The Complete Guide to Push Notifications

In any business, active engagement strategies are crucial for nurturing your customer base and maximizing revenue.

For a long time, email marketing has been the standard way for brands to reach out and communicate with their audience. 

And while email marketing is still effective, and still pulls a positive ROI, consumer habits have evolved and there are new, potentially more effective, ways for brands to generate engagement.

Push notifications are one of these channels.

Read on and we’ll explain everything you need to know about push notifications. We’ll share why push notifications are so effective today, the difference between web push and mobile push, how to set up push notifications, and the best use cases for push notifications.

Whether you’re running an eCommerce brand, a news or content site, a community, an online marketplace, or any other business with an online presence, push notifications have the potential to drive huge amounts of revenue for minimal cost, resulting in an ROI you wouldn’t believe.

If you'd rather watch a video on this topic, check out this video on our YouTube channel:

MobiLoud helps businesses turn their websites into native mobile apps, and harness the full power of push notifications. Learn more about what we do here, or get in touch for a free consultation to discuss how we can help you launch your own mobile app.

Real Brands Use Push Notifications to Boost Retention and Drive Revenue

Not only are push notifications an effective way to reach your audience in real time, but they are a great way to retain your audience over longer periods.

Research from Localytics discovered that mobile app users who received push notifications were much more likely to keep using an app (and log into it regularly) when subscribed to push notifications than those who weren't.

App retention rates are nearly 3x higher when users receive at least one push notification in their first 90 days using the app, compared to those who received zero.

Shopping apps that send weekly push notifications see 2-5x higher retention rates, and those sending daily push notifications have 3-6x higher retention rates.

Push notifications are also an especially powerful tool for content publishers, as they provide a much easier way to get time-sensitive updates and stories into the hands of readers.

‍The New York Times has had so much success with push notifications that they now have a dedicated team to handle the development and scheduling of push alerts to subscribed app users.

If you’re tired of your content getting lost in the noise, and want to grow page views and engagement (as Hill Reporter did, with our help), push notifications may be just the marketing tactic you need to try.

The Key Benefits of Push Notifications

There’s so much to be gained from push notifications. Here are ten specific benefits of push notifications.

1. Instant Access to Your Audience
Push notifications let you reach your audience instantly, even when they’re not actively using your app or visiting your site.

2. Real-Time Engagement and Virality
You can drive immediate traffic to your app or website, increasing content virality and amplifying your reach.

3. Timely and Relevant Updates
Push notifications are delivered immediately, and often seen shortly after being received. Urgent notifications position your app as the go-to source for on-the-fly information that users value.

4. High Visibility and Engagement Rates for eCommerce
Push is perfect for promoting new product launches, exclusive offers, or updates that might otherwise go unnoticed, ensuring maximum visibility.

5. Push Notifications Enhance User Experience and Loyalty
Value-driven push notifications improve the overall app experience, fostering loyalty. For example, The New York Times app subscribers are more engaged and willing to pay compared to desktop users.

6. Increased App Engagement for Social Platforms
Push notifications encourage daily app returns, boosting user activity. Increased engagement makes your platform more appealing to both existing users and new adopters.

7. Increased Ad Revenue for Mobile Apps
If your monetization strategy includes ads, push notifications bring more users back to ad-rich pages, driving higher ad impressions and revenue.

8. Personalization
Push notifications can target shoppers with personalized messages, turning browsers into buyers and boosting sales.

9. Data and Key Insights
Push notifications provide rich user data. Understanding audience preferences enables you to fine-tune your marketing strategies for greater impact.

10. Cost-Effectiveness
Push notifications cost virtually nothing to send, even when sending multiple daily notifications to thousands of subscribers, while automated workflows let you send push notifications on autopilot. The low cost and upkeep makes achieving a positive ROI extremely straightforward.

As Andrew Phelps, the Product Director of Messaging & Push at the New York Times, said:

“We used to be standing on a hill and shouting messages at people. Now, there’s a growing number of users who only engage with us when we send a push.”

They're also a phenomenal tool for eCommerce brands, as David Cost, VP of eCommerce and Marketing at Rainbow Shops explains:

“The power of push notifications is so strong. In a world where people open email less and less each day, everyone is jumping into SMS which is crazy expensive, and people are starting to tune these out too, being able to do push notifications is the reason you do an app.”

