Push notifications are a possibility if you have a mobile app.

Push notifications can be a useful marketing tool to keep in touch with your users. If you use it too much, it can overwhelm users, leading to them unsubscribing from your site and/or deleting your application. This is something you want to avoid. 

We can help you understand what a push notification is and how to make it effective. This guide will help you use push notifications to your advantage during your next marketing campaign.

Let’s get started!

What is a Push Notification?

Push notifications are clickable messages that are “pushed” from backend servers or applications to the user interface. They can be mobile apps and desktop applications. These messages can be sent at a certain time or when users are in a particular place.

You will see push notifications on a website, or in mobile apps. They are not the same as pop-ups. Push notifications are not activated if you’re using an app or website. Push notifications allow for instant, automated, and direct communication between a website and its users.

Brief history of push notifications

This type of notification has been around roughly ten years. It was first launched in 2009 on iPhones using the Apple Push Notifications Services (APNS). Push notifications have been available for almost every smartphone on the market since then.

Google decided not to remain behind and launched its Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM), in 2010. Google released rich push notifications, a new version of push notifications that was enhanced and improved in 2013. These can be images, videos and other interactive elements, unlike the original version.

Apple made push notifications available on its Apple Watch in 2014. Soon after, Samsung, Garmin and FitBit followed suit. As they could also be reached via their wearables, this created a deeper connection with their audience.

Types of push notifications

In reality, push notifications can be divided according to their purpose or the device they are sent to. Let’s take a look at each one in detail in this section.

We can separate push notifications into three types based on purpose:

• Notifications to the system. This category includes announcements about new features or holiday discounts. Sometimes, you may receive notices requiring that you change your password for a website.

• Notifications of transactions This type is used to notify of upcoming events. This can be an E-commerce transaction that involves paying for goods or a shopping update regarding a package.

• Notifications to users If these notifications are not used correctly, they can cause users the most inconvenience and trouble. To inform users about updates, special offers, and emails from a website, user ads are used. These ads require that users opt-in or have the opportunity to opt out.

There are three main types of devices, depending on their type:

• Web push notification. Web push notifications messages can be sent to users directly from their browsers, without the need to create an app. This type of message is used by marketers to increase website engagement and encourage website visitors to return to their site, thus increasing conversions.

Product reviews – Photo reviews are a great way to build trust in your Ecommerce store. Shopify allows you to display two essential activities on your website with this app:

• Buy (who has made a recent purchase)

• Add-to-cart is the number of customers who have added a particular item to their carts.

This app displays your website events automatically in a small pop-up at your website’s left corner. It’s free! Give it a shot!

• Desktop push notification Desktop push notifications are different from the previous types. They only appear on your users’ computers. These notifications are driven primarily by products you have installed on your desktop. The goal is to increase customer engagement. These notifications are more difficult than web push notifications, and will require assistance from developers.

• Mobile application push notification. This notification is for users who have downloaded a mobile application and previously signed up to receive updates. This technology allows users to navigate to specific features and share updates as well as brief instructions about the app. Mobile app push notifications can be as difficult to create as desktop push notifications and will require the assistance of a developer.

Types of push notifications

Everybody loves to receive handcrafted notes that are personalized for them. Customers will click on messages that grab their attention and evoke emotions more often. There are many types of push notifications customers love to receive.

Let’s take a look at the most popular uses for push notifications.

Cart abandonment push notifications

It is extremely painful to abandon a shopping cart. Your customers may visit your store and browse your products. They might also add some items to their wishlist or cart, but they will leave your store without purchasing anything. It’s terrible!

69.57% is the current average rate for online shopping cart abandonment. Many reasons customers don’t want their shopping to stop include high prices, complicated checkout processes, slow delivery or payment problems.

There is some good news: it is easy to recover abandoned carts with push notifications. It is definitely worth the effort.

A dynamic list can be created of customers who have added a product or service to their cart, but did not complete the checkout process. You can create custom audiences for each campaign based on the subscriber properties you choose. You can categorize them based on their location and devices.

Send them something like “1 item remains in your cart.” Get in on the action and get push notifications to give you an extra push to do the right thing.

Push notifications that are triggered

Triggered push notification campaigns are another effective way to improve your buyer’s experience. Triggered campaigns allow you to send a series automated messages that are based on real time data and predefined rules after subscribers sign up for the campaign funnel.

You can either create closed or open-ended campaigns. Closed campaigns are those where you set a goal and your subscriber takes the action to exit the campaign. They will not receive any more notifications from the series.

An open-ended campaign, on the other hand, allows you to send multiple notifications without requiring an exit trigger. The campaign ends when the audience has received all of the notifications you planned.

It is important to define the entry points (when your audience will receive which message). Too many messages could lead to increased exit rates.

