Last year we wrote about the importance of improving click through rates with your web push notifications. After all, if no one is clicking your messages, they likely aren’t taking action at your website. No action equals no sales. No sales equals no business. You get the picture.
Web push is designed to be a platform for businesses to engage with their audience and drive traffic back to their website. If your click through rate, or CTR, is suffering, it can feel pretty discouraging. Here’s the good news- since our post last summer we have made numerous updates to our platform and have researched what makes people click or tap on a notification. And we’re going to share this info with you now.
Here are five brand new ways you can boost click through rates for web push.
Last year, we encouraged users to use custom push icons to boost CTRs. That is still a great tip, but now you can take things even further with custom large images. These images display below your notification and give you more of an opportunity to engage with your audience visually.
If your business or website features a lot of visual content, this is definitely a tip you will want to implement. Say you run a photography based website where you share your images as well as tips with fellow artists. Large images can help boost the appeal of your notifications (such as the above example). Not only is the image appealing, it encourages users to click to the website so that they can learn to take pictures of that same quality as well.
Personalization in marketing is one of the biggest trends we have seen lately- and with good reason. As technology continues to advance, users have incredibly high expectations when it comes to their experience online. Content and advertising should not only be tailored to a user’s interests, but should also have other personalized elements that help bring a human touch to the digital world.
What’s the research say on personalization? Go for it. In fact, nearly 80% of companies that exceeded their revenue goals have a set personalization strategy in place. We’ve talked a lot about personalization before when it comes to web push, including making use of segments and utilizing triggered notifications. However, there’s another layer of personalization you can add to your push notifications.
This layer of personalization is in the form of custom attributes, which allow you to add features that make your campaigns more dynamic. For example, you could add in a custom attribute that would pull in your subscriber’s name, resulting in a notification like this:
The more you adjust your campaigns to make them feel more personal, the better your CTRs will be. This is not a passing trend, so it’s best to get on board now and discover what you can do to make your subscribers more inclined to click your notifications and engage with your brand. Keep in mind that a custom attribute can be added to the title, body, or link of your notification, and can be added to any type of campaign.
We get a lot of questions from our users regarding when they should be sending their audience push notifications. The frustrating reality is that there is not one set answer that will apply to every brand. What works for one company may not necessarily work for another. For this reason, closely monitoring your analytics will help you optimize your notifications as you go. However, our research serves as a great starting point.
There are several general trends that we have noticed across thousands of recent web push campaigns. No matter what ends up working for your brand, you will come to realize that timing can make or break your notifications.
So, what are the best days to send notifications? Research says Tuesday and Friday. As for the worst days? Sundays and Wednesdays. As for the time of day, you’re likely to have the most success when sending between the hours of 5-7am, 11am-12pm, and 8-9pm. Least success? Don’t send between the hours of 1-4am, at 9am, or between 2-4pm.
Note: Don’t forget to segment your audience by time zone so that everyone is receiving your notifications when you want them to.
Your call to actions (or CTAs) are crucial for boosting CTRs. You may send an awesome notification with a great visual and deliver it at the perfect time, but if it doesn’t encourage a user to take action, your CTRs will still remain unimpressive. Instead, be sure to also focus on enhancing your CTAs. What does that mean, exactly? A few things.
First, using the right language can significantly boost your rates. Using language that promotes either scarcity or urgency tends to be very effective. Examples include ‘click now’ or ‘limited time only.’ We also found that the word ‘click’ tends to be more effective than words like tap or swipe. Overall, campaigns that used the phrases ‘limited time’ ‘limited’ and ‘order now’ experienced the highest open rates.
Another helpful tactic is to place the CTA early on in the notification instead of placing it at the end. If you weren’t aware, notifications look different according to the browser and device type a subscriber uses. You run the risk of the CTA not being present if you place it at the end of your message. For example, take a look at these two sample notifications being delivered to a Mac desktop user using Google Chrome:
Both of the above notifications get cut off, but the top notification gets the point across much better that there is a sale going on for a limited time only. Keep this in mind when drafting the copy for your campaigns. You can learn more about notification differences according to browsers and device types by clicking here.
Our final tip for boosting your CTRs is to get creative with your copy and consider incorporating emojis. We rolled out full emoji support for Aimtell late last year, giving you the freedom to use them as you wish in your campaigns.
Research shows that marketers who use emojis in their messages have a lot of success. In fact, click through rates rose by 85% when comparing push notifications that used emojis compared to those that did not.
Emojis have become an integral part of how we communicate with one another. Brands can and should capitalize on this trend, and as a result you’ll see increased CTRs. This is especially true if your target demographic is millennials.
We hope that this updated list helps you on your way to improved CTRs. For best results, combine all of these tips together to fully optimize your campaigns for clicks. Always analyze your analytics to monitor what is working and what isn’t. As with any marketing advice, you have to keep in mind that there is no one perfect solution that will work for everyone. Use these tips as guidelines, and adjust your strategy accordingly as you collect your own data from your subscribers.
As always, comment below or send us an email letting us know your thoughts. Have you experienced success from any one particular strategy? We want to hear about it!
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