Push notifications are really a simple concept. Get your visitors or users to say, “Yes, I want you to contact me.” Then, send them relevant, timely, and helpful messages directly to the devices they want to receive them on.
Why aren’t more people taking advantage of this?
It has more to do with a lack of knowledge of this channel than it does with push notifications themselves.
Firstly, many sites think they can’t get a mobile app for their website, and think Push Notifications are reserved to only the biggest publishers.
With plugins in WordPress, and even affordable tools online, it’s fairly easy to equip a website and mobile app with push notification technology.
Just look at MobiLoud. We’ve taken all of the work out of mobile app creation and push notifications. Simply update settings to your liking, and that’s it! We’ll help you do the rest.
Web Push Notifications vs. Mobile Push Notifications
There’s a big difference between web push notifications and mobile app push notifications. For instance, opt-in rates, click-through rates, and the loyalty of push users is much higher in apps than on the web. Let’s consider this from all angles:
Use Cases
There is a reason why some business models perform better in mobile app form than others. It’s for similar reasons that certain brands should gravitate more towards web than mobile (or to use both!)
Web
With desktop (and its mobile counterpart) serving as the de facto standard for so long, there’s a much greater range of business models that can be found here. That said, there are specific website types that’ll do best with web push notifications:
- SaaS products that want to stay in touch with users for the purposes of onboarding, guidance, and support.
- Multi-website networks that have other (related) web properties to promote.
- e-Commerce sites that want to improve transactions, whether it’s in promoting a relevant discount, suggesting related products, reminding about an abandoned cart, suggesting a refill on a previous purchase, and so on.
- Social networks with ongoing notifications related to activity.
- Blogs or news sites that publish new content on a regular basis.
- Websites built to promote minimum viable product apps and want to stay in touch with early adopters.
Basically, if your website has something worth engaging with–for logged in or drive-by users–and you want a way to remind them that it’s there, web push notifications would be helpful.
Mobile
Mobile apps, as you might imagine, appeal more to the urgency in your user base. That’s not to say that you want to get a quick visit from your users as a result of push notifications, but you do want to get them in there at the right time.
Here are some ways in which brands can use mobile app notifications to their benefit:
- News apps can share breaking news and time-sensitive stories.
- Blog podcast apps that have established audiences should use alerts whenever a new post goes live.
- Traffic or weather apps can share timely updates regarding the state of the local area and anything that might intrude on users’ plans.
- e-Commerce apps can remind customers about incomplete purchases or about big sales days approaching.
- Apps that tend to have daily visits (like dating or gaming apps) may want to remind users when they haven’t logged in yet.
- If you have a content based app is to use quizzes to (re-)engage with users. This is a great way to combine a fun experience with a relevant learning for the participant. Think of how Buzzfeed uses targeted quizzes to engage their users, which them helps them further segment their user base by content preference, in order to send more relevant content in the future!
Even if your mobile app doesn’t have a concept that works well on that urgent, need-to-know now level, you can still make good use of push notifications. Take the example of
Detroit Free Press. Ashley C. Wood, the director of consumer experience at the paper, explains:
As such, do keep in mind that every website and mobile app should be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Pay attention to your analytics and user personas to determine how push notifications would best be used.
Appearance of Push Notifications
In terms of appearance, there actually isn’t much of a difference between web or mobile push notifications.
Both allow publishers to send text messages, and they can be accompanied by images and video. Oh, and messages can include advanced characters like emojis, too. In fact, LeanPlum found that
emojis nearly double the open rate of push notifications:
Functionality of Push Notifications
In terms of how push notifications work, the delivery system is essentially the same:
- Ask the visitor if it’s okay to contact them.
- They respond with “Allow” or “Block”.
- You send notifications to them, no matter the place or time.
But there are other key functionalities of this technology that differ between the two.
Web
With web push notifications, you can deliver these to anyone who has stepped on your site and enabled notifications. This means you can appeal to subscribers with other messages besides ones that are directly related to their accounts. This means reaching users at all parts of the journey, not just after conversion.
