Click here to watch the replay of the session in Spanish

On the 22nd of September, we hosted our first event after the summer break, and we must admit it felt like a great way to come back to the routine. As usual at our events, we enjoyed -which was maybe – the last open terrace networking session of the year with some mandatory beers. 

This time, the main topic of the event was the controversial ‘cookieless era’. And our main goal was to equip our attendees with the tools and strategies so that they could stay at the top of their game. Questions such as “Can I actually do retargeting without ads/third-party cookies?”, “What are the cookieless strategies I can implement?”, “What’s the difference between first-party and third-party cookies?” were answered by our host and CEO, Ata Gur.

So, if you couldn’t join us at the event, but still would like to learn more about the main takeaways, keep on reading to elevate your marketing skills.

Why retention is essential by Ata Gur

To start off, it is essential to understand the customer journey that a user usually does while navigating a website with a conversion purpose, whether that is a sales or acquiring leads goal. 

The usual journey has 5 stages that customers go through until they reach the intended purpose. It starts with a 100% conversion rate and ends up with a 1% conversion rate and an estimated value of $25 USD. 

The key takeaway #1 is that client acquisition is indeed an expensive process already, so why not look further into retention to maximise all efforts?

As shown in this graphic, returning customers frequently represent a higher conversion rate than new customers. So, if you have an e-commerce and your sales goals aren’t going as expected, perhaps your focus shouldn’t be on “how to acquire new customers?”, but rather on “how can I better nurture my returning customers?”

At this point, you have seen why retention is crucial for any eCommerce business. Now, let’s move forward with the alternatives to the retention channels that you have:

• Email, SMS, social media, app push notifications & web push notifications: Belong to the owned media category and work with first-party cookies.

• Retargeting ads: Bring the customers back with third-party cookies, and a pay-per-click basis. The ROI is usually adequate, but the ‘cookieless era’ is their biggest threat. Many browsers are restricting its usage, such as Safari, Firefox and soon Google Chrome. This revolutionizes the way we are used to doing retargeting because every retargeting service provider like Facebook, Google, Criteo or other third-party providers will need to change or else become obsolete. 

You might be thinking: “Okay, but I still hear “cookies”, both first and third-party cookies. What’s the difference?”

To keep it short, the main difference is that with third-party cookies, our information can be accessible to all the ads network. Our information is available and shared with others who we don’t trust or know anything about. In fact, 72% of the users reported feeling observed and tracked for their online behaviour, according to Pewresearch.org. 

On the other hand, with first-party cookies, we can rest assured that our information will be stored safely, as it is directly anchored to the domain we are at. This means our information isn’t shared with others we aren’t aware of.

Alternatives to third-party cookies for retargeting

Now, let’s dive deeper into what it means that we are moving into a ‘cookieless world’ and what actions you can take to minimise the loss.

The first thing to have in mind is that the cookieless world is nothing more than a new system that is here to stay and is here to protect the privacy of users. As it is an imminent change, there’s no reason to avoid it or delay its implementation.

The key takeaway #2 is that now we need to move forward with understanding and building new cookieless funnels. Our efforts should be focused on first-party cookies channels.

In the following graphic, you can find an example of what a cookieless funnel can look like:

What are the main advantages of relying on first-party cookies, and what channels do you have at your disposal?

• The channels you can use are: push web, push app, email, and SMS
• The main advantage is that you can double your reach by attaining both registered and non-registered users (A.K.A. you don’t need a form to target users with push web and push app notifications)
• You can hyper-personalise the experience, meaning that automatisation doesn’t have to feel cold and robotic.
• You can interact with your audience before they even register with push web and push app notifications, even if they are not on the app or site.
• The interactions can be intentional, meaning you can set them up according to the behaviour of the user. 
• Users don’t stay in just one channel: maximise your marketing efforts so that you can target your users across their customer journey.

Key takeaway #3: Maximise your retargeting efforts by relying on first-party cookies channels.

Discover the benefits that Web Push Notifications can bring to your e-site

In this case, we are going to revise further our starred channel: Web Push notifications. We found there was an industry gap for this particular channel and have specialised enough, which has led us to know the ins and outs of it.

Web push notifications are the newest retention channels for websites, in which messages are sent by a website and appear on the screen of a user’s device. As we mentioned earlier, messages can be sent even if the website is closed, and they can operate without personal data. It is the latest and a very powerful digital channel for websites to re-engage and communicate with subscribers who opt-in to receive them, providing useful/interesting information.

Where can you use web push notifications or browser push notifications?

The coverage you get by using these notifications is great.  

For browsers, they are fully operative on:

• Safari
• Chrome
• FireFox
• Microsoft Edge
• Opera

On the other hand, in operating systems they work on:

• Microsoft Desktop
• MacOS
• Android
• iOS (coming soon with iOS 16 in 2023!)

Key takeaway #4: Web push notifications can bring a higher opt-in rate, increasing your reach and retargeting possibilities. Web push notifications have a 5% to 10% opt-in rate, whereas email opt-in ranks at a 2-4%. With the release of the web push notifications on iOS 16, it means the current rate is likely to increase by 50%.

What are the expected results? 

To make it clear, you can find in the following chart how all the different channels can be compared in terms of opt-in rate, click rate and reach rate:

With these graphics, we can see clearly that, on average, web push notifications have better performance rates than other channels, including social media posts.

Emails, on the first hand, require that users confirm their opt-in, which can easily push back the users to complete the action. Social media, on the other hand, usually prioritise paid ads, meaning that organic posts are hardly seen by your audience. 

With web push notifications, the opt-in only requires one click from the user. The click rate can be completely personalised and tailored to the part of the customer journey your user is at, making it relevant. Lastly, the reach is definitely one of its strengths as typically you aren’t competing with other brands, opposite to what happens in social media.

Another great advantage of using web push notifications is that they are completely GDPR friendly, as they don’t require the usage of personal data for them to succeed.

How do we use web push notifications at Frizbit?

We begin by analysing your sales funnel and creating hyper personalised notifications for each stage of the funnel. For instance, if in an e-commerce a user is interested in the category of the same product, but doesn’t add the product to their cart, they will receive a notification that helps them to go back and purchase a particular product. 

Key takeaway #5: Nothing is more relevant than sending the right message, to the right user, at the right time, through the right channel. And web push notifications can help to do this effectively. 

If at this point, you are wondering if the web push notifications can be beneficial for your business, you can apply for a free demo here.

First-party cookies retargeting strategies

We want to show you that moving on from third-party cookies is possible. You can do retargeting without relying on them while keeping in line with the newest GDPR regulations.

In the following graphic, you can see what an integral strategy, incorporating different first-party cookies channels, looks like:

In this example, we are showing a retargeting strategy for abandoned carts. As seen here, you can combine different channels seamlessly, creating personalised flows with specific timing options. 

What are the expected results you can look for with each channel?

Definitely, using all the channels strategically can represent an increase in sales or in your conversion goals. Each channel has a particular strength, and whether you should use one or another in a higher proportion depends on the purpose and industry of your brand. 

To summarise:

• The cookieless world is approaching, and we are leaving behind the so-known third-party cookies, which can limit the way we know on how to do retargeting.
• We recommend investing time and effort in developing strong owned media channels.
• Start creating first-party cookies retargeting funnels using channels like web push notifications, email marketing and SMS
• The key element of success for any retargeting strategy is to send the right message, to the right user, at the right time, through the right channel.

Having said this, we would like to thank everyone who took part in this experience and made it possible. Special thanks to Áticco Working Spaces for their collaboration and continuous support.

If you missed the event and want to have a deeper understanding on how to do retargeting without third-party cookies, the replay of the session is available here. 

Also, if you’d like to stay in the loop and attend our future events, make sure to join our Growth Marketing  Barcelona Meetup group.

We hope to see you at our next event ?

Earlier this month, the new updates from the iOS 16 operating system came to life during the WWDC 2022. Besides the innovative personalisation features, a big announcement made its breakthrough: Web Push Notifications on iOS will be a reality through Safari Beta 16. 

