With smartphones firmly entrenched into our culture, our brains have adapted to the constant bombardment of information by selectively filtering out stuff we don’t need. We only see what’s relevant to us based on where we are, what we are doing, and what we need—right here, right now.
As a result of this, traditional marketing methods are proving to be less effective than before. Savvy marketers know how much of an impact this is having on lead generation, conversion rates, and engagement.
Customer engagement is dropping year after year, making lead generation and re-marketing increasingly difficult. About 26% of consumers use ad blockers on their desktops. Mobile usage surpasses desktop usage. Even Linkedin marketing is getting played out—something unthinkable even a year ago.
So what’s a marketer to do in 2020? How do you keep prospects engaged in a world of fierce competition and short attention spans? The answer is push notification marketing.
5 Reasons to Integrate Push Notifications in 2020
1. High Visibility
Push notifications are more likely to be seen than online ads and emails. A push notification cuts through the noise and places your message directly in front of your target. 52% of mobile users enable push notifications, so your messages are guaranteed to reach a massive audience.
2. Personalization
The key to push notifications is personalization. Generic spray-and-pray marketing methods are on their way out. Customers want a better experience, which is only possible through personalization. Push notifications are perfect for giving customers exactly what they want. For example, multi-platform media companies like Future, use push notifications to send relevant content to their distinct audiences.
3. Localization
You can take push notifications a step further by localizing mobile push notifications. Using location data, you can develop better insights about where your customers go, how long they spend at certain places, what their native languages are, and when they are active on your app. Localized notifications have 50% higher open rates than personalized (non-localized) push notifications. Read more about language localization and location targeting.
4. Data-Driven Marketing
Like any marketing strategy, push notifications require testing and analyzing performance. It's easy to A/B test different messages, images, sounds, and action buttons. Once you see which notification performs best, you can send it to the rest of the users. In a recent analysis of 118 billion push notifications, we found that push notifications sent after A/B testing have a 10% higher click-through rate than messages that are sent without A/B testing.
5. Easy to Integrate With Current Strategies
Now, you don’t have to throw out all of your current marketing strategies and systems to integrate push notifications. just because they aren’t getting the results you hoped for. A few tweaks can potentially double your results. For example, integrating push notifications to restore abandoned carts hooks many customers back to your e-commerce website to complete their purchase. You can easily target abandoned carts using OneSignal’s new Time Triggers features - here’s an overview and more detailed documentation.
OneSignal also now offers other channels that you can use in tandem with push notifications to reach your audience! Take advantage of in-app messaging, e-mail, and SMS to use along with your push notifications to build out your customer journey. Open up new opportunities for user interactions and keep your product front and center.
Using Push Notifications the Right Way
Before diving in, keep in mind that there are right and wrong ways to use push notifications.
For instance, sending too many notifications? Customers will unsubscribe, or worse, delete your app in exasperation. Used wisely, a simple push notification strategy will help you communicate with your users in a more personal way.
The key is both relevancy and timing. Personalization makes your notifications relevant to the user. Localization ensures you’re reaching users in their preferred language at exactly the right time - you don’t want your mobile notifications to interrupt dinner with their families.
Before adding push notifications to your overall marketing strategy, read up on best practices and preview how push notifications show up on various devices.