There’s also the matter of notification management that sets these two platforms apart. On the web, there really isn’t much that can be done aside from allowing or blocking a website from contact.
As you can see here in my Chrome browser, there are a number of websites I have already blocked:
Clicking on the “Edit” button doesn’t actually do anything besides allow you to rename the URL.
As you can imagine, this limits what you’re able to do in terms of web push notifications. For instance, let’s say someone blocks you out of impulse. Later, they discover that you have really great content they do want to be updated about. However, they have to know to update their browser’s notification settings for your site.
Mobile
On the other hand, mobile push notifications can only be sent to users of your app. While they don’t have to be inside the app to receive the notifications, they do have to have it actively installed on their smartphone. This means push notifications can’t be used for the purposes of reaching new users.
Now, in terms of controls, this is where mobile shines.
Here is a snapshot from the Washington Post mobile app:
As you can see, it’s not enough to just say, “We’ll send you urgent updates about new and breaking stories.” Users get to choose what sort of topics they want to hear from you about.
Mobile app users can choose other notification customizations, too. It simply depends on what kind of app you have. Take WhatsApp as an example.
This is the main notifications tab:
As you can see, users can get as granular as they like about their notifications. Messages? Yes. Groups? No. Sound on? Sure, let me customize. They can even select how in-app notifications are handled in terms of display and sounds.
Tailor your notifications–and the controls users have over them–based on the overall app functionality.
Reach of Push Notifications
I’ve already touched on this point a little bit, but I’ll sum it up once more:
Web
To start, web notifications can reach anyone who’s decided to click that “Allow” button. This means you have the potential to reach more than just subscribed or paying website users.
There’s also the argument that web push notifications are compatible with more platforms. With the exception of iOS web, you can reach users across most devices with notifications.
This is great news if you haven’t yet created a mobile app for your brand (or if you don’t intend to). You’re still capable of reaping the benefits of timely notifications with your audience without the investment of a mobile app.
That said, on desktop, reach may be significantly lower than on mobile. Because so much of desktop usage time occurs while people are working, they’re not likely to do much in terms of engaging with push notifications. Again, don’t just think about getting your messages in front of users, but also in whether or not they do anything with them afterwards.
Mobile
According to aggregated
data from Stone Temple, mobile visits continue to increase, pushing desktop usage way lower:
So, for those of you who are concerned with the potentially limited reach of web push to desktop users, never fear.
87% of mobile users were inside of apps as opposed to the web in 2017. Consequently, mobile push notifications have a great opportunity to make up the distance, when you combine a WordPress website with a mobile app.
Also, let’s not forget about the timing aspect, too. Desktop may put you at a disadvantage because of the circumstances under which users are on that platform. However, mobile users always have their eyes on their phones. If you want to target people when:
- They first wake up.
- They commute to work.
- They take a break.
- They’re lying in bed before falling asleep.
- They get bored.
- They go to the bathroom.
- And more.
Well, your mobile app has the potential to reach them in a lot more places and under more desirable circumstances than at work. Plus, as consumers, we’re already accustomed to picking up our smartphones when other notifications pop-up. Checking push notifications is a much more natural process than stopping to glance at a push notification on desktop.
This is why news publishers like The New York Times and CNN, or social media apps, have so much success with mobile push notifications.
Differences in Push Notification Opt-in Rate
The first step in being successful with push notifications is getting people to actually opt in to them. As we’ve seen already, it’s typically a simple choice: Allow or Block. But the content of your site or app, as well as the level of customization available for notifications, can dictate how high your opt-in rate can go.
Web
The rate is decent. It definitely beats what you’d see for a traditional email marketing campaign or with a landing page conversion rate. That alone makes it a marketing tactic worth adopting for your desktop and Android users.
Mobile
The same report from Accengage reported much higher opt-in rates for mobile app users.
- 100% of Android users opt in to push notifications. This is because it happens automatically upon downloading an app.
- 43% iOS users opt in to push notifications. These are ones that actively consent to them.
