If you’re a smartphone user, chances are you already have experience with the usefulness of push notifications, or not? You may see push notifications such as intrusive status updates from friends in the Facebook realm. Maybe you see them as annoying updates from Twitter or your calendar program. While these feelings and situations may have some basis in truth and reality, you may not realize the full potential of prompts via smartphone push tools.
As a smartphone app developer, I’ve gotten used to building apps for clients with their specific needs in mind. This means that I build the interfaces, appearance and behavior of the application to be as the client requests it for their needs. This is usually the best approach: give the customer what he wants. However, what they want may not take into account what they can do.
With push notifications, you can send messages directly to people who have installed your app, even when the app is closed on a device. What does this do for you? If you are the customer, you receive notifications of sales, services, events and more. If you are the merchant or vendor, you have the ability to share with app users in ways far beyond email or other means. With notifications, you build customer engagement by directly delivering information that can be immediately applied to their needs (the customer’s needs). It can be sports scores, breaking news, game updates, social media posts, stock quotes, and much more. Each can be tailored to your audience.
There are tools your developer can employ, such as Urban Airship’s Push API, that allow you to send messages to your entire audience, divide your total audience into specific subgroups, or use push notifications at an individual level (stock prices, account updates, etc.). ). These tools allow you to specifically address your customers’ needs while keeping your level of interactivity high. The more you interact with your customers, the more you can ensure that they are consuming your information and services.
Without going into the myriad of technicalities required to make this work, let’s consider some of the applications of push notifications. Some of these have already been mentioned, such as social media posts and sports stores. You can receive Facebook game badge updates, friend notices, and the like. But from a business perspective, there are many uses beyond this. Consider the following:
- Inform customers of sales and specials
- Announce special events
- Post job openings (I’ve seen this with a coffee shop!)
- Coordinate activities (a local bowling alley uses this to organize tournaments)
- Encouraging activist participation (political groups find this invaluable)
Helped out a local beer and gig pub that needed a band (rather unexpectedly) to fill in for another band that canceled at the last minute. A push notification sent to app users for their pub received an almost immediate response from a local gang (of rather funny techies from a big networking company). Not only did the concert pub get a replacement band for its Friday night crowd, the ‘Johnny on the spot’ band got exposure (and more bookings).
I’ve seen push notifications with sports groups and the like. A local bowling alley uses push notifications to fill empty bowling alleys by creating special instant apps (“For two hours only: 10 can bowl for the price of 1!”). These push specials are often read immediately, and people make spontaneous decisions based on this immediacy of the data. A local subscription-based gym and athletic club uses its app with push notifications to not only announce new classes (Zumba class is the big new ad), but also let app users know when the class closes. pool due to maintenance and inclement weather.
I helped a Midwest auction house build an app that uses push notifications to not only notify users of upcoming auctions, but also allows their users to subscribe to auction notices that allow lots notices to be sent to users so they can bid over the phone more easily. They don’t have to worry about which lots they want: they get notified when those lots get close to bidding, and they can call the auction house. The auction house not only constantly interacts with its customers, but also provides them with a value-added service that greatly improves the customer relationship and generates many more sales than before. Push notifications allow you to build your customer touchpoints and revenue. (Have you considered the constant opportunity to ‘brand’ yourself with your app? Push notifications underscore branding.)
If you are considering the push notifications you have received, then you can relate to the practical uses of push notifications and they become less of an intrusion into your life and more of a benefit. If you’re a marketer (a merchant with an app), you should consider using push notifications with your apps.
Wow, I just got a push notification: “Don’t cook tonight, come for gourmet takeout!” from a local deli!