作者：Evan Fradley-Pereira

有帮助的提醒与烦恼之间存在着微妙的区别，你的游戏的推送通知便有可能成为其中的一者。也就是说，有很多玩家希望能够听到自己最喜欢的游戏的消息，因为游戏发行商花了许多时间去了解玩家想要什么以及何时想要这些内容。以下是帮助你确保玩家想要听到你的消息的一些诀窍。

1.了解如何以及何时征求许可

所有游戏在发送推送通知前都需要得到玩家的许可。当用户同意请求时，他们将提供一个标记让游戏能够在之后联系玩家。只有少数游戏能够有效地安排推送请求的时间。大多数游戏都是在第一个回合的一开始便发出推送，而那时候玩家对于游戏的了解仅限于名字，标记，以及他们在应用商店里看到的游戏描述。一些活跃的玩家可能会不断接收到这些请求，而大多数情况下这都不是很好的体验。许多发行商会使用鸟枪式方法去传达通知，而这么做不仅会破坏游戏体验，同时还会导致整款游戏将只能依赖于通知去与玩家进行交流。

所以该如何做呢？发行商应该在询问前耐心等待，直至玩家有机会开始玩你的游戏，并将这种请求与背景相融合，如此玩家便能够清楚他们所面对的是什么内容。

《过马路》在这方面便做得很好。比起一开始便请求许可，他们耐心地等待着玩家有机会通过接收免费礼物而获得打开全新角色的乐趣。一旦玩家打开他们的第二个角色，游戏便会询问他们是否愿意在下一个礼物出现前得到提醒。如此玩家便会清楚他们在获得下一个乐趣前能够得到通知，并因此作出自己的决定。

notification(from gamasutra)

2.着眼于细节

从一开始便认真思考为什么你要接触玩家并决定当他们收到通知时你希望他们做些什么。你是否希望他们能够完成购买？是否存在你希望他们参与的特定机制？考虑清楚这些问题的答案将帮助你衡量你的推广的效能并进一步写出有效的副本。

3.了解你的用户

当提到运行有效的推广活动时，明确划分玩家基础是成功的一半。如果你能够肯定自己是在与适当的玩家谈论适当的请求，那么你的活动成功性便会更大。

不要向非转换型玩家发送50美元应用内部购买的信息。不可能所有玩家的第一次IAP都如此高价，这也表示你缺少对他们的游戏风格的理解。同时，不要向鲸鱼玩家推广那些对他们没什么用处的小型IAP折扣。随着时间的发展，这些无意义的骚扰都有可能导致玩家对你的游戏通知产生排斥感。

4.把握适当的时机

为了尽可能地获得更多关注，你需要谨慎考虑发送推送通知的时间。通常情况下在工作日的午后以及周末的夜晚是玩家最活跃的时间，但你也要通过观察分析去判断哪个时间段最适合你的玩家。面向更年轻的用户的游戏的活跃时间通常是在下午3点至5点，即放学回家的路上。这么做能够确保你的玩家刚好在玩游戏的时候收到你的推送通知。

5.最简洁的表达

推送通知最好保持在110个字符，或者大概4行文本，并保证将最重要的细节内容写在前面。保持通知足够简单能够让玩家在关注着其它事物的同时也能够轻松理解内容。较长的通知内容有可能不能有效传达信息并且可能导致玩家难以集中精神。

6.提供细节

就像我在之前的一篇文章中提到的，完成了IAP的玩家只是那些会留意选择的玩家中的一部分。在意识与完成之间，玩家需要估算你所提供的内容对自己是否有价值。所以你的推送通知将能够帮助他们做出判断。

“快回来！我们将提供给你很棒的内容！”

像这样的推送通知并不能提供给玩家直接评估内容的必要信息。这只是在引诱他们回到游戏中，但却未能给予他们相关细节，如果玩家最终未能获得自己想要的内容便会觉得这是在浪费自己的时间。

相反地你应该提供给玩家包含细节的推送通知，如：

“仅在本周大包货币将享有50%的折扣！快来买吧！”

这能够提供给玩家他们在决定自己是否想要你所提供的内容时所需要的一切细节。也许这会太直接，但如果你能够有效划分玩家并将该通知发送给适当的玩家，那便再合适不过了。

明确的推送通知是我们在Fuse所提供的工具之一，这也是我们努力完成Player-Centric Platform的一部分。我们的目标是通过提供给所有玩家最佳体验而帮助我们的合作商们获得最大的利益。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

6 Tips For Effective Push Notifications

by Evan Fradley-Pereira

There’s a fine line between a helpful reminder and an annoyance, and your game’s push notifications have the potential to register as either. That said, there are plenty of players who look forward to hearing from their favorite games because their publishers have taken to the time to learn what their players want and when they want it. Here are a few tips to help make sure your players look forward to hearing from you.

