Push Notifications are message like notifications which appear on Android, iOS devices through a mobile app which supports them. In the past, the only way you could reach users with push notifications was through a custom made mobile app for Android or iOS, specifically tailored for your business.
In the recent years, the option to reach users through Web Push Notifications has been growing to support many well-known Web Browsers including Chrome and Safari. This ultimately means that almost any device can be reached through Push Notifications irrespective of whether it runs a mobile operating system or a full operating system like Windows and Mac OS.
Push Notifications can be used in most business sectors and are especially useful for time-sensitive information or new information that needs to reach users as quickly as possible. Push notifications are an ideal solution for News websites and Blogs as well as other business types that require a quick and reliable way to reach users on the go. This is the reason why almost all news websites in Cyprus offer a Push Notifications opt-in, with the Reporter News Website, (a local news website I was the Digital Projects Manager for), being one of the first if not the first website to feature these type of notifications through web browsers.
Why are push notifications important for your business in Cyprus?
I’ve explained in a previous article that getting website traffic in Cyprus is expensive due to the volume limitations. This, in turn, means that if a business fails to utilize that traffic to the greatest possible extent, the cost of acquiring new traffic will always be high and the return on investment will be low.
Push notifications can help a business build brand recall and loyalty just by incorporating them into the website’s marketing mix. Specialized topic websites can be highly benefited from this type of notifications since they enable users to be reached on their devices when it matters the most. Scheduled notifications can be sent to users with news about something interesting they should be aware of or in cases of breaking news.
Push notifications have a similar Open Rate to Email Messages and work in a similar way overall. The more frequent and less personalized these messages are, the less chance they have of being opened by users and less able to drive tangible results. Push notification platforms offer a dashboard with all significant information about the notifications sent including open rate, unsubscribe rate, etc. This information can be used to ultimately deliver competitive and targeted campaigns.
There is no golden rule for the frequency of these notifications or an optimal strategy to utilize when using this type of notifications. My suggestion would be that a custom plan is developed based on the current information a business has about its users, the size of the Push Notifications list as well as the business sector of the Website.
So ultimately, push notifications can help any business reach its users through highly visible notifications on almost all of their devices for virtually no cost at all, since many platforms offer a free Push Notifications Service or for an insignificant cost.
If you have any thoughts on the matter, get in touch with me!