Web Push Notification Best Practices in 2023

For proper use of any marketing channel, you need to understand its core functions and features. Web push notifications are well known for their interaction simplicity, but most marketers don’t explore their advanced capabilities. 

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To more fully understand web push as a multifunctional marketing tool, we will give you the main tips for creating push campaigns that will net the best results. We will determine when, where, and how to best use push notifications.

Read about web push notification basics here in our guide.

Best Practices for Using Web Push Notifications

Web push notifications have a high open-rate, or Click-Through Rate (CTR), due to the fact that the pop-ups appear over the top of all open windows, both on mobile or desktop devices. To receive a web push, a user need not stay on the website. An open browser is sufficient for receiving a message.

It is important to remember that the CTR depends on a set of factors. In order to avoid critical mistakes when planning and sending campaigns, we have put together some best practices. It is our hope that you will learn to properly manage the web push technology with all of its features.

1. Opt-In. There are two types of opt-in widgets. The first one is a native opt-in window.
   It takes only one click to either Allow or Block notifications. The second one is a customized opt-in box. It allows you to design your own window and requires two clicks to Allow notifications. A visitor first needs to confirm their subscription in the customized widget. Then, a native one will appear. Since Chrome v.80 was released, the customized subscription prompt is a better option. The double-click subscription doesn’t lead to enabling a Quieter UI. Additionally, when the subscription requires two clicks, visitors don’t opt in accidentally. Websites collect a higher percentage of loyal subscribers, which leads to a higher push campaign CTR and a lower opt-out rate.
2. Welcome messages. To notify a new recipient about their subscription to website alerts, use a welcome message. It informs subscribers about the info they will be getting from your site. These welcome messages can be sent using the Gravitec.net automation feature. You can add buttons and a big image to your welcome messages and set a delay time for sending.
3. Images. Big images in push notifications attract a lot of attention and occupy more space on the screen than a basic icon. In addition, with a rich notification, you can include more details of your offer before a subscriber follows the link to the product page. 
   
4. Buttons. A call-to-action button encourages a subscriber to explore your offer. It increases CTR, because the subscriber has a hint of what to do next. Using two buttons, you can track subscriber actions (UTM), and segment the audience by their choice. CTA buttons typically give you a 40-60% CTR increase.
   
5. Text. Web push includes a title and a description. They should complement each other to make your message crystal clear. We will discuss tips for composing text a bit later.
6. Timing. Browser notifications are time-sensitive. Understand that there is a “best time” to send a campaign. In order to determine the “best time”, you’ll need to pay attention to notification time parameters. They include campaign schedule, time zone, frequency, and Time To Live (TTL). These concepts will be discussed below.
7. Segmentation. According to statistics compiled by Gravitec.net, targeted campaigns have proven their effectiveness. Subscribers have different interests, behavior, and hardware. Companies experience better results using segmented campaigns. CTR of targeted notifications is 1,5-2 times higher than for non-targeted campaigns.
   See further, whom to send push notifications.
8. Statistics. To improve campaign results use statistics. It shows the most successful approaches, allows you to compare a set of used options. Customers of Gravitec.net can track their push campaign history, the number of messages sent, delivered, and opened, CTR, etc.
9. Landing Page. The main purpose of push notifications is to redirect subscribers to a webpage with an article or product info. If a user clicks on a web push, they should get sent to the appropriate web page, as indicated in the notification. Otherwise, expect an increase in your opt-out rate.
10. Customer info. When you send a browser notification, you may want to get additional information about the subscriber. For example, you can send a web push offering a discount.  But, in order to get the discount promo code, it must be received via email or SMS. Thus, the subscriber must give you additional contact info in order to get the discount. After you get new info about the subscriber, you can use it in multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Let’s take a look at tips for planning and sending push campaigns.

How to Write Creative Push Notifications

Topics

Generally, special offers attract more attention than ordinary product info. Therefore, it follows that words like “Discount”, “Sale”, or “Action”, in a web push title will increase the number of clicks. 

However, there are also other options to hook the consumer too. For example, personalized topics, or ones that are trendy,  can be used for your target audience.

Mass media use political overtones, and references to high-profile events, in their notifications. Celebrity photos, and well-known logos, grab subscriber attention as well.

Text

Users respond more likely to notifications with intriguing or provocative text. However, if you want to instill confidence in your subscribers, give them clear informative messages.

Some approaches for text creating:

• Limited time (“50% discount this Friday only!”).
• Personal appeal (‘Dear Mrs.’, ‘Promo code for you’).
• Intriguing text to spark curiosity about your offer. In order to find out more, they will need to click on the notification.
• Particularly advantageous offer (“30% discount on tickets to all destinations”).

The title is the main part of the text. It gives the first impression. The description complements the title, shows the benefits, and gives details. Emojis are also available.

Use them to elicit emotions from your audience.

How to Add Images For Push Notifications

Using the same image for every push notification is a bad idea. Over time, subscriber interest in your website diminishes, and you run the risk of an increased opt-out percentage. Nevertheless, companies often use their logo as an illustration for all of their messages. Let’s consider the results of this approach.

Here is a real case of a media company, and their push campaign CTR statistics. The first chart zone with low CTR shows results for notifications with a non-changing logo. The sharp increase in rates occurred when they changed their strategy, using different images for each notification.