Push notifications for promotions

Let’s suppose you’re an E-commerce company and have a 2-day sale on your website. How would you let your customers know? It’s impossible to expect them to be on your website at the correct time. If your consumers don’t know about these events, no matter how thoughtfully-targeted or well-planned they are, they’re not gonna bear any fruit.

You must inform your customers about your new offerings, sales, giveaways, or exclusive offers. Also, remind them a few times. To encourage customers to visit your website at the right moment and make the purchase, you can create an urgency & FOMO.

You can gather a lot of information about your customers by having them browse your website. This includes their product preferences, buying power, browsing habits, and other data. You can create powerful, customized promotional messages for your customers by taking advantage of this data.

Your promotional push notifications can include milestone offers, anniversary, birthday, geolocation notifications and time-bound sales.

Push notifications for Intimation

Your Uber driver is already on his way! Miss.C’s tweet was liked by Mr.A, Miss.B, and other 30 people! Check out what others are discussing in your ABC group!

These notifications are sent by your favorite apps to you:

These push notifications are all types of intimation campaigns. This campaign keeps your audience informed about events on your platform. Although they might not directly relate to them, it can encourage them to open the app to see what’s going on. 

There is a fine line between what users want to know and what they may consider spamming. Avoid sending out intimidation push notifications that are too positive.

Push notifications are a great way to promote your business.

It’s important to be aware of all the types of push notifications available. Now it’s time to assess if push notifications could add value to your site or mobile app.

Here are the top reasons to use push notifications in your business.

Stimulate user engagement

Push notifications are designed to increase engagement. Push notifications can be used to attract customers at certain touchpoints. Push notifications can also be used to send out real-time reminders or updates to your audience, which will encourage them to engage with your brand frequently, even if they aren’t aware.

Push notifications allow you to stay in touch with your audience in an informal way. They provide timely messages, useful information, and valuable information such as rewards descriptions and special offers. Push notifications are a great way to get users to participate in new features or promotions.

A push notification strategy that works can increase user engagement up to 88%. This can reduce the number of customers who abandon your website or app.

Retain/ re-engage users

Many mobile apps have many potential users who downloaded the app but never use it. These inactive users can be turned into active users by pushing notifications.

Notification messages can help increase app retention rates a number of times. You can retain your users longer by providing personalized offers, reminders and breaking news.

Convert more customers

Perhaps your users allow you to send push notifications without their consent. Next, make sure they’re making purchases in your app, on your website, or in your store.

You can send notifications to your customers and trigger purchases immediately. You can send your audience information and inform them about special offers or discounts. This will help you increase your conversion rates.

Increase user targeting

Push notifications have been around for 10 years. However, you can now send the right message to the right audience at the right moment and place. Machine learning and geolocation will make it easier to send out push notifications that are successful.

Machine learning allows the Starbucks app to identify patterns in users’ behavior. For example, it can determine what drink they most often buy. The app can then generate a personalized offer and send a push notification to the user about the promotion. The Weather Channel uses geolocation to notify users about weather conditions in their region.

Gain customer insight

Detail reporting is the best way to learn about your audience. To improve your strategies, push notifications can provide valuable statistics regarding open rate and Click-through Rate. 

Five Tips to Create a Remarkable Push Notification

Keep it brief and sweet

Lock screens don’t offer much real estate, so keep your push notifications brief and sweet.

The highest click-through rates have been recorded for notifications messages between 20 and 90 characters. You can always improve your message by adding rich media, images and emojis if you find it too restrictive.

It’s not about being concise, but also being clear. Try to be honest, authentic, and direct when communicating your message. Sometimes, the most simple words are the best.

Craft compelling content

Be sure to create content that is relevant to your target audience. Find out what your prospects want to know and create content that addresses them. Visuals can be used to make your content easier to understand.

Before you write persuasive copy for push notifications, remember the following points:

• Make sure your headline is catchy. A catchy headline will make it easier to grab people’s attention and convince them to read your message. You can be creative and funny or compelling. Anything that will persuade your audience to sign up for your push notifications.

• Make sure your message is clear and concise. This message requires more than just using fancy words. It should convey quickly what the notification is about and explain how they can benefit from clicking on it. In their opt-in message E-commerce stores could mention special offers or discounts that subscribers can access through push notifications.

To make your message clear and understandable to the receivers, you should use simple language and not use jargon. Pay attention to the tone of your message. Avoid offensive words or statements that are too strong.

• Use social proof. You can represent your brand on different social media platforms and build an engaged customer base. In your profile bio, you can include a link to your page using the opt-in trigger. You can also run various marketing campaigns and ads. It is a good idea to include a statement about the performance of your products and services, as well as the satisfaction levels achieved by current users.

• Scarcity can be used to create FOMO and urgency. You can create a sense of urgency and get recipients to click on notifications that are related to certain actions. If users want to receive a discount on your website or download a report you have published, clearly show them what they should do next. A message that is action-oriented encourages users to act. This message will generate more responses and converts than a regular copy.

