I joined Messenger Mastermind, a podcast hosted by Jeremy Horowitz, to talk about web push notifications, the most powerful PushOwl Enterprise features merchants need to use with web push and how to win big for BFCM with this channel.
Below, you’ll find the notes from the podcast so you don’t have to scramble for a notebook while listening to the episode.
What Do the Most Successful Brands Do With Their Web Push Strategy?
PushOwl has a set of evergreen automations, making it easy to target very specific customer behavior. Abandoned Cart Reminders is the easiest automation to set up. It recovers all the carts you weren’t able to recover because you didn’t have the shoppers’ email addresses. Read more about this automation.
Sending out promotions is made easy with PushOwl. You can engage and upsell to your shoppers and even promote a coupon code within the web push notification. With web push, you can easily get people back in the door with a well-crafted promotion.
One feature that is often used is the Shareable Discount Links. You can copy the discount code into the primary link of the web push notification so that by the time they are back onto the store, the discount is automatically applied to checkout.
“You can be the busiest person in the world and still set up PushOwl and have a web push strategy in a meaningful way. It is just that efficient.”
Emojis are a great way to hit something home quickly with web push notifications. You can even use them in the buttons to show the products and grab more attention to ultimately increase CTR.
Take it to the next level with buttons. Besides the primary link, you can add 2 buttons which function similar to CTAs in an email. This way, you can direct people to different parts of your store, from a blog to a product that you are featuring. Give your shoppers more choices with buttons and propel them to take different kinds of actions.
Hack: Use one of the buttons to take shoppers to the same page as the primary link, providing more text flexibility. This also increases its engagement since it’s a CTA.
How Can I Take Web Push Notifications to the Next Level?
1. Custom Segmentation
For growing stores, especially the ones with a large subscriber list, generic messages sent to your general list won’t help convert your audience. Instead, you need to make sure that you are adjusting your messaging. You can optimize your web push with segmentation. Since you don’t want to send the same message to everyone, personalize it using this powerful feature. Send one kind to new subscribers, another kind to non-purchasers, and even specific to location— country, city, region, or zip code. Read about the different segments available on PushOwl.
One effective use case of custom segments is ‘win-back campaigns’. For instance, you can set up a segment that narrows your large audience to just subscribers who purchased from your store 60 days ago. You can use this segment to send a highly-targeted web push notification along with a sweet discount to nudge them to purchase.
Winback is a pivotal moment that can make or break your business. It is the key to the long-term success of your business. By setting up a web push campaign to directly communicate to your non-purchasers and push them to convert, you can catalyze growth.
“The cost of sending one push notification is not even close to the cost of a Google or Facebook ad. Advertising costs are only going to increase and it is important to own your marketing channels like with web push.”
2. A/B testing
We are running a beta version of A/B testing by setting up A & B groups of audiences as segments. This way, merchants can send a campaign to both segments with the changes they wish to test. Read about how A/B testing works on PushOwl.
One of the greatest leverage points that a marketing team (at an ecommerce store) has is to improve their process. It’s important to test everything— text, emojis, image type, etc. A lot of your marketing process is an assumption of what will work. By testing these assumptions, you can prove what works and doesn’t. It also opens up more possibilities and realms of what you can do. A/B testing is a great feedback loop to optimize your strategy and get logical data on what delivers results.
3. Browser prompt
Currently, PushOwl already allows users to set delays on their browser prompt, add overlays to give context to their subscription prompt, and even set up widgets that entice the user to subscribe.
But, we want merchants to have more control over where the prompt shows up for shoppers. Some merchants might want to hide the prompt on certain pages to avoid bombarding shoppers to subscribe. With this flexibility, merchants have more control over which pages the prompt is shown. Merchants can test their opt-ins and optimize it to increase subscribers.
Not collecting subscriptions isn’t an option since we are moving towards an era where we own the audience we have, unlike channels like Facebook ads and search ads. This is why optimizing your subscription flow is the way to go.
“Think through the optimal user experience. The more testing you have, the more options you have to create a better customer experience and create more value.”
The next big thing: BFCM
One advantage of web push is that merchants utilize it very well to promote every sale that is running on their store. The most important way to strategize your web push for BFCM is to prioritize relationship building.
If you plan to utilize web push notifications for BFCM, don’t just run campaigns for those 4 days. Instead, build your subscriber list early on and start connecting with your subscribers. You don’t just want your subscribers associating your notifications to your sale. You want them to associate your notifications to your brand. Send out different kinds of campaigns— product highlights, collection promotions, blog sharing, etc. Read more about the different kinds of campaigns you can send with web push.
Have a web push strategy that adds value. Create teasers well ahead of your sale launch and build hype. Looking for a full-fledged web push strategy for BFCM? We’ve got you covered with this guide.
“Build hype and bring value upfront so that once you launch a sale, your audience is compelled to buy from you.”
Shopify Flow
Make web push notification a natural communication platform for your shoppers by integrating with Shopify Flow. Here’s how it works:
Shopify Flow is an IF-THEN workflow builder that allows you to build specific flows based on events that happen with your Shopify store or apps to then trigger individual actions you would usually do manually. Read about Shopify Flow and how it works with PushOwl.
In terms of PushOwl, you can use our app to send push notifications to individual subscribers or even your entire subscriber list. You can send relevant, timely notifications based on what your customers are doing on your store without needing any effort on your part. What’s more, these highly-relevant and value-adding notifications nudge impulse buys and create brand loyalty within the customer.
For instance, you can send a fulfillment web push to one subscriber when their order has been fulfilled.
Shopify Flow is a great way to set up new, creative use cases on your store. Integrating this with PushOwl helps to set up opportunities that you wouldn’t be able to without such a smart automated tool.
This article was originally published by our friends at PushOwl.
