Push notifications are text or rich media messages sent to mobile devices from third-party applications. If you’re reading this on your phone, it’s likely that you’ve recently come across a push notification or two. Push notifications offer value in multiple ways for both mobile marketers and smartphone users.
For such a popular channel, it would be easy to think that this technology has been around longer than just over a decade (they originated in June 2009). However, it was only 12 years ago that push notifications first appeared during an update announcement from Apple. This version of push notifications, called Apple Push Notification Service, offered a new experience for customers. And the rest is history.
These stats prove that push notifications are not only reaching people multiple times a day, but that Americans literally can’t put their phones down. This means that mobile marketers can and should utilize push notifications to encourage engagement and retention.
In this in-depth guide, we cover everything you need to know about push notifications, including the types of notifications, why opt-ins are essential, mistakes to avoid and steps to success, and industry-specific case studies to inspire your short- and long-term strategies. We also encourage you to head to our infographic featuring all our tips to increase engagement.
The Difference Between Push Notifications and SMS
Push notifications and SMS are both great ways to engage with customers, but they have different methods of delivery and communication objectives. One of the main differences is the delivery method. With push notifications, a customer must download your app before they can receive a notification compared to an SMS that they opt-in to.
Now that you understand more about the differences between push notifications and SMS, let’s look at what you would use SMS notifications for versus push notifications.
Send SMS Notifications For:
- Banking alerts
- Weather warnings
- Flight delays
- Appointment reminders
- Event cancellations
- Billing reminders
- Delivery or tracking notices
Send Push Notifications For:
- Latest deals or discounts
- Content recommendations or suggestions
- Action reminders
- Announcements
- Educate users on a new feature
How Do Push Notifications Work?
As mentioned above, a push notification is a message sent by an app to a user’s phone. Push notifications can only reach users who have installed an app and opted-in to these messages.
As you probably guessed, push notifications differ for iOS and Android users. An iOS push notification will first appear on the lock screen. Once a device is unlocked, the push notification moves to the Notification Center and a user can engage or delete the notification.
Android users have a little more control over their push notifications. You can set priorities, group push notifications into types, and determine how notifications appear on your device. The differences also extend to how users opt-in to these messages.
The iOS platform is designed as an opt-in model that requires customers to agree to receive push notifications before they are sent. Android users are automatically signed up to push notifications and require a user to manually opt-out.
Push notifications are a great way to reach customers in real-time due to the increase of mobile users and the amount of time that we spend on our phones. As our Inboxes become as busy as we are, it’s easy to understand why businesses prefer push notifications. However, app push notifications are not the only option. There are three other types of push notifications that businesses should consider and include in their strategies.
