Use Push Notifications for Business Promotion but Avoid Overusing It

Marketing within the mobile world is still in its early days and marketers are focused towards how to connect with customers effectively and convey message efficiently. A report published last year stressed on turning emails into multi-channel conversations that involved multiple non-emails communication channels. They were spotlighting the ways in which business owners can send their message directly to a user's mobile device without keeping email in the centre. One of these modes of communication was to send notifications through mobile apps straight in users' handheld devices. Let us first know what push notifications are.

A push notification is a tiny reminder sent by app owner that pops up on the screen. In other words, it is like an ongoing conversation between business owners and consumers who use their apps. The unique purpose of push notifications is to notify users about various developments in the company. However, for this, business owners should have an app that is capable of keeping the users engaged. Experts say that push notifications can be a powerful, discreet and non-invasive marketing tool, if enterprises use them wisely.

For a clever business owner, there is no end to the ways to use push notification tool. A survey reveals four main ways of using push notifications in a business app. The most popular use of push notification was to notify the audience about a new app or an upgraded version of the same app. Forty-one percent people opted for this use. Twenty-four percent people made notifying users about special offers or links to the landing page (where several other details of the promotion are posted), stand at number two position. Around 14 percent business owners used push notifications to inform their customers about new content available on the app and 12 percent used push notifications for providing links to affiliate offer or an ad. Rest 9 percent respondents used push notifications for various other reasons.

This survey has made business owners accept push notifications an efficient marketing tool and pay more attention towards them. They feel it is a wonderful idea to send promotional offers through a pop-up that appears on the screen of the smart phone users. However, there is a very fine line between sending selective and occasional notifications and sending them in a flurry. Business owners should recognize that the main aim of an app is to create a long-lasting relationship with users and push notifications can be a decisive role player in this pursuit. Hence, the first step should be to send timely and relevant push notifications. For example, if your users love to hear about one product of your company then, you should send notifications related to that product only. Otherwise, your messages would be counted as a spam. Here are a few simple tips that a business owner should follow while using push notifications for business purposes.

1. Keep the content relevant, timely and engaging

2. Make sure to link push notifications to social networks, as it is an effective conversation starter

3. They should give customers, an option to opt out from receiving notifications

4. Make sure not to use this channel more than required. Research says that more than six notifications/day annoy users forcing them to uninstall the app.

CONCLUSION

We know that practice makes a man perfect and the same policy applies in this case too. Maybe your push notification campaign has some faults and therefore, it is not as effective as it should be. For business owners who are undergoing same situation, my advice would be to start practicing the points mentioned above and make push notification a decisive and effective marketing tool.