Does A Push Notification Work?

Push Notifications are those messages that appear on your desktop or mobile device as if out of nowhere. You can get a push notification provider to send messages directly to your visitors who’ve “opted-in” from their web browsers. Do we want it? Does a push notification work? And how does it work?

I was looking at this infographic by Search Engine Journal the other day; the number of active social media users in the world is still continuing to grow like this;

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/growth-social-media-v-3-0-infographic/155115

Although the social network user growth rate is slowing down, such as 12.5% in 2014, 9.3% in 2015, 8.7% in 2016 and so on, that’s relative to the number of total users and therefore it does make sense. I guess the number may jump up if/when they become accessible in China and more countries in Africa.

Your Social Media Posts Are Buried Quickly

You post your website updates and all sorts of valuable information to social media, hoping some users will find them and visit your site via the link. But the number of new social network users is ever-increasing, meaning the number of published posts is increasing and becoming more frequent than ever. One solution to be noticed is to use paid advertisement services. Many online marketers use them, making the social space even busier. Unless you become one of them and start paying for the services, your free posts will be buried quickly, and noticed less & less.

How Else Can You Advertise?

Putting the social media strategy aside – it is your website that’s your business’s primary platform, right? You need to keep your existing subscribers interested as well as attract new visitors.

Of course, email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to keep your subscribers up to date. But there’s a chance that your email gets through the spam filter, or is never opened and read.

While you’re struggling, almost all the social media apps have the ability to send out push notifications, meaning online users are even more “distracted by” Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and so on.

OK that was a long introduction, sorry! So what I mean is there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do something similar with your website. “Push” your messages to your opted-in subscribers.

Something like this. This is mine and if you’re on Chrome or Firefox this exact message may have popped up in your face already.

The coolest thing is that the users can engage with you so easily – just by clicking the “Allow” button. They don’t have to enter their name or email address. Click “Allow” and they’re subscribed!

How Does That Work?

PushCrew is a push notification service, provided by Wingify. This is called Push API technology and this is what happens;

1. When a user clicks “Allow” to grant permission, the signal is sent to the PushCrew server.
2. You create your push notification like this – it won’t take you a couple of minutes. Click to send.

3. Your notification message is sent to the browser’s server (e.g. Google, Mozilla)
4. The browser’s server will instantly deliver the message to the user, guide them back into your website.

Currently this “Push API” is only supported by Google Chrome (including Android) and Mozilla Firefox. Apple’s Safari is using a similar but different technology, so it doesn’t work right now with PushCrew but they’re working on it. Apparently there’s no similar service available with Internet Explorer yet. But did you know this….which browsers are popular right now?

Browser Statistics

This is the most used browser statistics provided by w3schools.com and, I was quite taken aback actually. Google Chrome’s share is so dominant, followed by Firefox. IE has a minority share compared to these two. It means the notification by Push API can be sent to 87.7% of web users. That’s great!

Set Up Push Notifications with PushCrew For Free

PushCrew allows you to build a list of up to 500 desktop subscribers for free. This is so easy and I’ll show you the step-by-step.

1. Sign up with PushCrew for a free account.
2. You need to install PushCrew on your website. You can do it easily by installing the PushCrew WordPress plugin. Alternatively, copy and paste the javascript code within your header. The code is in the PushCrew dashboard under “Settings” > “Get Code”.
3. As soon as it’s installed, your website will start inviting visitors to join the push service.
4. When a visitor clicked to join, it will send a “Welcome message” like the one below – this is optional and you can disable it.

5. Now whenever you’re ready to send a notification, create one and click Send. The notification can be about anything – your new blog posts, event invitations, or any product promotion campaigns. Title up to 48 characters, message up to 100 characters, and you can upload your own image.

Premium Options

The free option allows you to send an unlimited number of notifications to up to 500 subscribers. You can check how many subscribers you currently have on your dashboard.

With the premium option, you are able to have your notifications (1) delivered to your mobile website (2) scheduled for later, and of course (3) collect more subscribers.

The price varies according to the number of subscribers; $25 per month for up to 2,000 subscribers, $50 per month for up to 5,000, $75 for up to 10,000, $150 for up to 20,000, and $250 for up to 50,000.

The business plan is also available for corporate clients, with more features including up to 3 websites and 5 users, and custom branding.

Does A Push Notification Work?

Does it work? I’ve already mentioned that your visitors only have to click to subscribe, with no name or email address to type in. Because it’s short and direct you can expect high click rates – it is said around 20-25%, 10 times more effective than email marketing.

OK, it does work. I’m convinced after I gave myself a try. So if you don’t believe it, you only have to try it yourself! No credit card is required.