Push notifications are messages consumers receive on their mobile phones from websites or apps they subscribed to. These messages are delivered to the user’s device even when they do not have the respective website or app open, or even logged into their account. This is why push notifications are among the most powerful tools for your digital marketing strategy. If you have not started using them, we will explain to you why you need start doing it.
How Popular Are Push Notifications Among Consumers?
Of course, push notifications are useful digital marketing tools as long as your customers accept to receive them on their smartphones. And we have good news for you in this respect.
According to Business of Apps platform, a massive 91.1% of Android phone owners and 43.9% of iOS phone owners enable push notifications on their devices. This means that you have a huge potential audience for your promotional messages.
What Makes Push Notifications So Useful for Marketers?
Countless statistical data collected over the years prove that people are more likely to check a push notification than an email or SMS message. At the same time, push notifications have a higher deliverability rate compared to emails.
Considering the fact that nowadays consumers always have their smartphone with them, wherever they go, push notifications are the most effective ways to connect with your leads and customers.
Here are some ways in which these mobile based messages help you create an effective digital marketing strategy:
1. Develop a Customer Journey for the Mobile Environment
You know all about the sale funnel and the efforts to capture, nurture and convert leads. You have been doing it for years on the social media and via email. Why not incorporate native mobile messages, as well?
Push notifications are the ideal tool for nurturing leads in the mobile era. Emails can get unnoticed. Facebook ads may not get the clicks from the right users. But push notifications can be seen and heard at the same time on a mobile screen.
2. Make Your Marketing Communications More Personalised
Push notifications are more personal than emails. They pop on the mobile screen and the users feel that the message was directed to them alone. This gives them a sense of importance – “this business wrote this message especially for me”.
Also, a message sent to the mobile device has an extra personal touch. Emails and social media pages can be viewed on many devices. The smartphone is a highly personal item, which the user alone can unlock and interact with.
3. The Best Tool for Flash Sales
When you host flash sales or other limited time offers, push notifications are your best friends. They get opened almost as soon as they are received. Thus, your clients have sufficient time to act and not miss the opportunity.
As an extra tip, send your notifications earlier to your most loyal customers and inform them that they are some of the few getting an early bird opportunity to enjoy the special offer.
4. Keep the Conversation Going
Push notifications should not be only about sales. You should use them to keep in touch with your leads and clients, making sure they do not forget about your business. Thus, you can inform them of upcoming events or product releases. You can notify them of new blog posts, videos and tutorial that match their interests and needs.
However, you must be careful about timing. Push notifications are disruptive – they hover over games and they interrupt films and music streaming with their notification sound. Thus, if you flood users with such notifications, they will eventually opt out.
5. Target Users in Your Relevant Geographical Area
Geo-fencing is a useful feature of push notification, similar to targeting Facebook users by location. You can set boundaries for the physical location of your subscribers who will receive the notifications.
This offers ample opportunities for personalisation, especially for companies operating in several countries. Thus, you can send personalised offers for your customers who are travelling and who may not be aware of the presence of your business in the respective area.