So, what does that mean to you if you work in the marketing field?

The operating system has significant updates, mainly on how notifications will interact with users. With seamless communication in mind, iOS 16 unlocks a whole new level to reach potential customers. We are excited to announce that Safari Beta 16 will be able to support push notifications for web apps, extensions, API integrations, and so much more.

This great news means potential for the websites to increase their push notification subscriber base by 50-100% on average as almost 20% of overall web traffic comes from iOS on a global level and opt-in rate on mobile devices is 4 times higher than desktop.

Keep on reading if you want to learn more about the innovations that web push notifications on iOS 16 and iPadOS are bringing to the table.

A brief introduction to Web Push Notifications

Web push notification example  / Frizbit

Often, web push notifications are confused with app push notifications, like those seen in the media and news industry. They might seem similar at first, however, in reality, they offer endless marketing possibilities to conduct retargeting displaying an open rate of 5% to 6% on desktop only.

Web push notifications are clickable alert-type messages sent by a website to the users navigating through it. After the user authorises them through a click, they will display on the user’s device screen, even if the user is not on the website any more.

What are many of its great advantages?

With web push notifications, you can:

• Communicate with users in real-time without having a mobile app
• Be present in a multi-device customer journey
• Notify them even if they are not on your website
• The user doesn’t need to register or fill any type of personal data
• Comply with the latest privacy regulations as it doesn’t require third-party cookies

They are the latest and most powerful digital channel for websites to re-engage and communicate with subscribers while enhancing conversion funnels. They have the full capacity to bring your customers back.

Web push notifications and iOS operating systems

Pixabay / Pexels

After reviewing the relevance of web push notifications, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of things.   Let’s find out what it means that Apple has decided to support web push notifications on iOS 16 in 2023 on Safari browser.

At the beginning of this year, Apple started testing new functionalities regarding push API on its iOS 15.4 Beta. It was an unexpected update as after seven years, it was the first time to see changes on Safari on macOS. Now that the beta testing is concluded, we are excited to announce that push notifications support on iOS and iPadOS isn’t a long-time expectation any more. They are expected to be launched in early 2023.

So, how can we interpret the appearance of this new feature?

According to SemRush, web push notifications can have up to 80% of reach and CTR seven times higher than other traditional retargeting channels such as email marketing. This comes as no surprise, given that push notifications are widely preferred by users reporting x10 higher engagement. As we mentioned before, they are also in compliance with the privacy regulations, making it the perfect marketing tool.

With the announcement of the web push support on iOS 16, many are celebrating the long-awaited update. However, as expected with Apple’s history and privacy data, this too comes with a trick.

iOS is stepping up against its competitor with Web Push Notifications

Android vs Apple / Tada Images

Web push notifications have been existing on almost all operating systems (Windows, Linux even macOS on desktops and Android on mobiles) and almost all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, MS Edge, Safari, Opera, etc.). The only major operating system which didn’t enable web push notifications was iOS. It had been always an expectation for years that Apple would enable them on iOS, as it already had them enabled on macOS. As a result, Android had been the only mobile OS with web push notifications activated. That’s why the field of web push in mobile had been completely taken by Android by now. On the contrary, Apple had no participation in the mobile market share by not having this implementation. The fact that they have decided to go ahead with this implementation will mean big changes in the market. 

Currently, Android is the one software that enables push notifications on web apps. This represents an additional way to communicate messages for web users who don’t prefer to install mobile apps.

This update sets a new direction for Apple in the tech and marketing industry. But would the company be able to step firmly against its biggest competitor?

Only time will tell whether this comes as another successful step by Apple or not. For now, although web push notifications support is a reality, it might not display to users as easily as we would want to.

Where’s the trick?

During the testing phase on iOS 15.4 beta, test users experimented with safari push notifications on mobile devices. Testers found out that the new feature is disabled by default, requiring the user to activate them through the settings tab.

Having said this, predictions expect this feature to function under a toggle basis with a new settings tab. They are expected to work not only on Safari on iOS but also on other browsers such as Chrome,Firefox, Opera etc.

Other marketing features unlocked in iOS 16

iPhone Screen / Wachiwit

Some more exciting features are coming around on iOS 16 for marketers. The main areas that are more appealing are the intake for the privacy of users, home screen and lock screen settings, and finally updates on Apple Pay.

As we know on iOS 15.4, the privacy settings were greatly targeted as part of the operating system updates. On iOS16, we can expect an increase in the protection of the data of users. This is given that Apple wants to minimise as much as possible the data needed by apps to function properly.

The biggest change on iOS 16 privacy settings is related to accessing private data. With the new update, companies won’t be able to retrieve the name that users give to their devices. It means that organisations will no longer be capable of sending notifications or advertisements using the first name gathered from devices.

Let’s move on with the second-biggest change. Apple is coming up with tailored options for the home screen and lock screen. The new release features suggestions on the home screen with pages, apps, and widgets relevant to the focus mode the user chooses.

New focus modes?

Yes, new modes for users to disconnect more frequently from their devices. And as a side effect, we will experience a restricted impact in the interactions of apps. This certainly complicates, even more, the digital marketing scenery of strategies using opt-in notifications.

Lastly, the other outstanding update Apple is performing on iOS 16 is their “buy now, pay later” feature for Apple Pay. Implementing payments through instalments comes as more optimistic news for eCommerce owners, especially after limiting the usage of ads. This update is expected to increase the average ticket size and conversion rates on mobiles.

What all of this means for your marketing campaigns

Apple Pay / CDPic

We have seen that Apple will continue to enhance the privacy of the data app developers can access from the app store. It is clear that reaching users in the traditional ways will only get more complex with time. Therefore, new technologies should be implemented.
On the bright side, there’s finally support for web push notifications on iOS and iPadOS. And it couldn’t come at a better timing, considering the cookieless future in marketing. This new step means for the websites to increase their subscriber base by 50-100% on average, as 18% of overall web traffic comes from iOS.

If you are interested in web push notifications for your eCommerce, you can request a demo with Frizbit and may qualify for one month of everything that web push notifications have to offer.

On the other hand, we have seen that Apple is taking firm steps to enhance consumers’ purchasing habits with mobile devices. If you run an eCommerce, this means you will be able to expand your audience and reach a higher ticket one coming from Apple users.

We are sure that Apple Pay and its instalment system will be beneficial for eCommerce stores by simplifying the purchase step. We are also optimistic that boosting this online purchase practice with push notifications can bring excellent results for business owners.

This is all from us with these iOS 16 updates and new features. Which one was the one you are looking forward to? Which one didn’t resonate with you and your business? Let us know in the comments down below!

‘Cookieless’ strategies for eCommerce and CMOs

On the 10th of May, we organised our very first on-site meetup of this year after a long 2-year covid-break. At this conference co-organised by Jevnet, Áticco Workspaces and Frizbit, we covered key ‘Cookieless’ strategies that eCommerce managers and CMOs should adopt to cope with the upcoming restriction of third party cookies, which will take place by the end of 2023.

The roundtable was composed of compelling digital marketing experts such as Oriol Cortejà, the head of SEM; Josep L. Dorsé, the senior BDM of Jevnet and our co-founder and CEO, Ata Gür. 

“How we adapt to this new reality will determine the success of businesses in terms of business and sales.  For those able to adopt new strategies, their results will improve in comparison to the eCommerce who are reticent” -Josep L. Dorsé.

With this quote, we dive into the main challenge and impact most digital businesses will face with these new changes regarding the privacy data of users. It is no secret that the way we develop digital marketing campaigns will need to change soon, and the faster we adapt, the easier it will be.

The moderator, Josep L. Dorsè and the panellists Ata Gür and Oriel Costejà

The roundtable aimed to provide the audience with the leading strategies and alternatives and explain the impact of this new regulation on digital businesses. 

Next, we will be discussing the main takeaways of this lively event.

What does the cookieless future mean for marketers?

The digital marketing industry is quite dynamic and in constant change. We have been exposed to different challenges in the past. However, our teams and strategies have been the key assets to help us overcome the obstacles. And in this case, it shouldn’t be any different.

