Web push notifications are the new channel every site is eager to use. From retailers online stores, private shopping, travel agencies and real estate, they have proven to be the most efficient way to stay in touch and communicate with customers.
However, with its rising popularity it’s getting harder for brands to really stand out and deliver notifications that truly connect and engage subscribers. Even though web push notifications have very good opt-in rates compared to other channels (around 16,7% overall acceptance), the truth is that many users don’t click on them upon delivery.
Given the fact that users receive between 33 to 85 notifications per day, we can’t stress enough the importance of creating excellent notifications to cut through the noise and get that subscriber to click on it.
With web push notifications is not about using them just for the fun of it: brands need to optimize them in order to provide users with a great experience and get actual good results. So, this time we are going to focus on:
1. Segment users based on their interests
The more relevant the message, the more likely users are to click on it, and targeting based on their previous behaviour is the best way to increase relevance.
Regardless of the type of online store you have, most certainly you have different categories and a range of products for different users with varied tastes. Not everyone is into the same things, which means that every sale, special offer or promotion you carry out is not going to be interesting for all of your subscribers.
For example, let’s say you have a sports e-commerce site and there’s a big soccer game between Spain and Italy coming up and you want to launch a special sale on both teams’ apparel. Instead of sending a manual web push notification campaign to ALL of your subscribers, use the segmentation feature and send it only to those that have visited or clicked on Spain or Italy soccer products.
Chances are that, if you send a notification like this to all your subscribers base, CTR is going to be very low considering that users from a sports site can be interested in many very different things, like yoga, running or tennis and only a few in something as specific as a soccer game between Spain and Italy.
In scenarios like this one, segmentation can make a huge difference in the performance of your campaigns and conversion rates.
2. Include an image
People are very visual. Including an image related to the product you are making reference to in the notification will increase the chances of users clicking on it when they automatically see the article they were interested in.
Push notifications that include an image have a 20% higher click through rate compared to those without one. There are a couple of things you should keep in mind when adding images to your web push notifications:
a) Depending on the browser and operating system, the image will be displayed differently. Notifications on Windows and Android devices will always show the image, while notifications on MacOS won’t include one. Some of Fribiz clients have opted for the alternative to include the product image in the place where the brands’ logo will normally appear. This way they guarantee that the product image is always visible regardless of the operating system.
b) A 1.5 : 1 width-height ratio is ideal for images. If you use other sizes it will be cropped and won’t be displayed optimally. Sometimes it happens that the product image from the web has a different ratio and it doesn’t display properly in the notification.
3. Use emojis
Frizbit offers its clients ready to use templates for their automated web push notifications campaigns. These templates include two versions so clients can implement A/B testing if they wish to.
Version A is plain text, while version B includes emojis customised to fit the brand’s industry. In cases where clients run A/B tests to try out which option performs the best, B version with emojis always wins the race.
Web push notifications that include emojis have a click through rate 15% higher than those with just text. Of course, you should be careful and thoughtful about which emojis you are going to add and make sure they are pertinent with the subject of your notification.
Using emojis is a very easy way to give your messages a little something extra to help them stand out, catch the users’ attention and increase CTRs.
4. Activate the Require Interaction feature for your notifications
By default web push notifications are shown to users for only 10 seconds, and then they disappear. What if the user is super concentrated on a task and doesn’t even notice the notification before it goes away? Or maybe they left the browser open and moved away from the computer. Or in some cases, there’s not even enough time to read the message before it disappears.
Taking this into account, the best option is to make sure the notification sticks until the user sees it and decides to click on it, or to close it. This is the best way to guarantee that they will see the notification when it’s delivered.
Frizbit offers this feature that ensures a higher click through rate on your notifications.
5. Send automated behaviour-triggered notifications
A triggered notification is sent to users as a response to a specific individual action they completed on the website. For example when a user adds a product to his cart and then leaves the site without completing a purchase, you can set up a notification that gets triggered by this action and delivered to the user after a certain period of time.
You can set up as many scenarios to trigger notifications as you wish. At Frizbit we recommend 4 different ones that cover the entire shopping journey for a traditional e-commerce site:
- Subscription
- Category Retargeting
- Product Retargeting
- Cart Abandonment
Depending on the industry and type of products you sell, you can also include:
- Post Purchase
- Monthly Reminders
Because these triggered notifications are completely based on individual behaviour, they are extremely relevant for the user that receives it. They contain information of interest for them which highly increases click through rate.
6. Create urgency
Appealing to a sense of urgency is no new trick, but it works. One of the easiest strategies to increase any campaign click through rate is to tell users that they have to act “right now” or they will miss out on something really good.
The way to do it with web push notifications is by making use of the Title, Description and CTA to add text that emphasizes the fact that the offer is available for limited time or limited stock. You can use words like: now, last minutes, few units or hurry.
You can also include emojis that appeal to that sense of urgency and also make the notifications more visually attractive.
7. Perform A/B Testing
After some time when you start getting data on the performance of your campaigns, you can go ahead and introduce A/B testing and test different variables through time until you get the perfect combination that works the best for your business and offers your customers the best experience possible.
Frizbit’s A/B testing features allows you to try different versions of the same notification and change as many parameters as you wish. You can also segment the audience and send each version to specific percentages.
Doing this will eliminate the guesswork about what type of messages perform the best thanks to the data collected during the time you run the test. Ultimately you will know your audience a lot better and be able to adapt and design messages that truly connect with them.
Other factors that affect web push notifications click through rates
Even though there are many things that can be directly done to optimize campaigns, there also are a lot of external factors that can affect web push notifications performance like:
- Type of industry
- Incentives offered
- Customer’s relationship with the brand
These are all tips on how to increase web push notifications click through rates but the best advice we can give you is to always test your ideas. Start out with what you think is best and try it out.
If you want to learn more about web push notifications:
