Editor’s note: This article shows 3 sample push notifications. They are not clickable.
When push notifications first came out, I was not a big fan of them. They reminded me of pop-ups, and I wasn’t thrilled with seeing the notification for one I accidentally hit yes to accept.
Then I started reading about them and how they worked for other bloggers and website owners. They were driving traffic. I started to see more requests for them over time and started to slowly accept a few. I started liking them as it was easier than receiving a ton of emails from my favorite blogs and stores.
The one review of push notifications that really made me think and eventually try them out, was from Harsh Agrawal of ShoutMeLoud.com. I learned it was an easy set up to get started with push notifications. I began to sign up for more alerts via push notifications instead of receiving emails.
What Are Push Notifications?
A push notification is a message that pops up on a mobile device or on a web browser. App publishers can send them at any time. Users don’t have to be in the app or using their devices to receive them. They are becoming an ever more popular marketing tool.
Using Push Notifications for Your Blog Posts
I decided to have my own push notifications set up for new blog posts. I also have the option of using them when I update an old post or page. Within a few weeks, I started to get emails from my push notification provider, and I was amazed at the results. People were subscribing and clicking on the content!
It was an easy set up that I had my techie do for me. First, I made sure it would not slow down my website. Plugins can slow down your website so be sure to check on that before installing any new plugin.
You then could make changes to your settings over time. Each post and page give you the option if you want to use them or not.
What Types of Providers Available for Push Notifications
There are at least dozens of different companies offering push notifications for you to choose from. Here are just a few of the top ones with a brief guide as to what they offer.
Push Engage
This is the one I use for my WordPress site and is free of charge to use. It comes with weekly updates on stats. I highly recommend them if you have a WordPress site. It works on desktop and mobile. If you have over 2500 subscribers, they will move you to their paid plans, which range $25 to $84 a month. It’s easy to set up with a plugin for your WordPress site.
Push Woosh
They start out free and can go up to $125 for their push notification plans. Push Woosh offer preset pushes with segmentation. They can even set up your push notifications via your Twitter feed!
One Signal
They offer free push notifications with no limit of users. One Signal also use A/B testing and segmentation targeting. They even offer notifications on Amazon Fire. One Signal offers a multitude of platforms for their push notification services.
Urban Airship
The oldest of the push notification providers, they have been around since 2009. They claim they are the best, but many users complain of their high cost. They don’t even list their pricing on the site and want you to contact them for details. Urban Airship offer more plans and analytics than any other company. They do push notifications with coupons for mobile wallets.
Fox Push
This one is Emoji supported for your push notifications. They can send over 10 million messages in just one minute. They go from free to $199/month, which includes an unlimited number of websites. (I just double checked to see if Push Engage offers this, as I love emojis. And I can tell you now they do!)
These services are inexpensive to have no matter which one you go with. Read through them all before choosing the one that best suits your small business or blog’s needs.
6 Ways to Use Push Notifications for Your Blog or Small Business
- Every time you publish a new blog post, be sure to use push notification.
- Use these for sales and special offers.
- Push notifications are great for Twitter Chats or Facebook Live announcements.
- These are great for blog post updates. When you update an old post, be sure to hit the push notification for it, too.
- This type of marketing is great for events. Send one to announce the event and another just before the event is about to happen, as a reminder.
What to Avoid When Using Push Notifications
- Be careful NOT to overuse your push notifications. People will change the setting to stop receiving from anyone that is sending them out too frequently or if the information is not relevant to them. Keep the messages small and to the point.
- Do not push notifications for silly reasons only. People will stop subscribing to them.
- Stay away from lengthy notifications. Try to keep them to 25 characters or less.
Push notifications make it easier for people to subscribe. People can get overwhelmed by emails and only subscribe if you give them something like a Free offer. But with push notifications, it’s so easy to hit the accept button.
With Push Engage, I get weekly results of how many people subscribe and how many open the push notifications. It amazed me how quickly it took off. I’ve only been using them about a month now.
As you can see, within the first few weeks, I had 39 subscribers and click rates of 7.7%. My last report showed 49 subscribers. (I will be researching more how to increase that click-through rate, so stay tuned!)
Should You Subscribe to Push Notifications?
I found I really liked subscribing to them too! I received info quicker than if I waited for emails on a blog’s latest post or a company’s latest sale. I could see them on my mobile or desktop, wherever I happened to be on. Nice! You won’t miss an important update if you subscribe to a push notification from your favorite company, blog, etc.
Push notifications are here to stay. They have become a great marketing tool for businesses. Being able to reach your audience and customers quickly and easily today is key, as everyone is mobile. As a user of them, I do turn down my mobile sound for the evening. When I awake in the morning, the notifications are there waiting for me. If you are on a desktop, you will see them appear as they come out. It’s a great way to stay on top of your favorite store’s sales, promo’s and or your favorite blogs latest information.
Are you using push notifications to be notified today? Do you use them in your marketing bag of tricks? I’d love to know how you feel about them and the results you are seeing from them if you are using them as a marketing tool today. Maybe you’re reluctant to use or accept them? Please leave a comment about them below.
Related reading: 4 Location-Based Technologies For Mobile Marketing
(External resource: https://appinstitute.com/what-is-a-push-notification/)
Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_georgejmclittle‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
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Latest posts by Lisa Sicard (see all)
- How to Blog Successfully and Stay Fresh While Working Full Time - February 12, 2018
- Push Notifications: Why I Love Them Now and You May Too - October 30, 2017
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