When you look at these numbers alone, you can see that mobile apps fare much better in terms of getting users to allow push notifications. But this can’t be the only metric we look at. We should also looking at what users do once they start receiving push notifications.
Push Notification Engagement Rates
A little later, I’m going to share some success stories of push notifications from a number of websites.
One of the metrics you’ll often find reported on is the click-through rate.
Web
Accengage refers to click-through rate as “reaction rate”. Based on the research, it shows the average web push click-through rate to be 18%. However, if you look at e-commerce websites, in particular, that rate goes up to 27%. Media companies experience 24.5% click-through rates. This is due to the type of notifications (like abandoned carts and urgent stories) that can be sent through these sites.
Mobile
A study from
Urban Airship found the engagement rate for companies that personalized their notifications to be much higher than for those who didn’t..
These kinds of personalized messages resulted in four times more engagements than the average app’s rate. In addition, they were twice as likely to retain users if they were in the habit of sending messages like these.
“As more and more apps turn to notifications … it’s natural users will become more selective about which apps they allow to send push notifications.”
It becomes an even more complex picture when you take into account industry differences:
As you can see here, there are just certain types of businesses that have more click-worthy messages than others.
If your business relies on engaging with your audience in a relevant and timely way, than mobile app push notifications are the way to go – just make sure you personalize them and don’t waste your spot on their device lock screen
Barrier to Starting with Push Notifications
It’s easy to start using Push Notifications for your own business.
Web
Thanks to WordPress, building a website for your business is a fairly straightforward task. Larger websites will, of course, take a bit longer to build and may require the assistance of a web developer, but WordPress and all its themes and plugins make this much easier than it was a decade ago.
Consequently, sending push notifications from your completed website is relatively easy, too. So long as you use a reliable WordPress plugin (which I’ll cover shortly), implementing push code can happen nearly effortlessly.
Mobile
Mobile apps may be perceived as a luxury. Years ago, building an app meant you would need to hire your own team of developers, and it would take weeks or months before it went live.
Your apps won’t be limited in functionality, either – you can have a mobile app with the same features that companies like the New York Times, Vice, and CNN use to attract and engage with their audiences.
Why Should You Use WordPress Push Notifications?
Let’s first start by looking at WordPress push notifications. Even if you’re learning towards a heavier emphasis on your mobile app, many apps start with a strong website base. If you can master push in WordPress, this will make the move to mobile all the more easier.
WordPress web push notifications might not be as attractive of an option as those on mobile app, but they’re still an essential part of marketing and communication for your brand if you intend on having a website.
Oh, and let’s not forget about how easy and cheap it to set up WordPress notifications. So long as you know where to start and which tools to use (which I’ll cover later), there’s really no reason nor obstacles that should keep you from doing this.
Any additional marketing channels you can add to your strategy–and ones as effective as push notifications are–the better! Especially in light of how low the return on investment can be for other marketing channels. Take email, for instance.
The Case for Engagement
Email marketing tends to result in low open and click-through rates. Sure, your brand’s name appearing in the inbox of users is good for brand recognition alone, but you need to do something else if you want your actual messages to reach your audience. Remember: marketing isn’t just about increasing brand recognition; you need them to engage with you, too.
Social media suffers from a related problem. As explained by
Will Oremus of Slate, social media does a good job of getting news in front of readers in a timely fashion, but it is killing brand recognition:
Push notification marketing doesn’t suffer from either of these problems. Not only does it enhance brand recognition as alerts are directly tied to the source, but it does engagement really well–both on web and mobile.
A Few Examples of Kickass Engagement with Web Push
PushCrew published
this case study from LA Tourism. In it, they explain how Bao Truong, a developer from the website, reached out in the hopes of developing a new marketing channel for the brand. Here is what he had to say about how positive the experience was with web push notifications, right from the start:
Chargebee is another great example from PushCrew on how web push notifications greatly improved their brand’s marketing efforts. After implementation, the website began to collect around 30 new daily blog subscribers through push notifications alone. In addition, their click rate rose by 200%.