From the point of view of a user, it is true that the privacy boundaries in the digital ecosystem have been crossing off-limits in recent years. As an ecosystem and as marketers, we should aim to create dynamics that reduce any potential threat to our users.

The cookieless future means for marketers that we will have to adapt and modify our existing strategies in the best interest of the users. Luckily for us, in the same way that the industry evolves, so do our tools to get closer to the users in the digital space, such as the first-party data cookies.

How will the new restriction affect the digital marketing industry dynamics?

There are three trends that are shaping the behaviour of the industry.

1. Privacy of Users: The expectations of users about privacy and transparency directly impact how we gather and collect data.
2. Platform & Tech Changes: All browsers are restricting the usage of mainly 3rd party cookies.
3. Regulation: Restrictions are more rigorous on the use of personal data, which ultimately results in implementing additional requirements in the way users give their consent.
   

Impact in the short and medium-term.

The consequences this will bring to the digital marketing ecosystem gravitate towards two main aspects: 

1. How brands can reach and measure new audiences to connect with them.

2. How publishers will be able to monetise their content through paid ads. 

Having said that, the restriction of third party data cookies will immediately result in:

1. The inability of digital businesses to track demographic information, customer behaviour or interests of their users.

2. The change in how we collect historical data (Welcome GA4)

3. Difficulty in tracking the customer journey.

4. As a direct result of the previous statements, companies will no longer be able to run personalised
   retargeting ads and effectively measuring their marketing efforts.

5. The loss of conversions and the decrease in the reach ratio.
   

And how does this look in the long term?

Source: Digital Marketing Transformation Presentation by Google

We have been undergoing a tendency in which users are more concerned with their privacy and the way their data is being handled. As it can be seen on the graph above, moving towards the cookieless future, there is a clear trend in which the usage of cookies to create conversions will keep decreasing over time. 

On the other hand, an apparent change is happening aligned to the preference of users and shifts within the industry. The modelled conversion model is a clear example of how digital businesses will benefit from adapting cookieless strategies. The trend shows a clear increase in the revenue ratio thanks to its features combining first-party data with machine learning algorithms. 

Alternatives and tactics for implementing first-party data strategies.

Now that we understand the impact and direct consequences for businesses, a question to be asked is: How can I manage to have a competitive business while still enduring the cookieless restrictions?

Generally speaking, marketers and advertisers will need to modify their actions under two principles:

1. Transparency profiling:

Independent of the platform used, being transparent and informing the user about what information is being collected will play a vital role in the navigation of users.

2. Reporting:

Report all the digital assets and the information gathered from campaigns to enrich audiences.

As mentioned before, every major shift also comes with an opportunity for evolution and growth. We will introduce you to 4 alternatives to third-party cookies that will help you thrive with success in your future marketing campaigns:

1. Meta Business:

   

   Example of Conversions API sharing data directly from Shopify to Facebook.
   Source: Rui Zhi Dong 

   
   The platform will still be an option for running advertising campaigns. However, they will operate under their own Conversions API to remain up to date with the new cookieless restrictions. It works by directly sharing with Facebook the data gathered from an eCommerce platform to reach the highest results. This alternative is excellent if you are familiar with the previous Pixel usage. This method will allow advertisers to develop successful campaigns, track conversions and make adjustments in the Ads manager when needed.

    

2.  Consent Mode:
   

   How Consent Mode works by Google

   
   It is an API compatible with Google Ads, Floodlight and Google Analytics, developed by Google. This feature aims to improve metrics and data reporting, modelling, and accuracy. It works using two new tag settings that will help to control ads and analytics cookie storage based on user consent status.
   
   For this feature to work under the cookieless restrictions, the user needs to enable the consent mode first. Once it is on, it informs the new Google tags that permission has been granted to use first-party cookies for ads and analytics.
   
   With these changes, and combined with the modelling conversion, Google is confident that they will be able to have a significant impact on digital businesses by providing users with more precise data.

    

3. GA4 / Google Analytics 4:

Google Analytics 4 – Sample Demographic Report
Source: Google

Migrating to Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible is essential for any online business that strives to build strategies based on historical customer data.

In addition, by migrating to this analytics platform, website owners will be able to better understand the true customer journey in a cross-platform setting.

Within its benefits, the platform announces to provide intelligent business predictions and behavioural algorithm data to drive impact for companies. GA4 announces businesses will be able to scale through accurate data.

 4. Web Push Notifications Retargeting:  

Example of Web Push notifications by Frizbit

Following the cookieless trend, web push notifications are the only and latest available method to perform dynamic retargeting. It is simply a push notification sent through browsers on both mobile and desktop devices. This is becoming the only tool for running retargeting campaigns using first-party data.

It is a tool aligned to the new preferences of users. All that is needed for an eCommerce to send hyper-personalised push notifications in real-time is that the visitor opts-.in to push notifications from the website.

Web Push notifications opt-in process by Frizbit

With this channel, it’s possible to retarget users through every step of their shopping journey while respecting the privacy and data of users and also being competitive in the digital ecosystem.

We can conclude that collecting data from visitors and providing personalised experiences will represent a complex challenge. However, at Frizbit, we believe that adapting to the new strategies as early as possible will bring positive results to any business in the long term.

Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who took part in this experience and made it possible for the event to be quite insightful for everyone attending. Special thanks to our co-organisers Jevnet and Áticco Working Spaces for their collaboration and continuous support.

If you missed the event and want to catch up with the latest digital marketing strategies and tools using first-party data, the replay of the session is available here.

We hope to see you around next time!

Web push notifications are messages sent through browsers. Besides the text, they can also include images and action buttons. What’s great about web push notifications is that they work as a retargeting channel but with added values:

• No personal data from users required
• Can reach users on both desktop and mobile
• They have hyper-personalization capabilities

If you want to dive deeper on the functionality of this new channel, we recommend you check out our Complete Guide on Web Push Notifications. But in this blog post we are going to focus specifically on the types of web push notifications and how you can use and combine them to grow your online business, engage users and increase your revenue.

Types of Web Push Notifications

First of all, what you need to know is that there are two main categories of web push notifications: automated and time- based ones. This distinction is important because each of them have their own subcategories. So let’s get into it!

What are Automated Web Push Notifications?

Automated web push notifications are behaviour-based messages sent to users automatically after they perform a specific predefined action on the website. These notifications require the definition of a trigger event and exception event and a time frame to be sent.  

For example, if someone adds a product to their shopping cart and leaves the site without completing a purchase, after the time you define, they will receive a web push notification reminding them about their abandoned cart and inviting them to go back and complete the purchase. 

On the other hand, in the same scenario, if the user adds the product to their cart and completes the purchase, the notification won’t be sent. In simpler words:

• Triggering event: product added to cart
• Exception event: product purchased

Automated web push notifications campaigns only have to be configured one first time, then everything keeps running automatically. You just need to define the messages, for each one, the trigger and event scenarios and the timings. 

Just like with emails, cart abandonment web push notifications are the most popular and common ones. However, you can have more than one message for each campaigns you create and it is possible to define as many triggering and exception scenarios as you desire to match your typical user journey:

1. Types of Automated Web Push Notifications

1.1 Welcome Notification

In order to subscribe to a web push notifications channel, users need to click on Allow in the otp-in prompt shown to them when they visit a site that has web push notifications enabled. Once they do, after a few seconds (we recommend 10 seconds), you can send a notification welcoming them!

In this case the trigger event would be “subscription received”. Normally, the welcome notification doesn’t have an exception event because it is sent rather quickly after the action taken by the user and it is always a good idea to seize the opportunity to make that first contact through this new channel. 

You can express your gratitude to them for opting in and take the opportunity to redirect them to a specific page on your site like a new collection, a sales section or maybe the about page. 

Another option is to offer them a discount coupon for their first purchase or invite them to join your newsletter. The welcome notification is a great way to introduce the channel to your new subscribers and let them know what they can expect from it. 