Differences Between Web and Mobile Push Notifications

When discussing push notifications, it's important to distinguish between web push notifications and mobile app push notifications.

There's a big difference, in terms of how they work, the opt-in process, and results. In most cases, opt-in rates, click-through rates, and the loyalty of push users is much higher in apps than on the web.

Let's dive deeper...

If you want to learn more about the technical aspects of push notifications and how they work, we took a closer look at the topic in this article.

Appearance of Web vs Mobile App Push Notifications 🔔

In terms of appearance, there actually isn’t much of a difference between web or mobile push notifications.

Here are examples of both web and mobile app push notifications:

Web Push Notifications:

‍

Mobile App Push Notifications:

Both allow publishers to send text messages, and they can be accompanied by images and video.

Oh, and messages can include advanced characters like emojis, too. In fact, LeanPlum found that emojis nearly double the open rate of push notifications:

Functionality of Web vs Mobile App Push Notifications 🛠️

In terms of how push notifications work, the delivery system is essentially the same, but they have differences in terms of how they can be customized.

Reach for Web vs Mobile App Push Notifications 📣

I’ve already touched on this point a little bit, but we'll sum it up once more.

Mobile apps win when it comes to reach, as mobile users spent over 87% of their mobile time within apps, rather than on the mobile web.

This is why news publishers like The New York Times and CNN, or social media apps, have so much success with mobile push notifications.

Opt-in Rates for Web vs Mobile App Push Notifications ✅

The first step in being successful with push notifications is getting people to actually opt in to them.

As we’ve seen already, it’s typically a simple choice: Allow or Block.

But the content of your site or app, as well as the level of customization available for notifications, can dictate how high your opt-in rate can go.

Read more about the average opt-in rates for mobile push notifications here.

CTRs for Web vs Mobile App Push Notifications ☝️

A little later, I’m going to share some success stories of push notifications from a number of websites. One of the key comparison metrics is click-through rate. Let's take a look at how the two compare.

‍Brett Caine of Urban Airship explained why some companies see far more success than others:

“As more and more apps turn to notifications … it’s natural users will become more selective about which apps they allow to send push notifications.”

Of course, you need to take into account industry differences, as there are certain types of businesses that have more click-worthy messages than others. If your business relies on engaging with your audience in a relevant and timely way, than mobile app push notifications are the way to go - just make sure you personalize them and don’t waste your spot on their device lock screen.

Requirements for Web vs Mobile App Push Notifications 🔑

It’s easy to start using push notifications for your own business and both web and mobile app notifications have relatively low barriers to entry.

If you think a mobile app is too high of a barrier to entry, don't worry - they're not only reserved for the biggest companies anymore.

MobiLoud will build, publish, and maintain your mobile app in a relatively short time without the pain points of using a DIY builder or hiring a freelance app developer.

All you need is a website that already works well on mobile devices. As long as you have that, we'll convert your website into native apps, with push notifications built in and configured from the start.

You'll be able to launch your own mobile app and start using native push notifications for a low cost, little to no effort, and with no major changes to your workflow or crippling overhead (which often happens when you launch a new platform).

Click here to learn more about what MobiLoud does, or get in touch for a free consultation to discuss your project.

How Brands Use Push Notifications to Thrive

Push notifications are still an underutilized channel. But from those brands who do lean into push notifications as part of their marketing strategy, there are some amazing results to be found.

PushCrew published this case study from LA Tourism. In it, they explain how Bao Truong, a developer from the website, reached out in the hopes of developing a new marketing channel for the brand.

Here is what he had to say about how positive the experience was with web push notifications, right from the start:

“Our very first push notification was a massive hit! We saw an astonishing click rate of 16%. Truth be told, my team and I were a little skeptical about using Web Push Notifications for LA Tourism. We didn’t want to overwhelm our users. However, once we started using them we realized that Web Push Notification as a channel is both attention grabbing and non-invasive.”

