Push notifications: how to use them to maximize sales

Any direct method of communication with the customer that is able to make a message visible must be, at least, taken into account. The attention span of a customer is more and more divided, and the methods more or less passive may not be so effective. 

That being said... why not giving push notifications a go?

The best example –as it is the most usual– is that of typical pop-up windows típicas ventanas that  inform about any news  related with the mobile app. It can be a chat message, a status change related with an order placed in an eCommerce, or, of course, any kind of promotion. 

Before starting to talk about the uses of push notifications to maximize sales, it is important to explain the devices and channels thanks to which they work.

For quite some time, these push are not exclusive neither for apps nor mobile devices: we can also find the so called browser push notifications, that use that functionality when browsing out of apps.

We must carry out the most accurate client segmentación  to obtain a higher performance to these messages. In this sense, it not so different to what it is done in email marketing. 

Also, we have to choose when to trigger notifications carefully, and the place where we do it from. 

This is determined, to a large extent, by the message content. It is not the same a one-time promotion with a broad range than one message based on the context and actions of the user. 

Additionally, notificaciones work as a link, therefore, it is important the landing page we are sent is aligned with the message, keeping a minimum coherence. 

Now that we are clear about what push notificaciones are about, let´s see the strategic side and how we can use them to increase conversión in general terms and manage to improve the KPIs. These examples can be useful when applied in your strategy. 

In this blog, we have already said how profitable cutting down cart abandonment taxes is in eCommerce.

Let´s add this kind of notificaciones to those we already know. The simple act of adding a product to the cart means that the user has moved significantly through the Customer Journey. Therefore, reminding the user he has products ready to be bought by means of such a slight intrusive method works very well. 

This change in browsing status is not only important because it brings customer closer to purchase (as it is so important): there is another important reason to prefer visitors browse as customers. 

Push notifications can be used based on browsing or purchase history of  certain customer. Thus, the effectiveness of a recommendation is more important in terms of relevance.

The point above leads us to the promotional function of push notifications. 

We can let the user know about what is new in our catalogue or a one-time offer such as, for example, free delivery during a certain period of time. These offers can be also based, as we already said, on his wishlist or on previous purchases; this way we will have more success probability.  

This is a good way of having two different tactics and tools working together. The synergy between push notifications and email marketing es very useful. 

Sometimes it can be difficult for us to get database with enough critical mass as to carry out relevant segmentations and profitable actions. This way, we can manage to increase the lists and, consequently, the strategic scope. 

Push notifications make sense even when the purchase is done: we still can get most of them by giving an additional service to the customer. 

Just a simple push message notifying that the order is ready to be sent, sharing the link to our logistics service to follow up it may be a small added value. 

Images | Unsplash.