What are push notifications and what are the benefits of push notifications? Push notifications are alerts by an app on a mobile device to notify the user of new updates or changes in the application’s working or changes in data on the app.

A push notification is often sent to users with a sound, badge or vibration by default, but can also include an image with a link that will open the app when clicked. There are many benefits for you as an app owner or for your customer to use push notifications.

Push notifications are one of the most effective marketing tools in the modern world today, they are able to provide information about what’s happening within your application at any time without having to open up your application.

Benefits of Push Notifications

1) Increased loyalty rates

Opting in to push notifications can increase customer loyalty rates by over 100%. Some individuals have found opt-in rates as high as 85%.

2) Helps to engage with users/customers

These two types of notifications are some of the best ways to engage with your customers and make them feel appreciated. High-frequency push notifications can help you increase customer retention rates as well as lift app engagement.

3) Boosts platform usage

Push notifications are a great way to propose new products or features to users by making their life easier. By offering different types of information, such as promotions, events, coupons and other important news about your company, you can boost usage rates for your app. For example, when the temperature reaches 75 degrees in California during summertime, Uber is automatically sending users a notification urging them to use Uber service more frequently as it is so hot outside.

4) Improve customer relations by giving targeted notifications

These notifications make your app more approachable and desirable by providing important updates about your services and products. Once customers get used to these push notifications, you can use them to introduce new features or apps that you have developed.

5) Increase retention rates/cut down user refunds/conversions

When people opt-in for push notifications, they can be made aware of different promotions, discounts or campaigns that are currently occurring. You can also send out push notifications at the right time to help your customers so they don’t miss out on the discounts or promotions that are occurring at the moment.

6) Increase usage

As customers use your app more, they are more likely to stay since they will be exposed to new features and promotions that you can use to retain them as your customers. Pushing notifications out at the right time can allow you to engage with your customers using new features and promotions according to their preferences.

7) Reduce churn rates

By offering discounts, promotions or customized notifications for the people who have opted in for push notifications, it will reduce customer churn rates. Additionally, people who have opted for push notifications are more likely to stay with the app because of this.

8 ) Increase app downloads

With push notifications, you will be able to target certain audiences by sending out a notification that your app is in need of new updates. This way, you will be able to communicate with your customers and get them to download the latest updates and features that you have for the app.

9) Track metrics

You can easily track and collect metrics as you send out push notifications. This will allow you to assess the success of your push notifications and how effective your marketing campaign is.

10) Advertise effectively

In today’s world, companies are looking for a way to advertise their products and services efficiently. With push notification apps, businesses can now show their ads instantly in real-time or schedule them so it’s more convenient for the users who opt into these notifications.

11) Works with all devices/devices with different capabilities

Push notifications are optimized to work with all mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets on both iOS and Android platforms.

Types of push notifications

Well, not all push notifications have the same intent..most often, they are used as part of a larger marketing strategy that works to draw people back into your app. Push notifications can be broadly categorized into other different classes. Let’s have a look at the most common. ☑️

1) Informative notificationsℹ️

They give the users quick messages about what’s happening in the app. They can even include a link that the user can click so they can navigate to the content they want to see.

2) Promotional notifications📢

With promotional push notifications, you can send out coupons and discounts for your products or services. This way, you will be able to drive more traffic to your app and increase sales for your business.

3) Transactional notifications🧾

These types of push notifications allow businesses to trigger actions by offering discounts or coupons with in-app payments/adds for making purchases etc. By sending out transactional push notifications, you will be able to increase conversions and sales from your business through in-app purchases.

4) Event-based notifications🎪

You can schedule these types of push notifications to send out reminders about events or meetings that your customers are signed up for. For example, if you are planning a meeting for all your clients, you can use event-based push notifications to remind them about the meeting. This will ensure that they won’t miss it.

5) Geotargeted notifications📌

With geotargeting, you will be able to send push notification messages to nearby users who have opted in as your subscribers and people who have indicated interests in your app or business. When you send out a message to these subscribers through geotargeting, they are more likely to receive and open the message since it’s relevant to them.

6) Dynamic notifications🏅

With dynamic notifications, you will be able to send a notification that is triggered by the user’s activity within your app. For example: when a user sits down, opens an app and then clicks on the button to order food in your restaurant app, you can send out a message saying: “Your order is ready to pick up”, alerting the user through push notifications. This can help increase sales for your business due to increased customer engagement.

7) Time-lapse notifications⏳

This type of push notification allows users to get notified about certain events from their favourite apps as well as from their personal list of apps that they have joined on their phones.

8) Contextual based notifications🏞

These push notifications are delivered to users at the right time and place. For example, when you are at an airport, you might get a notification saying: “your flight is now delayed”, or if you have just parked your car in a shopping centre, after 5 minutes a parking reminder notification might pop up on your phone saying: “your car has been towed”. This way, there is no doubt that the user will get this message as they are in that particular place.

9) Based on social media channels🐥

Social media channels can be used to drive traffic to your app by sending out push notifications for deals within the app.

10) On-demand notifications🫕

With on-demand pushes, you will be able to push out notifications to users as and when needed. For example, if your app is running a promotion on products that are in stock now, and at the same time an email was sent out with an offer for “all unsold products”, you can use the push notification feature. This will help you track user activity within your app so that you know whether or not there are any unsold items within the app so that your sales can be optimized to increase profits for your company.

Conclusion

Push notifications are a great way to improve the success of your app and overall business. These are some of the benefits that can be gained from using push notifications. The effectiveness of these types of notifications is dependent on many things such as what type of app you’re running and what customers are requesting from you through the app. With these clear benefits, why wouldn’t you choose to implement push notifications into your business?

Read more about how to implement a centralized software development process here.