Chargebee is another great example from PushCrew on how web push notifications greatly improved their brand’s marketing efforts. After implementation, the website began to collect around 30 new daily blog subscribers through push notifications alone. In addition, their click rate rose by 200%.

Preethi of Chargebee expanded:

“With traditional email list building and other engagement channels, the subscriber rate was far lower when compared to Push Notifications. The engagement with other channels in terms of click rate is 3 – 7%. With Push Notifications, our average click rate is over 14%.”

Then, there’s the case of Tiendeo. They discovered a significant difference between their email marketing efforts and what they were capable of doing with push. When compared side-by-side, push notifications received 30% more engagement than newsletters did.

Not only that, but their push notifications do such a good job that they’re solely responsible for the 49% of visitors that return to the site.

Our own users have also seen incredible returns from push notifications.

Through our native abandoned cart notifications, some brands have been able to recover tens of thousands of dollars (or more) in lost revenue, essentially on autopilot.

One brand in particular recovered an astonishing $200,000 in just 30 days using abandoned cart notifications.

Even on the lower end, the ability to recapture ~$10k in otherwise lost revenue through push notifications, with basically zero cost and effort involved, is an ROI that any business would kill for.

Best Practices for Push Notifications to Maximize Engagement

As we've established, push notifications are a powerful tool for all kinds of business, from publishers to eCommerce stores.

However, push notifications won't drive revenue on their own. They need to be used the right way to maximize return.

And the highly visible, highly personal nature of push notifications means they can also go wrong and reflect badly on your brand if used poorly.

Here are some tips to make sure you’re pushing the right way.

1. Decide Why You’re Using Them

A push notification sent without purpose is one that is doomed to fail. Really consider why it is you want to send them and what your users will ultimately get from receiving them.

For instance: Is it to get more people to read and comment on blog posts? Do you hope it will increase sales in your eCommerce store? Does your BuddyPress network generate a lot of activity worth notifying members about?

Ensure that your notification strategy will be useful to your audience, and won’t lead them to be be left with a bad impression and, inevitably, unsubscribe. To do this, utilize best practices and proven strategies to make your push notification strategy work:

2. Develop an Effective Opt-In Message

Before you can even reach visitors or users with push, you have to get them to opt-in (although Android users are automatically opted in).

So, how do you encourage them to opt into push notifications when many websites and mobile apps tend to use the same lifeless Allow/Block message?

With web push notifications, unfortunately, you don’t have much choice. This is how the opt-in message will appear on all websites:

With mobile app notifications, however, you have a lot of room for personalization. And the more welcoming and personalized the message feels, the better your chances are at getting quality users to opt in (i.e. the people who will remain loyal for a long time).

“If you tell the user why they should opt in before you ask them to do it, you’ll increase opt-in rates by 20–30 percent, and you’ll move it from 50 into the 70–80 percent opt-in range.”- Christopher Dean, CEO, Swrve

It’s tempting to make opt-outs difficult for your user, because push notifications are so effective. However, forcing your users into communication destroys customer loyalty.

Make opting out whenever they want as easy as possible.

‍That said, don’t assume the easy opt-out gives you a free pass to spam. Even if they can ditch you, overdoing things still leaves a bad taste in their mouth concerning your brand. It’s imperative to make management of preferences easy.

Why? Users may get overwhelmed by your notifications and opt-out completely.

‍You should make it possible to choose what types of alerts they get, when notifications are on or off, and specified quiet hours.

‍This added control goes a long way toward building trust and minimizing irritation.

(MobiLoud follows this and other best practices by letting users easily opt out of push notifications for articles and news based on their category.)

3. Make Push Notifications Timely

Not all push notifications are equal. You want the more annoying ones or less relevant ones to be less intrusive – that means timing becomes more important than ever.

Push cadence is important, too. Don’t send too often, but don’t wait too long or they’ll forget who you are and feel interrupted when you start contacting them again.

Look at the New York Times mobile app, for example. Breaking news goes out when the story is actually breaking.

If they were to send it a day or even a few hours too late, their audience would likely have already heard the news from another source.

That said, you have to make sure push notifications go out at the right time of day for your particular audience. According to LeanPlum research, this can change based on industry as well as geolocation.