1.2 Category Notification

In a very traditional user journey in an e-commerce site, the second step after landing in the home page would be to visit a category page. With automated web push notifications you can define a scenario accordingly.

If a user visits a category page and then leaves the site without taking any further action, a notification will be sent (after the time you decide) with a message related to the visited category.

In other words is doing category retargeting with a message that can include the complete name of the category, an image representing it and an appealing message that invites the user to come back and take another look. 

In this automated scenario the triggering event would be “category viewed” and the exception event “product viewed”, which takes us to the next type of notification.

1.3 Product Notification

The product retargeting notification is sent to users when they visit a product page and then leave the site without doing anything else. In this case the triggering event would be “product viewed” and the exception event would correspond to the obvious next step which is “product added to cart”.

Since product pages have much more detailed and specific information, the product notification can include it making it a lot richer for the user. You can include product image, product name, product brand, price, size and even color if the case. These are all dynamic parameters taken directly from the website so you don’t have to do any manual work. 

By making the notification as personalised as possible, you can highly increase the click through rate because it will be more relevant to the user that receives it.

1.4 Cart Abandonment Notification

The following stage in this journey would be to add the product to the shopping cart. The retargeting cart abandonment web push notification is sent to users that add a product to their carts and then leave the site without completing the purchase.

The triggering event would be “product added to cart” and the exception event “product purchased”. This means that the notification won’t be sent if the user goes through with the purchase. 

The same as with Product Notifications, you can also include dynamic parameters to make the message as personalised as possible. For cart abandonment web push notifications is also a good strategy to include messages that appeal to a sense of urgency such as “last units”, “get it before we run out”,  or “this is your last chance”. 

Normally, click-through rates of cart abandonment notifications are the highest because, when users reach this stage of the funnel they already show a higher purchase intent than in other stages. If you design an appealing message you will get amazing results for sure. 

1.5 Post-purchase Notification

You are probably already familiar with post-purchase emails. Well, there’s a web push notification version in which you can set an event that automatically sends a message to a customer some time after they made a purchase.

In this scenario, your imagination is the limit! You can send a notification asking for their opinion of the product they purchased and use it as a strategy to get more online reviews about your brand, for example. There’s also the option to announce a new collection, new arrival and invite them to come back and make a new purchase. 

Post-purchase web push notifications are great to stay in touch with your customers after they have already converted by sending updates and information that could interest them. The main objective here is to stay in their top of mind and try to make them recurring customers. 

1.6 Cross-sell Notification

Cross-sell campaigns are very popular and effective for e-commerce. These campaigns offer value to shoppers and can increase business’ revenue significantly. They consist of sending a message to a customer that finished a purchase, suggesting complementary products.

In this scenario the trigger would be “product purchased” and there wouldn’t be an exception event. To set up web push notification cross-sell campaigns you need to register and track information regarding the product the customer bought and time since the last purchase. 

Combining this data you can create a hyper-personalised notification suggesting a product that complements the previous purchase. For example, if the shopper got a moisturizing day cream, you can suggest a moisturizing night cream from the same brand. 

1.7 Back to Stock Notification

Back to stock announcements are very effective because they make reference to a very popular and on-demand product that customers are surely eager to get. If you run out of stock from a specific product, it’s safe to assume that there’s a lot of people waiting to buy it, so sending a notification letting them know that it’s available again is a great strategy.

You can send this message to all users that visited said product with a trigger event “back to stock” and an exception event “product purchased”. Keep in mind that, in order to be able to send back to stock web push notifications you need an additional integration process in your site through an API. 

1.8 Price Drop Notification

The same as with back to stock, price drop web push notifications also require an extra step with integration with an API to get the info of when a product experiences a price drop.

The trigger event here would be “price drop” so the notifications get sent to all subscribers that visited said product page. These types of notifications also show great results because they are extremely relevant for users. Not only do they show information about a product they have expressed interest in, but they have the added value of the price drop making it much more attractive for them. 

1.9 Lead Nurturing Notifications

Lead nurturing web push notification sequences are great for B2B. You can create a flow of messages that offer valuable information that helps prospects move down the funnel during their decision making process.

For example, you can send a first message sharing information about a special feature your product has 1 day after receiving the subscription. Then, 1 week later you can send a web push notification with a case study as an example of what you can do for your clients and 1 week later maybe a whitepaper with useful information about your product in different industries. 

2. Types of Time-based Notifications

2.1 Manual Web Push Notifications

Also called bulk web push notifications, they are the notifications equivalent to email newsletters. These notifications are not automated, which means you have to set them up manually and they are sent to all of your subscribers database unless you segment manually as well.

Manual web push notifications are used to share time sensitive information like sales, special promotions or contests. You can use them to communicate any time you launch a product, for example, and they are excellent for special dates like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

Keep in mind that bulk web push notifications are not behaviour based like the automated ones. This means that you need to be extra creative and careful with your copies and the images you add to make sure you park your audience’s interest with a great message. 

One of the great benefits of these types of campaigns is that, since you can send them to all of your subscribers at once, they are amazing traffic generators to your site. If you like to plan ahead, you have the option to schedule them for a specific time and date or, in any other case, to send them as soon as you create them. 

2.2 Recurring Web Push Notifications

Recurring web push notifications are great to ensure a permanent contact with your subscribers. You can set up 2 or 3 different generic messages to be sent automatically in a 30 day period inviting subscribers to visit your site again. 

Since you can design a couple of different versions, they will be sent randomly to all your subscribers varying each month. For example, you can have a monthly notification with a message related to new arrivals and another one inviting users to visit your social media pages. Each month 50% of your subscribers will receive one of them and the other 50% the other one. You can have as many versions as you want and use Frizbit’s A/B testing features to choose the percentage of subscribers you want to send each one to. 

Another option, if you sell a product that’s bought frequently like pet food for example, you can set up recurring web push notifications that work as a reminder for pet owners letting them know it’s time to buy again! Your subscribers will find it valuable because it would serve the purpose of a reminder of something that’s important to them and you’ll increase the chances of them purchasing from you again. It’s a win-win situation!

Recurring web push notifications correspond to the loyalty stage of the funnel. 

General Comments

As we mentioned before, you can create as many scenarios as you want for your web push notifications campaigns. However, for optimal results we strongly recommend to set up at least the 4 main ones:

• Welcome notifications
• Category retargeting notifications
• Product retargeting notifications
• Cart abandonment notifications

You can create a sequence of automated notifications for each of them with a different message that’s sent after certain periods of time. For example:

The important thing is that you try and find the combination that works best for your online business regarding timings and amount of notifications for each campaign. While for one brand it would make sense to send 5 product retargeting notifications in one week, for another it might be better to only have a couple notifications in a 3 day period. 

Web push notifications open a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to retargeting strategies and we would be delighted to show it to you. If you want to request a one trial month period with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch! 

Suggested readings:

• Best Email Marketing Campaigns: Types and Examples
• Digital Marketing Trends 2022
• “Don’t Use Web Push Notifications!” Demystifying the Biggest Prejudices About Web Push Notifications

The most joyful time of the year is fastly approaching: Christmas! Ho Ho, it’s time to put on our thinking hats and make our brands shine for the last major holiday of the year. And what better excuse to reach out to new and old customers than amazing Christmas offers, discounts and special products?

Businesses need a very strong online presence and a super effective digital marketing strategy to really stand out during these times when all brands are competing for customer’s attention. 

Why should you have a Christmas Marketing strategy?

If you are wondering if and why you should plan a specific Christmas digital marketing strategy for your ecommerce, here are some interesting insights:

• According to GlobeSt, in 2021, experts predict that online retail sales will make up 16.3% of total retail sales. It will hit 18.3% in 2023 and 19.9% by 2025. 
• A study from eMarketer states that by 2022, retail sales from e-commerce will comprise 16.3% of total retail sales.
• CNBC says that the number of shoppers that went to brick-and-mortar stores on the Saturday before Christmas 2020 dropped by 40.9% from a year ago.

