An Elaborative Guide on Push Notifications

Now that you know the agenda behind using push notifications, let us dive into the types of push notifications :

There are Two Types of Push Notifications

• Web push notifications
• App push notifications

The first type of push notification. i.e Web push notifications can be sent from a website, and the user doesn’t need to be present on the site. The users will receive them on their website or device. You can use them if you have not yet created an app.

The second type of push notification is app push notification. As the title justified, you can send these notifications from mobile apps. But the user has to install the app to receive the push notifications.

The significant difference between the two of them is the unlimited potential to reach the customers. Web push notifications have a greater reach than the other ones as you don’t necessarily have to have an app to send the notifications to the user. The users will receive them on their browsers and devices such as the web browser or app browser. On the contrary, the users should have the apps to receive the notifications.

How Can You Use The Push Notifications?

In the earlier part of the blog, you read about why we should use push notifications. Now, let us shed light on the purposes for which you can use the push notification :

• Customer- engagement: Suppose a user installs your app, and after using it a random number of times, he drops using it. Therefore, you can use push notifications to keep yourself alive in their minds by providing them the offers and discounts which they could catch instantly. You can do this very well through push notifications.

• Customer retention: A deep yet engaging challenge you must face as a marketer is app retention. Exaggerating the above point, a user might use the app a few times but ultimately uninstalls it when he does not feel associated with it. You can engage the users with the push notification frequently than usual to enhance the chances of app retention. For example – When the user onboards, you can send him engaging push notifications to enable him to retain.

• Real-time updates: No user wants to have outdated information. Stale information pulls the users off. Therefore, push notification comes as a rescue to engage users with real-time updates to let them know what’s going in the world. Apart from the marketing agencies, push notifications are a successful strategy in the other departments, such as the weather department.

How To Opt-in For Push Notifications?

After having enough discussion on the types and usage of a push notification, the ball goes in the court of the users. You must be curious to know what that means.  It means that the users can block specific app or allow a push notification for a specific app or website. Yes, you heard it right. Let us know how does the opt-in process works :

What Does The Opt-in Process Look Like?

• Opt-in management: Users can manage their messages by clicking on the allow or reject button, as shown in the pop-ups. You need to make an opt-in request to enable them to receive the notifications or stop receiving them altogether.

• Straightforward or indirect approach: The opt-in process involves a hard and soft approach from your side. Either you ask the users directly as to whether they want to receive the notifications or not. 

On the other hand, soft ask-in involves a process telling users some of your advantages and what benefits do users incur from your side. Remember to make it more visually attractive and less fussy so that people can easily relate to it. The flexible approach comes into two steps; henceforth, after putting your benefits out to the users, you ask them whether they want to receive the notifications.

Remember that you can personalize the opt-ins; otherwise, the users won’t show any interest in them. The soft approach is often called the double-opt ins.

What Are The Technical Requirements for Sending Push Notifications?

Push notifications are more convenient and reliable than other mediums such as email, which might suffer the drawbacks of lesser open rates. They are eligible for users who do not like to opt-in for the emails. Read further to know the requirements for implementing push notifications.

NotifyVisitors enable you to create and send push campaigns, but before going on with that process, you need an integration with NotifyVisitors. Know what all you need :

• FCM details: You require an FCM project number and API key to send the push notifications. Use NotifyVisitors FCM credentials to submit your project details.
• Push icon: You need to place your logo as your push notification icon so that users could affiliate with you.

• Integration: The push notifications are supportable on the HTTPS domain, and NotifyVisitors create the HTTPS sub-domain to let you set up the push notification and initialize the NotifyVisitor’s SDK on your page with the app ID of the NotifyVisitors. Once you set the app ID, you are required to host two files in the root directory of the webserver. i.e., Serviceworker.js or manifest.json file. Save and download the files. Simply add a link to manifest HTML and integrate NV’s SDK. 

Note: If your website is in the HTTP domain, you can switch to the HTTPS domain. Read this article about how to move your site to the HTTPS domain.

Once you integrate with the NotifyVisitors SDK, see how push notifications work in NotifyVisitors.

How Do Push Notification Work in NotifyVisitors?

The strength of push notifications in your marketing strategy depends upon many things, and push notification delivery is one of them. Let us know how do NotifyVisitors work in the realm of push notification delivery?

• Suppose, a marketer has created a campaign in the NotifyVisitors dashboard. The NotifyVisitors will first get a grip on the users and filter them based on segmentation. To run the process, you must have at least an active device linked to the active push token. The push token enables marketers to communicate with the users of the app.