1. Know How and When to Ask Permission

All games need permission from the player before they’re allowed to send push notifications. When the user agrees to the request, a token is supplied which allows the game to contact the player in future. Few games time their push token request properly. Most drop it in at the start of the very first session, when the player’s knowledge of the game is limited to its name, icon, and whatever they may have read in the store description. Active players get bombarded with these requests and the majority of the time, it’s not a great experience. Many publishers take a shotgun-approach to notification delivery that not only hurts performance in their game, but in all games that rely on push notifications to communicate with their players.

To stand out, wait until your players have had a chance to play the game before you ask, and contextualize the request so that players know what they’re signing up for.

Crossy Road does this perfectly. Instead of requesting permission on start up, they wait until the player has had a chance to associate the fun of unboxing new characters with receiving free gifts. As soon as they’ve opened their second character, the game asks if they’d like to be reminded when the next gift is available. Agreeing prompts the token request and players can make the decision with the understanding that they’ll be contacted when the next bit of fun is available.

2. Get Specific

From the outset, think about why you’re contacting your players and decide exactly what you want them to do when they receive the notification. Do you want them to complete a purchase? Is there a specific mechanic you want them to engage with? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you measure the effectiveness of your promotions and write effective copy.

3. Know Your Audience

Having a thoroughly segmented player base is half the battle when it comes to running effective push campaigns. The more certain you can be that you’re talking to the right players about the right offers, the more successful your campaigns will be.

Don’t message non-converted players with offers for $50 IAPs. It’s extremely unlikely that any player’s first IAP would be so high-priced, and you’re demonstrating a lack of understanding for their play style. Likewise, don’t reach out to your whales with discounts on small IAPs that wouldn’t be of any use to them. Over time, these kinds of nuisances can cause what would have otherwise been an engaged, attentive player to deactivate your game’s notifications.

4. Get the Timing Right

In order to capture as much attention as possible, time your push notifications to coincide with hourly spikes in session counts. Sessions are typically highest in the mid-afternoon on weekdays and in the evenings on weekends, but always check your analytics to see what time is most popular for your players. Games geared towards younger audiences are often most active around 3PM to 5PM, during the after-school commute. This ensures that a good chunk of your players will receive the notification around the time that they would typically engage with your game anyway.

5. Omit Needless Words

Notifications get truncated around 110 characters, or roughly 4 lines of text, so make sure you get the important details included up front. The shorter you can make your notifications, the easier it is for players to scan during moments when their attention is elsewhere. Longer notifications risk not getting the message across and can result in fewer engagements.

6. Provide Details

As mentioned in one of our recent posts on Gamasutra, the players who complete an IAP will only ever be a subset of those who are made aware of the option. In between awareness and completion, players need to evaluate whether the offer is of value to them. Your notification copy can help.

“Come on back! We’ve got a great offer for you!”

Notifications like these don’t provide the player with the information necessary to immediately evaluate the offer. It baits them into returning to the game before they can get the details, which can end up feeling like a waste of their time if it turns out it’s not for them.

Instead of giving your player more work to do, include all the details of the offer directly within the notification. Shoot for notifications like:

“Big Bags of Coins are 50% off this weekend only! Buy Now!”

They give your players everything they need to decide whether or not they want what you’re offering the moment they read it. They might feel pushy, but if you’re segmenting effectively and only delivering relevant offers to the appropriate players, you’ll be doing them a favor.

Targeted push notifications are just one of the tools we provide at Fuse as part of our complete Player-Centric Platform. Our goal is to help our partners maximize revenue by giving every player an optimal experience. I’m always curious to hear what sorts of push notifications have worked best for others, so as always, feel free to get in touch with me on Twitter.(source:gamasutra)