The Ultimate Guide to Web Push Notifications | Blog SALESmanago – Customer Engagement Platform for impact-hungry eCommerce marketing teams

Web Push notifications are a new, convenient, and fast way to communicate with users. They don’t require tiresome forms to be filled in. Instead, they are sent straight to the users’ devices and displayed in real time, resulting in 30 times more clicks than an average email. Together with our sales and support teams, I have prepared for you a comprehensive guide to this medium. Keep reading to learn the basics of creating Web Push notifications and find out how to design outstanding notifications that drive engagement. Some answers are based on real-life questions that came across during webinars with our clients. I hope you’ll find something for yourself!

What is Web Push notification?

A Web Push notification is a short message displayed on your computer or mobile device screen while the browser window is active.

What does a Web Push notification look like?

A Web Push notification is a rectangular window that appears in the bottom right corner of the screen (with the exception of Apple devices that display notifications in the upper right corner). A typical notification consists of small, square graphics, title, and a short text. It may also include buttons or a link redirecting you to a proper landing page.

Do Web Push notifications work on smartphones?

Yes.

Web Push notifications and agreement forms are compatible with mobile devices. The forms are displayed within the browser, and the notifications pop up on the screen in the same way as normal Push notifications do.

Web Push notifications work on PC tablets and smartphones, are supported by popular browsers (Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox), and are fully responsive.

Are Web Push & Push notifications the same thing?

No.

Web Push notifications are sent by the browser and belong with website marketing. Push notifications, on the other hand, are messages sent by a mobile app and are integral to mobile app marketing.

Who can receive a Web Push notification?

Web Pushes can be sent to everyone who visits your website at least once and agrees to receive notifications on your site. The only requirement for this kind of notification to appear is that the users agree to get them via an agreement form. A contact doesn’t even need to have an active browser window or use it at the moment. The processes responsible for sending Web Push notifications remain active, even if the window is closed.

IMPORTANT: To send this kind of notifications you don’t even need to have recipients’ email addresses, as Web Push notifications can be sent to anonymous contacts!

How to get permission to send Web Push notifications?

Your notification is displayed whenever a contact confirms their subscription on your website and agrees to receive the messages in their browser. If a contact does not agree, you can have the agreement form displayed again after some time.

How to prepare a Web Push notification agreement form and put it on the website?

In SALESmanago, the procedure of creating and implementing an agreement form is as follows:

Name the agreement form to easily identify it in the system.
Specify tags to be added to monitored contacts who agree to receive notifications.
Specify whether to display a declined agreement form again and after what time
Enter the title of the agreement form. (Max 48 characters)
Enter the content of the agreement form. (Max 200 characters)
Add an image to the agreement form. (Suggested size: 150×150 px)
Enter the confirmation and decline texts that are going to be visible on the button. Max 20 characters each. Also, pick the background color and text color.
Prepare the confirmation window – enter confirmation text. This text, along with the previously uploaded picture will appear in the confirmation window preview. Max 200 characters. The suggested size of a confirmation window image is 450×450 px.
Download the Web Push code to be implemented on your website
Paste the Web Push code in your website’s code, just below the monitoring code.

Is clicking “yes” on the form the only required thing for Web Push notifications to be sent to the user?

No.

Because of the implementation process mechanics, users must agree twice to receive notifications. After a user clicks “I agree” on the agreement form, another window will appear. This is a second agreement form coming straight from the browser – a user has to click “Allow” to receive your messages.

How to create a Web Push notification?

Here’s the process, as in SALESmanago:

Enter the notification’s name.
Enter the Web Push notification title. Up to 48 characters.
Enter the Web Push notification content. Up to 100 characters.
Upload a graphic to be displayed on the Web Push notification. Suggested size is 150×150 px.
Add a URL address to the Web Push notification – so it can redirect users to a dedicated landing page, or a product page.
Choose an agreement form. If you have more than one agreement form and use the forms alternately, you can choose recipients according to the form they used to agree to receive notifications. You can choose more than one form.
Select a group of recipients. You can choose from:
1. identified contacts – monitored contacts,
2. anonymous contacts – contacts that are not monitored or saved in the SALESmanago system (anonymous),
3. all contacts.
Specify the date and time for the notification to appear.
Set the notification’s validity. The lifespan is counted from the moment the notification started to be displayed. If a contact opens the browser after the lifespan is over, the Web Push notification won’t be displayed.
IMPORTANT: The validity of a notification set to 2 weeks doesn’t mean it will be displayed each and every day of the fortnight. It will show up only once during this time when the contact opens the browser.

Are Web Push notifications effective?

Yes.

The average CTR for Web Push among our customers is 30%. External sources mention CTR on an average level of 15%-25%. These numbers are far more impressive than those for emails. Especially, since the OR of Web Push notifications is always 100% (all delivered messages are opened).

How to convert anonymous traffic to identified contacts by using Web Push notifications?

Every notification can contain a link that redirects users to a landing page, where you can embed a contact form to collect contact details. Read more on how to create an effective landing page.

