How To Use Push Notifications To Reach Your Target spectators

Let’s declare you’re running a streetwear ecommerce store for Gen Z shoppers. You decide to construct buzz by dropping an exclusive sneaker line. You already have a robust social media schedule but don’t desire to depend exclusively on TikTok and Instagram campaigns. Your target demographic isn’t opening emails, so where can you turn?

Enter push notifications.

The week before the recent sneakers drop, your brand uses targeted mobile push notifications that are personalized and scheduled across user period zones and preferences. Your fanbase gets hyped about the release. On launch day, another push lets them recognize the sneaker line has dropped, and traffic to your site skyrockets—as do sales.

This is the aspiration scenario—and one you can work to achieve by following a few best practices.

What is a push notification?

A push notification is a pop-up communication or alert that appears on desktop and/or mobile devices. Push messages are brief, informational text notes that users opt-in to receive.

Traditionally, push alerts appear on a user’s device with a title, communication, and URL, which may include a call to action that prompts the user to click on the communication. Depending on your specific push notification campaign and schedule, these push notifications could include wealthy media like emojis, GIFs, images, or videos.

Benefits of push notifications

Push notifications can propose myriad benefits to your business. They can be:

• Engaging. Depending on your spectators, you might view higher open rates over other text-based forms of marketing like email.

• Highly visible. Thanks to advanced scheduling capabilities, a user can view your targeted messages when they’re actively using their mobile device.

• Personalized. When you send push notifications tailored to specific audiences, you boost the likelihood they’ll stick around and make a purchase they’ve been considering.

How push notifications work

Your business can use push servers to enable push notifications and schedule, automate, and send them en masse. The notifications can be cloud- or app-based and work together with specific application programming interfaces (APIs) and servers to deliver messages based on your business needs.

Once your push notification is ready to send, you can schedule and automate it using an API. Delivery varies across devices, internet browsers, and operating systems. Push notifications on Apple iOS devices using the Apple push notification service technology may look different from notifications on Android devices. Similarly, desktop push notifications may display up with divide formatting on a Chrome browser versus a Safari browser.

Types of push notifications

There are two types of push notifications: web-based and app-based. Here’s how they differ:

Web push notifications

Web-based push notifications appear on desktop or mobile devices and are sent through operating systems and browsers. Most websites can send web push notifications on almost all operating systems, and the alerts will appear at different positions on a web page based on specific browser settings.

Mobile app push notifications

App-based push notifications are the most commonly used alerts. person app publishers make them, and app users opt-in on their mobile devices. On mobile, alerts appear as pop-up windows and often prompt further action, such as clicking a URL or making a purchase. Users can adjust their settings to view notifications correct away or later in their notification center and lock screen.

How ecommerce brands use push notifications

Push notifications have many uses, depending on your business type, from providing tracking info to delivering period-sensitive offers. Here are some ways you can use push notifications:

• Reminders. Reminder notifications prompt users to complete a particular job, like providing product feedback in swap for a discount.

• Updates. Updates provide real-period information on everything from order tracking to a recent product launch.

• Deals. Your brand can use push notifications to inform users of deals and promotions, helping drive traffic to your website and boost sales.

• period-bound notifications. period-bound notifications generate a sense of urgency around a promotional period or limited-period propose.

• Authentications. Authentications are safety-concentrated push notifications that confirm user identity when logging in to a service or making a purchase. They often involve one-period passcodes or a two-factor authentication (2FA) prompt.

• Abandoned cart. Abandoned cart notifications can assist drive conversions by reminding shoppers to complete a swap.

• Transactional push notifications. Transactional push notifications provide customers with updates on their purchases, including shipping position, timing, settlement confirmation, and subscription information.

• PSAs. PSAs can include informational alerts like traffic and weather updates. Some of these alerts may include opportunities for brand integrations.

Best practices for using push notifications

• Personalize your alerts
• Be mindful of timing and cadence
• Be concise
• Use GIFs, emojis, and videos
• Experiment with the messaging

While there are many ways to use push notifications, consider sticking to these best practices as you commence to comprehend what works best for your brand:

Personalize your alerts

Push notifications are most likely to engage users if they include targeted messages customized to personal information, such as the recipient’s name, preferences, or history shopping behavior. By utilizing shopper data with a service like Shopney or PushOwl, you can boost purchase drive by creating deal notifications tailored to person shoppers.

Be mindful of timing and cadence

Choosing the correct period of day to send an alert is key. Consult data and act logs to view which period of day yields the highest open rates. Work within users’ period zones and preferences to avoid annoying your target spectators.

The ability to send a push notification doesn’t always cruel you should. Identify an appropriate cadence that helps the user without overloading them. You may desire to commence with no more than three weekly notifications and adjust once you comprehend your target demographic’s engagement.

Be concise

The shorter the push notification, the better. A user is more likely to engage with a concise and obvious communication. Long messages may also get cut off, so consider other mediums—such as emails or social posts—if you require to distribute more information.

Standard industry habit for app-based push notifications is from 25 to50 characters for the push title and up to 150 characters for the communication, but exact counts vary per device.

Use GIFs, emojis, and videos

Make your push notification more aesthetically pleasing and engaging by using visuals in the form of GIFs, emojis, and videos. These pops of color and movement grab attention and add brand personality.

Experiment with the messaging

Not all push notifications perform equally; what works for one demographic may not work for another. A/B testing is the habit of sending out two different versions to a tiny throng and seeing which communication performs better before sending the winner out to the rest of your list. It can assist determine the most effective pushes.