First impressions count.
Then again, so do second impressions, and third ones – especially in business. You’ve probably heard the advice a million times – keep your customer engaged, keep them glued to your site or app – but how do you go about this?
The reality is that it’s increasingly difficult to do.
You have around seven seconds to capture the attention of your new users when they land on your website. Just seven lightning-fast seconds to impress your target audience.
However, that’s just the first impression.
The magic formula to keeping customers on your site or reigning them back in after a long absence on your mobile app is by using push messages. There are four types of push messages:
- Web push messages
- Desktop push messages
- Mobile app push messages
- Push notifications on wearables (e.g., smartwatches)
So, let’s get down to business and go through what push messages are, how they work, their benefits, and why they need to be part of your marketing strategy.
What are push messages?
Push messages are those clickable messages that pop up when you’re browsing the web or scrolling on your mobile phone. They can be triggered either locally when you open an app or website or can be “pushed” from a server even if the app isn’t actively running.
Push messages are extremely effective for time-sensitive calls to action, and help customers re-engage either within a browser or on a mobile phone app.
Push messages hold a lot of power, and they’re useful for both businesses and the end-user.
For example, many of your customers love the fact that they have access to information in real-time delivered on either their browser or their mobile device.
Who doesn’t love a sale? And everyone knows, to bag a bargain you have to be first at the starting line. By letting your customer know that there’s a hot sale coming up on a particular day in the future, they’re in the know. A bonus is that they feel as though they’re in on a secret that will save them money.
What you’ve actually done is drive customers to your website or app at the times of the week when sales are slowest. Everyone walks away a winner.
This is arguably the most effective ROI feature of them all.
How do push messages work?
As a communication channel, push messages work by allowing businesses to convey offers, messages, and any other relevant information to users. The beauty of push notifications is that subscribers can be contacted as long as their browsers are running.
These messages came about back in 2009 [1], and are usually made up of a title, a message, sometimes an image, as well as a URL.
So, how can your customers opt-in to receive your push notifications, you ask?
It all depends on their device, as iOS and Android devices handle push messages completely differently.
For starters, iOS users are asked to enable push notifications the first time they launch your app. On the other hand, Android users are automatically opted in.
There are benefits to both these approaches. As you’ve probably already guessed, Android has a larger number of customers opting in. However, they often feel as though they’re being spammed and have had the power of choice taken away from them.
Naturally, iOS has lower numbers in comparison, but they’re your truest customers out there. They were asked for their consent on day one, and they’re conscious of what they agreed to.
Customers can always opt-out by going to “Settings” on their device and adjusting their notification settings.
The most important factor to consider when sending these notifications is the value of the sales message itself and whether it meets the end goal of enhancing the customer journey.
The difference between push messages and SMS
While they might appear similar, SMS (or text messages) and push messages are quite different.
The biggest difference between these two marketing channels is cost. Not everyone has an unlimited texting plan, and the financial impact for those who don’t have such a plan can be significant. Even worse, if they continue to receive a large number of text messages they are likely to view your business in an increasingly negative light, especially if they need to respond to continue or even just stop conversations.
On the business side of things, sending mass text messages can escalate costs for your company very quickly.
Other differences include that you can opt-out of push messages, while text messages often appear out of the blue. What’s worse, companies sell phone lists, which customers can find hard to remove themselves from.
You can also easily track various metrics such as open rates, making them perfect for split testing and campaigns. Push messages play nicely with other forms of marketing campaigns too like email or even in-app messaging and website chat platforms.
Lastly, with push messages there are fewer legal and technical limitations in the US in comparison to text messages.
Benefits of using push messages
1. Boosts customer engagement – turn inactive users into active ones with reminders, “we miss you” notes, and personalized discounts
2. Reduces cart abandonment – create a sense of urgency and let your customers know they will lose those exciting deals unless they act fast
3. Shares updates instantly – a “back in stock” notification will get your customer quickly opening up your app and throwing the item in the cart faster than the speed of light
4. Improves retention – generating notifications depending on demographic range will improve retention
Best practices for sending push messages
1. Keep it short and simple – people have short attention spans and it’s been proven that shorter, more succinct push notifications are most effective
2. Personalize your messages – avoid robotic messages and include whatever will spark your customer’s interest and benefit them, and use their name
3. Optimize according to your user’s device – there is a character limit of 150-230 characters for iOS devices and 450-650 characters for Android devices, but the best push messages are around 40-50 characters
4. Include the right CTA – use timely and relevant copy to capture your reader’s attention and make them take action
5. Send relevant notifications – segment your audience and think about the user’s interests, gender, age, device, location, browsing history, and previous purchases
The reality is, people in the US receive 45.9 push notifications [2] on average every day. This means that yours has to standout from the majority, if not all, of the other notifications that bombard your customer.
Also, remember to keep in mind the time at which you send notifications. Nobody wants their phone lighting up, or even worse, vibrating, at four o’clock in the morning. Keep the vibrations to a minimum, unless the notification is of great urgency.
A gentle push in the right direction
This simple yet incredibly effective medium helps companies increase those ever-important repeat visits, in addition to user retention and re-engagement.
Your website and mobile marketing strategy can be very successful if you take advantage of push messages, but it’s critical to have a thought-out approach as to who you will target, at what time, and with what content.
The great thing about push messages is that your customer doesn’t have to be on your website or using your app to receive them. What’s more, they don’t even have to be there when they’re delivered. All they need to do is turn on their phone or lock their device for your message to pop up.
When sending push notifications, use words that are sure to grab your customers’ attention and increase conversions by providing them with information that will be useful to them. In combination with other tools, like customer messaging software, you will achieve effective customer service support every single time.
Sources
1. https://www.adjust.com/blog/a-decade-of-push-notifications-with-braze/
2. https://askwonder.com/research/times-people-interrupted-push-notifications-163c8n1hc
