What Is Push Marketing, And How Can It Enhance Audience Engagement?

Push marketing is an innovative method of engaging consumers at all phases of the customer journey. Push technology allows site visitors to opt in to receive web push notifications. Digital advertisers then use the first-party data collected by push technology to create personalized web push notifications for targeted segments of consumers.

This three-part series introduces push marketing — explaining what push marketing is, why push marketing is effective and how push marketing works. In part one, discover what push marketing is, the history of push and why brands and digital advertisers should deploy push marketing to maximize their campaign performance.

Web Push Notifications Are Web-Based Messages That Deliver Directly To Desktop Or Mobile Devices

Web push notifications hit the digital advertising market in 2013 and gained popularity in 2015 when Google Chrome brought support, making push marketing one of the newer marketing tactics available today. Web push notifications are sent from desktop or mobile web browsers to subscribers who opt in to receive them.

A typical web push notification includes a title, body message, icon and call-to-action (CTA) button. Google Chrome (mobile and Windows only) also supports large images up to 300x500 pixels. OSX users can expand Chrome notifications (see image) and view push icons as large images.  

Web Push Notifications Complement Most Marketing Strategies

Web push notifications were designed to complement other marketing channels by addressing common pain points experienced with email or SMS marketing. For example, email and SMS advertisers have to deal with data compliance and the possibility of campaigns ending up in spam folders. With push marketing, advertisers have fewer compliance laws to navigate. Because the browsers are what actually handle sending web push notifications, most compliance requirements related to push marketing are the responsibility of the browsers. A subscriber can, at any time, go into their browser settings and unsubscribe from web push notifications. Subscribers are always in total control of opting in and opting out.

Push marketing also helps solve some of the challenges surrounding data-sharing concerns. With push marketing, a subscriber does not have to provide any personally identifiable information (PII) in order to opt in to receive notifications. During opt in, a subscriber ID is created that is anonymous to the website and push technology. As a result, web push notifications are GDPR and CCPA compliant by nature, because a subscriber has to give permission to be sent push notifications, and any information tracked by the push technology is anonymously tracked to the subscriber ID. Push technology-tracked information cannot be shared or sold, and a subscriber can opt out of the notifications at any time. 

Advertisers Should Consider Push Marketing For Improving Brand Awareness, Re-Engaging Audiences And Monetization

Push marketing lets advertisers connect with consumers, encouraging website engagement and building lasting connections. Push notifications deliver to the device on which a subscriber opted in, and can be delivered even if they are not at the website subscribed from or currently using a browser. 

Advertisers can retarget consumers based on their onsite activity. This first-party activity data enables brands to connect with their audiences with relevant messages delivered to the right person (or segment of an audience) at the right time. High-intent consumers can be sent push notifications encouraging them to take a desired action. Likewise, consumers at different stages of the sales cycle can receive notifications with pertinent information they still need before progressing further. 

Push marketing can help digital advertisers improve important marketing metrics, like traffic volume and consumer engagement rates. Push notifications are clickable (or tappable) and instantly drive subscribers to desired landing pages. 

Web Push Notifications Engage Consumers At All Phases Of The Buyer’s Journey

Brands and digital advertisers can leverage push marketing in every phase of the marketing funnel. For example, advertisers can utilize web push notifications to help grow email lists by sending targeted notifications to segments of users who have not yet shared their emails. Especially when used in tandem with other channels, such as email, push marketing can boost impressions and results. 

To engage and convert consumers further down the funnel, targeted web push notifications can be designed to encourage final decision making and purchases. Push marketing can also boost customer retention and lifetime value, especially for subscription and DTC brands looking to keep consumers engaged over longer periods of time. 

With an easy opt-in process and fewer concerns surrounding data privacy, web push marketing is an exciting way to connect with audiences. Advertisers across all verticals can benefit from deploying web push notifications, with possible results ranging from increased website traffic to enhanced email lists, higher conversion rates, lower abandonment rates and more. 

Are You Looking For Innovative Ways To Retarget Your Audience?

Digital Media Solutions^® (DMS) offers a variety of digital performance advertising solutions to help brands connect with consumers. Engage and retarget your audience while building lasting connections with highly targeted push notifications, in-app messages and email enhancements with our self-managed and fully-managed push marketing solutions. With optimized messaging campaigns sending to segmented lists of consumers, you can reach the right person at the right time.  

Click here to learn more about Aimtell, our self-managed, push messaging SaaS technology that helps you re-engage website visitors with highly targeted push notifications.