Keep in mind that during, and after the Covid pandemic, a lot of customers changed the way they shop, getting used to purchasing online and less in physical stores. Brands and businesses need to adapt to the new shopping habits and offer customers what they are looking for. 

To help you prepare better for the upcoming holidays we would like to share with you: 

Christmas Marketing Ideas and Strategies to Boost your Ecommerce Sales 2021

With the purpose of making this guide as helpful as possible, we are going to divide it into two sections:

• Channels to use in your Christmas marketing campaigns

• Strategies and ideas for your Christmas marketing campaigns

This way, you’ll have ideas on actions to do and ideas on how to communicate those actions the most effective way. Let’s start with:

1. Strategies and Ideas for Your Christmas Marketing Campaigns

The first step in planning your Christmas digital marketing campaign for your e-commerce is to decide exactly what you are going to offer. Whether it is discounts, product bundles, or limited offers you must be very clear, for this is what will guide all the rest of the steps. 

In this section we will share some ideas for your ecommerce Christmas campaign!

1.1 Dress Up Your Website

When people go on Christmas shopping they want to be filled with excitement and holiday spirit: give it to them as soon as they enter your site! When people go to physical stores during Christmas time, they are surrounded by decorations, lights and music, try to give them that experience online as well.

You can do it by maybe changing the colors of your site a little bit, adding Christmas decorations to your logo, changing product images and descriptions to fit the season mood. Making your website festive by including some details can tilt the balance in your favor when it’s time for potential customers to shop!

If you don’t have time to design Christmas-themed assets for your site, many CMS like WordPress and Shopify have free plugins you can activate with just a few clicks! 

1.2 Christmas Products, Collections and Bundles

Whichever type of product you sell, there’s always a way you can give it a Christmas twist to make it more appealing to potential customers during the holiday season. You can:

• Create Christmas product bundles ready to gift
• Decorate your products with some sort of Christmas add-on like ribbons, stars, glitter or Christmas ornaments
• Offer gift wrapping service for the purchase, with customizable cards

An even more attractive strategy is to create a special Christmas Edition of some of your most popular products. It can be a new color, flavour, scent or design that’s only available for a short period of time in your online store. 

In addition to making the product something special for Christmas, you will be appealing to a sense of scarcity, enticing people to make their purchase before you run out of stock and the miss the chance to purchase a unique edition. 

1.3 Christmas Sales!

When it comes to seasonal marketing strategies, one of the most attractive things is to promote the fact that shoppers won’t get the same deals any other time of the year. 

That’s why offering unique Christmas promotions and discounts is a wonderful strategy to attract shoppers and increase sales. Flash sales work great because people are afraid they might lose the opportunity to purchase a product they want for a lower price. 

Keep in mind that during Christmas, people are spending a lot of money buying gifts for everyone and, for sure, they will appreciate a good bargain when doing their shopping. You can apply 2×1 discounts, big price reduction on selected products, free shippings and discounts for after Christmas shopping. 

2. Channels to Use During your Christmas Marketing Campaigns

Ok, so you already have amazing sales, discounts, gifts, offers and special product bundles to offer your clients for Christmas, now is the moment to think about how are you going to let them know about everything you have prepared for them.

In this section we are going to share different channels you can use to communicate and engage with your customers by offering information about your products and services, solve doubts and, overall, help them make a purchasing decision during the hectic Christmas shopping time. 

2.1 Manual Christmas Web Push Notifications Campaigns

Web push notifications are a great channel to communicate and truly engage with your customers. Their inherent qualities such as not requiring personal data, being able to reach users both on mobile and desktop outside of your website and their level of customization make them a very effective tool.

This the perfect channel to include in your Christmas marketing strategy since we have established the importance for your brand to stand out from the crowd. You can design christmasy manual web push campaigns to notify your customers about your special Christmas offers, discounts or bundles. 

Unlike automated web push notifications, manual campaigns reach your entire subscribers database. They are the browser-based communications channel equivalent to a newsletter, which means they are super versatile and useful for sharing time sensitive information. 

You can prepare a series of manual web push notifications to inform your customers about: 

• what’s special in your online store for the month 
• send reminders to do their shopping on time
• invite them to seize an offer of special sale
• inform them about new arrivals, Christmas collections and more

2.2 Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

Emails are one of the most profitable digital marketing channels so it’s pretty obvious that you must include them in your Christmas marketing campaign. The works is very similar to that of manual web push notifications, except that in this case, you’ll be reaching out to customers that have shared their personal information with you and you can include more detailed information. 

Since you have more space and unlimited time for users to read, with email marketing campaigns you can be more explanatory about all you have to offer during Christmas. This is the ideal channel to include beautiful and large images, countdowns, social media links and everything you can imagine to enrich the content and make it irresistible!

Using a marketing automation tool you can design and schedule a sequence of emails to be sent through a period of time adjusting each message to the offer or discount you are running at the time and appealing to a sense of urgency as the final dates of Christmas sales approach. 

Keep in mind that emails are extremely customizable and you should use all the cards under your sleeve to make them as attractive as you can with festive visuals, christmasy-copies and an overall happy holidays spirit. 

2.3 Live Chat

It’s normal for people to be a little more on edge during a holiday season. Customers might have more questions and doubts about your products, services, delivery times and want to get faster replies to make decisions and complete their Christmas shopping in time. 

Integrating a live chat to your website is a great asset to connect with your customers in a very direct way and make them feel more comfortable and more cared for.

Consider that you can lose a lot of sales if customers don’t find a way to resolve their doubts quicker than usual. With a live chat you can create deeper relationships with visitors and convert them into customers. Specially during a time like Christmas when you are surely getting more traffic than usual to your site.

2.4 Create a Christmas Landing Page 

A specific Christmas landing page is a key element to increase conversions, since it is focused on one single objective and makes the decision-making process easier for customers.

Source: sminion.com

You can design a super christmas-theme landing page in which you display special products only available during the holidays for example. You can create different versions for different target audiences or sales and segment customers to redirect them to the one that fits them best depending on their interests. 

Seasonal landing pages can have a great impact on your sales. There are many options to create beautiful landing pages you can check out:

• Swipe Pages
• Unbounce
• Instapage

All in all…

These are some of many digital marketing strategies and ideas for your 2021 Christmas campaign. You can combine the channels with the strategies that best fit your brand to engage with your target audience and boost your revenue!

Before you go, check out:

• Tips for a Successful Holiday Email Marketing Campaign
• Web Push Notifications Done Right – 7 Mistakes To Avoid!
• The Future of Digital Marketing Without 3rd Party Cookies

We are excited to share that we have launched a new overview of campaigns analytics on the Frizbit Dashboard so that you can see detailed reports of all your campaigns in one place.

In this view of campaign reporting section, you can see information about the following actions for each push notification, email and SMS campaign depending on the case:

• Received
• Clicked
• CTR (Click through Rate)

You can also filter by specific time periods and the campaign type. You can also download reports as PNG, PDF or CSV by clicking on the button at the right-bottom.

To access this panel, you just have to log into your Frizbit account, go to the left menu and click on Campaigns > Overview.

At Frizbit we are constantly making improvements to the product, to offer you the best possible product and we hope that this new functionality will be very useful for you and that you can see the results of your campaigns whenever you want.

We are at your service for any questions or comments.

We wish you a great November from the entire Frizbit team.

Is not rare to see frowns and hear negative comments when web push notifications are brought to the table as a new addition to a digital marketing strategy. Myths and strong-felt prejudices are common given the novelty of the channel and maybe a lack of understanding on how they work and the results they can provide for any digital business.

The truth is that web push notifications are one of the highest engaging digital marketing channels available for online businesses. Frizbit’s clients have achieved remarkable success with ROAS up to 36x and costs per session as low as 0,02€. 

Given the fact that there still are way too many misconceptions about this new retargeting channel, we believe is time to address the issue and demystify the

Biggest Prejudices About Web Push Notifications

1. “Users don’t Want to Receive Web Push Notifications”

The first comment you might hear when mentioning web push notifications is“how many users actually click on allow?” and  “users don’t accept them, nobody likes web push notifications” . 

