Every eCommerce website needs to keep in touch with their visitors or buyers. There are various strategies to get them engaged and keep dropping them promotional messages. The email marketing is one of the oldest methods for interacting with customers, whereas website push notification is somewhat new and not as commonly known as email updates or newsletters.

A website push notification is a clickable message that appears in your web browser. It is an innovative technique of driving subscribers to a website with a quick one-liner message rather than a detail email message. Following in this article, we have discussed how web push notification can benefit an eCommerce website, and how to optimize it for better results.

How can push notifications benefit eCommerce websites?

Website push notification has numerous benefits that depend on each industry and specific needs of an online store. Every business can mold the benefits according to the end goals they need to achieve.

A news and publishing website would like to use push notifications for headlines, a sports website for a live score, or an aviation company will intend to report real-time flight statuses. This post is specifically about eCommerce websites; let us find how they can avail the feature.

Remind Cart abandonment

When a user leaves an eCommerce website with unfinished purchase, the merchant can send them a reminder message to bring him back and do the purchases with exciting offers.

Send Flash Offers

E-commerce websites can make better use of the push notifications by sending flash offers that are valid for a specific time period. This is a sure-fire method of grabbing conversions.

Personalize Transactional Messages

Web push notifications can be helpful in personalizing transactional messages. It includes user registration or purchase notification. By encouraging users to install the mobile application, you can make better use of push notifications.

User-focused offers

By segmenting your website users with respect to their previous behavior, you can better approach them with customized offers in push notifications. These offers yield a higher conversion rate.

How to optimize website push notifications for better results?

Any marketing method or technique that you intend to apply to your business has certain rules. You need to follow them to make the most out of a prescribed or recommended procedure.
Web push notification is surely an effective tool, but it only works well if it is tailored to the varying needs of a business and its target community. Scroll down and you will find some of the really amazing ways for optimizing push notifications for a higher return.

Copywriting for Push Notification

Website Push notification demands communication of maximum message in a limited space. So, the copy needs to be short, simple, and crispy. The end goal of writing such a copy is making the subscribers click the link.

The message shall be valuable so that the users are attracted to view the notification and act accordingly. Follow these tips;

  1. Write a compelling copy
  2. Clarify your Call to Action
  3. Add a captivating image
  4. Personalize the text for each subscriber segment
  5. Add customer name for pushing transactional messages

Create urgency with words and numbers

You have numerous tools in hand to create urgency in the sales copy of push notifications. One of the basic techniques is setting a deadline for an offer or discount. It can be a day or two, or an entire week.

Another method that can be used parallel with numbers is the use of creative phrases like Buy Now, Limited Time Offer, etc. You can extend the creation of urgency with the color and design of push notification.

  1. Add power words like Free, Guaranteed, Amazing, Easy, etc.
  2. Select red color for announcing flash sales
  3. Highlight sales deadline with a timer

Timing to reach out

Selecting a suitable time-period for push notification is mandatory because the users have to have spare time for taking immediate action. Unlike emails or text messages, push notifications do not remain in their email or cell phone and require a real-time reply from the subscribers.

In order to choose a suitable time-slot, you can start recognizing the prime time of your target audience when they are free and comfortable in responding to your notifications. This is a tricky part as the peak time may vary according to the users who belong to different regions and zones. Try sending out notifications at variant time zones to interact with every user in a jolly mood.
The best time for propagating a funny and lively message through push notification is the afternoon when most of the people are free and ready to mingle in such an activity during a lunch break. It is also the time when people in the offices are done with their day-milestone and want to try something interesting. Follow these precautions while configuring the right time for notifications.

  1. Do not send early in the morning or late at night notifications
  2. Avoid reaching out users in the school hours
  3. Continue A/B testing to conclude the right time.

Frequency in Sending Notifications

Setting up the frequency of interacting with subscribers is also critical. You may have to retain the optimal number of push notifications because sending too many can mark you a spammer. As a result, the users unsubscribe.

There is not a defined frequency for web push notifications as it is a kind of new concept in comparison to the email marketing and other conventional outreach campaigns. It varies between businesses and industries.

According to an infographic published on Growth Funnel, about 40% of the experts suggest not to exceed push notification 1-2 a week. One simple hack is to put yourself in the buyers’ shoes, subscribe to your competitors, and observe their frequency.

Optimize the CTA

The appearance of a Call to action button is significant in push notifications as it requires the users to take action. It needs to be placed in a prominent position and highlighted with warm colors like red, orange, or yellow.

Segmentation for push notifications

The point of segmenting the subscriber-base is discussed a little bit in the context of selecting the right time to push notifications. But, here, by segmentation, the end goal is to outreach subscribers with a personalized message. Craft a message that is tailored to the needs of a target community and is not just a generalized statement.
You can stay by categorizing the subscribers with respect to their age, gender, preferences, or behavioral differences. With this, you can create a custom message that goes in line with the expectations of the target audience.

Conclusion

Push notification is still a new trend of marketing channels that is about to go common soon by the prominent eCommerce websites. The striking feature of this marketing tactic is that it provides the easiest way to interact and get personal with the customers. But, the key to success still lies in knowing how and when to reach them out, and convey a promotional message in a friendly manner.


Author Bio:

Asad is an internet marketing expert having more than 8 years of experience in eCommerce SEO. Currently he heading the marketing department of GO-Gulf – a web development Dubai company, where he has worked on several SEO projects, UX and increasing eCommerce stores conversion. You can reach him on LinkedIn.