Does the image for a notification have to be a 150x150px square?

The measurements aren’t that much important as the shape is. It has to be a square. The wizard will adjust the image to this shape so any other form, such as a rectangle, or a circle will appear deformed.

Can I program Web Push notifications to be displayed in any place on my website’s layout?

No.

Web Push notifications are always displayed in the lower-right corner of the screen.

Can a Web Push of mine appear on my competitor’s website?

Yes / No.

Web Push notifications are displayed in real time when you send them (or at some moment in the future, if you schedule them), to every subscriber who has the browser window open and to those who open it during the lifespan of the notification. Hence the website they visit won’t affect the notification’s deliverability, the notification may appear when someone is on your competitor’s website. Nonetheless, you can’t set a notification to appear specifically while a subscriber visits a particular URL.

What happens if a client clears cookies?

Clearing cookies will not automatically clear the message agreements. There is a separate feature in the browser for this purpose. After they clear cookies and revisit the website, users will see the agreement form again, but they will still receive notifications anyway.

Can a Web Push redirect a user to a newsletter subscription form?

A notification can redirect a user to any landing page, including ones with newsletter subscriptions.

Why are Web Push notifications so short?

Push is supposed to be a fast and non-aggressive form of marketing communication. Thus, it should be brief and concisely inform users about things (“New ebook! Get it now”, “Sale of baby clothes for autumn -20%”). Don’t write an essay – choose one catchy phrase, add a catchy title and a nice-looking picture.

A Web Push notification’s strength lies in its simplicity – people scan instead of reading. This is why simple messages are much more effective than long and complex ones.

Can I replace the image with an animated graphic?

No.

A notification can’t have an animated gif instead of a still image.

What is Rich Web Push notification?

Rich Web Push notification is an upgraded version of a standard Web Push notification. It contains an icon, title, and image. See the visualization below.

How to set up a Rich Web Push notification?

The process of their creation is really simple. You shall use the 3-step creator:

Enter a title.
Upload a small icon for the notification window and upload graphics which include the details of the offer.
Define URL address to which the user will be redirected after clicking the notification.

Do Rich Web Push notification work the same as normal Web Push Notification?

Basically: Yes. Although note, that Rich Web Push notifications are available only for Chrome 55 and above (for now).

How to create a Web Push notification that stands out?

Because of its short form, Web Push requires flawless copywriting. When creating a message, keep in mind that its most important goal is to get people to click it. For this purpose, the message must present genuine value to recipients. People only click messages that give them something in return. Keep these tips in mind when you’ll be creating your next notification:

Be specific – nobody has time to guess what you wanted to say. Simply write that you already have the latest Harry Potter collector’s edition at a great price, instead of asking people if they already read it. They might not click just out of curiosity.

Be concise – 148 characters is more than a Tweet, less than an SMS. Try to isolate the one key value that you want to highlight for your audience. In this case, less is more!

Create a feeling of urgency – a sense of avoidable loss can impact the need to click a link! Send a message with a time-limited offer and mention that the number of tickets for a conference you promote is shrinking rapidly.

Use social proof – validate the user’s choice even before people visit the page. Inform how many world-class marketers are taking part in the event and how many journalists are praising the book you are advertising.

When should I send a Web Push notification?

Notifications are sent in real time. When you schedule a notification, keep the content and nature of the notification in mind. Business notifications go well with the first coffee; semi-formal, witty texts – in the afternoon when people are already bored to death from sitting in the office. And when you want to offer ways to spend a long weekend – send it before the weekend, not during holidays, etc.

How often should I send Web Push notifications?

It is very important to find the right frequency of sending notifications. Sending too little of them will not result in a meaningful increase in audience engagement and, as a consequence, the conversion rate would not improve. On the other hand, spamming will result in loss of engagement, or even worse, a wave of opt-outs.

Since it’s still a fairly new medium, no extensive research is yet available on what is the best time and frequency of sending notifications.

The best way to find a golden measure is to monitor the effectiveness of the sent notifications – track deliverability statistics and click-through rates of notifications on a marketing automation platform.

Which Web Push statistics should I track?

One of the most important performance indicators for notifications is click-through rate (CTR). It tells you what engagement was triggered by the notification.

The second important stat to keep an eye on is conversion. You can track it by adding UTM parameters to a link in a notification. It’ll allow you to identify and count all the contacts that clicked the link and visited the page. You can then analyze this data both in Google Analytics and in Lead Generation Analytics in SALESmanago.

What are the benefits of implementing Web Push in my marketing strategy?

a new way to communicate with contacts that are in your database,
reach anonymous contacts (notifications do not require an email address to be delivered),
a new criterion for database segmentation,
improved sales performance by delivering personalized offers linked to product pages.
a new method of expanding your contact database by redirecting users to a landing page,
an additional tool for progressive profiling.

What would you add to this list? Do you have any questions? Ask away in the comment section, and I’ll be happy to answer!