Push notification marketing guide [+Strategies & how to start]

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Push notifications strategically deliver short, personalized messages to your audience’s devices to inform and increase engagement.

Targeted push messages can enhance your customer experience, boost brand loyalty and sales, and complement your email and SMS marketing efforts throughout the customer journey, from early in the sales cycle to post-purchase. 

But to maximize effectiveness, your messages must align with your audience’s preferences.

Read on to explore the different push notification marketing strategies you can use to improve the results of your online store.

In this post:

• What is push notification marketing?
• How to use push notification marketing
• How to get started with push notification marketing
• Push notification marketing best practices
• Summary

What is push notification marketing?

Push notification marketing is a way for businesses to send short, targeted messages, such as abandoned cart alerts and limited-time offers, to customers who have opted in to receive marketing communications.

The advantage push notifications have is they show up on your audience’s devices without requiring them to open an app or website.

Advanced targeting capabilities let you personalize push messages for every stage of the customer journey, enabling you to communicate strategically with your online shoppers, app users, and various audience segments.

When done right, push marketing provides value to users, building brand loyalty and satisfaction over time. It can also drive traffic, generate leads, and boost sales and revenue.

“You can maximize the impact of push notifications with a strategic approach that leverages them for diverse purposes, such as promotions, updates, and reminders. You want people to find them helpful, not annoying. That way, they’ll look forward to hearing from you. Personalization, timing, and frequency are crucial for this.” Bernard Meyer, Sr Director of Comms & Creative

How to use push notification marketing

Push notifications are designed to elicit an immediate reaction, so they’re especially effective for certain messages. Instead of simply using push notifications to distribute the same ads that you publish on other channels, look for ways to take advantage of its unique features.

Welcome discounts for new customers

With a push notification marketing strategy, it’s easy to engage and reward subscribers right from signup. Send an instant alert immediately after customers join your list highlighting exclusive, time-sensitive, first-time offers. Tailor it with their name and make the CTA clear to drive conversions.

You can also follow up a few days post-signup with a reminder. This could point them to a customized landing page with deals picked out for them. Base such deals on user profile data and activity.

See how Omnisend encourages new user profile completion with a coupon:

Personalized offers

Enhance the effectiveness of push notifications for marketing by basing offers on user behavior. For example, you can leverage browsing history for personalized product suggestions. You can also showcase new arrivals for frequent shoppers or send exclusive birthday discounts.

Personalized push messages demonstrate that you know and value subscribers. However, avoid assumptions or intrusive targeting. Let profile updates and purchase history guide your customization to delight users.

Below is a web push notification message for Basic Piece’s new arrivals:

Abandoned cart recovery

Don’t let abandoned carts hurt your revenue. Recover them with push notifications that remind users of left-behind items. Timely, relevant pushes help to turn abandoned carts into conversions.

For instance, send a push notification an hour after a user leaves your site and offer free shipping or a discount code for a limited time. Then, follow up with an email reminder that creates FOMO (fear of missing out) and drives them back to your site.

See how Omnisend’s abandoned cart workflow integrates push notifications below:

INGLOT Canada transformed its abandoned cart strategy with a smart mix of channels. Their email-SMS combo delivered a hefty 2,130% revenue lift per message over standard promos. But the real star? Abandoned cart push notifications scored a whopping 4,798% increase. A multi-channel approach of push messages plus SMS boosted overall conversion rates by 117% compared to email-only campaigns.

Shipping and order information

Online shoppers expect notifications for things like order confirmation and shipping information, but you don’t need to send an email or text to let them know. These channels are more intrusive, and most people already receive more emails than they really want to read.

Send push alerts for real-time shipping status changes. These can include items now packaged or delivered, or estimated delivery times. The advantage is that you deliver important information without risking loss in crowded email inboxes.

Here’s an order confirmation push notification from Basic Piece:

Browse abandonment campaigns

This push notification marketing message targets users who’ve viewed a product page but haven’t added anything to their cart. Include eye-catching images of the abandoned items along with a time-sensitive discount or promo code. These serve to remind and incentivize returning to complete a purchase.

See how Omnisend does it:

Content like ebooks, blog articles, and courses

Content creators can send push notifications for new ebooks, blog posts, and courses to keep their audience engaged and increase website traffic.

However, you must use push notifications strategically with timely, relevant messages your audience wants to receive.

For example, you could alert subscribers when a new article is published with a brief preview and a link to read the full content. Or you could push content recommendations based on their interests and past interactions.

Plan upgrade messages

Push messages with special offers or incentives can motivate users to explore higher-value plans and unlock additional features or benefits.

You could target users most likely to benefit from upgrading their plans based on their usage patterns, engagement levels, or specific needs.

Sending out limited-time offers and exclusive bonuses makes the upgrade more attractive and encourages users to upgrade with a sense of urgency.

Another strategy for increasing upgrades is to push out success stories or testimonials from other users who have benefited from upgrading their plans.

You can also re-target customers and cross-sell/upsell based on their purchase history.

