It’s time for media companies to move beyond e-mail newsletters and text message advertising and put all their energy behind push notification technology, which has the power to drive users to their mobile apps and Web sites.
News and analysis are valuable and important for users. The common problem for users and news media companies alike: How can the news be easily paired with a targeted user?
Online Web sites are offering a classic push service, the newsletter. But more and more users are using their mobile device for news consumption. To establish an one-to-one communication flow, some media companies used — and are still using — text mobile messaging to reach their users.
But this way of pushing the news is too expensive and ineffective, mostly because the text inbox will fill up with impersonal content that users will simply delete.
Mobile Web sites and apps in particular are offering another, more effective way of pushing news to the right users. The mobile news company should offer multiple push channels for every content feature, such as a live sports tracker or breaking news, or content channel, such as politics, weather, and celebrities.
Push notifications used in this way can serve multiple purposes:
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Increase user engagement.
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Improve user retention rates.
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Help drive certain activities.
If you want to establish a new mobile feature or announce anything else directly into your target group, push notifications are the best way to get your users on your mobile Web site or app.
In the retail market, only 31% of the top 100 online shops with a mobile app are currently using push notification. In the news area it seems to be a higher percentage, but it is mostly focused on breaking news.
To be successful with push notifications, you have to build a portfolio of push channels where the user can select his personal updates.
It is not enough to produce great and relevant content. You have to distribute and promote it!