We’ve all been there: with all the communication we’ve been bombarded with on a daily basis, it can be annoying to receive email from businesses selling you stuff you never asked for, don’t want or need, however well intended that email may have been.
Don’t get me wrong, email marketing is still key to reaching some of your customers or prospects. If you are a business owner or marketing manager, there are ways of getting your followers’ attention with a more targeted message at the right place, and at the right time when they are predisposed to engage with you. This often means when your customers are on their smartphones or going about their daily lives (with their smartphones on hand).
Push notifications sent from a mobile app is one of the most effective ways of getting your followers or customers’ attention.
One of the key selling points of a mobile app is the ability to send free, unlimited push notifications to potentially every single customer that has downloaded the app. Push notifications have an over 90% read rate, making them an ideal way for businesses to publicise special offers, events and promotions to customers all year round.
The push message pops up on the display of the user’s handset, informing them that they have received a message. Added to the push messages is the ability to combine the GPS element to send location based push messages within a certain geographical radius meaning businesses can even specifically target certain locations for their offers. One further benefit of push messages is the ability to send messages that can include pictures such as the company logo.
This allows you to tailor the push message to your brand. Not only can you specify when or where your customers receive your messages, you can also schedule your messages all in one go.
If your business has a members’ only area on the app reserved for your paying members (such as a gym, private club or networking group) or in the case of a school, specific content set up for different groups of people, you can set different push messages to different user groups, thereby giving you yet another option of laser targeting your communication.
Rest assured you won’t be spamming your customers and followers with unwanted messages. On the contrary, push notifications are only activated with the user’s permission – a question will pop up when you first download the app, asking if the user wishes to receive notifications from the business. The user can activate or deactivate these push notification settings at any time on the smartphone.
Do remember when someone downloads your business app, this usually means the user is already aware of your business or is a customer and wants to engage with your business. This being the case the user is naturally predisposed to receive communication from you.
For example, if you are a consultant or a coach, you may want to be in regular communication with your clients and may want to send regular push notifications motivating them to do something for themselves or to remind them to attend a workshop with you.
If you are a local retailer, you may want to send push notifications at Christmas time, Birthdays or Anniversaries with your offers, complimentary gifts, encouraging them to buy from you.
Push messages are very easy and quick to set up on the smartphone, tablet or laptop, and will run automatically, leaving the business owner to focus on what he/she does best – manage the business!
Joyce Ong, Marketing Tech – Cool Clever Customisable Business Apps to help your Business grow
Marketing Tech helps small and medium sized businesses generate a positive return on their Marketing investment by building customer loyalty and converting followers into paying customers. Joyce Ong, founder of Marketing Tech, is a mobile marketing specialist and licensed app developer for small and medium sized businesses. Get in touch with us here
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