Push Works and Matters

When fashion designer Laura Ashley said,” We don’t want to push our ideas on to customers. We simply want to make what they want,” she certainly wasn’t addressing strategy to her marketing people. CMOs know that push notifications aren’t just essential. Push works, and push matters.

Once a novel feature, push today allows brands to reach customers just about any time they need to. It’s invaluable when there’s an urgency in reaching out since there’s a good chance they’ll be on their phone or laptop. It’s also invaluable in affording lapsed members another opportunity to re-engage.

Push has been used lately to increase conversions and engagement in holding on to customers who might otherwise have slipped away. It’s almost like that alarm on a smartphone that reminds a user to make a call or take a pill.

Another beneficiary of push notifications is cross-channel strategy. The ability to reach customers through push vastly expands reach and can deliver results beyond a single channel. Customer relationship software company Braze analyzed engagement of more than 300 million global users and reported that engagement levels were 191% higher from single pushes when compared to customers who received none at all. Going cross-channel, reported Braze, showed engagement boosted more than 9X.

An email follow-up, particularly in a campaign highlighting certain items, pushes generate a sense of urgency. That urgency can carry over to time-sensitive campaigns and events. Adding a deep link to a content card or in-app message further impresses customers and is more likely to drive positive responses.

The timing and personalization of pushes also make a difference. Braze discovered that brands that respond to specific customer actions saw message open rates go up by as much as 5.5X. Personalizing push by simply using the customer’s name saw a 1.3X increase in open rates.

Push notification has been successfully used in various marketing campaigns. One use is with potential new customers. A push notification that follows up with someone who just abandoned the onboarding process may recapture that customer. Besides alerting them, a reminder of some of the benefits they could miss out on by not completing their onboarding gives brands a second chance to sign them up.

Similarly, pushes aimed at winning back customers who abandoned their carts can certainly help the bottom line. The same can be used to win back consumers who suddenly stopped using the app or left the website.

A well thought out push strategy can increase outreach and help elevate customer engagement and sales for a brand. However, not everyone who opts into push will respond or engage in these notifications.
Some don’t check their apps or emails, while others simply ignore push. Of course, not everyone opts in for push notifications either. Marketers still need to be aware of the channels that work best with their audiences and utilize effective communication favorites.

As effective as push can be, some customers will uninstall their app if they feel they’re getting too many push notifications. Brands that know and understand their customer preferences will be more successful in keeping uninstalls low.

Telling them what to expect and what frequency they sign on will also reduce the risk later. Managed and monitored properly, pushes will deliver greater engagement and increase sales.

Discover more from Ronn Torossian

Ronn Torossian’s Professional Profile on Muck Rack
GuideStar Profile for Ronn Torossian Foundation
Ronn Torossian’s Articles on Entrepreneur
Ronn Torossian’s Blog Posts on Times of Israel
Ronn Torossian on SoundCloud