• You can A/B test them. It is a good idea to create two versions of the same push notification and then do an A/B testing. This will allow you to determine which version works well and which doesn’t. It also allows you to find the right balance between simple and complex.

Include a call-to-action

Each notification that you send must have a clear purpose. Notifications should be clear and concise. They should enable recipients to learn new information or do something faster, easier, or better.

Even though you could create the most beautiful and compelling push notification, it will not be enough without a strong call for action. How can you create a strong CTA for your push notification?

It is an invitation and not a request. You can use colorful verbs to elicit enthusiasm and positive emotions. Keep in mind the mobile medium. You can use the example of “Check out today’s deals!” but “Today’s deals at your fingertips!” is better. 

Also, consider the user segment. Bargain shoppers will respond more quickly to “Get Your Discount Code”, while luxury customers will be attracted to “Treat Yourself!”

Personalize everything

What makes this receiver interested in your message and why? What characteristics or behaviors make them relevant for your push campaign?

Personalization is key to any push notification. Not only should it be personal, but also the message frequency, delivery times, level of activity in-app, product and content types, as well as copy.

Segmentation is a key part of any push notification strategy. Segmentation allows you to tailor your message to specific audiences and motivate them to take action by grouping them based on their app usage.

Your push notification campaigns can be measured

Marketing is exciting because you can measure every campaign you run. It is crucial to measure the effectiveness of each campaign you run. The results will help you determine your target audience and form the foundation of your future campaigns.

These are the 4 key metrics that can be used to measure your push notifications campaigns.

• Opt-in rates are the number of people who sign up for your push notifications

• Click-through/Open rates: The number of people who receive your push notifications.

• Time spent on app/website after receiving notifications: This is the time that your users spend on your platform after they receive a push notification.

• Conversion rates are the number of people who complete a predetermined goal after receiving your push notification.

Avoid these 5 common mistakes when using push notifications

Push notification campaigns are a great way to increase repeat visits and drive traffic to the best-performing content. Sounds exciting, right?

Many businesses are unable to reap the full benefits of push notifications because they make mistakes that can be easily fixed. We’ve listed here some common mistakes that businesses should avoid.

Notifying too many people

Sending push messages to subscribers is a bad idea. It can be a costly mistake long-term. While this may seem to be effective for a short time, you will see an increase in overall numbers. However, users will be more likely to opt out if they are receiving too many push notifications.

As a thoughtful business owner, it is important to get to know your audience and their lifestyles in order to determine the frequency of your push notifications. You will need to be more selective about the messages that you send via push notifications. The frequency of your notifications will differ from one case to another.

Not automating notifications

You can’t plan or automate push notifications if you don’t plan ahead. This could lead to friction between your users, your campaign, and your subscribers.

Your push notification campaigns should be scheduled for a particular date and time, or according to your audience segment’s local time zone. You should ensure that they don’t arrive at inappropriate hours or interrupt their productivity.

Based on your business goals, nature and offers, your strategy might differ. You should therefore test the best times of the day to get maximum engagement.

Follow the “spray and spray” method

Marketers have all made the classic mistake of seeing your audience as one big group. Users expect and demand personalization. It will result in “notification blindness” if you don’t cater to the users’ preferences.

There are some easy ways to correct this error and improve segmentation.

• Default segmentation. Most push notification platforms offer default segmentation. Geo-based, device and browser-based segmentation are the most popular.

• Geo-based segmentation. You should send different notifications to clients if your business has multiple locations. If you are a food delivery service, your offers should be specific to the geographic region.

• URL-based segmentation. After your notifications have been integrated, users who subscribed to your page will be segmented according to the URL they came from. This data can be used to match your message with each receiver.

Expiration not included

Let’s suppose your customers are notified of a 40% discount for two days. After a week, customers still see the same notification. They click the notification to discover that the sale has ended. It’s not a pleasant experience.

This is just one example of the terrible experiences that can result from businesses not setting expiration dates for their notifications. This simple error can cause dissatisfaction in your audience and lead to unsubscription.

You can also choose an expiration time when creating push notifications. This will ensure that your subscriber never receives outdated notifications.

Not tracking the correct metrics

Marketers tend to be too focused on the immediate numbers. If you only track click rates, your push notifications campaigns will not be able to measure the actual conversions or value.

You should therefore carefully review the data in Google Analytics and other analytics tools to determine how many visitors are actually performing these actions, especially if they arrive via push notifications. This is the best way to determine if your push messaging campaigns are working.

The bottom line

Push notifications are direct messages that reach your audience, increase your online reach and allow you to connect quickly with them through one click opt-in.

This guide can be shared with friends and colleagues if you find it useful. Push notifications can help bring people closer to their business goals.