Content Based Websites Love Web Push: Here’s Why

Are you in the crowd of people who think web push notifications are only successful for ecommerce brands? They get a lot of attention when it comes to this marketing platform, and it makes sense why. There are numerous reasons why web push is great for ecommerce, something we have previously discussed, but this industry is not the only one that can benefit from it.

Content based websites, as their name suggests, are those that do not sell products or services to their audience. Rather, they provide users with content (which may be free or paid for). News websites and blogs are two great examples of content based websites. For these websites, there is an extreme need to provide their users with a lot of value.

If this value is not seen, it is incredibly easy for a user to abandon the site and find another one that fulfills their expectations. Close to 3 million blog posts are published every day, and countless news sources publish content just as frequently. Value has to be provided, but another crucial factor is visibility. If you run your own content based website, you understand the need for users to find and view your content.

Other marketing platforms may give you some of the results you are looking for, but web push remains distinct from other sources such as social media, email, or SMS marketing. Just as your website may get lost in a sea of other similar sites, your social media posts or email newsletters may end up just as buried in crowded inboxes and timelines. Web push notifications offer a fresh way of interacting with your audience. Here are some of the main reasons why content based websites have a lot to gain from implementing web push.

Provide the Easiest Opt-In Path

The process for signing up to receive emails or SMS messages not only requires multiple steps, but also requires you to share some amount of personal information, such as your phone number or email address. For content based websites, users may not be willing to give up that information in exchange for content updates. If this is the case, you end up with a lack of subscribers and likely lackluster results from these marketing campaigns.

Personal information has to be shared on an ecommerce website if a person makes a purchase. With content based sites, there is not typically a need to share this info. For many sites and blogs, users can view the content without signing up or signing in. If you implement web push notifications, you have the opportunity to turn these users into subscribers in an instant.

To subscribe to web push notifications, a user only needs to click allow. That’s it. This much simpler process involves only one step and does not require a user to provide any personal information. There is also no risk of a person using fake information. This is a great way to build up a subscriber list quickly. As you gain subscribers you can not only send them campaigns, you can also track their behavior on your website. As you’ll see, this data helps you craft better, more relevant campaigns.

Be First with Breaking News

Breaking news no longer becomes “breaking” if it is shared hours after the event takes place. With web push notifications, you can send out a message in a matter of moments. Creating a manual campaign is incredibly easy and fast. Compose your message, select who to send the message to, when to send it, and click schedule. For breaking news stories, you can beat your competition by sending an instant alert about news that your website covers.

If something major happens in your industry, being the first to cover it helps you stand out from your competition. When executed properly, users may even come to expect your website to be the one to cover and relay crucial information the fastest, and web push is a great way to alert the masses. Whether you cover politics, technology, entertainment, sports, or anything else, you can easily craft and deliver breaking news messages that will be viewed almost instantly.

With breaking news/time sensitive messages, there is a swift tipping point where the message becomes ineffective. There is no doubt that other websites will cover the same events you do, but what you can do to differentiate yourself is to cover the story quicker. And in today’s world, that is what people have come to expect. Gone are the days of reading about yesterday’s events in today’s newspaper. Deliver updates in real time with web push notifications.

Personalized Content Recommendations

As mentioned earlier, when you gain a web push subscriber, you are also able to track their behavior on your website. This crucial data will help you build custom audiences (called segments) that you can deliver more targeted, relevant campaigns to. As a content based site, you likely publish a lot of content each and every day. It is poor practice to send a notification to every subscriber of yours whenever a new piece of content is published on your website.

The last thing you want to do is overwhelm your audience. If they are receiving non-stop notifications from you all day, they are highly likely to unsubscribe from your messages. However, what a user will appreciate is a notification about a new article on a topic they are interested in.

In fact, one of the most requested push notifications is new content that is personalized to a user’s preference. While this survey was directed at mobile push notifications, the logic applies to web push as well. Why? Because the overarching trend in advertising today is personalization. Users expect what they see from brands to be personalized and relevant to their situation and their interests. This personalized content also amasses 3 times more engagement.

For example, say you break your content into several different main categories. When you publish a new article and assign it a category, you might send a notification to a segment of users who have previously looked at another article from that category. The more you can refine your audience and determine their interests and preferences, the more success you will have with your campaigns. You can even target users who have looked at a specific piece of content on your website. Learn more about various segmentation options here.

Tailor News Accordingly

Certain information that you share on your website is very audience specific. For example, say you cover politics and want people to be informed about their early voting dates. This combines two earlier topics we covered into one. There is a time sensitive element to the message, and it also is relevant to only a certain group of people. The above message would not need to be sent to someone living in New York, for example.

With web push notifications, you can ensure your messages deliver to the right people at the right time. Clicking the message will send the user to whatever landing page you designate.

Increase Website Traffic

Finally, is any marketing method useful if it doesn’t ultimately result in increased web traffic? Push notifications help to drive users back to your site, something that content based websites certainly need to remain successful. Traffic will help boost your organic SEO ranking as well.

If you are suffering from low traffic rates, web push notifications might be just the thing you need to retarget users and get them back to your website. You can even set up automated notifications based on the last time users have viewed your website. For example, you can set up a weekly notification that targets anyone who hasn’t viewed your website in 7 days or more.

Content based websites have a lot to gain from implementing web push notifications. Use them to alert users of breaking news and relevant content and ultimately, drive them back to your website. Using our segmentation, tracking, and scheduling tools, you can deliver smart campaigns that will engage your audience better than other marketing platforms out there. Did we miss any other uses? Be sure to let us know by leaving us a comment or emailing us.

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