Marketing strategies are often aimed at driving more traffic. Marketers can be very good at driving traffic, but in the end they can't get qualified leads. A lot of the news today is just lost in the hustle and bustle. In a perfect world, a stranger would visit your website, sign up, and pay instantly. However, this doesn't happen very often. For ecommerce businesses, finding ways to reach an engaged audience can be challenging and frustrating. While most businesses use email, text messaging, and programmatic advertising to reach a more engaged audience, push messaging is an underutilized tool in e-commerce.

What Are Push Notifications?

If you have a smartphone or tablet, you may be getting push notifications all the time. Push notifications are messages displayed on mobile devices, such as sports scores, flash sale invitations, or downloadable coupons. App publishers can send them at any time because users don't need to be in the app or using their device to receive them.

Push App Notifications vs Push Web Notifications

Many ecommerce stores assume that if they don’t have an app, they are unable to utilize push notifications. However, there are really two different kinds. Of course, we are talking about push notifications and web push notifications. And no, they’re not the same!

What are push app notifications?

Push notifications are messages sent via mobile applications. They have existed since 2009 and Apple is considered their creator. You certainly know them very well — even Facebook Messenger sends them. They appear in the notification panel and are usually the first thing you see when you unlock your phone.

So what are web push notifications?

Web push notifications are messages sent via web browsers, both on desktops and mobile or tablet. Not available on every device (example: iPhones, iPads, and other Apple connected devices do not offer web notifications even when supported browsers are downloaded though Apple desktops and laptops do support them) - Can be utilized by simply adding a script to your website

While app notifications require companies to have an app, web-based notifications are available to any company with a website. News sites have been using this technology more often to draw customers to their site for breaking news. Today many people perceive them as a serious competitor to email marketing.

Push notifications are more effective than you think

Push notifications are one of the most effective tools in mobile marketing today - but they don't work very well by themselves. Make sure the information you pass is reflected in subsequent in-app experiences. Since customers can easily opt in or out, these messages aren't as disruptive as emails and text messages. They are also an inexpensive way to reach customers easily. Additionally, users always know who a message is coming from, making it easy to spread brand awareness.

Push notification optimization: 5 best practices

Get personal. Push notifications are most effective when they are targeted to individual users. Using the right words is essential if you want to interest and convert users effectively.

Be concise.  Notifications on a user’s lock screen requires your creative to be clear and concise. This can feel limiting, but you also have opportunities to enhance creative with images and other rich media.

Consider timing. Users are often spread around the world. Sending notifications that say “Good Morning!” when it’s 8 pm in the users time zone is not ideal. Make sure anything you are sending to your customers is relevant to them.

Limit yourself. Overusing notifications will turn off your customers quickly. In fact, customers that get too many notifications often not only turn off notifications but stop using the site or app that they felt was spamming them.

Location-based push notifications. A user’s geolocation can be used to trigger push notifications and drive conversions. For example, these alerts can be used to direct a user to a nearby store.