Push notifications are now a mainstream phenomenon as a majority (76 per cent) of European online smartphone app users receive push notifications, according to a Forrester report published today.

By opting in to push notifications, consumers allow brands to engage with them at any time and in any location on their most personal devices. Forrester analyst Thomas Husson writes it is critical for marketers to fully integrate push notifications as part of their overall direct marketing and CRM strategy, but also warns: “If your messages are not relevant, you will lose your best customers.”

“Push notifications make the most of mobile marketing’s unique attributes: intimacy, immediacy, and context,” writes Husson in a new blog post. “However, to avoid being spammed with irrelevant messages, consumers increasingly want to be in control, setting preferences on the types of messages they want to receive and when they want to receive them.” 

Husson believes that mobile CRM can become the Holy Grail of one-to-one marketing, but only for marketers willing to let consumers take control. The ability to know a user’s context, thanks to sensors embedded or linked to smartphones, will increase already-high privacy and identity concerns. Moving forward, consumers will design the communication environment in which brands interact with them.

Other findings from the new report, which is based on a survey of more than 13,000 European consumers (Q4, 2012), include:

• People who receive push notifications are also the heaviest users of apps. Among EU online consumers who receive push notifications or SMS alerts on their cell phone at least weekly, roughly 60 per cent use apps at least daily, which is comparable to the US. 
• Out of the 76 per cent of European smartphone app users who have opted in to push notifications, 26 per cent receive them several times per day, 24 per cent at least once per day, and 27 per cent at least once per week.
• Even more iOS and Android users receive push notifications: 89 per cent of iOS app users receive push notifications, while 83 per cent of Android app users do. 

You can read Thomas Hussons blog post here.