How to retain customers and promote revenue growth using push notifications
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One of the best ways to engage, or re-engage, your customers is by using push notifications. Any website or app can use them, and they reach your customer on your terms when you know the time is right rather than when they happen to visit your website or be looking at your app. With a couple of clicks, and without sharing personal information, users can subscribe to push notifications even if they’re not using your app. And for such a simple task, what you get in return is increased engagement, improved conversions, instant delivery, high subscription rates, increases in conversion rates, a targeted approach, trigger campaigns, the ability to schedule, actionable metrics, and engagement incredibly easy to manage.
Today, we’re going to talk specifically about how you can use push notifications to promote revenue growth and enhance customer retention, but first let’s get some house keeping out of the way.
What are Push Notifications?
Push notifications are clickable messages that pop up into users’ browsers for mobile or web regardless of the device or browser they happen to be using. Provided their browsers are running, users can receive messages at all times. This is the biggest advantage of push notifications vs. in-app notifications, because they allow you to remind the user of your product or service rather than engaging with them only after they begin using it.
Push notifications are still in their comparative infancy, having only been available for a decade or so. This means that marketing companies are still figuring out how to optimize journey management products, potentially giving you a competitive advantage. Here we’ll give you a few ideas on how specifically how to use them to drive revenue and retain customers.
How to use push notifications to drive revenue growth
Personalize and Simplify
A feature of push notifications that marketers often forget is that you already know your user, and your user already knows you. To receive a push notification at all, your customer has to have already engaged with you at least once. This means you’re simply re-engaging with them, continuing the conversation you’ve already started, and moving on from a place where your customer has already expressed interest. This means you can target the person directly with the data you’ve already collected and give them the exact personalized experience they’ve been looking for.
And because push notifications are small, keeping it simple and to-the-point goes a long way. Unlike most text, you can be sure your user will actually read what you write since they have to see it in order to swipe it away. This gives you a massive advantage, so be concise with your wording to optimize that advantage you’ve gained.
Offer Limited-Time Deals
As we’ve established, people have already subscribed to push notifications because they are interested in your service or product. Why not use the data and analytics you’ve acquired to see what it is about you they like MOST based on their profile or what they’ve been browsing and so on? Then send them offer details specifically on that product or service.
And limited-time offers are an excellent way to ensure conversion. Conversion rates have actually been declining, with average shopping order abandonment somewhere around a shocking 88%-98% overall in 2020. Limited-time offers trigger urgency, so that shopping orders are made before an expiry and your conversion rate soars.
Send Reminder Messages
Just as one of the great things about push notifications is that users don’t have to be using your product or service to receive them, you can actually remind them yourself to use you! Appropriate messages that pique their interest and grab their attention is an excellent way to do just this. Special offers can do this, but also just regular tips & tricks, the latest news, or anything else that your data suggests your customer might enjoy. Birthday messages or holiday greetings even do this, and discounts or sales on something they love for the special occasion will again help boost sales and revenue!
Another critical reminder message is simply to remind them to complete a purchase! As mentioned above, many carts are abandoned, and some of that is pure and simple forgetfulness. Reminders have been shown to help up to 2/3rds of all orders to be converted.
Provide Helpful Content
Oftentimes users are looking for the perfect thing to buy but struggle to find it. Push notifications can give them little personalized advice, based on their previous purchases or browser history, that can help them complete a sale. Users can be redirected to ready-made filtered pages using deeplinks or a URL so they can find what suits them best as well.
Of course, the way you present the opt-in for users to five their consent to web push notifications is also important. Explaining and contextualizing exactly what they’re signing up for will further their trust and loyalty in their brand and makes sure that they’re unlikely to receive notifications that frustrate them or give them a negative impression regarding your brand.
How to use push notifications to promote customer retention
Given how useful push notifications can be to drive revenue and sales, it’s no surprise it can do the same for customer retention. However, you have to be a little careful. Poor strategy or overuse of push notifications can lead people to opt out of them, as over 60% of people have been shown to do. As a result, you have to have a coherent strategy and make sure you’re retaining customers rather than driving them away.
Welcome Them and Make Them Feel at Home!
Obviously right off the bat you want your customer to enjoy their relationship with you, which means giving them a warm welcome to let them know they’re appreciated. A simple offer or gift goes a long way, but even failing that simply encouraging them to opt in or continue with the process of joining your app is critical to retaining them into the future.
Give Them a Reason to Stay and Come Back
Customer retention is all about loyalty, and push notifications are excellent for building that loyalty. After you welcomed them in, you can notify them at each step along their journey. Notify them when they cross certain thresholds or milestones, or if you have a loyalty program you can notify them regarding how many points they’ve earned.
Crucially, you can collect data regarding what points along your customer journey are most likely to produce churn for your targeted customer. At that point, push notifications that pique their interest are exactly the kind of thing that will bring them back into the fold just before you lose them.
Reminder Messages Again
At the risk of being a little repetitive, reminders are great to let your customers know that you’re thinking of them even when they’re not thinking of you. Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, important occasions for them can help build trust, loyalty and engagement with your customers. Reminders can range from things that just let them know you’re there to reminders to take specific actions – regarding your product or not – that they might otherwise have forgotten to do. Either way, the more your customers come to trust and rely on your notifications, the easier it will be to retain them on into the future.
Key Takeaways
Push notifications are a unique way to engage your customer. They are significantly different from in-app messages, emails, SMS’s, or any other way that you can engage. This is because customers don’t need to be using your product or service for you to be able to send them, and also because customers have to swipe the notification away regardless, meaning they’re more likely to see them and read them in full. Overuse, or poorly planned notifications will likely be a waste, but if you use them correctly you can really increase your customer retention as well as use this tool to drive sales – even with just a few simple tricks!
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