How Push Notifications can be an Effective Marketing Tool

The AppMachine team has completely rebuilt the push message functionality over the past few months. There is a completely new and fresh interface to manage your messages.  This article describes the benefits of sending push messages, some guidelines and the specific steps how to write a great push notification.

Update Jan 17: just released: Send the message from within your own mobile app#

This newly added feature enables you to send a message wherever you are, als long as you have your phone with you. This makes it much easier to share instant news right away.

The Benefits of Push Notifications #

Push notifications provide a number of benefits when it comes to marketing.
Are you looking for a new way to reach your customer base? If so, then push notification may be the answer. Push notifications are messages that appear on a user’s device when they have downloaded an app. They can be used to send out timely and relevant information about special offers, discounts, events and other important updates.  Push notifications can be a great tool to  increase your engagement with your customers.

1. Immediate#

For one thing, they are immediate—users receive the message as soon as it is sent out, rather than having to wait until they open their email inboxes or check their social media accounts. This immediacy is especially important in this age of instant gratification; customers want information right away, and push notifications provide it.
Push notifications are an effective way to engage with users in real time and keep them informed of what is happening in your business.
With AppMachine you can send a push notification immediately or you can schedule when a push message needs to be send out. This way push messages can be part of your content calendar.

2. Personalized marketing via push notifications#

Another benefit of push notifications is that they can be personalized based on the user’s preferences and behavior. This means that customers will only receive messages that are relevant to them, which increases the likelihood that they will actually take action after receiving the message. This level of personalization also helps build trust between you and your customers; it demonstrates that you care about their individual needs and wants.  

AppMachine lets you define Push categories and your app users can subscribe to the various types of messages.
For example if you have an app for your football club, you could create categories for the weekly updates, but also if you want to get live updates when the main team scores a goal. 

3. Easy to execute #

Finally, push notifications require very little effort on your part as a business owner. You login to the website and schedule your messages in the Push messages screen. And if you schedule multiple messages at once, you don’t have to put too much time into it every day.  

How to write a good push notification#

When you want to write  a message, it’s important follow push notification best practices.
Keep the following guidelines in mind: 

• Short
  Push messages can be a maximum of 140 characters, but research showed that the click rate of a message decreases when you use more than 10 words. So you really need to weigh your words.
  

  

• Clear
  You only have 1 chance to inform the customer or to get them to click on the message, so be as clear as you can.
• Captivating
  It’s also important to make the message interesting enough to click on it. You can configure which screen in your app needs to be opened, so your customer will be send to the right page in your app where they can find more information.
• Relevant
  Make sure to make the message relevant to your users. You can do this by segmenting your messages via different push categories where your customers have signed up for.
• At the right time
  Pick the right time/moment to send the message.
  For example, if your app is business app, it might not be a good idea to send a message in the weekend.

How Send push notification with AppMachine#

Setting up push notifications is easy. You can even do it after your app is already available in the app stores and you even don’t need to do a store update: you can start sending messages right away.

1. Create Apple push certificate#

Follow these instructions to Create a Push certificate for Apple. For Android you don’t need to take any additional steps to be able to send push messages.

2. Use Push categories#

Define the push categories you want to use,  so your app users can subscribe to specific types of messages based on their interest.

When you are using this feature, be sure to add a Settings block in your app which lets
It will look like this in the Settings screen of your app.
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3. Schedule the message from our webportal#

You can send the message immediately or schedule it for a later time. Creating a bunch of messages and scheduling them will make sure you send messages regularly and that you don’t forget about it.

4.  What happens on click#

When an app user clicks your notification, your app will be opened. But… you can make the push message more relevant by choosing which specific screen of your app should be opened.
So, for example, if you are sharing that you have a job opening, clicking the push message might open the block with the information about the vacancy. 

It’s important that your app users understand what’s in it for them when they subscribe to push messages. You can use the Welcome screen of your app, to explain them why it is beneficial for the user to enable Push notifications (only applies for ios, for android push is always enabled by default)

Upcoming updates#

And this is not all… In the upcoming weeks AppMachine will launch this new exciting features: 

Send messages to user groups#

We are also working on the ffeature where you can send push notifications to a usergroup which you defined in your app.
For example if you have an event app where you have exhibitors and attendees, you can send a message to one of these groups. This helps you to personalize the message and make sure the relevant information is to the correct group.

Summary#

Push notifications are an effective way for businesses to stay connected with their customer base without having to invest too much time or energy into it every day. They provide immediate information about special offers and other updates, can be personalized based on user preferences, and require minimal effort from business owners themselves. If you’re looking for a new way to market your business, start sending push notification with AppMachine today!

How can Appmachine help you to build apps?#

AppMacine is a no-code app builder which lets you build apps for iOS and Android. Read more details about our product or checkout out our pricing.