Push notifications are gaining momentum, and it doesn’t look like they’re slowing down. They’re an incredibly effective way to garner customer engagement—mobile app push notifications can boost app engagement up to 88%—and are an integral part of any cross-channel marketing strategy.
What’s interesting, however, is that while the average smartphone user receives 46 push notifications a day, there isn’t a good repository of push notification examples available to easily browse. So, we’ve combined the power of the Iterable team to gather exemplary push notifications for our fellow marketers out there. Take a look at how other brands are doing push notification marketing and get ready to be inspired.
Abandoned Cart
Abandoned cart messages are a powerful way to convert customers who have left items behind. When users have opted-in to receive push notifications from a mobile app, push notifications can be employed to serve the same purpose as a traditional abandoned cart email.
ASOS
Clothing brand ASOS reminded app users of the items they saved, hoping to lead them to purchase.
Curated Content
Creating timely, curated in-app content is also a great opportunity to engage customers through a push notification. What’s more, these push notifications include deep links, which provide a seamless customer experience by sending users directly to the content mentioned in the notifications.
Drizly
Drizly, the liquor delivery brand, created a women-owned product page and deep linked their push notification to it during Women’s History Month.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon curated a list of programs about Black culture and by Black creators during Black History Month.
Re-Engagement
Re-engagement push notifications are effective because they’re a direct line to your mobile app. There are certain types of mobile apps that rely on re-engagement campaigns—one of those being gaming apps. We’ve talked about mobile gaming retention and push notification marketing is one way to keep app users in the loop.
Words With Friends
Popular mobile game, Words With Friends, uses urgency and social proof to try and get users to re-engage with their app via push notifications.
Duolingo
Language learning app, Duolingo, aims to re-engage users with short lessons, specific to each individual’s selected languages.
Transactional
Push notification marketing can also serve the purpose of sending transactional messages. With food delivery apps, for example, when an order is placed, updates on that order are crucial for customer satisfaction. Sending multiple transactional push notifications during an active order isn’t viewed as annoying, it’s helpful.
DoorDash
DoorDash updates users on the status of their order with multiple push notifications.
Promotional
We can’t overlook the importance of promotional push notification marketing either. For retail brands, the goal is to get app users to buy their products. One way to do that is to offer discounts or special deals for those shopping within the app. With deep linking, users can be directed to a deal within the app versus having to search online.
Ulta Beauty
Ulta Beauty offered an app-only deal and featured a product photo in the push notification details.
Beauty Bay
Beauty Bay uses push notifications to offer a coupon code and a reminder of the discount tiers.
ASOS, House of Fraser
Clothing brands ASOS and House of Fraser send promotional push notifications to advertise products and sales.
Informational
Push notifications are also an excellent channel for sharing information, especially timely information. Everyone is glued to their phones these days, so being able to reach users wherever they are is helpful for sharing important information. Think about news headlines—we’ve all gasped when a shocking push notification hits our home screens.
Wired
Apple News shares Wired magazine’s updates midday. This update is particularly relevant with ChatGPT top-of-mind.
CNN
Apple News shares updates from CNN as well. With the CNN app installed, users would get notifications directly from CNN.
ESPN
ESPN shares sport-related news via push notification marketing.
More Push Notification Marketing Examples to Come
What’s important to remember is that users have to opt in to receive push notifications. This means that as a brand, you’ll have to strike a balance between providing value and being a nuisance. With too many notifications you run the risk of users opting out, but with too few your brand may be forgotten.
If you’re not sure what works best for your users, don’t be afraid to test. Try out some options, see what works, and run with the top performer. OBRIO’s astrology app, Nebula, was able to use A/B testing to figure out which subscription offer push notifications were most impactful.
There are endless possibilities with push notifications and brands are starting to get more creative. We’ll continue to collect examples so our library of push notification marketing examples will only continue to grow.
Have you received push notifications you think are noteworthy? Share them on LinkedIn and tag @Iterable.
