Push notification is a service that was created by Apple and launched for its iOS 3.0. It allows you to send messages or event notifications to your app users even if the app isn’t running. It shows an alert, a pop-up message, or a badge on the app’s icon letting them know that a message is waiting for them.

This feature is designed to help out mobile users. Running apps drains your mobile’s battery. If you enable push notification, the important alerts and notifications still come through. This means you can get the news without running the app, thus saving the life of your battery.

Nothing Pushy About It

When you’re developing an app, you can add push notifications as a feature. The name sounds like there’s something ‘pushy’ about it, but there isn’t anything pushy at all. It’s up to your users to either enable or disable it on their mobile. Still, if they find it annoying or spammy, or there are just too many messages, they might opt out of it. You’ve got to use it tastefully in your app to keep their attention.

One way to do this is to make sure your messages are relevant. Only send messages that your customers can really use. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine which things are most important to them. A good way to make your notifications as relevant as possible is to take advantage of list segmentation. This means dividing up your list and sending certain message to certain people.

Push Sparingly

It also helps to use them sparingly. Only send the most important information through the service. For example, if you’ve got a weather-related app, only set severe weather information to be pushed through. If they get too many messages, they’re likely to tune out.

Timing Is Everything

Consider when you send your push notifications. If you’ve done mobile marketing before, you know that there are certain times when your subscribers are more receptive to messages. For example, it might be after the dinner hour or on weekend afternoons. Save your push notifications for these key times and you’ll get the best results.

You can develop an app that gives them lots of options about push notification. If you use Facebook, you know that you can select a whole range of notification options. You can opt to only receive a notification when someone tags you or sends you a message. Create a function like this for your app where they can choose specific categories of information to receive.

Listen to Your Customers

After you release your app, watch closely to see how users are reacting to it. Track active users and opt-outs. If you see lots of people disabling your push notification, this tells you that you’re doing something wrong. You may be pushing too much through or the messages and alerts aren’t relevant enough to them.

Finally, ask for their response. Send messages that ask them for feedback or opinions. This is an excellent way to engage them and ensure that your push notifications aren’t being ignored.