Preethi of Chargebee expanded:
“With traditional email list building and other engagement channels, the subscriber rate was far lower when compared to Push Notifications. The engagement with other channels in terms of click rate is 3 – 7%. With Push Notifications, our average click rate is over 14%.”
Then, there’s the case of
Tiendeo. After signing up for PushCrew notifications, they discovered a significant difference between their email marketing efforts and what they were capable of doing with push.
When compared side-by-side, push notifications received 30% more engagement than newsletters did. Not only that, but their push notifications do such a good job that they’re solely responsible for the 49% of visitors that return to the site.
How to Configure Push Notifications to Boost Engagement
In recent years, publishers have gotten excited about the power of push notifications to boost mobile app engagement.
Unlike email marketing, which was once the most coveted customer engagement tool, a push notification is difficult to ignore.
Push notifications allow you to reach out to users at just about any time.
Whether they’re eating breakfast, at work, or using other applications on their device; you still have a way to communicate with your audience.
This is also why the strategy has so much potential to fail.
A marketing channel that’s so disruptive carries a lot of risk for misuse. Even giants like CNN, Spotify, and Facebook have blundered their way into the headlines for doing so.
Here are some tips to make sure you’re pushing the right way.
1. Decide Why You’re Using Them
A push notification sent without purpose is one that is doomed to fail. Really consider why it is you want to send them and what your users will ultimately get from receiving them.
For instance:
Is it to get more people to read and comment on blog posts? Do you hope it will increase sales in your ecommerce store? Does your BuddyPress network generate a lot of activity worth notifying members about?
Ensure that your notification strategy will be useful to your audience, and won’t lead them to be be left with a bad impression and, inevitably, unsubscribe.
To do this, utilize best practices and proven strategies to make your push notification strategy work:
2. Develop an Effective Opt-In Message
Before you can even reach visitors or users with push, you have to get them to opt-in (although Android users are automatically opted-in). So, how do you encourage them to opt into push notifications when many websites and mobile apps tend to use the same lifeless Allow/Block message?
With web push notifications, unfortunately, you don’t have much choice. This is how the opt-in message will appear on all websites:
With mobile app notifications, however, you have a lot of room for personalization.
And the more welcoming and personalized the message feels, the better your chances are at getting quality users to opt in (i.e. the people who will remain loyal for a long time).
Christopher Dean, the CEO of Swrve, says that really
selling users on the benefits of push right from the start can lead to incredible results.
Here’s how he suggests publishers approach this:
“‘Look, we would like to send you push notifications based on your profile and your interests in your specific news areas, and we will send you a customized notification once a day, or when there’s breaking news, you can …’ and you tell the user why they should opt in before you ask them to do it, you’ll increase opt-in rates by 20–30 percent, and you’ll move it from 50 into the 70–80 percent opt-in range.”
It’s tempting to make opt-outs difficult for your user, because push notifications are so effective.
However, forcing your users into communication destroys customer loyalty.
Make opting out whenever they want as easy as possible.
That said, don’t assume the easy opt-out gives you a free pass to spam. Even if they can ditch you, overdoing things still leaves a bad taste in their mouth concerning your brand.
It’s imperative to make management of preferences easy.
Why? Users may get overwhelmed by your notifications and opt-out completely.
You should make it possible to choose what types of alerts they get, when notifications are on or off, and specified quiet hours.
This added control goes a long way toward building trust and minimizing irritation.
MobiLoud follows this and other best practices by letting users easily opt out of push notifications for articles and news based on their category.
3. Make Push Notifications Timely
Not all push notifications are equal. You want the more annoying ones or less relevant ones to be less intrusive – that means timing becomes more important than ever.
Push cadence is important, too. Don’t send too often, but don’t wait too long or they’ll forget who you are and feel interrupted when you start contacting them again.
Look at the New York Times mobile app, for example. Breaking news goes out when the story is actually breaking. If they were to send it a day or even a few hours too late, their audience would likely have already heard the news from another source.
That said, you have to make sure push notifications go out at the right time of day for your particular audience.
According to LeanPlum research, this can change based on industry as well as geolocation.
