How to Use Web Push Notifications to Compliment Your Email Marketing Strategy

There are a large variety of marketing platforms out there today. Email, web push, in app messaging, social media, and more. It can be difficult for businesses to determine what the right digital marketing strategy should be for their specific brand. The road to success will look different for everyone, but there are some general rules almost everyone can benefit from.

The truth is, most brands will find success from utilizing numerous marketing channels in a cohesive way to provide their audience with useful and engaging information. Sometimes called multi-channel or omni-channel marketing, this form of marketing should provide a seamless user experience across the various platforms. This is what your customers want. A study from Zendesk shows that nearly 90% of customers expect more effort to be put into providing this seamless experience.

So, let’s take two popular channels in the digital marketing world today: email and web push notifications. Email remains a very popular way to interact with your audience. And by very popular we mean…there are over 4 billion email users around the world. But, with its decreasing effectiveness due to an overabundance of messages, it can fall a little flat. That is where web push comes in. Utilizing the strengths of web push along with the strengths that email marketing does indeed still have, you create a much better experience for everyone involved.

What does that look like? For starters, you have to understand the inherent strengths and weaknesses that both channels have. With that information, you can craft campaigns that work to amplify the strengths, and diminish the weaknesses. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways you can use web push to compliment and boost your email marketing strategy.

Time Sensitive Messages Shine with Web Push

 The average amount of time it takes for a user to view an email is nearly six and a half hours. If you have a time sensitive message, that stat does not look very appealing. Web push notifications? They’re delivered instantly to a user’s desktop or mobile device. If you’re running a flash sale or any other type of limited time offer, the success of the sale is in part dependent on whether or not people are aware of it.

Or, say you’re hosting a livestream or webinar on your website. Sending a series of emails in advance to get people to register and to alert them is great. But, come the time of the event, sending a push notification will be much more helpful. It is this combination of platforms that will help ensure greater success.

Other time sensitive information includes updates such as delivery notices, as seen in the above example. Users expect these type of real time updates about important events, and web push is a great way to get that done. You can even set these up as automated notifications, which you can read more about here.

 Long Form Content is Suited for Email…but Web Push Can Boost Visibility

Web push notifications are short and get right to the point. When it comes to long form content, email is a better option for getting your message sent. Maybe you’ve got information about a new line of products, a competition you’re starting, or are just sending a newsletter updating users on your brand. Email marketing is made for these types of updates and remains an effective tool for doing so.

As we’ve already mentioned, a major problem with email these days is visibility. Web push helps you boost your visibility by integrating with software like Zapier. Aimtell is integrated with this tool, as well as popular email platforms like MailChimp, FreshMail, MailUp, and others. Set up is easy and completely customizable. Integrate with these tools to sync your email campaigns and send web push campaigns to encourage more users to open your emails. Learn more about our Zapier integration here.

Need to Create and Send a Message Quickly? Web Push Gets it Done

If you’ve got a quick campaign message that you want to send out, turning to web push is much more efficient. Email messages require you to determine your page layout, create plenty of engaging copy, insert relevant visuals, optimize for mobile and desktop devices, and more. There are plenty of instances where you should take this time and will end up with amazing email marketing campaigns.

However, other times you have a simple message that you want sent out to your audience. Maybe you published a new blog post and want more of your audience to see it. You’ve put a lot of time into creating the post, but you might not have time to create an amazing email campaign to go with it. Instead, you can create a quick web push campaign that alerts users of the blog and will direct them to the post. You can even target a particular segment of users, such as those who have viewed your posts in the past. For help building custom segments, click here.

Visual Content is Best Showcased in Email

If you’ve got great visual content, email is the place to show it off. Web push notifications include an icon, but they are not the focal point of the message. They simply aren’t designed to be that way, and that’s fine. Great email campaigns incorporate awesome visuals that engage users and inspire them to take action.

Take this example from Starbucks. It’s visually pleasing and shows off what they are advertising, in this instance being the ‘Pour-Over Method.’ This doesn’t mean you can’t utilize push notifications, but they take on more of a secondary role here. For example, Starbucks could send a push notification saying ‘Learn about our latest serving method. Perfect for those iced coffees you’ll enjoy all summer long.’

Stop Worrying about Spam Filters with Web Push

Another downfall associated with email is the potential of ending up in a spam folder. Spam filters can be incredibly tricky to navigate, and there’s simply no way to guarantee that your users are getting your messages in their inbox. In fact, if you’re worried about low open rates when viewing your email analytics, your problem might be that your messages are ending up in spam.

Web push on the other hand is delivered right to a user’s desktop or mobile device. There is no potential of ending up in a spam folder or going unnoticed. If you’ve got a fear of your messages going unopened, consider setting up a web push segment of users who are subscribed to your emails. When you send a new message, you can also send a push notification alerting your audience that it’s there. However, don’t go crazy and start sending tons of messages, which brings us to our final point…

Don’t Overload Your Audience on Either Platform

People will be incredibly quick to opt-out or unsubscribe from either your push notifications or emails if you send too many messages. You should be using email and web push thoughtfully in order to engage your audience. While some overlap with messages is fine, you should strive to create a more nuanced strategy that gives each platform a precise role with distinct messages.

Web push and email are two effective marketing platforms that your brand can utilize to help boost sales. While they both can stand on their own, the combination of the two is even more powerful. Because both have varying strengths, you can craft campaigns that fit each platform well. While email may be lessening in effectiveness, it’s a long time coming before it’s obsolete. And thanks to web push, you can increase your email visibility (as well as your overall brand visibility).

If you want to get started with Aimtell, click here.