The Complete Guide to Push Notifications

When you are using a smartphone, you are constantly getting notifications from the various applications that you have installed on your mobile device. All of these notifications that come on your mobile are known as push notifications. The developers who have designed the app can send your mobile notification whenever they want. It could even happen in the middle of the night as well. On the other hand, you don’t have to be actively using the app to get these push notifications on your screen.

Push notifications, in addition to telling you the latest information about the application, can also perform a number of tasks. It can be used to show you the latest score of a live match in which you are interested. It can provide you with a call-to-action button, such as downloading the coupon. There are tons of things it can do, but enabling push notification can really be helpful for you? In this article, we are going to discuss how push notifications work and what are some of the advantages that push notification brings to the table. So let’s begin.

The Complete Guide to Push Notifications

How Does Push Notification Work?

You might not know, but on your smartphone, there are different types of notifications. One of them is pushing notifications that originate directly from the server. The user who owns the phone needs to opt in so they can receive the push notification messages. On the other hand, the push notification can also be switched off if the user believes it is hindering their focus.

There are several ways by which an application can deliver you a push notification. Developers who are creating applications for Apple’s iOS can take the help of APNs developer Application Programming (APIs) to make their apps deliver push notifications to iOS-based devices.

Apart from this, you can also use the mobile backend as a service (mobile BaaS). They can be used alongside cloud services to provide notification functionality for the mobile app. Push notification services such as Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging and Azure Notification Hubs allow developers to integrate push notifications across various mobile devices.

There are other third-party options as well, such as Urban Airship and Pushwoosh that can also provide you with the same amount of complex data analytics and marketing analysis by using the push notification.

Types of Push Notifications

There are two main types of push notifications based on the type of their intended use case and the content present in them. Both of them have been explained down below for your better understanding.

Transactional Notifications

Transactional notification messages are the ones that are sent on a user’s mobile phone based on the type of interaction they do with the app. The transactional notifications are oftentimes carrying necessary and urgent information that the user must see. In addition to this, these are the notifications that are expected by the user when they are using the app. For example, you are using the Amazon mobile app for purchasing a product online.

You have made the purchase, and the amount has been deducted from your bank account. When this happens, you will receive a message on your phone about two things. First, you will receive a message from your bank about the money debited. This message will have every information you’re required to track down the transaction that happened between you and the merchant present on Amazon. Secondly, you will also receive a message from Amazon about the successful placement of the order.

Both these notifications are termed transactional notifications as you are expecting them, providing you with the critical information you need. Apart from these two notifications, you will get the push notification from your email client as well if you have installed it on your mobile.

In most cases, transactional notifications are a part of the process that has been initiated by the user in the first place. It could be making an online purchase, signing up for an email, and other things that could trigger a specific user action. These messages are essential as they reduce friction and allow a better communication bridge between the user and the app.

Sometimes transactional push notifications can be used for setting up the password, confirmations, order delivery updates, two-factor authentication of new signing up on a new device, even registration confirmation, security checks, welcome messages, and more.

Marketing Notifications

The marketing notifications are the ones that are not necessary for the greater good of the app experience. These push notifications are sent to the user to engage with the app and delight the users with the ultimate goal of improving app retention. No app developer wants you to stay away from their app for long breaks. That is because the more you are online on their application, the more money they are going to make from it.

A marketing message could include special offers that companies are providing to you or deals on the unique products that you have been browsing lately. These notifications will bring you back to the app and help app developers to pull the user further down the sales funnel. Let’s take an example to understand the working of marketing notifications. Suppose you have installed an Amazon e-commerce app on your mobile phone. The app notifies you about the upcoming sales that will go live tomorrow. The sales will include all the electronic devices at a special discount of 30%. This push notification on your mobile will be termed a marketing notification as it is urging you to open the app when the sale starts. It is not an important message such as the one delivered to you in a transactional push notification. Still, it could be beneficial depending on which app it is being sent to you.

Difference Between Push Notification and SMS Messages

The main difference between push notifications and SMS messages is in the audience that receives them. The two messaging platforms are designed to serve different sets of audiences. What this means is if a company is trying to make better communication about their product to the existing customers that are already using their mobile app. In that case, push notification is the way for them to move forward and send their communication to users.

