Push notifications are a staple of the mobile app experience. In recent years, organizations have begun to realize that push notifications are a valuable online marketing tool.
As a result, push notification services have been developed to offer businesses a way to engage users and drive customer retention efforts.
Despite the ubiquity of push notifications, many organizations don’t understand what they are or how they can use them to reach their target audience in a manner that benefits their marketing efforts.
This post will explain what a push notification is, the benefits of push notifications, and a few of the top push notification services available to businesses.
What Are Push Notifications?
A push notification delivers information to a computing device from an application server. What makes a push notification different from other information requests is that the request is generated by the application server, not the user.
Push notifications are often associated with mobile devices. However, push notifications are not confined to mobile apps. There are also web push notifications.
Web push notifications are associated with web app servers. In contrast, mobile push notifications are associated with mobile app servers.
Despite the variety of push notification options available to businesses, many don’t take advantage of these capabilities. This is likely because they don’t fully understand the benefits and capabilities of app push notifications.
For example, many organizations don’t even realize they can send web push notifications. Even businesses with an understanding of mobile push notifications might not understand how to use them to achieve their business goals.
The Benefits of Push Notifications
Before you send push notifications, it is helpful to understand their benefits. Push notifications are beneficial to businesses in several ways, including:
- Greater conversion rates
- Audience segmentation
- Higher engagement
- Improved user retention
Greater Conversion Rates
The most important benefit of push notifications is that they can boost revenue through increased conversion rates. eCommerce businesses specifically see a significant conversion rate increase from push notifications.
One way app developers can use a push notification to improve conversion rates is to create a sense of urgency. This is common in eCommerce, sports betting, FinTech, etc.
For example, your organization sends a push notification with a time-sensitive offer, such as a sale. App users, in turn, feel a sense of urgency to act and convert.
However, you have to be careful when you send notifications. Advertising flash sales is one thing, but if you send too many push notifications, you might drive users away from your app or website.
Another thing to consider when you send a push notification is personalization. Users are unlikely to open push notifications that don’t spark their interest.
Push notification services can help your organization strike the right balance between push notification frequency and personalization.
When done right, sending push notifications can increase the conversion rate of your organization’s app or website.
Audience Segmentation
With the aid of a push notification platform, your organization can generate user segments to improve the success of push campaigns. Smart segmentation of your organization’s audience will enable your business to deliver more personal push notifications and offers.
With a push notification service, your organization can segment its audience based on browser, device, location, and operating system. When you gain more push subscribers, your organization gathers more information it can use to improve push messaging.
Using a push notification platform, your business could send push messages to only iOS users in a specific location. This level of segmentation gives your business more control over marketing efforts and is likely to lead to higher customer satisfaction and increased conversions.
Higher Engagement
Mobile app and browser push notifications increase user engagement with your organization’s digital products. Browser or app notifications are sent when users are not actively engaged with the website or app.
As a result, the push notification brings user attention to your product. In addition, savvy marketers use app and browser notifications to deep link other features or areas of their digital product.
They do this to influence user behavior and drive engagement in strategic areas of the website or mobile app.
Improved User Retention
Modern users have nearly unlimited options when it comes to mobile apps and websites. As a result, app and website owners need to retain users if they want to be successful.
With such a wide variety of different options, it is easy for users to forget about an app or website. Push notifications help retain users by bringing their attention to the product with a timely offer or message of interest.
As we mentioned earlier, it is important not to send too many push or in-app notifications because this will annoy users and drive them away from your product. Using a push notifications service can help your organization strike the right balance.
The Best Push Notification Services
If your business is interested in a push notification service, several options are available. We can’t possibly cover every push notification service in this post, but we will look at the push notification providers that tend to be the most popular.
You can learn more about other push notification services through online research. In this post, we will take a closer look at the following push notification service providers:
- Firebase
- OneSignal
- PushBots
- Leanplum
Firebase
Firebase is a development tool created by Google. This tool is capable of much more than in-app messaging and push notifications, which means some of the push notification features are less robust than dedicated services.
However, Firebase is a great choice for several reasons. First, it is free, and it is powered by one of the most powerful technology companies. In addition, it integrates with Google Analytics which is one of the most comprehensive analytics tools available on the Internet.
Firebase, like most Google products, is easy-to-use, and while it isn’t specifically built as a push notification service, it offers unparalleled insights thanks to Google Analytics.
OneSignal
OneSignal is the industry’s most popular tool for push notifications. This tool can be used to send mobile, web, in-app, and even email notifications.
There are several notification features available that enable businesses to deliver powerful push notification experiences to their users. OneSignal is the tool of choice for several top companies, including Conde Nast, Adobe, and Uber, to name a few.
OneSignal is free to use. However, they also offer paid plans with additional features and support for companies that want more from the platform.
PushBots
PushBots distinguishes itself as a push notification service with a ton of automated features. There are times when you will want to manually send push notifications. However, most of the time, you will want to automate these messages, especially if you have several user segments.
PushBots enables businesses to streamline their notifications and spend more time focusing on ways they can improve their messaging and offers. This tool also has an impressive set of analytic features that rivals Google Analytics.
PushBots is a subscription-based service starting as low as $29 a month.
Leanplum
Leanplum is a service that covers the gamut of audience communication, from push notifications to email marketing. Leanplum is a great mobile marketing tool for businesses looking for more than push notifications.
In addition to automated tools, Leanplum includes A/B testing tools and personalization tools that enable your business to create specific messages.
Leanplum doesn’t offer pricing guidelines. If you want to get a quote, you must contact Leanplum for a custom price.
Final Thoughts
Push notifications are vital to the success of a digital product. Luckily, there are several great tools and services available to simplify this process. If you want to learn more about the importance of push notifications or the best tools for your business needs, reach out to an experienced app development partner like Koombea.