• Once the NotifyVisitors recognizes the users through frequency capping. It will connect to the active devices which will receive the message. Therefore, Messaging platforms such as GCM and FCM will receive the message and fasten the delivery process. The cloud messaging platform is responsible for passing on the messages to the user’s device. 

What are The Push Notification Campaign Types in NotifyVisitors?

• One-time push notification: Send push notifications only once at a specific date and time.
• Recurring notifications: Send repetitive push notifications on a particular date and time.
• CSV upload: Send push notifications after uploading your subscribers.
• Transactional API: Send push notifications through API calls.

Push Messages You Can Send to Your Customers :

You can use Push notifications for various purposes, such as promoting your products, engaging customers in their journey according to the stage they are in, and asking customers feedback.

• Educational push messages: As the name suggests, send informative messages to inform the users of the product’s specific information. It could be the push notification regarding the new additions in the courses you are undertaking.

• Promotional messages: Use push notifications to promote the products and catchy deals and offers about the same. Nudge the users to buy your product.

• Customer feedback: Get the customers’ input on your services to improvise them in the future to provide a sustainable experience to the customers.

• Transactional messages: You can send transactional push messages to inform the users about their transformation status.

For example, – A user purchases the product and pays the bill. You can confirm with him about the payment and transaction through the push notification.

How Does Push Click-Through Rates Matters?

It is quite vital to retain your existing customers rather than acquiring new ones, which is expensive and not at all easy.

Therefore it is essential to engage the existing customers so that they click maximum on your notifications.

Four Key Factors Which Influence The Click-Through Rates of The Push Notifications :

• Transparency: However, it is not comfortable to ask for the users to opt-in for push notifications and nudge them to click on it. You can still try and raise the click-through rates by being transparent about the content you share with them. Give a clear-cut picture of what you expect from the users instead of wallowing them down with a lot of messages.
• Notification length: Design your push notifications so people can read and click on them instantly. Keep your notifications precise and to the point.
• Tone: Takedown the note of tone you will be using in your messages as it directly affects the users. Look at whatever you say should be in context and must be meaningful. It will increase app engagement by 25 percent.
• Use emojis: Emojis are the language of what you want to communicate to people. Therefore if the users don’t go well with the content, make sure you use the right emojis in context with them. Put them strategically into your content to get the benefit of maximum click-through rates.

Which Browsers and Devices Support Push Notifications?

NotifyVisitors support the delivery of push notifications in ios, android, safari, chrome, Yandex, and other browsers. Different browsers and devices offer different functionalities for push notifications, but you should keep the push notification character limit in check; otherwise, things may go haywire.

What Hampers Push Notification Delivery?

No matter how powerful the medium is, push notification delivery is always an underlying issue, specifically in android devices. Look at what causes the friction and its outright solutions :

You can evaluate the delivery of push notifications through the ratio of impressions of the total number of messages you have sent successfully. Maybe you, as a marketer, define the push notifications’ success based on the delivery of the push notifications. But the loophole lies here: Cloud messaging platforms accept the notifications but sometimes send them to the devices which are not active or are in idle mode.

Factors Which Influence Push Notification Delivery :

• Segmentation: You might be sending a million campaigns every day to the users, but what affects the delivery rate is the segmentation factor you used while sending the push campaigns to the users. Without segmentation, your push campaigns will be scattered and inadequate. A thorough segmentation is necessary.
• Device adaptability: Most of the time the delivery of the notifications depends upon the devices such as for devices like Vivo and Oppo, the delivery rates for these devices are lower as compared to the devices like Xiaomi and Motorola which have high delivery rates.
• Android versions: The older versions of the operating system, such as a lollipop, KitKat depict a dip in the delivery rates while the android N has the highest delivery rates. High battery optimization often impacts the delivery rates.
• Device network: The following factor also plays a significant role in the delivery of push notifications. For example- the 4G network has higher delivery accessibility than the 2G and 3G network systems.

The Recent Development in The ios Devices : 

Apple has undergone many enhancements recently and specifically in ios 12. The upgrades have led to giving more freedom to the users and enabling you to provide a strong push messaging experience.

Let’s See The Latest Developments :

• Lock screen mode: The notifications on the lock screen are now convened to give a new look to the users and avoid clutter at the same time. Users can see the latest notifications on the high side, and the older notifications will push aside.
• Manage the notifications: The new functionality of the ios is a bit different than the older one. Before ios 12, users had to navigate to the settings screen and select the app to go through the notification settings. Still, with ios 12, they can access the notification settings from the lock screen itself.
• Opt-ins: IOS has undergone a specific change concerning push notifications. Users have got a new option for the opt-ins. Apps can send information to the users without the opt-ins; these are called quietly delivered notifications. It is up to the user to turn a sound on or put it into vibration for an opt-in.
• SIRI: Siri is totally in charge of the management of the push notifications. SIRI has introduced a new feature that prompts marketers to send only engaging notifications to the users.