But when it comes to sending information to much broader and more horizontal communications. SMS is a message-sending technique that has no competition whatsoever. Having the ability to understand which one to use at what time makes all the big difference

The Benefit of SMS Over Push Notification

When you are sending an SMS, you are not limited to the number of users who have already installed your app on their phones. A user cannot turn off the SMS service at all costs, and this is not the case with push notifications. If a person finds it to be of no use, they can quickly turn it off.

From a small business to a massive Fortune 500 company, both can send SMS without having to develop the app in the first place. Companies that don’t have an app could use SMS to execute one or more marketing campaigns at once without having to worry about finding the budget for bundling a standalone app for mobile devices.

Benefits of Push Notification Over SMS

Many users who are now accustomed to seeing push notifications feel they are less intrusive marketing tactics than a simple text message. It does not hinder the user from their current activity and does not have any additional cost attached to it.

Unlike SMS, push notifications are not regulated by the Federal Communications Commission or other telecom departments. As a result, there are very few limitations in what content you can showcase to your users.

Apart from this, push notification is not limited to the character length or even the style of formatting. You can use whatever text style you want along with the image. SMS is capped with 160 characters, and that also includes spaces.

Benefits of Push Notifications to Your Business

From all the information presented above, we are sure one thing is clear in your mind. That push notification is a significant plus for businesses and companies. So now, let’s look at the different ways by which push notifications can be of use to companies and help them grow using the mobile marketing strategy.

1. Enhances Message Visibility

Every business wants to be in front of a user’s screen. But that cannot happen all the time as the user is likely to shift from one app to the other throughout the day. So the best possible way to remind them about the app or the particular message that you want them to see is by using the push notification. The push notification will make sure that your message is seen immediately by the user, even when the user is not active. You need to send time-sensitive messages and try to create a seamless user experience that will make users open up your app for sure.

2. Drive Retention

Once the user sees the notification and clicks on it, it will take the user to the app. This will boost user retention and will help your app in combating churn, which is pretty usual these days. To drive the best retention from push notifications, you need to take care of how your notification is seen by the user. It should be attractive and needs to light up the mood of a user so they can open your app and see the entire content.

YouTube fantastically drives retention by providing users with the push notification of their favorite YouTube Channels. Whenever the YouTube channel that the user is following publishes a new video, the YouTube app automatically sends a push notification to the user. This allows users to see what’s essential for them and if they are not working on anything else. They can open the YouTube app and watch the same video.

3. Boost Conversions

If you are a business that deals in selling products or services, then with the implementation of a push notification, you can quickly give boost to your conversions. You can design push notifications around the in-app rewards, promos, discounts, and more. Zomato, an Indian-based food delivery start-up, has made fantastic push notifications that include the favorite foods of users, which they have already bought from them. This way, it urges the users to make the purchase once again and enjoy the meal they loved eating before.

4. Create Better User Experience

With the use of push notifications, such as transactional notifications, you get to reduce the friction that happens between the user and the app. The app is autonomous; it does not have a human behind it handling every single piece of information that is being delivered to a user. As a result, when a user is making a purchase, you can give them the relaxation of purchase by sending the order confirmation. In addition to this, you can also provide the order status to the user via push notification. So they don’t have to check your app all the time to track the order. This creates a better relationship between the customer and the company that owns the application.

5. Scale With Your Business

With the increase in the revenue of your business, you will likely add new customers to your list. In that case, push notifications can be used to scale up the audience numbers and communicate with your customer base as it grows in numbers.

Conclusion

So this was all about push notifications. Developed by Apple, every other mobile operating system started using it to create a bridge between the app and the user. Push notification in the coming years is going to be an essential part of mobile marketing. You can think of it as the subject line of an email. If the subject line is not good enough, you don’t feel like opening the email. The same goes for the push notification, and it has to be attention-grabbing to make the user open the mobile app. Otherwise, it is not fulfilling its purpose correctly.

We hope this article has helped you in learning more about the use and the working of push notifications. For more information or in case of any query, please write it down in the comments box below. We will answer them for you at the earliest. Till then, happy learning!

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