Author: Tom Cottrill | Date Posted: Jun 7, 2022
You know when you go to a website and it asks you if it can send you push notifications to your device? These push notifications, specifically called web push notifications, are similar to the ones that are pushed through by apps in that if a user opts in, they will receive a notification to their phone regardless of whether they are on your website. This allows you to stay front-of-mind with your users with new content, news, or new products or sales. Using web push notifications effectively, though, can take some finesse. Here are some tips that will help you best utilize them.
According to iZooto, “Web Push Notifications are notifications that your website visitors can opt-in to and receive notifications without having to install your app. These notifications are clickable rich content messages that are delivered directly to users’ devices – desktop and mobile, by a website.”
Most browsers support web notifications, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge on Desktop and Chrome, Firefox, Opera on Android Mobile. However, iOS has yet to create support for web push notifications, so keep this in mind when utilizing them on your website.
As discussed above, web push notifications can really help you get in front of your customers and stay in touch with them, updating them regularly. Of course, this is only the case if they choose to opt into the notifications (you absolutely cannot legally send them push notifications without them opting in, so make sure your web developer includes an opt-in option for all web visitors).
Since email, SMS, and direct mail marketing have all changed, and effectiveness is hit or miss with these types of marketing depending on how they are executed, many digital marketers are looking to web push notifications to keep their offers and content in front of their customers. They are useful because you allow your customers to subscribe to your content without requiring them to add yet another app to their phone that they may or may not use regularly.
The great part about web push notifications is that everyone who has opted into them has already shown interest in your company’s products or services, so a retargeting campaign to these customers are likely to be much more effective and much warmer than other marketing campaigns.
Web push notifications can be used in a variety of ways to best serve the company—and your customers. It’s important to make sure that all push notifications you send are providing some sort of value for your customers and are not overwhelming to the point of essentially spamming them. This will get them to unsubscribe very quickly. They should be used just as sparingly as SMS messaging or email marketing to ensure you keep providing value for your customers and can retain your subscribers.
Using push notifications as a form of content distribution is incredibly effective. News outlets and other companies that are providing frequent content updates use push notifications to send updates and new posts to their users. A company can use push notifications to send recent blogs or company updates or announcements to subscribers. Podcasts and videos can be shared in this way too, and it allows subscribers to see the brief summary of what you’re sharing to decide if they’re interested in clicking to listen to or read the rest.
As discussed above, retargeting campaigns are very effectively utilized with web push notifications. Because all subscribers already showed interest in your company in some capacity, you know you’re targeting a warm audience. You can even use the subscriber list to create look-alike audiences for ad campaigns to get even better click-through rates and results from social media and Google Ad campaigns. Web push notifications are set up to target the 95-95% of web visitors who don’t convert into customers to work on converting them into a customer down the road through building trust and staying front-of-mind.
In the same way web push notifications can be used to retarget those who didn’t convert to customers when they visited your website, they can also be used to help retain those who did. By consistently engaging with those who purchased from your website or decided to use your services, you are able to help encourage them to purchase from you or utilize your services again in the future. Obviously if you provide a good customer experience and product/service, they are likely to return anyway, but by staying in front of them and providing updates on your company, content, and any sales, they may realize you can serve more needs than they initially thought and determine a different need for your company than they initially had. Or it may just encourage them to hire your company or purchase your services earlier than they planned initially.
However you decide to use web push notifications, make sure they are developed by a professional web developer. If push notifications are glitchy or don’t show up properly when they push through to people’s phones, they will only serve to annoy your visitors rather than serve them and provide value like you want. By making sure a professional develops them, they can create them to perform exactly as you need them to, follow all FCC guidelines to keep your company out of trouble, and iron out any issues you may have with updates and browser changes down the road.
Since 2013, Ignitro Studios has been working to blend marketing and technology in support of agencies and other marketers. By understanding both sides of web development, we have a unique perspective and advantage within the industry. We provide design, development, project management, QA, and strategy, driving the bus so our clients don’t have to. We will work with our clients to get results while also empowering them to do their job better. Learn more about Ignitro Studios.
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