How Does Personalization Affect Push Notifications?

Personalization is an integral part of push notifications. Without this factor, your push notifications could feel like the illusionary skeletons lying in the cupboard. You need to give them relevance to make them work.

Personalization can lead to an upsurge in the delivery rates instantly without much chaos. It is a powerful factor for marketers. The irrelevant push notifications go unnoticed and relevant messages along with personalizations are the icing on the cake.

Some of The Best Practices of The Personalized Push Notifications :

• Using default values: Do not worry if you do not possess enough data from the users. You can use the default -values for the tags you use. For example – If you do not have the name of an anonymous user, you can personalize the message with “FRIEND.”
• Dummy user testing: If you are not sure what will impact the users and whatnot. You can test the personalized templates using dummy data, and if it works, send them to the users.
• Privacy and personalization: With the new GDPR rules at hand, you might hesitate to collect the details of the users. Do not feel reluctant to collect the users’ information first name and data even if the policies are stringent. Just ensure that users are safe with you.

How to Improve Conversions with Push Notifications?

The first step towards enhancing the conversions of push notifications is to build the list of the subscribers who will be the recipients of your push notifications. But the next step is to ponder what types of messages you must send to the users to keep them engaged :

Apart from personalization, segmentation is another prominent step to increase conversions, or we say segmentation encloses personalization.

Six Proven Tips to Get Higher Conversion Rates :

• Set goals: Set your clear plan as to what you want to provide the users and remember it must be unique; otherwise you would collapse on the upfront. CTA buttons must be appealing, which enchants the users quickly and instantly.
• User behavior: Understanding your user behavior is quite relevant as you can end up blocking your push notifications. Keep a direct eye on the user behavior and how their preferences change must be in equal alignment with what you show them. Take care of each of the segments well.
• Right timing: It would be preferable if you send the push notifications according to the timezone of customers; otherwise, you will end up creating friction. The right timing makes it a perfect collaboration, along with the right message.
• Analyze push performance: Keep an eye on your push campaigns’ performance to view what is attracting the users and whatnot. View the analytics or reports on a monthly or quarterly basis to improvise the campaigns.

How to Improve The Performance of Push Notifications in 2020?

Every year comes up with new challenges. We must be ready to adapt to new methods and strategies to engage users with push notifications :

Let’s See Which Areas You Shall Put Your Focus on in Regards to The Push Notifications :

• Improve the push notification delivery: One thing that hampers the smooth functioning of push notifications is the delivery. The delivery rates could be lower due to OEM restrictions, network issues, and GCM services. These services play an essential role in the delivery of push notifications. 

The push amplification feature plays a vital role in boosting delivery rates. Several top brands have used this feature and improved the push delivery rates to a substantial amount.

• Use of artificial intelligence: The uprising of artificial intelligence in marketing has benefited the brands so far and continues to flourish the marketing strategies. It is time to adopt AI in your marketing automation software to optimize everything right from the start from your campaigns, message, content, and push notification delivery.

•  Focus on the user flow: As you focus on the user flow, you will be able to retain customers. Businesses that have repetitive customers can generate more customers. Focus on attaining the loyalty of the customers if you want to cut the customer acquisition costs.

• Dynamic push notifications: The combination of the AI and marketing automation works perfectly in providing and optimizing experience to the users. Automation can help you trigger users the notifications as per the stage they are in. Therefore you can send personalized and dynamic notifications to the users. Personalized marketing can yield tremendous and productive results.

What are The Best Practices to Follow in 2020?

Now that we know what areas we must focus on, figure out some of the best practices in 2020:

• Power of words: The words certainly play an essential role in a user’s mind. If you do not believe it, try testing your push notifications by changing the content of the CTA elements. A small change can sometimes make a significant impact on your life.

• Push notification action button: Action buttons on the push notifications insinuate the users to perform specific actions such as ordering items, receiving reminders, and a lot more. Add more value to the users’ life by sending them to push notifications.

• Rich push notifications: The visual stuff and imagery always attract users more than anything else. But there are certain restrictions switches every device follows such as in ios, the size of images should be 1038px. If the images are taller than that, you need to scale down the images with padding.

• Frequency capping: Frequency capping helps you withdraw your desire to keep on nudging the users with irrelevant messages. Receiving too many notifications will push them to block you. With frequency capping, you can simplify the number of messages you set up in a day.

Push notifications are a multifaceted dimensional tool that helps you achieve multiple benefits without much of the hassle if you keep the facts in mind while creating and sending them.

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