Push notifications as one of the newest digital marketing channels enjoy notable momentum. For a business to efficiently leverage push notifications, it must craft the entire customer journey from beginning to end, sync this channel with the other marketing channels it is using in its marketing strategy, and take into consideration core strategic elements of push notifications per se, such as the ones we describe here below.

1: Content vs target audience

Content is king and queen, however, as any ruler that respects him/herself, it needs followers. Make sure that the content you write in a push notification relates to your target audience, answers their questions, and meets their needs. You can even use visuals to make your content more understandable. Bottom line, keep your message crisp and clear, with simple and direct language, using memorable short phrases, create a sense of urgency or fear-of-missing out, and of course, always include a CTA to trigger the desirable reaction.

2: Type of push notification and A/B testing

Should you be sending informative, time-bound, reminders, a mix of the above, or all of the above types of push notifications? The answer is: whatever works best for your business and your target audience combined. How can you find out what works best for this equation? By employing A/B testing to determine the most suitable type or combination of push notification types for each target audience. A/B testing is also equally important for determining the preferred time each target audience wishes to receive these messages.

3: Existing subscribers pool

Benefit from your existing subscribers’ database by embedding a link in your newsletter, members-only blog, or SMS, to redirect these subscribers to a page where they can opt-in to receive push notifications.

4: Corporate social proof

Provide an opt-in link on every page your brand owns in each social media platform. Place the link in your profile’s bio, as a new post to engage users, or in the about section of your page. Make sure to describe the value your users will be receiving from opting-in to your brand’s push notifications. You can even combine these placements with user reviews of your products and services for higher engagement.

5: Opt-in and opt-out

Make sure you provide a clear and easy way for users to opt-in or opt-out of your push notifications. It is important for consumers to feel empowered with the freedom of choice, that is, whether they want to be contacted by a business or not, or when they want to opt-out and stop receiving messages. It’s a win-win situation as your business only targets users who are truly interested in your products and services. Explicitly stating that it is easy to opt-out helps consumers build trust in your brand.

Personalization is the keyword that every business is after now; it goes beyond just being a seasonal trend, it is here to stay. As consumers are more likely to click on messages that appeal to their interests and emotions, businesses must focus their marketing strategy on efficient segmentation and personalization, otherwise, they are losing out. Brands are in the search for a communication channel that can deliver customized messages that users will instantly see, open, read, and react to. Well, look no further, push notifications are in the house!

A great thing about push notifications is that a business can segment its target audiences based on their online reported behavior, their demographic traits, or other predefined measurable attributes, and contact users their preferred time of reach, real-time.

To build a solid brand reputation via push notifications in the long-run, brands must make sure that they are not overly aggressive and spammy, and that they focus on delivering value to their audience. After all, no business wants for its subscribed users for which it has worked hard to collect their consents, to opt-out.

We have put together a collection of 6 of the most notable ways a business can employ push notifications to deliver value to its audience.

1: Abandoned Cart

Trigger a push notification to the customers that left their shopping cart before completing a purchase on your website and see a 5-times higher reach as compared to emails sent for the same reason.

2: Special Offers

Communicate your time-specific offers to your customers per segmented target group. As much as 57% of people like to receive promotional texts. Target these alerts to customers with related interests then it’s a win-win relationship.

3: Booking Confirmation

Send booking confirmation to your guests about their upcoming reservations. Throw in perhaps a small perk, as a subtle way to convince them that your hotel mobile app is a useful tool to install before their visit and to keep after they check out.

4: Showcase New Products

Communicate your new products and services to your customers based on their preferences. If you have a new women’s’ clothing collection coming in for the age group of 18-29 yrs old, send alerts only to those customers from your database.

5: Customer Reviews

Enable your business to generate more reviews online and empower its social proof. For every completed purchase they make, send your customers an alert and prompt them to review online all or one of the products or services they bought from your business.

6: Hook Casual Web Visitors

First-time website visitors are usually reluctant to give out their contact details. If they like the content they read, you can trigger their opt-in action with a browser notification that does not require the provision of personal data.

It doesn’t get any simpler than this: push notifications are short automated messages from apps and websites that appear on a user’s device or browser.

The science behind the magic of push notifications focuses on creating triggering messages to elicit a target audience’s immediate reaction related to a brand’s product or service.

Push notifications are among the most popular customer communication channels, offering multiple opportunities for automation and personalization. They can display dynamic rich media messages, use real-time reaction triggers, target audiences based on their online reported behavior, their demographic traits, or other predefined measurable factors, and even contact users their preferred time of reach.

As they require less effort by the users to read and react, don’t need users to own a specific type of device or software to be able to receive and open them, and alerts can be delivered even when a device’s screen is locked or when the app or website that is sending the push notification is closed, push notifications are an ideal way to achieve higher click-through rates. In fact, both web and mobile push notifications, enjoy a click-through rate (CTR) of 40%, which is 8 times higher than that of email marketing!

In a brief comparison between web vs mobile push notifications, web push notifications have a broader reach than mobile app notifications, as users can receive alerts on their computers, laptops, and mobile browsers from websites they have authorized. Mobile push notifications, on the other hand, have a shorter reach than web push notifications, as users must install an app and opt-in to push notifications. Mobile push notifications can be displayed in the lock screen, notification center, or banners on a mobile device, triggering a sound or vibration.

Apart from the high user engagement and high click-through rates that businesses who use push notifications in their marketing strategy can enjoy, they can also improve their business revenue growth, strengthen customer retention, boost re-engagement of idle or lapsed users, enhance customer experience through efficient segmentation and personalization, increase traffic to their brand’s website or app, and empower their brand identity.

A business can capitalize on push notifications putting in action its vast functionality (web overlays, web push, email, mobile, in-app, and SMS) using a powerful push notification service like Routee.