Product and service promotions

Product and service promotions through push messages can generate interest and revenue for hospitality, travel, entertainment, and automotive businesses.

A hospitality business could use push notifications to promote room upgrades, dining offers, and spa packages, while travel companies might send push messages to promote fare deals and personalized destination recommendations.

Entertainment businesses can send push notifications to promote exclusive presales, merchandise launches, and food and drink packages, and car dealerships can send out pushes to promote new car launches, service reminders, and financing offers.

How to get started with push notification marketing

We’ll use Omnisend for this tutorial on implementing push notifications for marketing.

Omnisend is a top-rated platform, boasting nearly five thousand 5-star reviews on Shopify. It makes it easy to set up segmented email and push campaigns and analyze their performance with robust analytics.

1. Enable push notifications 

To enable push notifications for your store, click on your store name in the top right corner of the Omnisend dashboard. Then, open Store settings and select Push notifications.

Click on the Collect push channel subscribers button. Then, turn on the toggle switch. A confirmation message will inform you if you’re successful.

2. Create your first push notification campaign

To create your first campaign, go to the Campaigns tab and click + New Campaign. Find Push notification and click Create notification.

You can edit the title, text, logo, and image of your notification and send a test message to see how it looks.

3. Select your audience

To select your campaign audience, go to the Recipients step. Here, you can choose either All Subscribers or a specific segment that you have created. You can also exclude segments if you like.

4. Review and send

To review and send your campaign, go to the Send step and check your selections. When you are ready, hit Send now or Schedule for later to deliver your campaign to your audience.

5. Integrate pushes with other channels 

An effective push notification marketing strategy should coordinate messages across many channels. These include email and SMS. Doing this helps create a consistent, personalized experience for subscribers across different touchpoints.

Omnisend enables you to easily build omnichannel campaigns with push alerts integrated right into your workflows — not as a separate automation. Once added to any flow, you can customize notification content, timing, targeting, and more. For example:

• Send an automated email when a customer makes a purchase. Then, follow up with confirmation and shipping pushes.
• Text an abandoned cart reminder. Then, trigger a personalized push highlighting items left behind.
• Email subscribers about a sale. Then, deliver push alerts when popular products become low in stock.

For more on setting up pushes, please refer to Omnisend’s push notification documentation. 

Push notification marketing best practices

The tips above will help you get started with push notifications, but every campaign has room for improvement. No matter where they are right now, the best marketers are constantly looking for ways to improve their approach to push notification marketing and differentiate their brands from the competition. These are a few ideas to help you achieve better results with push notifications.

Combine with email and SMS

Boost your push notification marketing strategy by combining pushes with email and SMS campaigns. You’ll reach your audience on multiple channels and increase the chances of engagement. 

Here are some tips on how to use push notifications for marketing along with email and SMS:

• Use email and SMS to collect customer data like browsing history. Then, leverage these rich profiles to personalize real-time push notifications.
• Email subscribers about an upcoming flash sale. Later, amplify the impact with push notifications timed to coincide with the start of the sale.
• Send behavioral-based triggers like cart abandonment pushes. Have them come after corresponding emails or texts to reinforce your messaging.
• Ensure key campaign pushes like sales announcements and shipping updates have email and SMS counterparts. This covers subscribers preferring different channels.

A/B testing

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is an excellent way to optimize your push notification marketing campaigns. Testing different versions of push messages helps you find out what works best for your audience, improving your engagement and conversion rates.

One of the aspects you can test with push notifications is the image. Images can make your push messages more eye-catching and appealing. However, they also take up space and bandwidth. A/B test variations in graphics, product visuals, or promotional images to see what resonates best.

You can also experiment with your push notification titles to boost open rates. Try urgent sounding headings like “One day only!” against more neutral options and gauge what makes users more likely to engage. Experiment with wording, length, and tone.

The key is iterating based on marketing metrics and performance data. Let testing reveal the combinations that delight subscribers and drive conversions.

Benefit-focused copywriting

Crucial to successful push notification marketing is the art of writing appealing copy. With limited space for messaging, every word must provide value. Engage users with concise, benefit-focused language to drive click-through rates. Consider these tips:

• Highlight concrete benefits that resonate with your audience. These include exclusive discounts and new arrivals or product launches.
• Avoid information overload. Some content, like welcome sequences, is better suited for emails. Keep pushes concise, prioritizing urgent and actionable information.
• Personalize your messages based on user behavior and preferences. Segment your audience, tailor your messages, and test different versions of your copy.
• Craft urgent headings that create intrigue. Also, use emotional triggers to boost relevancy and allow enough room for a clear CTA. You need to tell subscribers exactly what to do.

Summary

Push notification marketing is a powerful way to engage and convert users with targeted web or mobile alerts. It allows you to send timely and relevant messages to your website visitors and subscribers, even when they’re not on your site.

You can use push notifications to deliver personalized offers, abandoned cart reminders, shipping and order updates, and more.

The best part? You can integrate pushes with your email and SMS strategies with platforms like Omnisend.