What Are Push Notifications? The Ultimate Guide
Push notifications are an easy yet impactful way to engage your customers while increasing the chances of conversions. But what are the benefits & best practices? Click here to learn everything!
Push notifications are an easy yet impactful way to engage your customers while increasing the chances of conversions. But what are the benefits & best practices? Click here to learn everything!
Ever since its inception in 2009, push notifications have been helping businesses establish a deeper and more personalized level of interaction with their customers. With push notifications, brands can entice their customers to make a purchase, use a discount coupon, or even leave a review for the product or service they purchased.
But what are push notifications, and how do you use them to your advantage?
Here’s everything you need to know!
Push notifications are pop-up messages displayed on a browser (irrespective of the device) or a mobile app. They are clickable and are primarily directed toward encouraging the user to take a desired action.
Push notifications are a quick and easy way to convey important messages, offers, discounts, ask for contact details, and show any other details without causing information overload. Their easy-to-implement and catchy appeal makes them incredibly popular.
It is essential to understand that web and mobile push notifications have different working mechanisms. Here’s a quick breakdown of how they work:
Apple Push Notifications Service (for iOS devices) and Firebase Cloud Messaging (for Android devices) are used by marketers to send their push notifications to customers using these devices. These platforms are responsible for establishing a connection between the app server and the device.
The app server keeps a record of individual device tokens that have opted for push notifications. When it’s time to send a push notification, the server sends a message to the push notification server (PNS) with the device token, the content of the notification, and the actions within the app where the user should be directed).
The mobile push notification will show up even if the device is locked. Users can opt out of receiving these push notifications at any time.
In the case of web push notifications, these notifications are sent even if the user is not actively browsing on the website. That said, the user must agree to receive them, leading to the creation of a subscription code. In the case of pop-up notifications, consent from the user is not necessarily required.
Websites use Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging, Apple’s Push Notification Service, and Windows Notification Service to send push notifications to browsers. If the websites are not using any push notification platforms, specific scripts or codes are embedded on the website that trigger the pop-up window.
These can appear when the page loads, based on the user’s interaction with the website and after the user has spent some time on the website.
Here are different types of push notifications that businesses can use to capture growth and deliver personalized messages:
These notifications are sent to website users after they have confirmed receiving them. Web push notifications are primarily focused on delivering special offers, telling users about upcoming events, and delivering special discount codes or coupons. They can be set to trigger after a particular action has been taken by the user.
The desktop push notifications are sent to the user even when the browser is closed or minimized. They are sent from websites that users have subscribed to and are aimed at keeping the user interested and engaged with the brands. These notifications usually convey special offers and announce upcoming events or updates to look out for.
These are sent by the apps downloaded on the user’s device. Mobile push notifications can range from updating customers about a service or product purchased to seeking feedback, upcoming offers and discounts, and even special discount codes if the customer hasn’t used the app in a while. These notifications are also a smart way to keep your customers engaged with the brand on a personal level.
Wearable devices like smartwatches are becoming common these days, and sending push notifications on these devices ensures your target customers never miss any updates. These devices sync with mobile devices, ensuring messages are being delivered on time.
Here are some popular push notification marketing campaigns that are commonly used by businesses leveraging the tech:
Rich push notifications contain rich media attachments, including GIFs, emojis, images, and even videos. This type of notification enables a business to engage with their customers interactively, increasing chances of drawing customers. These notifications may also contain interactive content extension elements, allowing a user to complete an action without opening the app.
Cart abandonment is a massive concern that keeps e-commerce business owners awake at night. With push notifications, business owners can recapture the attention of their potential customers and turn abandoned carts into fulfilled orders.
Oftentimes, people keep their wishlist items in the cart, waiting for lucrative and money-saving offers that can be delivered with push notifications.
These notifications are ideal when a business is looking to deliver information that can influence a potential customer’s purchase decision.
These notifications are loaded with information framed in a crisp and compact manner (to avoid information overload). The call-to-action buttons usually encourage potential customers to learn more about the product or service instead of being overly sales-focused.
Triggered push notifications are ideal when a business wants to show their customer’s offers at a specific time as the potential customers move through the sales process. Such push notifications are excellent for drawing attention and significantly boosting sales.
That said, it is crucial that your campaign has clearly defined trigger points and metrics that will be monitored to track the success of the campaigns.
These notifications are ideal if your business is often engaging in events like live or flash sales, running limited-period offers, and frequent launches.
The reminder push notifications usually come with live timers, reminding individuals of upcoming events. It is vital that these notifications are adequately planned to prevent delays or improper post-event sales processes.
These push notifications are sent when your potential customer is within a specified location. In more common terms, these notifications are also known as geotargeting. They are accommodating when businesses want to attract local foot traffic to their physical store.
These push notifications are highly effective, draw instant engagement, and are excellent for creating brand awareness. Nonetheless, it is crucial that your geotargeting push notifications are adequately plotted in the target area to ensure the efficiency of the notification process.
These are small, simple, and impactful push notifications that appear on a mobile device (valid for both iOS and Android) even if the user is not actively using their device.
Mobile-friendly push notifications follow strict character and pixel limits to ensure the notification is clearly visible to the reader.
Such push notifications are time-sensitive and appear when a specified date or time has been reached. They are ideal for marketing campaigns involving flash sales, event launches, or limited-time discount codes.
Transactional push notifications deliver vital information, including payment status updates, order-related information, and even order delivery updates.
These notifications are particularly vital for e-commerce businesses looking to keep their customers updated and are often part of the sales process.
These push notifications are strictly permission-based, and users receive notifications only if they have opted for them, making them non-intrusive and significantly more effective. These notifications are customized to fit a purpose and sent to an already interested customer pool.
Here are the key advantages a business can leverage by using push notifications:
Including push notifications as a part of marketing your business will be a monumental step towards generating leads by capturing the attention of your target audience at the right time. But to make sure you are doing it right, here are the best practices to follow:
The key to making your push notifications leave a lasting impact is to act when the time is right. For instance, an e-commerce business sending push notifications conveying upcoming deals for the holiday season, discounts, and new stock will encourage the target audience to start shopping before the holidays begin.
At the same time, if there’s a recent trend that is going viral on social media, leveraging it to create push notifications for your business can help you stay relevant and take advantage of the trend.
Urgent messages instantly grab users’ attention and make them want to act immediately. While it is best not to use this strategy frequently, it works exceptionally well if your business is looking to capitalize on audience interest and wants them to take immediate action.
Push notifications are particularly effective when your business is hosting flash sales, limited-period offers, and time-bound special discounts. They also work great for running low on stock alerts and out-of-stock notifications. Adding an action-oriented CTA will help your customers navigate their way to taking a desired action.
Geotargeting is excellent for driving foot traffic to your physical store. Such types of notifications are usually triggered when the user is in close proximity to the store and often have limited-time discounts or offers that can be availed.
These notifications can be helpful in making your store’s presence known locally and enticing target customers to visit to see the available range of products.
Personalization is the ultimate way to show your customers that you care about them and their preferences. In times when templates are becoming common, personalization can be incredibly beneficial in setting your brand apart.
It also allows you to experiment with how your brand communicates with the target audience (in terms of voice) and helps establish a more profound, emotional connection with them. Segmenting and targeting your customers based on their demographics, interests, or behaviors will be incredibly beneficial.
The use of GIFs, emojis, and images in push notifications makes them visually attractive and tends to make people want to click on them.
That said, when using these rich elements, it is highly recommended to test effectiveness and readability to avoid sending push notifications that are difficult to read.
Bulky push notifications are difficult to read, and your users may not pay attention to them. In worst cases, bulky notifications can even lead to more people unsubscribing.
To ensure this doesn’t happen, test your notifications regularly before publishing them, and always segment your audience based on their demographics, interests, and age group to maximize click-through rates and goal completion.
The usual character limit for iOS and Android may differ, making it vital to test for readability and ease of clickability.
Sending push notifications without a solid goal in mind will generate results you won’t know how to use to your advantage. These include metrics like click-through rate, average revenue per user, retention rate, opt-outs, uninstall rate, and customer acquisition cost.
Observing these parameters will help you understand how your push notification campaigns are performing and highlight areas for improvement.
Keeping communication simple and easy to act on is pivotal to ascertaining that your customers know what they need to do.
Avoid using excessive jargon or including every piece of information in one notification alone. It leads to information overload, causes distractions, and makes your target audience feel that they don’t know enough.
Instead, adhering to breaking down complex pieces of information into smaller parts, using simple and layman’s terms, will make people take interest and engage with your business more often.
While push notifications are an effective way to grab user attention and increase chances of conversions, using them in excess can result in more opt-outs or a higher customer acquisition cost.
Adhering to sending two or at most four notifications a day. In case of a special occasion (like a sale or order-related information), consider plotting the stages at which the notifications will be sent.
In times when businesses are looking to create a lasting and memorable experience in the minds of their customers, push notifications allow brands to get closer with their marketing campaigns. For both web and mobile devices (on Android and iOS mobile operating systems), push notifications can deliver important information within seconds, keeping your customers engaged and interested in what your brand offers.
While push notifications are promising, it is crucial not to excessively send them or use bulk blocks of texts as they can lead to opt-outs or may increase bounce rates. Remember to add value, entertainment, and purpose to your push notifications to make them more impactful.
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