You might also want to consider setting "dead periods", where you don't contact users with push notifications during certain hours (usually between 10pm and 8am).

This will avoid upsetting users by waking them up with push notifications from your app, which can lead them to turn off push notifications or delete your app entirely.

Learn more about the ideal time to send push notifications here.

4. Make Push Notifications Relevant

This isn’t all about advertising. You also want to build relationships and credibility.

‍Even simple things like transaction confirmations and updates about items on a wish list provide an opportunity to get your name out there without being overbearing.

Other opportune times include when instant actions are needed or when crucial info needs to be delivered, such as a flight change. Do not fly by the seat of your pants on this.

Tempted to re-use content from your website for mobile? Don’t. Mobile platforms are more personal, and users expect high relevancy.

‍The shortcut of using the same slogans and messages you use on your website can be tempting, but mobile is mobile. Never forget your medium.

Needless to say, your push notifications must be useful, which means carefully planning which of your users should receive notifications, too. To send every push to every user is counterintuitive to success. (This is why asking your users for push preferences is really helpful.)

Once you’ve found that sweet spot of delivering timely and relevant messages to your audience, you’ll see their response and interest go up as a result.

Urban Airship says that when companies use personalization and segmentation well, those websites and apps experience 4 to 7 times the response rate than the average.

"Creating a successful push notification requires careful planning, since the last thing you would want is to lose your customer’s trust. This happens when they perceive your pop-ups to be pushy, and irrelevant."- Oksana Chyketa, Marketer, Albacross

5. Use Rich Content

Push notifications are a lot like SMS text messages in that you can deck them out with videos, images, GIFs, and emojis.

An Urban Airship study actually found that image push notifications can get 56% more opens than those without images.

But be careful with this. Just because you can use rich content doesn’t mean it adds value every single time. For some messages, a plain text message could be more impactful than a pimped out push notification so long as it clearly and succinctly delivers a useful message.

When your mobile app is new, and you want to make a strong impact with users, experiment with rich content. When used correctly, it can result in higher engagement and could be a great way to expedite interest in your app.

Learn more about why rich push notifications are more effective, and examples of how to use rich media in push notifications, in this article.

6. Track Your Results

There are plenty of tools you can use to analyze user behavior and discover what triggers opt-outs or declines in engagement.

To get started, use Google Analytics in your app and measure your users’ activity. This is a good place to start in terms of learning about your audience. But in terms of adjusting your push notification strategy to something that will actually succeed, you need to look at what happens afterwards.

It’s not enough to know how many users received your push notifications. You need to see click-through rates, too, as this indicates there’s an interest in more than just getting highlights from your site or app.

When clicks occur, this means your platform is one deserving of engagement. The New York Times initially paid a lot of attention to these tap-through rates, but then discovered that wasn’t the entire story. Once users got back to the app, many didn’t take time to even read the articles or, worse opted out of push notifications altogether. You have to look at the full journey with push notifications in order to assess whether or not they’re working:

• How many viewed the notification?
• How many clicked through?
• How many made a meaningful engagement with the content from the click?
• Did anyone unsubscribe directly afterwards?
• Did anyone uninstall the app from their device completely as a result?

Watch for both the good and the bad signs. You can tell a lot about the quality of your push notifications (and your digital property) based on how they react to these brief messages.

Wrapping Up

A new, powerful communication medium like push notifications requires thinking differently about how you interact with your audience.

Push notifications can be extremely powerful when done right. However, from a user’s perspective, they can also be one of the most frustrating marketing tactics.

Keep that point in mind, too. This is about enhancing your users’ experiences; think about how you can use push notifications to make your users have a more fulfilling experience with your brand.

If you're intrigued by the potential of push notifications, but you don't yet have an app, get in touch with us.

MobiLoud exists to help businesses with a strong online presence better connect with mobile users by converting their website into mobile apps.

It's easy (we do all the work for you), affordable, and your apps will be fully synchronized with your website, meaning full feature parity and consistency with what you've built on the web.

Your apps will have the added advantage of native push notifications, which have the potential to drive thousands in monthly revenue, paying off the cost of your app and then some, all on their own.

Get in touch with us now and book a free consultation to learn more about how you can grow your business using push notifications.