You might also want to consider things like Bedtime Mode:
And Do Not Disturb modes with iOS devices.
These settings let users prevent their phones from making sounds or vibrations during designate sleep or distraction-free periods. Any attempt to reach them with timely updates will fall flat, so watching your users’ behavior is really important.
Look at your user data to make sure you hit their devices when they’re ready to receive those messages.
4. Make Push Notifications Relevant
This isn’t all about advertising.
You also want to build relationships and credibility.
Even simple things like transaction confirmations and updates about items on a wish list provide an opportunity to get your name out there without being overbearing.
Other opportune times include when instant actions are needed or when crucial info needs to be delivered, such as a flight change.
Do not fly by the seat of your pants on this.
Tempted to re-use content from your website for mobile? Don’t.
Mobile platforms are more personal, and users expect high relevancy.
The shortcut of using the same slogans and messages you use on your website can be tempting, but mobile is mobile. Never forget your medium.
Needless to say, your push notifications must be useful, which means carefully planning which of your users should receive notifications, too. To send every push to every user is counterintuitive to success. (This is why asking your users for push preferences is really helpful.)
Once you’ve found that sweet spot of delivering timely and relevant messages to your audience, you’ll see their response and interest go up as a result. Urban Airship says that when companies use personalization and segmentation well, those websites and apps experience
4 to 7 times the response rate than the average.
Just be careful with notification fatigue, especially if you run a news organization. If you’re producing lots of great content, it’s tempting to send out notifications for as many of them as possible. But you have to be careful. Backlash at information overload can be a big problem.
Let’s use a BuddyPress social network as a an example. Let’s say someone wants to know when they received a new personal message. That would be worth a notification. However, do they need to know every time someone uploaded a photo or changed details of their profile? No, probably not.
When personalizing, focus on making these messages useful. WooCommerce customers would want to know about promotions. Geotargeting would be especially nice for news outlets trying to deliver the most relevant local stories to users.
5. Use Rich Content
Push notifications are a lot like SMS text messages in that you can deck them out with videos, images, GIFs, and emojis. An
Urban Airship study actually found that image push notifications can get 56% more opens than those without images.
But be careful with this.
Just because you can use rich content doesn’t mean it adds value every single time. For some messages, a plain text message could be more impactful than a pimped out push notification so long as it clearly and succinctly delivers a useful message.
When your mobile app is new, and you want to make a strong impact with users, experiment with rich content. When used correctly, it can result in higher engagement and could be a great way to expedite interest in your app.
6. Track Success of Push Notifications
There are plenty of tools you can use to analyze user behavior and discover what triggers opt-outs or declines in engagement.
To get started, use Google Analytics in your app and measure your users’ activity.
This is a good place to start in terms of learning about your audience. But in terms of adjusting your push notification strategy to something that will actually succeed, you need to look at what happens afterwards.
It’s not enough to know how many users received your push notifications. You need to see click-through rates, too, as this indicates there’s an interest in more than just getting highlights from your site or app. When clicks occur, this means your platform is one deserving of engagement.
The New York Times initially
paid a lot of attention to these tap-through rates, but then discovered that wasn’t the entire story. Once users got back to the app, many didn’t take time to even read the articles or, worse opted out of push notifications altogether.
You have to look at the full journey with push notifications in order to assess whether or not they’re working:
- How many viewed the notification?
- How many clicked through?
- How many made a meaningful engagement with the content from the click?
- Did anyone unsubscribe directly afterwards?
- Did anyone uninstall the app from their device completely as a result?
Watch for both the good and the bad signs. You can tell a lot about the quality of your push notifications (and your digital property) based on how they react to these brief messages.
Wrapping Up
A new, powerful communication medium like push notifications requires thinking differently about how you interact with your audience.
Push notifications can be extremely powerful when done right. However, from a user’s perspective, they can also be one of the most frustrating marketing tactics.
Keep that point in mind, too. This is about enhancing your users’ experiences; not about getting a superficial statistic like “number of push notifications seen” up higher.