Well, we are here to tell you that’s just not true at all. 
A study revealed that web push notifications have an overall acceptance rate of 16,7% globally. Even though there are many factors that can affect the willingness of a user to click on “allow” when asked to subscribe, there’s no other channel that offers such a high opt-in rate.

Web push notifications have a x3 higher opt-in rate than emails. Keep in mind that users are not requested to share any type of personal information to subscribe, which is a huge factor taken in consideration when it comes to deciding to opt-in to any marketing channel.

There are other variables that also affect opt-in rates to web push notifications such as:

• Device, whether mobile or desktop
• Country
• Business industry
• Engagement with the brand

Users do find web push notifications helpful and valuable as long as you offer them highly personalized and relevant content. People don’t have an innate hate for web push notifications, they just don’t like to receive useless information at all times of the day. You just need to make sure you always send the right message, to the right person at the right time.

Which brings us to web push notifications myth number two. 

2. “Web Push Notifications are Intrusive”

No, they are not. Nothing is intrusive by itself and the same goes for web push notifications. Of course a lot of people might be “scared” of this new channel because of bad practices some companies have pulled off in the past. 

However, with platforms like Frizbit you have many tools at your disposal to make sure you use them at their best, with careful consideration to never annoy your subscribers. 
Features like “frequency cap” are specially designed for this purpose. When creating new campaigns you can specify how many notifications you want your subscribers to receive within a day to make sure you don’t drown them with messages.

We usually recommend a frequency cap of two notifications per day. With Frizbit you have two levels of frequency cap: global and per campaign. This way you guarantee that, for example, a subscriber gets an automated message related to a product viewed or added to cart if they were browsing your site, and a manual notification regarding a special offer, if the case. 

Bottom line, making notifications intrusive or not is completely in your hands. You have full control over how many messages you send and how many messages a subscriber receives in a certain period of time. Make good use of it and you won’t have to worry about disturbing users, getting a bunch of opt-outs or giving bad reputation to web push notifications!

3. “Web Push Notifications are Difficult to Implement”

Many website owners get scared or intimidated when asked about the possibility of implementing web push notifications on their site with the misbelief of it being a cumbersome process. 

However, web push notifications are very easy to implement and configure when working with the right provider. First of all it’s important to know that web push notifications can be implemented in any website. 

Mainly, there are two ways to do it:

• Via Google Tag Manager: this is by far the easiest way to implement web push notifications and most websites use GTM. All you have to do in this case is add the snippet as a tag. Frizbit can do all the work by accessing your GTM as an editor an in just one day, you can be collecting subscribers. 

• Directly adding it to the site: if for any reason you don’t work with Google Tag Manager, you can add the JavaScript snippet by copying and pasting it inside the <head></head> section of your website.

That’s for implementation. When it comes to setting up the campaigns, Frizbit offers ready-to-use templates designed for five different scenarios that follow a typical customer shopping journey in an e-commerce.

Of course, these templates are completely customizable to fit the language and brand philosophy. You can also add or remove steps from the sequence as you see fit, and you only have to set up the campaigns one first time. From that moment forward, everything will run by itself and you just have to see the results and adjust accordingly, if necessary. 

4. “Web Push Notifications Have Low Conversion Rates”

Web push notifications affect the overall site’s conversion rate, globally, by having the power to bring back users that have already expressed interest in a product or service. 

Let’s put an example: imagine a user goes to your site, browses a bit, finds a product he likes and adds it to the cart, but leaves with the intent of finishing the purchase in another time. One hour later that user gets a cart abandonment web push notification, he clicks on it and goes back to finish the purchase. 

When the user starts the check-out process, it turns out that it is very complicated, confusing, the site asks for way too much personal information and the user ends up leaving without making the purchase. 

In this scenario, the web push notification got a click and fulfilled its purpose of bringing the user back to the site to complete a purchase and recover an abandoned cart. However, when the user found himself in such a complicated checkout process, he left without buying, thus not converting. The conversion didn’t occur due to a UX problem, not because of the notification. 

If you detect that your web push campaigns have low conversion rates, the problem might not be the notification at all. What’s important is that you contrast different variables to determine if there is a problem in any of the steps leading the user towards conversion. 

Contrast your web push notification click-through rate with your website’s conversion rate and time spent on page to understand how users are behaviouring to determine where you are losing them and hypothesize about why. 

5. “You Need to Develop an App to send Web Push Notifications”, “They Only Work on Desktop”

When people talk about push notifications, many automatically think of app push notifications. It is important to clarify that there are two different types of push notifications: web and app.

Web push notifications are sometimes also called browser-based. This is because they are sent to subscribers through their browsers when they go online and they are delivered to both desktop and mobile devices equally. App push notifications are sent to users through applications to their mobile devices only.

As we explained earlier, web push notifications are implemented on websites through a JavaScript snippet which makes them browser-based. This means that when users allow them and become subscribers, they will receive them the moment they open their browser, whether they navigate from desktop or mobile. There is no need to develop an app to be able to send web push notifications: all websites are eligible to do it. 

6. “Web Push Notifications Affect User Experience Negatively”

Because web push notifications are still a fairly new retargeting channel, there are a lot of misconceptions about what they are and how they work. And one of the most common ones is to confuse them with regular pop-ups we all know too well.

Web push notifications are not pop-ups. Pop-ups are messages that appear suddenly,without permission over the website’s content while the user is navigating it. They interrupt user experience by showing up unexpectedly, covering the content and are activated by an action, such as scrolling down or moving the cursor to a certain spot.

Unlike pop-ups, web push notifications only show if the user has allowed them by subscribing through an opt-in prompt that appears on the left top corner of the website when first visiting it. They also differ from pop-ups because they appear even when the user has left the site and don’t intrude over the site’s content. 

Because web push notifications are delivered outside the site that sent them, they don’t affect the user experience at all.  

These are the most common web push notifications myths out there

If you still have doubts about the workings of this new retargeting channel and what it can do for your online businesses, get in touch with us and we would be happy to offer you a free trial period of one month so you can see the results for yourself.

If you are looking for even more information about what are web push notifications and how they work, make sure you also read: 

• Web Push Notifications: A Complete Guide for all Levels
• 7 Tips to Increase Web Push Notifications Click Through Rate
• Web Push Notifications Campaigns VS. Retargeting Ads Campaigns

As a marketer, when you hear the term “Remarketing”, one of the first things to come to your mind are probably display ads. However, while ads are by far the most well-known and widely-used remarketing method, there is much more to remarketing if you know what you’re doing and have the right tech at your disposal! 

That’s why in today’s post, I will tell you all you need to know about remarketing – what it is, how to set it up, why to use it, and how to do it right.  While I will explain a bit about how web tracking and personalized ads work, I’ll also provide you with a few other strategies you can use and, last but not least, I will compare the different methods for you.

To begin, here’s a brief overview of what I’m covering is this article  in case you want to go straight to a specific section:

1. What is remarketing?
2. Is remarketing different from retargeting?
3. Why should you use remarketing?
4. What are the different remarketing methods and how do they work? 
   1. Display Ads
   2. Email and SMS Remarketing 
   3. Web Push Notifications
5. How Web Tracking works
   1. How does the tracking through cookies work?
   2. What is the difference between 1st party cookies and 3rd party cookies?
   3. What is going to happen once cookies are prohibited
6. Which remarketing method should you use?

1. What is remarketing?

To keep it brief, remarketing refers to all activities aimed at getting a customer who has interacted with your website in the past, to return to the site and, in the best-case scenario, convert. This can be done through a number of different channels such as personalized ads, email messages, or web push notifications, which we will look into in more detail in a bit.

2. Is remarketing the same as retargeting?

Even among experienced marketers there is some confusion regarding this question, so let me try to clear it up for you: 

Retargeting and remarketing are almost always used interchangeably, although according to some sources, there is a difference between the two:  

• Remarketing: includes all channels aimed at retaining customers including ads, emails and other methods
• Retargeting: originally only used when talking about retargeting ads

So, basically, Retargeting is one out of many ways of doing Remarketing. However, other sources claim the opposite, so don’t stress too much about this difference. 

