate your messaging strategy. Explore its advanced push features:

• Scribe for Engaging Content: Use AI to effortlessly generate desired copy for impactful push notifications, adjusting emotional tones and adding emojis and hashtags.
• Advanced Segmentation & Personalization: Target users based on behavior and preferences for more relevant messages.
• Automation & Journeys: Set up automated workflows to send timely, contextually relevant notifications.
• Rich Media with RenderMax Technology: Include images, videos, and interactive elements; ensure delivery even on devices with strict settings.
• A/B Testing with IntelliNODE: Experiment with up to 35 journey paths to optimize engagement and conversions.
• Real-Time Analytics: Gain instant insights to adjust your strategy for better results.
• AI-Powered Personalization with Clever.AI: Predict user behavior and personalize content automatically to keep users engaged.
• Omnichannel Engagement: Engage users across email, SMS, and in-app messages for a seamless experience.

Choose CleverTap to build meaningful connections and engage your audience like never before.