To set images for browser notifications, go to the web push platform. In Gravitec.net, you will see a preview of the notification before sending it. And, you can see it for each browser.

1. To set a basic small logo click ‘Change icon’ and upload a picture (note the recommended size).
   
2. You can use rich notification features, and add a big image for your message.
   
3. Another rich notification feature is one or two buttons. A CTA button helps to motivate subscribers.

As we mentioned above, big images are highly recommended to get more audience attention. We recommend that you mix it up, to diversify your messages. It helps prevent your customers from becoming bored.

When to Send a Push Notification

To choose a suitable time for sending a campaign, explore your subscribers’ habits.

For example, suppose you have a software company. Your target audience is at work from 9am-5pm. Most likely, it’s better to send notifications during this time. And, it’s probably best not to disturb them when they are not at the office. Otherwise, pop-ups can become intrusive. Inconvenient delivery times decrease the open rate, and can also decrease customers loyalty over time.

A good way to find out a convenient time to send messages is to check subscription statistics. You can see the times during the day when  interaction is at its highest.

Furthermore, push technology tools allow you to send notifications separately to mobile and desktop devices. In this way, you can select a specific schedule for each of these groups. If a subscriber’s desktop device is off in the evening, it would be better to send a notification to their smartphone at this time. 

Besides scheduling, you can manage other time parameters:

1. Time To Live. This is the period of time when you want notifications sent to subscribers.  Remember, in order to receive a notification, a subscriber needs to be online. So, if a subscriber is offline during this entire period,  they will not receive the notification. Perhaps to better understand this feature, let’s suppose you want to offer a discount for only 3 hours. Set your TTL such that it starts at the beginning of the sale, and lasts for 3 hours. In doing so, you will notify all of the subscribers who are online during the sale. 
2. Time zone. Set this parameter according to where your subscribers live. A subscriber’s time zone is retrieved from the browser when a person subscribes.
3. Frequency refers to how often you interact with users. As with any time parameter, the frequency depends on the market characteristics and the campaign goals. Read about the optimal frequency of sending push campaigns.

Learn more about push notification time settings.

Whom To Send Push Notification

In Gravitec.net, you can segment your subscribers by:

• Browser
• Region
• Operating System
• Tags

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Every browser supports push notifications in its own way. For example, Chrome allows rich notifications, regardless of device. But Safari only supports standard notifications. When you segment subscribers by browser, you need to pay attention to the specifics of the notification of each browser.

Segmentation by region (country or city) is useful when news or business pertains to a particular locale.

To reach mobile and desktop users separately, use segmentation by OS. Note that push notifications appear differently for different desktop OSs. 

Subscribers can also be segmented by using tags. Tags allow you to send notifications based on particular interests. You can attach any tag to a page on your website via REST API. Tags are assigned to subscribers whenever they visit a tagged page. In this way, companies can create segments based on interest or behavior, and send targeted campaigns to these subscriber groups.

Additionally, you can use aliases to send notifications to individuals.

Read more about push notification segmentation.

Relevancy and Frequency For Better Results

Examine your campaign statistics to be aware of user behavior, and change your marketing strategy over time.

The best way to determine the optimal settings for your push campaigns is to conduct experiments. For example, you can check at what time your campaigns get more clicks by sending them at different times.

However, remember, that your subscribers may have different interests, devices, or working hours. Use segmentation to reach each subscriber group in the most appropriate way. 

And keep in mind that there are no strict rules for all industries. For example, the best campaign frequency for a media website is four or five times a day. But that would likely be too often for e-commerce.

Push Notifications Examples

Push campaigns can be used for a variety of reasons:

• Educational
• Promotional
• Alerts
• Service
• Transactional

Educational campaigns explain product features, service capabilities, etc. So, if you want to provide your audience with a guide, send educational notifications.

Promotional notifications contain info about discounts, and/or new products. This is the most common use for push campaigns for online stores. 

Alerts are used to notify users of an abandoned cart, or the expiration of a sale.

Service messages help clients after a purchase. For instance, service web push notifies customers about the purchase delivery time or might provide travel tips for a tour they have purchased. 

Transactional notifications are sent after a subscriber action. For instance, after a subscriber buys something, a notification might be sent to confirm the purchase. Gravitec.net customers who use REST API, have these notifications sent automatically.

Read more about the types of push campaigns in our guide.

Important Tips and Practices

Now you should have a better idea of how to use push notifications. 

Let’s summarize the main tips:

1. A customized opt-in box allows you to collect more loyal subscribers.
2. Welcome messages notify a new subscriber about your website.
3. Big images attract more attention.
4. Call To Action buttons help subscribers make decisions (to click!).
5. A description should complement a title. 
6. A notification text needs to correlate to the landing page.
7. Web push effectiveness depends on time parameter settings (schedule, TTL, frequency, time zone).
8.  Subscribers can be segmented by region, browser, OS, tags. Notification messages should correlate to each segmented group.
9. Campaign statistics provide info about successful approaches and subscriber behavior so that you can plan future campaigns.
10. Push notifications should be included in, and are an important part of, a multi-channel marketing effort.

If you have any questions about web push notifications, please contact our support team.