It is more useful to know is that somehow it has established itself that Google uses the word remarketing, while most other competitors use the term retargeting to refer to all of their remarketing activities. For this article, though, we will keep it simple and only talk about “Remarketing”.

3. Why should you use remarketing?

Let’s face it, the vast majority of website visitors don’t make a purchase on their first visit. In fact, did you know that roughly 98% of these potential customers leave your website without having bought anything? The reason for this is not necessarily a sudden loss of interest in your products. Most of the time, people are simply reluctant to buy the first item they find. They need some time to consider your offer and compare the different options available to them. 

However, while shopping online, they are faced with A LOT of options, so you need to make sure that in the moment they are finally ready to make the purchase, your offer is fresh on their minds. And this is where remarketing activities come into play! They remind web visitors of products they previously showed an interest in and make it easy to complete the purchase with only a few clicks. 

But what makes remarketing so much more efficient than other marketing activities? 

• Precision: For one, you’re targeting customers who have already shown an intent to buy what you’re selling. Add to that that the messages can be highly personalized as you’ve already collected info on the user, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that with remarketing you can achieve an extremely high CTR and CVR compared to other methods.
• Cost: No matter which remarketing method you use, the CPC is low compared to other marketing activities.
• Effort: Most remarketing campaigns are easy to set up yourself. They can be automated so they don’t require too much upkeep.

The result of this is a much higher ROAS compared to other marketing methods!

What are the different remarketing methods, and how do they work?

a) Display Ads

As I already mentioned, this method is the oldest and most commonly-used remarketing channel. 

The way it works is pretty straightforward: A user visits your website and agrees to the storage of cookies on their device. Via these cookies you collect information about that user and their behavior. Once the user leaves your website, you can use the information you gathered in order to track them to other websites where you place tailored ads depending on what the user has shown an interest in.

How do you set up display ad campaigns yourself:

You can set up your own retargeting ads quite easily, all you need is access to your website’s code and an account on a remarketing platform. The most popular platform to use is Google Ads, but there are other providers such as: 

• Facebook
• Bing
• Youtube (video ads)
• Criteo
• Adroll
• Adform

Setting up a GoogleAds campaign only takes you a few minutes, but before you start, make sure you already have a general idea of what your campaign objectives are and which customer segments you want to target: 

• Do you want to drive conversions, increase your CTR, increase brand awareness, …?
• Do you want to reach all website users or only those who have bought on your site before, clicked on a certain category page, or fulfilled any other criteria?

Tip: If you are not sure yet, just take a look at the suggestions offered by Google

Strategies for targeting the right people

• Segment your customers into similar groups! Some examples for segmentation that work well are based on product pages viewed, based on the stage in the funnel, based on how often they visited over the last month,…

• Target visitors at an advanced stage in the funnel! These already showed the highest intent to buy and thus, are more likely to convert. E.g.: customers with abandoned shopping carts

• Cross-sell to existing customers! Customers who already bought from you are more likely to do it again.
• Schedule ads for times when the target audience is likely to see them! E.g. if your audience are teachers, you can assume that they have class in the mornings and can’t see your ads then,…
• Adjust where necessary! Try different things, with time, you will see on which sites your ads perform best.

Let’s look at the example of user A:

User A needs new running shoes which you are selling on your website. 

As soon as he opens your site, he is asked whether he agrees to the storage of cookies on his device. Impatient to get to the shoes, he clicks “yes” without giving it another thought.  

After some browsing, user A finds a pair of shoes he likes and puts it into his cart.

However, doubts start creeping in: Is it really a good idea to buy shoes online without trying them on first? And does he even need a new pair at all? And what if he can find a better pair elsewhere?… He just needs some time to think on it, so he leaves your site without finishing the purchase.

Anyways, over the next few days user A probably uses his computer for other things, be it to read the news, to buy a birthday gift for his sister, or to plan his next weekend trip. But surprise! When he opens the online newspaper, he sees an ad of the exact same shoes he looked at. And while he compares flights for his trip, the same thing happens! And again while he is ordering the gift for his sister! 

What happened here is that, since user A agreed to the use of cookies, you as the marketer knew exactly what he wanted and could follow him to other websites to show him highly personal ads.

b) E-Mail and SMS- Remarketing

This method is focused on customers who have already purchased something on your website in the past or subscribed to your newsletter. Once you have their consent to use their personal information you are able to contact them about specific offers relevant to them, such as promotions or offers similar to what they bought in the past.

If you don’t want to reach out to all your customers, but only to specific groups, just segment them. This way you can single out only those customers who meet the criteria you defined, e.g. 

• customers who bought a similar product in the past
• customers who abandoned their cart
• customers who looked at a product that wasn’t in stock at the time, but is now

Tip: There are ways to encourage more visitors to leave behind their contact information, e.g., by offering free gifts or discounts  in return.

Note: It is also considered email retargeting if you add your email subscribers to your ad network and configure targeted display ads specifically for that group.

To set up campaigns on your website, it is easiest to subscribe to an automation platform.

Let’s look at the example of User B:

In the past, User B bought a school bag from your site. You now have his email address. The summer holidays just ended, and you have a promotion for school supplies going on.

Because of his past purchase you know that user B probably has a kid who goes to school and conclude that he is likely to be interested in your promotion. That’s why his email address is added to a database of all customers who will receive this particular promotion. 

User B is feeling stressed since just the other day, his kid had come home from school with a list of materials for the next academic year, needed by next week. When he sees your personalized email about the promotion, he is relieved and heads to your site where he gets all his supplies.

c) Web Push Notifications

A relatively new remarketing method that is quickly gaining traction are push notifications. These messages exist for both mobile and desktop devices and can be sent either manually or automatically to contact website visitors whose personal information you don’t have access to. 

How it works is that first-time website visitors are asked whether they want to block or allow messages in a so-called Native Opt-In:

If someone who opted in now leaves the site, a message can be sent to his browser encouraging him to return to the site and finish the purchase. The great thing about it is that no matter what the user is doing on his computer, the message will appear on his screen until he either clicks it away or opens it, so there is no ignoring it.

Again, if you want to set this channel up for your website, it is best to get a subscription to a marketing automation platform which has the capabilities for web push-notifications such as Frizbit.

Let’s look at the example of User C:

User C opens your site to look for shoes. 

Since you are using web push notifications, she is asked whether she wants to block or allow messages in the Native Opt-In.

She clicks on “allow” and browses your site for a bit. Although there’s a pair of red shoes she likes, she ultimately leaves the site without buying it and without leaving her contact info. After all, the shoes will still be there tomorrow!

Later that day, she notices that she’s running out of dog food. When she opens her laptop to buy some, the following message is waiting for her on the screen: “Hey user C! Hurry! There’s only 2 of these red shoes left. Are you sure you want to miss out on them?”

User C is alarmed and doesn’t want to miss out, so she quickly decides to get the shoes before it’s too late.

5. How does Web Tracking work?

Since web tracking is the technology behind every remarketing activity, let’s take a closer look at how it works. I already mentioned that cookies make it possible for a site to track a user to other sites he later visits. But what is a cookie and how exactly  is it able to follow you across the web just like that? 

a) How does the tracking through cookies work? 

When you visit a website, your browser sends it a message called an HTTP request. The website then responds to this message – both with the content you ask for, and with small text files, the so-called cookies, that the site wants your browser to save. If your browser does indeed save them, every time you revisit the website a particular cookie was sent from, your browser attaches this cookie to the access request it sends to the website. In this way, the website can identify individual users by their respective cookies and learn about their behavior. 

b) What is the difference between 1st party cookies and 3rd party cookies? 

Usually, websites use external software to handle their cookies, and there are 2 types of providers for this: single website trackers via 1st party cookies  and multi-website trackers via 3rd party cookies. While 1st party cookies keep the info gathered by each of their client websites separate, 3rd party cookies make it possible to share user information collected by multiple individual website’s cookies among all of their client websites. This means that websites can not only track your activity on their own site, but follow you to other sites as well.

c) What is going to happen after cookies are prohibited?

