What is Push Notification Marketing (and How Does it Work?)
Push notification marketing refers to the practice of sending marketing messages via “push” technology, which can be performed on both desktop and mobile devices.
Push messages are clickable pop-ups that you can send through to a user’s mobile notification center, desktop, or browser, even if the user hasn’t opened your website or app. That makes push notification marketing a powerful strategy for driving engagement with your audience, as you can use these messages to encourage them to visit your website or app. Push notifications have a dramatically higher open rate than email marketing. Reckless’ study found that while email open rates were less than 2%, push notifications had an average open rate of 20%.
Let’s look at how to engage your audience through this powerful marketing channel.
Types of Push Notifications
Both web and mobile push notifications can serve as part of your cross-channel marketing strategy.
App push notifications are pop-up messages that can be sent when the user has your app installed on their mobile device. On both Android and Apple devices, the notifications will show up directly on the user’s lock screen in the notification center. From there, they can view the notification to open your app or mobile site depending on where you want to send them. App push notifications can also be enabled on smartwatches and other types of wearables. Android devices automatically opt users in for app notifications when they install an app, which means opt-in rates on Android devices are very high (91.1%), according to a 2018 Accengage study. On iOS devices, however, users need to give permission, leading to an average opt in rate of 43.9%.
Web push notifications are sent to users through a desktop web or mobile web browser, sliding in at the top or bottom of their screen. They’re supported on most major browsers for desktop and mobile, including Google Chrome, Safari (macOS), Microsoft Edge, and Firefox, though they’re not currently enabled for Safari on iOS. In order to get your notifications, users will need to opt-in through a browser opt-in box. Currently, opt-in rates for web push notifications fall between 5% and 15%.
Both web and mobile push notifications can incorporate images and links. Some users’ operating systems may also support video files, audio files and other forms of rich push notifications. Take advantage of these opportunities to integrate rich media into your messaging content, such as video clips from your brand or photos of your latest products. Incorporating rich content will help your messages stand out and increase user engagement with your content.
Increasing Opt-ins for Push Notification Marketing
Because most types of push notification marketing require users to opt in, it’s important to develop strategies that will help you to increase opt-in rates.
For example, rather than asking users to opt in to push notifications immediately after visiting your website, wait until they’ve spent several minutes scrolling through your site. This ensures that they have a chance to see the value that you provide first.
You can also set event criteria, such as launching a notification that encourages them to subscribe for special discounts and promotions when someone clicks on a product page.
How to Use Push Notification Marketing
Push notification marketing can be used to deliver powerful CTAs that will entice your customers to take action. A few ways to use them include:
1. Offering a limited time sale
If you’re offering a special promotion, spotlight it through push notifications as well as email and SMS marketing, tailoring your channel delivery format to the channels each user is most likely to respond to, based on past interactions.
2. Sharing personalized product recommendations
By segmenting your audience based on their consumer preferences, purchase history, and behavioral data, you’ll be able to promote highly personalized offers that they’re more likely to connect with. Ticketmaster, for example, uses push notifications to make announcements for upcoming shows that are in the genres that audience members have expressed interest in previously.
3. “Forgot something?” notification
If a customer abandons a shopping cart, you can use a push notification to encourage them to return to the site or app and make a purchase, potentially offering a special promo code to sweeten the deal.
4. Sending customers a notification about your newest article or ebook
Use push notifications to promote your content marketing efforts. Rather than making a sales pitch, this strategy can engage them with informative and entertaining content about the topics that they care about, helping customers gain trust in your brand.
Push Notification Marketing within Cross-Channel Marketing
Push notification marketing can serve as a powerful part of your cross-channel marketing strategy. Using a cross-channel marketing platform like Iterable, you can set up highly personalized, sequenced messages to engage with your customers across all of their devices and channels, incorporating email, SMS, push, in-app, web push, direct mail and social retargeting.
By setting up workflows that trigger push notifications and other types of messages based on the user’s interests and behavior, you can deliver relevant content that’s designed to meet them at the point where they’re most likely to engage with you.
By incorporating push notification marketing into your marketing mix, you’ll be able to reach your audience through a channel that’s optimized for maximum customer engagement and high click-through rates. Combine push notification marketing with the other channels your audiences use to develop an integrated, cohesive messaging approach that will reach your audience at the right time and place, no matter how they prefer to engage with your brand.