Mobile push notifications have emerged as a powerful means of communication and engagement. Whether you’re using a smartphone or tablet, these notifications provide real-time updates and reminders that keep you connected and informed. According to studies, the average US smartphone user receives 46 app push notifications daily.
In this article, we will explore the concept of push notifications, their advantages, and how businesses can leverage them to enhance customer engagement.
What is Mobile Push Notifications?
Mobile push notifications are messages sent directly to a user’s mobile device, appearing as pop-up alerts or banners, even when the app is not open. They serve as a means of communication between an app and its users, delivering important information, updates, reminders, or promotional messages. Push notifications can be personalized, engaging, and can trigger immediate user engagement. They are designed to grab user attention and provide real-time communication, enhancing the overall user experience and driving user engagement and retention.
Advantages of Mobile Push Notifications
Mobile push notifications offer several significant advantages:
- Real-time Updates: Push notifications enable businesses to send real-time updates and reminders to their audience, keeping them engaged with the brand even when they are not actively using the app.
- Increased Engagement: Push notifications have the ability to capture users’ attention and drive them back to the app or website, resulting in higher user engagement.
- Customer Retention: By delivering personalized and relevant messages, push notifications help retain customers and encourage repeat app usage.
- Improved Conversion Rates: Push notifications can be utilized to promote offers, discounts, or new products or services, leading to higher conversions and sales.
- Enhanced Customer Communication: Push notifications provide a direct and immediate communication channel with customers, allowing businesses to effectively deliver important information or announcements.
- Customization and Targeting: Push notifications can be tailored to specific user segments or demographics, enabling businesses to deliver personalized messages and offers.
How Do Mobile Push Notifications Work On IOS and Android?
There is a notable difference between the push notification experiences on iOS and Android.
iOS: iOS employs a push opt-in model, meaning brands cannot send mobile push notifications to their app users unless the users explicitly agree to receive them.
Android: In contrast, Android automatically opts users in to receive push notifications, with an option to manually opt out.
A recent study by Accengage revealed that 43.9% of iOS users of a mobile app opted in to receive push notifications, compared to 91.1% of Android users.
Android’s approach provides a broader audience of push-enabled users by default. However, without an easy opt-out option, sending irrelevant or too-frequent notifications can lead users to disable notifications or uninstall the app.
It’s crucial to understand these differences between iOS and Android push notifications when developing your mobile push notification strategy.
How to Measure the Performance of Mobile Push Notifications?
Now that you understand the best way to ask users for iOS permissions, it’s essential to know how to measure the performance of your mobile push notification strategy and evaluate its success.
The success of mobile push campaigns is based on four key metrics:
- Uninstall/Opt-out Rates
- Opt-in Rates
- Open Rates
- Mobile Engagement
Use these metrics to monitor positive user engagement and compare it with the opt-out volume.
Mobile Push Notification Uninstall Rate and Opt-out Rates
Always prioritize tracking uninstalls and notification opt-out rates, as these metrics impact long-term engagement and user retention. They indicate how effective your content is and its impact on the user experience. When making changes to your opt-in messaging and journey, monitor your results closely to act quickly on any negative trends or fluctuations.
Mobile Push Notification Open Rates
Open rates are easy to measure, similar to email open rates. Calculate this by dividing the number of opens by the total volume of notifications sent, including dismissals. Due to the opt-in model of iOS versus the opt-out model of Android, you will likely observe much lower open rates on Android.
Mobile Push Notification Opt-in Rate
This is the percentage of users who download your app and opt-in to receive mobile push notifications. Tracking opt-in rates helps you understand the initial acceptance of your push strategy.
Mobile Engagement Rates
Evaluate actions taken and engagement related to your notifications by identifying a fixed window of time after the push notification is sent. Mobile engagement is measured as the average number of sessions push recipients complete within the first week of receiving the notification.
These metrics highlight that mobile marketers are continually learning advanced ways to engage customers with mobile push campaigns. By closely monitoring and optimizing these metrics, you can enhance the effectiveness of your push notification strategy.
Choosing a Mobile Push Notification Service
Choosing the right push notification service will simplify your engagement strategy by making it simple to set up and send notifications to your engaged users. Below is a list of companies you can consider.
Google Firebase
Google Firebase, among other things, allows you to send push notifications to app users. Like some other Google business tools, it’s simple to use and delivers on its promises, but because it’s not specifically designed for push notifications, expect some compromises. However, Google makes up for any missing features and functionality with analytics integration.
Airship
Airship (formerly known as Urban Airship) focuses solely on the mobile communication experience, so it does more than just assist with mobile app push. It also addresses SMS messages, email, and mobile wallets. While predictive analytics and AI optimization are appealing features, this type of service comes at a cost. Airship caters to enterprise customers, and you will never be short on features if you use them as your push notification provider.
Catapush
Catapush is a straightforward delivery API that allows you to send push notifications related to your web app. It is designed to send data-driven, transactional alerts in response to user activity on your website or app.
You can see real-time statuses and delivery confirmations for each notification. Rich media can be sent in your notifications, as expected. Catapush’s two-way communication feature is one of its most distinguishing features. This enables recipients to respond directly to push notifications, providing a convenient way for your app’s users to provide feedback.
Leanplum
Leanplum handles all aspects of audience communication, including email marketing, mobile notifications, app inbox messages, and more. It’s one of the most popular mobile marketing platforms, with a comprehensive toolkit that includes everything you’ll need to scale a successful push notification strategy. It also includes features such as A/B testing, automation tools, and push notification personalization to help you get the most out of your real-time user notifications.
PushAlert
PushAlert is a more sophisticated tool that includes a WordPress plugin. It allows you to send desktop push notifications as well as mobile notifications.
It has some great features, including an Audience Creator that allows you to send notifications to the most relevant and engaged subscribers, A/B testing, and an API that can connect directly with your web or mobile app, allowing you to personalize it more than you normally would.
Winding Up
Mobile push notifications offer a unique opportunity to connect with your customers more closely than any other channel. They are ideal for announcing major product updates, sending promotions with direct links to features or landing pages, and re-engaging inactive users. By sending push messages based on user actions within your app, you can significantly increase engagement and retention. While push notifications can greatly enhance your messaging strategy, user engagement, conversions, and retention, it’s important to use them strategically and responsibly.