Up until now, remarketing ad providers have been relying on 3rd party cookies. However, Google announced that Google Chrome, the most common browser in the world, will prohibit the use of 3rd party cookies in 2022. This means that the future of remarketing with display ads is in shades, at least until a new alternative is being developed. Other remarketing methods, on the other hand, such as email, SMS, and push notifications, rely on 1st party cookies, which means they won’t be affected by this dramatic change in regulations. Read more on The Future of Digital Marketing Without 3rd Party Cookies.

6. Which remarketing method should you use?

While you ultimately have to make that decision for yourself and it really depends on your goals and your budget, here you’ve got a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of each channel:

To summarize:

Remarketing activities are marketing activities aimed at getting customers to re-engage with a website they had already abandoned. 

Because you’re only targeting visitors who have already shown an interest in your site, this is much more efficient than most other marketing methods.

There are 3 main methods of doing remarketing:

1. Display Ads
2. Email and SMS Remarketing 
3. App and Web Push Notifications

Which one(s) you should choose for your site depends on your objectives and resources. While Display Ads is easiest to set up yourself, Push Notifications achieve the highest CTR and ROI.

No matter which channel you use, keep in mind that…

• … timing can make a huge difference. CTRs are generally highest in the afternoon

• … images and emojis make your messages more visually attractive and increase CTRs considerably

• … there is such a thing as too much! You don’t want to make your customers uncomfortable, so limit the number of messages you send. For web tracking, you have the option to put a cap on the number of times a visitor is shown your ad

If you found this article useful, make sure to also check out:

• Natura Reached a 16.8x ROAS Using Behavioural Emails and Web Push Notifications from Frizbit
• SMS Marketing: 7 Tips for a Winning Strategy
• Private Shopping Sites: Web Push Notifications Strategies

Natura is a miscellaneous product retailer with 221 stores open between Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra. They recently launched their e-commerce site with 5 languages and were looking for a solution to engage, bring back customers and increase their revenue with a hyper pesonalized experience that fits their brand.

They implemented automated web push notifications and emails from Frizbit. 

Natura Success Story by Frizbit

By using behavioural, hyper-personalised emails and web push notifications from Frizbit, Natura managed to bring customers back to finish their transactions with a ROAS of 16.8x, a 0,10€ cost per session and a 4,3% increase sales increase for the month of July.

We have put together a complete Success Story explaining the problem Natura was facing and how Frizbit offered an all-in-one solution. In this study you will find all the information, data and insights about this specific case and understand how Frizbit offers the possibility to retarget completely anonymous users without ads and 3rd party cookies when they have already left your site.

Get the Case Study and Request a demo for your site

If you are interested in learning more about Natura’s success with retargeting email and web push notifications, download the case study by clicking here: https://dmgh2x5m53bk.swipepages.net/natura-success-story-by-frizbit

You can get in touch with Frizbit to request a demo and see the benefits it can present for your online business as well.

More Success Stories!

• Bidcom reached a 37x ROAS with automated Emails and Web Push Notifications from Frizbit
• Primor Reached a 36x ROAS with Web Push Notifications from Frizbit

Web push notifications are short, immediate and highly personalised messages delivered to users through their browser after agreeing or subscribing to receive them. This channel is quickly gaining popularity amongst e-commerce sites due to its inherent characteristics and benefits:

• No 3rd party cookies required
• No personal data from users required
• They reach users from desktop and mobile devices
• Messages get delivered even when users leave the website

Additionally, platforms like Frizbit offer the possibility to reach users through their entire journey by creating automated sequences of messages for each step of the marketing funnel based on individual user behaviour. 

You can easily see why web push notifications are becoming the number one marketing tool preferred by online store owners and digital marketers to engage with their customers and bring them back to the site to finish a transaction. 

Despite being recognized as most effective and profitable for e-commerce, this new channel has applications for all types of websites including B2B. One of the things that make web push notifications so great is that they can be personalised to adapt to any business, from tailoring the message to adjusting timings, languages and sequences, this is the most versatile digital marketing channel you can get. 

How to Use Web Push Notifications for B2B

Digital marketing strategies for B2B don’t usually differ so much from B2C, the main difference is that B2B processes last longer than in B2C businesses. This presents a different challenge for marketers because they need to find ways to keep audiences interested during longer periods of time. 

The traditional way to do so has always been by sending emails with interesting and relevant content with the objective of finally achieving conversion. However, with the saturation of content on the Internet it is getting harder to cut through the noise of thousands of messages daily and actually make an impact. 

Bottom line, customer engagement is key for B2B businesses to succeed and increase their lead conversions and web push notifications are a great channel to interact with customers and create a hyper-personalised experience. 

• Reach Anonymous Users and Turn Them Into Leads

As we mentioned before, web push notifications don’t require any type of personal data to reach users after they leave the website. When a person visits your site for the first time, if they have enabled the channel, they will be shown a browser based prompt asking them if they wish to allow web push notifications.

If they leave without taking any further action, you can re-engage them via web push notifications after a certain period of time you decide is best. Since you can customise the notifications as much as you want, you can decide which page you want subscribers to go to when they click on the notification.

This is a great opportunity to redirect them to a page with super useful information you think will tilt the balance in your favor and also peak their interest. For example you can offer them a trial period or present them with a special discount for first time customers as an exchange for them filling in a form and leaving their contact details such as email address or phone number.

This is a great strategy to turnt anonymous visitors into leads so you can contact them later and give them your full pitch. This is not possible to do with any other channel. With retargeting ads you won’t know for sure if your message got delivered, maybe you have competitors who are paying more than you so your ad is never shown and you lose that visitor for good. 

• Re-engage Dormant Users

Through some stages of the marketing funnel, people are browsing around a lot of pages looking for information. They jump from one site to another investigating and searching around and this might go on for some time while they decide to move forward with the process. 

Web push notifications are a great channel to target people during these stages when they think and research and maybe lose the information from your site as they stumble into other similar solutions.

You can send manual web push notifications campaigns sharing information they might find valuable to bring them back to your site or, at least, maintain your solution on their top of mind so they keep it as a valid option. You can send notifications about:

• New features
• Updates about your solution
• New downloadables such as whitepapers

• Use Recurring Web Push Notifications

One of the most important stages of the marketing funnel is the “loyalty” and “advocacy” which, sadly, often gets overlooked. B2B businesses should invest time and effort in keeping their customers engaged even after they have converted. 

Since this implies “spending” resources after the goal was achieved and extending the work beyond the main objective, its importance is diminished. But businesses need to understand that the best customers are recurring customers and the way to keep them coming back is to offer them an engaging post-purchase experience. 

If you are a provider, you can do this by sending automated recurring web push notifications alerting them that it is time to repeat their order, for example. These types of messages keep customers engaged and offer the feeling that you care about them and appreciate their business.

• Sequences for Lead Nurturing

Once you have established the journey your customers go through when visiting your business site, you can create a sequence of automated web push notifications to keep in touch with them after they leave your site without converting. 

You can send them hyper-personalised messages that will show on the screen of their desktop or mobile devices to re-engage them and bring them back to your site. Segmentation and automation will allow you to reach specific audiences based on their individual behaviour, targeting their specific needs.

You can recommend them services or products that fit their requirements based on their most recently viewed category or products. Remember that the objective is to maintain a flow of communication with regular contact by providing useful information that ultimately leads to a conversion. 

To sum up…

We hope these tips allow you to understand the applications of web push notifications for B2B. This channel offers online businesses a world of opportunities, you just need to strategize and find the right mix that works best for you and your audience.

Sending web push notifications to prospects or customers will increase your return rate and help you grow your business. Remember that the important thing is to keep your solution present in their minds throughout time as a valid option to solve and fulfill their own business needs and requirements. 

If you found this information interesting, you will surely also like: 

• Web Push Notifications Performance: Key Metrics to Track!
• Real Estate Marketing: Boost your Business with Web Push Notifications
• 6 Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies for B2B